Every Canada Day weekend, my local library has a book sale and there is usually a large selection of books to choose from for my summer reading. The books I most enjoy finding (this often requires going through piles of books on tables and in boxes) are celebrity biographies and autobiographies. I'm not talking about the latest rag on Britney, Tom Cruise, and the cast of Gossip Girl, but those stars who had their hay day back in the golden age of the cinema. Films were black and white, dark handsome men wore trench coats, femme fatales had curves and long eye lashes, stars turned out a movie a week, musicals were popular, and there was no television to provide competition.
These biographies and autobiographies are not only chock full of gossip about on-set romances and drugs, but they also show the evolution of the movie industry. Mary Astor's autobiography, A Life on Film, discusses the evolution of movies, from silent films to Technicolor.
A Judy Garland biography by Gerold Frank entitled Judy describes the star's progression from vaudeville to The Wizard of Oz, and beyond. It also includes interesting tidbits about the Kennedy family and other notable historical figures.
Child Star by Shirley Temple Black is one of my favourite autobiographies because Ms. Temple Black does such an excellent job of describing how the movie business operated back in the day.
Last summer I picked up Norman Mailer's biography about Marilyn Monroe. It was a difficult read, but I did learn more about Marilyn; how she wanted more challenging roles, and that she enjoyed reading and agreed with Freud's theories. This summer at the library sale I found another Marilyn biography by Susan Strasberg called Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends.
What compelled me to write this blog was the recent discovery of Marilyn Monroe's archive: all her personal papers and some belongings that she kept in two filing cabinets. A description of the archive is found in the October 2008 edition of Vanity Fair. Found in the archive were personal letters, receipts, pictures, telegrams, clothing, and accessories. Not found in the archive are love letters from Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn's second husband, or evidence of the rumoured correspondence between Ms. Monroe and the Kennedy clan, which could a whole new perspective to the Kennedy's historical legacy. The entire collection was photographed, cataloged, and the paper documents encapsulated in Mylar by photographer Mark Anderson and USC professor Lois Banner.
The plan is to turn these documents into some sort of book. After this process was finished the filing cabinets were sent to sit in a guarded bank vault, away from the public. While I am thankful that someone took the time to record and conserve the Marilyn Collection, would it not be beneficial to film and gender study historicans and those wishing to learn more about this iconic women for it to be made into a digital archive? It would especially add a new dimension and perspective to those who are writing Monroe, DiMaggio, Arthur Miller, and even Kennedy biographies.
One of Marilyn's greatest struggles in life was to prove to people that she was not like the dumb blonde characters she played in movies. She cared about current events, literature, her loved ones, and wanted to become known as a serious actor. If her collection was digitized, people would be able to see another part of Marilyn that does not come across in the sexy pictures found on t-shirts, mugs, and posters.
