Marilyn and James Haspiel 1954

---

written by Immortal Marilyn | views: 1580

James Robert Haspiel, born in Brooklyn in 1938, is one of the most renowned and respected experts on Marilyn Monroe the world over. From what first started as a deep admiration of her from afar eventually over time blossomed into a friendship between fan and star. He was one of the few who saw the true woman behind the legend, spent time with her, photographed her, and above all plainly adored her. Like her, Haspiel had suffered a somewhat tragic childhood, after being put into foster care when his mother left his father.

“Ultimately, I had experienced a rather tragic childhood, so there was more than likely some sort of identification with Monroe happening there. For me and Marilyn, the old expression ‘One wolf recognises another’ would be modified to read, ‘One waif recognises...’”

Haspiel said the above of his feeling of a connection with the star, since they had both suffered the same unstable upbringings of foster care. He saw many tragic sights throughout his early years, including the following harrowing atrocities. In 1946 he witnessed his first little ‘girlfriend’ perish in a blaze at her apartment building, saw a new born baby’s severed head being retrieved from a garbage can, and also witnessed suicide attempts by his mother and step sister. Tragically, he was also the victim of physical abuse. In 1954 he ran away from home and briefly lived on the streets in his early teenage years. Haspiel notes the following from that time in his life –

“You could say rather easily that the teenaged Jimmy and the girl they called Norma Jeane both knew only too well about the struggle to survive intact in what back then seemed like an alien world...But as far as one might go, the original pain remained, and so I always felt that special bonding with Marilyn that all ‘displaced’ persons might inevitably experience with one another. But as we both would eventually know, survival can be achieved.”

I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. Read more Marilyn Monroe quotes

He was fourteen years old when he first set eyes on Marilyn, starring as the character Peggy in Clash by Night. He was instantly romanced and enamoured by her, as millions more were. Unlike those millions though, his dream of meeting her turned into reality two years later. At just sixteen years old Haspiel met Marilyn on September 10th, 1954 on 55th Street in New York. Much like the famed group of die hard fans The Marilyn Six (or sometimes The Monroe Six), whenever she was in New York he would follow her every move.

On their first meet the young Haspiel could have requested a photograph be taken of them together but he did not have a camera at the time. Or as was the standard just asked for her autograph, since she was there doing that very thing for the gaggle of fans surrounding her. But no, he asked her for a kiss once all the other fans had dispersed. A kiss that he duly received from his ruby lipped platinum fox idol of the silver screen, which began the acquaintance that eventually bloomed into a friendship. There first meet is summed up by Haspiel in the following quote-

“I looked down into her face, and the first word that came into my head was ‘Angel’ – she looked like an angel to me. Instead of being fascinated, I was smitten.”

Upon leaving her hotel for appointments, if Marilyn she saw him there waiting for her she would often invite him to join her for the ride along in her limousine or cabs from appointment to appointment throughout her busy working day. She began calling him ‘Jimmie’ in an affectionate way, and to him he was his ‘Mazzie’ the loving nickname coined by The Monroe Six for the star.

Marilyn Monroe was who he witnessed as he drove around New York with her, but when their acquaintance did further into the kind of friendship that allowed for him to visit her at her hotel suite, or accompany her on foot on an outing together he definitely saw Norma Jeane. In his books Haspiel notes that it was indeed the normal person he saw the most, the unmade up yet still fresh and beautiful Norma Jeane, and not the sex kitten, the blonde bombshell movie star that was Marilyn Monroe.

One instance of this is when Haspiel took a picture of a casual and relaxed Marilyn in her Cadillac outside of the Mayflower coffee shop. The picture became a favourite of his, and Marilyn loved it too.