Marilyn Monroe Struggle to Stardom

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Marilyn Monroe was determined to be a star. Even as a child she would often fantasize about it. In an interview, she stated, “I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night-there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But, I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.”

Marilyn threw herself into her acting, dancing and singing classes that were provided by the studio every day of the week. She knew that if she were to succeed, she’d have to be more than just good, she had to be the best. One of Marilyn’s teachers, Phoebe Brand, told Donald Wolfe that Marilyn was “a self-conscious girl who never spoke up in class...She was extremely retiring. What I failed to see in her acting was wit, her sense of humor. It was there all the time – this lovely comedic style, but I was blind to it. Frankly, I never would have predicted she would be a success.”

Marilyn tried desperately to be a great actress, but it was not a skill that came easily for her. She worried that she lacked a natural talent for the art.

It's all make believe, isn't it? Read more Marilyn Monroe quotes

Almost one year to the day she signed her contract, 20th Century Fox dropped Marilyn Monroe with no explanation. Marilyn was just as quickly out of cash as she was out of a job. The situation was devastating, but she didn’t let it deter her. Marilyn got involved in an important group called the Actors Laboratory, which was an oasis of Broadway talent in the midst of Los Angeles.

In Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, Donald Spoto states that this exposure to controversial and intellectual components of New York theater and accomplished actors had an important maturing effect on her.

During the late 1940s Marilyn’s career took an unlikely turn. In desperate need of money, she returned to modeling and also tried her hand at other less acceptable trades. Sometime between 1947 and the beginning of 1948, Marilyn allegedly worked as a part-time call-girl and actress in stag films. Later in her career Marilyn worried that her unconventional method of making money would be discovered and destroy her reputation.

According to a United States government memorandum issued by the FBI three years following her death, what would later be her ex-husband Joe DiMaggio attempted to buy a stag film that she had starred in during this time period. According to the memorandum, Marilyn was seen committing a “perverted act upon an unknown male.” Joe DiMaggio offered $25,000 for the stag film clip, but his offer was eventually rejected by the buyer. More than 15 years later, segments of the clip showing a younger Marilyn in sexual poses were revealed to the public in the 1980 issue of Penthouse magazine.

The years following her release from her contract were not her most glamorous and were filled with self-sacrifice and pain. During this upheaval, a man purportedly climbed through her bedroom window and sexually attacked her as she lay in her bed. According to witnesses, they heard Marilyn scream and they called the police. When the police arrived, Marilyn pointed out one of the detectives as the intruder that had entered her bedroom. No one believed her story. The charges against the officer were abandoned and the assault was dismissed.