It's been 56 years since Marilyn Monroe died, but she will forever be remembered as a Hollywood legend. The actress, who garnered fame after appearing in the first-ever edition of Playboy magazine in December 1953, starred in several films, including Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch, and The Prince and the Showgirl. Still, there are a couple things you may not know about the star - like her real name, for example.
While most people knew Marilyn by her stage name, the star was actually born Norma Jeane Mortenson and baptized Norma Jeane Baker. When she married her first husband, James Dougherty, in 1942, she took his last name and became Norma Jeane Dougherty. She began using her stage name in 1946 after she and James split but didn't legally change it until 1956. When she married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956, she preferred to be addressed as Marilyn Monroe Miller and even used the initials Mmm.
While most people knew Marilyn by her stage name, the star was actually born Norma Jeane Mortenson and baptized Norma Jeane Baker. When she married her first husband, James Dougherty, in 1942, she took his last name and became Norma Jeane Dougherty. She began using her stage name in 1946 after she and James split but didn't legally change it until 1956. When she married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956, she preferred to be addressed as Marilyn Monroe Miller and even used the initials Mmm.
- 6/7/2018
- by Monica Sisavat
- Popsugar.com
It's the final Hollywood film by the legendary Ziegfeld star Marilyn Miller, and it's also a terrific talkie feature debut for W.C. Fields -- with one of his dazzling juggling bits. But the real star is director William Dieterle, whose moving camera and creative edits rescue the talkie musical from dreary operetta staging. Her Majesty, Love DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1931 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 75 min. / Street Date January 19, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Marilyn Miller, Ben Lyon, W.C. Fields, Leon Errol, Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, Clarence Wilson, Ruth Hall, Virginia Sale, Oscar Apfel. Cinematography Robert Kurrie Film Editor Ralph Dawson Songs Walter Jurmann, Al Dubin Written by Robert Lord, Arthur Caesar from story by Rudolph Bernauer, Rudolf Österreicher Directed by William Dieterle
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Warner Archive Collection has been kind to fans of early talkies. We've been able to discover dramatic actresses like Jeanne Eagels...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Warner Archive Collection has been kind to fans of early talkies. We've been able to discover dramatic actresses like Jeanne Eagels...
- 3/15/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ben Lyon remembered a stage actress from the 1920s whom he had long admired, a musical performer named Marilyn Miller. He thought “Marilyn” would better suit Norma Jeane’s new, glamorous identity as a Hollywood starlet. For her part, Norma Jeane suggested her mother’s family name, “Monroe,” as a last name. Lyon liked the alliteration of “Marilyn Monroe,” and told Norma Jeane that the double “M” was a lucky omen. So it was that in the course of one afternoon, Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker Dougherty was transformed into Marilyn Monroe. She was forever grateful to Lyon for his support and his
It’s Been 60 Years Since Marilyn Monroe Has Changed Her Name...
It’s Been 60 Years Since Marilyn Monroe Has Changed Her Name...
- 2/22/2016
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
Ramon Novarro: 'Ben-Hur' 1925 star. 'Ben-Hur' on TCM: Ramon Novarro in most satisfying version of the semi-biblical epic Christmas 2015 is just around the corner. That's surely the reason Turner Classic Movies presented Fred Niblo's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ last night, Dec. 20, '15, featuring Carl Davis' magnificent score. Starring Ramon Novarro, the 1925 version of Ben-Hur became not only the most expensive movie production,[1] but also the biggest worldwide box office hit up to that time.[2] Equally important, that was probably the first instance when the international market came to the rescue of a Hollywood mega-production,[3] saving not only Ben-Hur from a fate worse than getting trampled by a runaway chariot, but also the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which could have been financially strangled at birth had the epic based on Gen. Lew Wallace's bestseller been a commercial bomb. The convoluted making of 'Ben-Hur,' as described...
- 12/21/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Constance Cummings: Actress in minor Hollywood movies became major London stage star. Constance Cummings: Actress went from Harold Lloyd and Frank Capra to Noël Coward and Eugene O'Neill Actress Constance Cummings, whose career spanned more than six decades on stage, in films, and on television in both the U.S. and the U.K., died ten years ago on Nov. 23. Unlike other Broadway imports such as Ann Harding, Katharine Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, and Claudette Colbert, the pretty, elegant Cummings – who could have been turned into a less edgy Constance Bennett had she landed at Rko or Paramount instead of Columbia – never became a Hollywood star. In fact, her most acclaimed work, whether in films or – more frequently – on stage, was almost invariably found in British productions. That's most likely why the name Constance Cummings – despite the DVD availability of several of her best-received performances – is all but forgotten.
- 11/4/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Lifetime's mini-series "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" debuts on May 30, prompting the question: What possible secrets can there still be about Marilyn Monroe?
Quite a few, apparently, from the identity of her birth father, to the nature of her fatal overdose at age 36 -- was it suicide, accident, or murder? In 2012, on the 50th anniversary of her death, Moviefone previously published "25 Things You Didn't Know About Marilyn Monroe." Turns out that list barely scratched the surface. Here, then, are 25 more.
1. Monroe's birth certificate from 1926 lists her birth name as Norma Jeane Mortenson. The last name was a misspelling of the surname of her mother's second husband, Martin Mortensen, who separated from Gladys before she became pregnant. Soon after, she reverted to her first married name, Baker, and gave that name to her daughter.
2. Gladys later told Norma Jeane that her father was Gladys' boss, Charles Gifford, who looked like...
Quite a few, apparently, from the identity of her birth father, to the nature of her fatal overdose at age 36 -- was it suicide, accident, or murder? In 2012, on the 50th anniversary of her death, Moviefone previously published "25 Things You Didn't Know About Marilyn Monroe." Turns out that list barely scratched the surface. Here, then, are 25 more.
1. Monroe's birth certificate from 1926 lists her birth name as Norma Jeane Mortenson. The last name was a misspelling of the surname of her mother's second husband, Martin Mortensen, who separated from Gladys before she became pregnant. Soon after, she reverted to her first married name, Baker, and gave that name to her daughter.
2. Gladys later told Norma Jeane that her father was Gladys' boss, Charles Gifford, who looked like...
- 5/29/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Howard Hughes movies (photo: Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator') Turner Classic Movies will be showing the Howard Hughes-produced, John Farrow-directed, Baja California-set gangster drama His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum, Hughes discovery Jane Russell, and Vincent Price, at 3 a.m. Pt / 6 a.m. Et on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Hughes produced a couple of dozen movies. (More on that below.) But what about "Howard Hughes movies"? Or rather, movies -- whether big-screen or made-for-television efforts -- featuring the visionary, eccentric, hypochondriac, compulsive-obsessive, all-American billionaire as a character? Besides Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays a dashing if somewhat unbalanced Hughes in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Best Picture Academy Award-nominated The Aviator, other actors who have played Howard Hughes on film include the following: Tommy Lee Jones in William A. Graham's television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), with Lee Purcell as silent film star Billie Dove, Tovah Feldshuh as Katharine Hepburn,...
- 11/6/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
To the extent that motion pictures have always glutted us with visions of loveliness, Bebe Daniels was kind of ordinary. I’m not referring of course to her early years, when Daniels ranked with Gloria Swanson and Pola Negri as exalted commodities at Paramount. That was an altogether different incarnation, her silent screen persona based in large measure on “exotic” beauty—milky skin handed down from a Scottish father and a head of raven hair from a Spanish mother.
Daniels had a little age on her when I caught my first happy glimpse.
Well, "age"—a mere 29 in 1930's Alias French Gertie, by which time Hollywood’s corner on the beauty market had already begun mercilessly snapping at her heels. Those immense dark eyes of hers, a lively part of the overall equipment, could still flash. Only now they were being called upon to communicate “Every time I get a...
Daniels had a little age on her when I caught my first happy glimpse.
Well, "age"—a mere 29 in 1930's Alias French Gertie, by which time Hollywood’s corner on the beauty market had already begun mercilessly snapping at her heels. Those immense dark eyes of hers, a lively part of the overall equipment, could still flash. Only now they were being called upon to communicate “Every time I get a...
- 11/19/2013
- by Daniel Riccuito
- MUBI
A novel based on the records of Monroe's analysis is grimly fascinating
It is hard to know by what standards the author of this book can claim it to be a novel. Certainly it does not have the shape, tone or atmosphere of a crafted piece of fiction. What it most resembles is one of those immensely long Vanity Fair articles which start off with screaming headlines and lurid cross-heads, but which after a short distance one has to pursue into the ad-less wastes of the magazine's back pages. One keeps reading in the hope of finding shocking revelations, scurrilous imputations or at least good low-grade gossip, all the while suspecting that one is wasting one's time, which would probably be better spent watching Some Like It Hot on DVD.
This is not to say that Marilyn's Last Sessions is a bad book, but it is such a strange hybrid...
It is hard to know by what standards the author of this book can claim it to be a novel. Certainly it does not have the shape, tone or atmosphere of a crafted piece of fiction. What it most resembles is one of those immensely long Vanity Fair articles which start off with screaming headlines and lurid cross-heads, but which after a short distance one has to pursue into the ad-less wastes of the magazine's back pages. One keeps reading in the hope of finding shocking revelations, scurrilous imputations or at least good low-grade gossip, all the while suspecting that one is wasting one's time, which would probably be better spent watching Some Like It Hot on DVD.
This is not to say that Marilyn's Last Sessions is a bad book, but it is such a strange hybrid...
- 11/23/2011
- by John Banville
- The Guardian - Film News
As happens every year around this time, the cable spectrum has been heavily laced with programming throughout the week commemorating Veterans Day. HBO trundled out its full epic and brutal miniseries The Pacific for a one-day re-run broken up by the debut of the James Gandolfini-hosted documentary War Torn 1861-2010, a disturbing look at the psychological scars America’s soldiers have suffered in every conflict since The Civil War; The History Channel ran an all-day marathon of Ww II in HD, sprinkling its commercial breaks for the week with commemorative spots; AMC ran a day of war movies like The Enemy Below (1957) and A Few Good Men (1992) under the umbrella, “Vets Best” ; and so on.
The bulk of memorializing programming focused on World War II – unsurprising, in that it remains, to this day, America’s greatest, defining, and least morally problematic war. Even 65 years later, despite a half-century of...
The bulk of memorializing programming focused on World War II – unsurprising, in that it remains, to this day, America’s greatest, defining, and least morally problematic war. Even 65 years later, despite a half-century of...
- 11/11/2010
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Walter Pidgeon on TCM: Forbidden Planet, Executive Suite Schedule (Pt) and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930) An 18th-century English flirt wins the heart of a notorious highwayman. Cast: Claudia Dell, Ernest Torrence, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: Alfred E. Green. C-63 mins. 4:15 Am Hot Heiress, The (1931) When a society woman falls for a riveter, she tries to pass him off as an architect. Cast: Ben Lyon, Ona Munson, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: Clarence Badger. Bw-79 mins. 5:45 Am Shopworn Angel, The (1938) A showgirl gives up life in the fast lane for a young soldier on his way to fight World War I. Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: H.C. Potter. Bw-85 mins. 7:15 Am Flight Command (1940) A cocky cadet tries to prove himself during flight training. Cast: Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: Frank Borzage. Bw-116 mins. 9:15 Am Design For [...]...
- 8/19/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Kill Devil Hills - The scary season has arrived.
In the spirit of movies that make you fear going to the movies comes The Hills Run Red on DVD. Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrinck) is a film geek obsessed with an ’80s film called The Hills Run Red. The movie was quickly yanked from theaters and no prints or videotapes of the film exist. He finds a clue to the movie by locating one of its stars played by Sophie Monk. After a lapdance, she agrees to take Tad and his two friends to the shooting location. Tad doesn’t realize there might be a sequel in production.
Star Tad Hilgenbrinck and director Dave Parker called up the Party Favors hotline to chat about their grisly horror film about a gruesome horror film recently released on DVD by Warner Premiere.
Tad has been in Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Lost Boys: The Tribe,...
In the spirit of movies that make you fear going to the movies comes The Hills Run Red on DVD. Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrinck) is a film geek obsessed with an ’80s film called The Hills Run Red. The movie was quickly yanked from theaters and no prints or videotapes of the film exist. He finds a clue to the movie by locating one of its stars played by Sophie Monk. After a lapdance, she agrees to take Tad and his two friends to the shooting location. Tad doesn’t realize there might be a sequel in production.
Star Tad Hilgenbrinck and director Dave Parker called up the Party Favors hotline to chat about their grisly horror film about a gruesome horror film recently released on DVD by Warner Premiere.
Tad has been in Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Lost Boys: The Tribe,...
- 10/21/2009
- by UncaScroogeMcD
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