A century after her birth, Marilyn Monroe remains, without a doubt, one of the leading figures of pop culture. From film to fashion to her tragic fate, here are five key dates in her life.
Born Norma Jeane Baker on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, Marilyn Monroe would have turned 100 this year. More than just a Hollywood actress of the 1950s and 1960s, she became, over the course of her career, a figure in cinema and fashion, achieving the status of a universal pop culture icon. To celebrate her 100th birthday, here are five dates that marked her life.
June 19, 1942 : Norma Jean Baker’s first marriage
Before becoming Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean Baker, then just 16 years old, married her neighbor James Dougherty on June 19, 1942, a Los Angeles police officer. A former captain of the football team and class president at Van Nuys High School, 20-year-old James Dougherty was working the night shift at Lockheed Aircraft when he began dating 15-year-old Norma Jean Baker in January 1942.
His family lived next door to a woman named Grace Goddard, a friend of Gladys Baker, Norma Jean’s mother. It was because of her mother’s frequent stays in various psychiatric institutions that Norma Jean was placed with the Goddards. One day, planning to return to Virginia, the couple found themselves unable to take the girl with them, James Dougherty recounted in a 1990 interview. “She would have gone back to an orphanage or to another foster family,” he continued. “That’s when it was suggested that I marry her.”
“I thought she was terribly young, but I took her to a dance. She was a fairly mature girl, both mentally and physically. We talked and got along pretty well,” he also noted. As the war raged on, he enlisted in the Navy two years after their wedding. Wanting to contribute to the war effort as well, Norma Jean landed a job inspecting parachutes attached to airplanes. She caught the eye of a photographer who was capturing images of women working behind the scenes of the conflict. As her ambitions grew and she felt neglected by her husband, their marriage ended in divorce in September 1946.
1945 : From brown to blonde, it was just a small step
While it’s impossible to separate Marilyn Monroe from her blonde hair, she began her life with dark brown hair. In 1945, Marilyn was 19 years old. Freshly discovered thanks to the cover of Yank Magazine, published by the U.S. Armed Forces during the war, Norma Jeane was recruited by The Blue Book Modeling Agency. It was at this point that she was offered a photo shoot for an advertisement for Rayve brand shampoo.
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