Page 53 of The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe

Must have the disipline to do the following —

z— go to class—my own always—without fail

x— go as often as possible to observe Strassberg’s other private classes

g— never miss actor’s studio sessions

v— work whenever possible—on class assignments—and always keep working on the acting exercises

u— start attending Clurman lectures—also Lee Strassberg’s directors lectures at theater wing—enquire about both

l— keep looking around me—only much more so—observing—but not only myself but others and everything—take things (it) for what they (it’s) are worth

y— must make strong effort to work on current problems and phobias that out of my past has arisen—making much much much more more more more more effort in my analisis. And be there always on time—no excuses for being ever late.

w— if possible—take at least one class at university—in literature —

o— follow RCA thing through.

p— try to find someone to take dancing from—body work (creative)

t— take care of my instrument—personally & bodily (exercise) try to enjoy myself when I can—I’ll be miserable enough as it is.

She takes up residence at the Gladstone Hotel on Park Avenue in New York. On January 7, Marilyn calls a momentous press conference. She’s announcing her new role: as president of her very own company.

“I feel wonderful! I’m incorporated!” she declares. Sipping a glass of sherry, Marilyn signals her newfound self-worth. Single. Free. In control.

“I am going to do some pictures and TV and things,” she says. “I want to expand, to get into other fields, to broaden my scope … People have scope, you know, they really do.”

What kind of scope is she thinking?

“Strong dramatic parts,” she states. “Like Grushenka, inThe Brothers Karamazov… I don’t know how to spell it. I only hope I can act in it.”

Three times a week, Marilyn studies craft at the Actors Studio.

In 1947, her friend Elia Kazan and others affiliated with Konstantin Stanislavski’s Group Theatre had founded a new artistic home here in New York. Membership to the Actors Studio is granted only by audition, but Artistic Director Lee Strasberg bends the rules and permits Marilyn to observe.

He does insist that she undergo psychoanalysis. Key to Method acting, known simply as the Method, is an actor’s using her own emotions. Milton Greene recommends his ownUpper East Side analyst, Dr. Margaret Hohenberg. Marilyn begins attending five sessions a week, hoping to unblock what she’s holding inside herself via Freudian techniques.

Of the intensive therapy, Strasberg says, “Do this and you’ll feel something.”

Marilyn’s association with the Actors Studio brings it nearly as much attention as two films from last March that featured Studio members like Sidney Poitier and Elia Kazan. InBlackboard Jungle,Poitier plays a rebellious teen whose life is changed by his teacher. And founder Kazan’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s bestselling novelEast of Edenfeatures a performance by newcomer James Dean that’s already drawing comparisons to Studio mainstay Marlon Brando.

Kazan recently directed Brando inOn the Waterfront,for which he’s garnered a Best Actor Academy Award nomination. That ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 30, but first he’ll be attending theEast of Edenworld premiere at New York’s Astor Theatre on March 9.

When word gets out that Brando and Marilyn will serve as celebrity ushers, the event instantly sells out. Ticket sales are to benefit the not-for-profit Actors Studio and its new venue—a former church building on West 44th Street. Marilyn’s fans snap up tickets for three times their face value. Unfortunately for Lee Strasberg, the take won’t include scalpers’ profits.

She arrives at the theater in full Hollywood regalia—an off-the-shoulder gown in biscuit-colored brocade, opera gloves, and a white ermine wrap.

One of the ticket holders is Arthur Miller. The longing that kindled back in 1951 has quickly ignited into a passionate loveaffair. A daring, secret one. They check into hotels as “Mr. and Mrs. A Miller,” noting the expense as “for meeting held at suite with De Laurentis and MCA officials from time to time.”

The playwright attends theEast of Edenpremiere with his sister, not his wife.I no longer knew what I wanted,Miller’s told himself,certainly not the end of my marriage, but the thought of putting Marilyn out of my life was unbearable.

After the premiere, Miller is followed going to Marilyn’s hotel. Gossip columnist Walter Winchell breaks the story—“America’s best-known blonde moving picture star is now dating the darling of the pro-left Intelligentsia”—all but spelling out Winchell’s allegiances to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and anti-Communism crusading senator Joseph McCarthy.

Hoover first started a file on Miller in 1944, closely timed to the opening of Miller’s first Broadway play,The Man Who Had All the Luck. The bureau deemed his entire résumé suspicious. His years in the mid-1930s as a student-journalist-turned-playwright at the University of Michigan. His support of the 1938 American Relief Ship for Spain to supply anti-fascist rebels during the Spanish Civil War. His exemption from World War II service due to a knee injury sustained playing high school football. His opposition to nuclear weapons and affiliation with the American Labor Party, which the FBI deemed “a communist front.”

The couple takes to meeting in remote corners of New York City. With Marilyn dressed plainly, they bicycle in Coney Island, walk in Battery Park, or attend poetry readings hosted by Norman and Hedda Rosten.

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