Page 69 of The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe

But the role and partial script bewilder Marilyn. Is this how he sees his wife? Is Miller himself the man who Roslyn says “wasn’t there. I mean you could touch him but he wasn’t there”?

Marilyn’s frequently away from home.

She attends the Chicago premiere ofSome Like It Hotat the United Artists Theatre and holds a press conference at the Ambassador East. Alfred Hitchcock recently filmed parts ofNorth by Northwestat the hotel, where preparations for its “Sky High Soiree” for the July 1 world premiere are already underway when the stars ofSome Like It Hotarrive.

The hotel is a celebrity mecca, where a US senator on the guest list attracts relatively little notice. There can be no publicity for Marilyn’s admirer, political rising star Jack Kennedy—or his clandestine meeting here with Sam Giancana, who since 1957 has led the Chicago Outfit branch of the American Mob.

Rising through the ranks as a getaway driver and hitman for Al Capone, Giancana was disqualified from US military service by a psychologist who classified him as a “constitutional psychopath” with “strong antisocial trends.” That diagnosis didn’t stop Giancana from forging connections with powerful celebrities and politicians.

One of Giancana’s good friends is Frank Sinatra, whom Billy Wilder pursued to play the role of Jerry/Daphne inSome Like It Hot.But when Sinatra failed to show for a lunch withWilder, the director went with Jack Lemmon, opposite Tony Curtis, who rose to fame as a Universal contract player and as the husband of MGM star Janet Leigh. “You’re the handsomest kid in town,” Wilder told Curtis. “Who else am I going to use?”

Senator Jack Kennedy won’t risk missing a meeting with Giancana, whose Chicago influence he sees as crucial to his upcoming run for the White House.

Kennedy’s calendar fills with what by all appearances are soft campaign events that frequently bring him to New York, where he often meets up with Marilyn. On April 30, 1959, he addresses the American Women in Radio and Television. On May 31, he appears on New York senator Ken Keating’s television programLet’s Look at Congress.

“My guest today is Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is generally regarded, as near as I can find out, as the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1960—although you can’t get him to make any formal announcement of his candidacy.”

It’s a leading statement, but Kennedy deftly changes topics. The Cold War is an important issue for many voters. “I think it’s quite obvious,” Kennedy says, “that we’re engaged in pretty much of a death struggle with the Soviet Union.”

In September 1959, Marilyn and 20th Century-Fox renew negotiations.

Bus Stoppremiered three years ago. The studio is pressuring her to honor her 1955 contract and commit to her next picture.

None of the scripts presented to Marilyn appeal to her, butshe agrees to star in the CinemaScope musical comedyLet’s Make Love—provided her husband, Arthur Miller, is brought in to punch up the script.

Studio head Spyros Skouras agrees to her demand, in part because he desperately needs Marilyn’s help on another matter.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower has invited Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who’s “curious to have a look at America,” on a twelve-day national tour, including a visit to the Fox lot to watch the filming ofCan-Can,a period musical starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. The day before Khrushchev’s Tupolev 114 aircraft lands at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, DC, the Soviets land a man-made object on the moon, not only pulling ahead in the space race but also magnifying America’s Cold War fears.

Though Arthur Miller was cleared last year of contempt of Congress, his run-ins with the House Un-American Activities Committee keep him off the guest list. Marilyn, however, with her curvaceous figure, baby-soft voice, and fluffy blond hair that has to be bleached on a weekly basis, is at the top of that list.

“Shehasto be there,” Skouras says. He tells Marilyn that “in Russia, America meant two things, Coca-Cola and Marilyn Monroe.”

She agrees to attend and is instructed to wear a tight dress to meet the Soviet premier. “I guess there’s not much sex in Russia,” Marilyn tells Lena Pepitone as they choose a black dress with lace cutouts on the chest and shoulder straps.

“Do you think Khrushchev wants to see you?” a reporter asks.

“I hope he does,” Marilyn replies.

In Marilyn’s bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Whitey Snyder does her makeup, and she steps into the chosen black dress. For once, she’s running ahead of schedule. When her chauffeur delivers Marilyn to an empty parking lot, she says, “We must belate! It must be over.”

American and Soviet police nearly outnumber the A-listers lunching with Khrushchev at the Fox lot’s famed commissary, the Café de Paris, on September 19. Chemists work the kitchen, testing the food for poison, taking special precautions with Khrushchev’s plate before it’s sent out to the head table.

Marilyn is seated with herBus Stopdirector Joshua Logan and with actor, Navy veteran, and Dodgers fan Henry Fonda, who’s wearing an earplug attached to a transistor radio tuned to the Dodgers-Giants game, where the National League pennant is at stake.

A few tables away, Judy Garland jokes with Shelley Winters, saying, “I think we should all get blind drunk and hiss and boo and carry on.” Elizabeth Taylor dares to climb on top of table 15 to get a better look at Khrushchev.

She sees a disappointed man, short in stature and heavy in the belly.

At the start of the meal, Khrushchev’s wife, Nina, tells Bob Hope of her excitement to see Disneyland. Midway through lunch, however, the premier learns that the excursion has been canceled because the Los Angeles police chief can’t ensure their safety.

The sixty-five-year-old Russian leader’s planned speech veers into an angry condemnation of theme-park security.

“Do you have rocket launching pads there?” Khrushchevdemands to know. “What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera or plague there? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me? And I say I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. For me such a situation is inconceivable.”

Elizabeth Taylor and Dean Martin look on, initially laughing at what they believe are jokes—until they realize how serious he is.

“Screw the cops!” Frank Sinatra whispers to actor David Niven. “Tell the old broad that you and I will take ’em down there this afternoon.”

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