Page 61 of The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe

The couple is married by Rabbi Goldburg in the home’s living room, in front of around twenty-five friends and family, including Miller’s parents; his children; his brother, sister, cousin, and their spouses; the Strasbergs; the Greenes; the Rostens; and a handful of others. Kermit Miller and Lee Strasberg witness the couple’s traditional Jewish ketubah, and list their wedding date as “July 1, 1956, 22nd of Tammuz 5716.”

“I’m just warning you,” Miller had told Marilyn. “You’ll be the most kissed bride in history when my family is there. I’ll have to fight the bastards off. I’m going to put up a sign, ‘ONE KISS TO A RELATIVE!’”

“Marilyn, if you have a sister, introduce me to her,” jokes Goldburg.

But there was nobody from her side there,Marilyn’s new father-in-law notes. Still, the mood is of overwhelming happiness as the newlyweds and their guests enjoy a champagne reception on the rolling lawn, complete with lobster and a tiered wedding cake.

“The fairy tale came true,” says Norman Rosten. “The Prince appeared, the Princess was safe.”

The newlywed couple gifts the rabbi a recording of Arthur Miller’s works, with the inscription, “For Bob Goldburg, With all my (our) thanks for a beautiful wedding—July 1, 1956,” each signing their names: Arthur Miller, and Marilyn MonroeMiller, her new last name underlined.

New gold wedding bands come from Cartier. Marilyn lets Susan Strasberg try on her ring, engraved with the wedding date and “A to M, Now is Forever.”

“Forever is so romantic … I can’t even imagine forever, can you?” sighs the teenager.

I feel like I was at Fox forever, and when I get the blues it feels like I’m in hell forever,Marilyn thinks. “I don’t think you can ‘think’ forever, it’s more a feeling,” she says.

But she’s hoping hard for happily ever after.

On the back of their wedding photograph, Marilyn writes the words, “Hope, hope, hope.”

CHAPTER 43

EGGHEAD WEDS HOURGLASS,Varietyreports as America celebrates the marriage of its greatest playwright and its most famous film star.

In the UK, “Marilyn Mania” has been building in the months since the announcement ofThe Prince and the Showgirl. Before she even arrives, she’s received invitations to cricket matches and cream teas. To taste fish and chips on the seafront and shoot grouse in Scotland. Ladies crochet gold and white wool into Marilyn Monroe dolls. Newspapers crowd Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden’s speech about austerity and impending economic disaster to the lower reaches of the front pages in favor of Marilyn’s photograph.

On July 14, 1956, two weeks after their wedding, Marilyn and Arthur Miller emerge from a twelve-hour transatlantic flight aboard a piston plane at London Airport.

Miller records his first impressions: “The camera flashes formed a solid wall of white light that seemed to last for almosthalf a minute, a veritable aureole, and the madness of it made even the photographers burst out laughing.”

Sir Laurence Oliver and his wife, Vivien Leigh, are present to greet the newlyweds—but before they can, a photographer is trampled and hospitalized.

“This must be the largest reception and press conference in English history!” Olivier proclaims.

For the duration of the film shoot, Marilyn and Miller will reside at Parkside House, a Surrey country estate covered with creeping vine and backing onto Windsor Great Park, adjacent to Windsor Castle.

The main bedroom is furnished to help ease Marilyn’s nightly battle with insomnia. It’s fitted with heavy curtains and painted entirely white, with a new white carpet much like the one in Marilyn’s New York apartment on Sutton Place.

Miller wakes to the sound of voices. Heavenly voices.

He calls Marilyn to the window. Outside, a boys’ choir is harmonizing across every octave.

“What do we do?” Marilyn asks.

“Maybe you put on a robe and just wave down to them,” Miller suggests.

“Me?”

“Well, they’re not singing to me, darling.”

At the Savoy Hotel in London, Marilyn enters in a white cape coat, which she removes to reveal a black sleeveless tea-length dress and tea-length gloves. The crowd gasps in admiration when they see her.

Daily MirrorHollywood reporter Donald Zec gives Marilyn a once-over.

“Fits a bit tight, Mrs. Miller,” he comments.

“It fits,” she laughs. When asked how she’s feeling, she answers, “All I can say is I’ve never been happier in my life.”

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