The bookish Bombshell
Marilyn Monroe would have been one hundred years old on 1st June this year. It is impossible to think of Marilyn old. She was just 36 when she died in LA in 1962. She is frozen in time as the epitome of the sex-symbol movie star, standing over the New York subway grate with her dress billowing up, driving Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon crazy, or breathily singing Happy Birthday to JFK.
Gail Crowther observes that nobody who ever interviewed her was interested in her mind, which was a bad omission, because the evidence is that she had a keen intelligence, great curiosity, and a prodigious appetite for literature and knowledge. But who knew? Well: anybody might have. One of the enduring and classic images of Marilyn is curled up on a sofa with a book. And this was not performative or posed. “When people joke about Marilyn pretending to read for a photo, the reading part is the least fake part.
Gail Crowther – Corsair – £20:00
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