Below are some common questions we get a lot here at MMP and short answers. Please click on the links for more detailed responses. If you have a question you don’t see answered, hit up the Chat Room. Please see our Ask Danamo page for additional options.
Q: Did MM have 6 Toes?
A: Marilyn did NOT have six toes on one foot!
Marilyn Monroe did not ever in her lifetime have 6 toes on either foot. She was born June 1, 1926 a healthy baby with ten fingers and ten toes. She died August 5, 1962 with these same 10 fingers and 10 toes. Attached is a series of pictures that documents the life of her feet from child to adult and even in death that will prove she never had an extra toe. First, the background as to how this rumor came about.
Q: How Much Did Marilyn Weigh?
A: Marilyn weighed 118 pounds.
Marilyn’s weight fluctuated, but her normal weight was 118 pounds (53.5 kilograms). Her highest weight was 140 pounds. Although Marilyn’s weight and curvy dimensions are similar to current high fashion models, she was too short at 5’ 5½” (166.62 centimeters) tall; the cutoff for current models is 5′ 8″. Her height would have made her seem wide. Her dress size was 12.
Q: What did Marilyn eat?
A: Raw eggs whipped in warm milk, raw carrots, hot fudge sundae.
Marilyn wrote a comedy piece about her diet and exercise routine for the September 1952 issue of Pageant magazine…
“BREAKFAST. I’ve been told that my eating habits are absolutely bizarre, but I don’t think so. Before I take my morning shower, I start warming a cup of milk on the hot plate I keep in my hotel room. When it’s hot, I break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them while I’m dressing. I supplement this with a multi-vitamin pill, and I doubt if any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry.”
Q: Did She Have Plastic Surgery?
A: Yes, she had a few minor alterations pre-1950.
Prior to the shooting of Ladies of the Chorus, (1948) Dr. Walter Taylor, an orthodontist specializing in cosmetic surgery, fixed her front teeth, which protruded slightly. In 1950, Johnny Hyde arranged for her to have her nose and chin surgically perfected. The details are unknown. Rumor has it that they removed a piece of dead cartlidge from her nose and added cartlidge to her chin.
Q: Where Did the Name Marilyn Monroe Come From?
A: Marilyn was after stage actress Marilyn Miller, and Monroe was Norma’s mother’s maiden name.
There are various stories as to how the name change came about, and several people have claimed to have named her. The most common (and most likely true) version is that Fox talent scout Ben Lyon, who got Marilyn her first screen test, chose the name Marilyn. Either her mother Gladys, her guardian Grace McKee Goddard, or Marilyn herself suggested the last name, Monroe, according to various versions of the story. Norma Jeane began using the name in 1946 and legally changed to it in 1956.
Q: Was MM the model for Tinkerbell?
A: Marilyn Monroe and Tinkerbell
There is NO EVIDENCE of this at all. No record of her modeling for Disney, no pictures of her modeling as Tinkerbell. What there IS, instead, is a great deal of evidence that the model for the character of Tinkerbell was in fact actress Margaret Kerry.
Q: Was MM left handed?
A: URBAN MYTHS & LEGENDS: Marilyn was left-handed???
Lefties have excelled at both ends of the scale – the very good and the very bad. They seem to make exceptional leaders, inventors, artists, musicians and murderers! Marilyn is often mentioned in books and on websites as being left-handed. The problem is… Marilyn was NOT left-handed. As the photos below show, Marilyn wrote and also used tools, utensils, and appliances with her right hand.
Q: What is the Automat?
A: “A kiss may be grand but it won’t pay the rental on your humble flat, or help you at the AUTOMAT”
The Automat holds a special place in the history of American restaurants. Many of its locations were beautifully decorated in art deco style. It appears in paintings by Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper and in at least two songs: “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee” (by Irving Berlin) and “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” (which was sung by MARILYN MONROE).
Q: How Was Norma Jean Discovered?
A: THE MAN WHO DISCOVERED NORMA JEANE
In the spring of 1945, Ronald Reagan sent David Conover to the Radioplane Corporation, manufacturer of radio-controlled miniature planes used by the army for anti-aircraft practice. The corporation was owned by Reagan’s friend, Reginald Denny, and was sent there to take pictures of Women in War Work. He moved down the assembly line taking shots of the most attractive employees. He came upon a girl putting on propellers. She had curly ash-blonde hair and her face was smudged with dirt. He snapped and walked on. Then he stopped. He was stunned. She was beautiful.
Q: How Did Marilyn Monroe Die?
A: Marilyn Monroe was found dead as a result of a drug overdose in her bed in her Brentwood home, 12305 Fifth Helena Dr Brentwood, CA, on the night of 8-4-62 ~ 8-5-62.
How and by whom her death was first noticed, what quantity of which drugs, administered in what fashion and by whom, how she ended up dead in that bed in that room, who did what? and other pertinent questions are unanswerable, given the lack of direct physical evidence, the contradictions within and between the witnesses’ testimony, and the murking of the waters over time due to the retrospective suspicions cast on all involved.
Q: Did Norma Jean pose nude before becoming famous as MM?
A: Yes! The following excerpt is from “The Marilyn Encyclopedia”:
Before posing for her famous calendar shots taken by photographer Tom Kelley, Marilyn had turned down many offers to pose nude. It seems she accepted only when her need was dire and immediate; her contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia had not been renewed, she was out of work, and had a certain level of lifestyle to maintain. The $50 she was paid was exactly what she needed to get back her car which had been impounded.
Q: Who was Marilyn Monroe’s father?
A: No one really knows, but MM thought her father was Charles Gifford.
Marilyn’s paternity remains an issue of debate to this day. The two main candidates are Gladys’ second husband, Edward Mortenson, who was listed as the father on Norma Jeane’s birth certificate, and Stanley Gifford, a co-worker of Gladys’ with whom she apparently had an affair around the time of Norma Jeane’s conception. Several other men have been suggested as candidates, but these two remain the most commonly debated. Marilyn herself believed Gifford to be her father, having been shown a picture of the man as a child by her mother and told “this is your father”. Her attempts to contact Gifford over the years were rebuffed.
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