Norma Jean Mortensen grew up in a Los Angeles orphanage, withdrawn and dreamy, before becoming Marilyn Monroe, one of the most famous icons of seduction of the 20th century. Everything changed at the age of 13, the day a too-small sweater revealed to her, in spite of herself, the effect she had on boys. From that discovery, a character was built with method: the walk, the voice, the gaze, right up to the famous scene improvised for Groucho Marx in 1949. A portrait of the making of a sultry siren, a prisoner of her own image.
Portrait of a sultry siren: Marilyn Monroe
Norma Jean's difficult childhood
It is that of Norma Jean Mortensen, alias Marilyn Monroe. She spent most of her childhood in an orphanage in LA. Her days were filled with chores, leaving her little time to play. At school she kept to herself, rarely smiled and often daydreamed.
The torn sweater: a turning point at 13
At 13, as she was dressing for her classes, she realised that the white blouse the orphanage dressed her in was torn. So she borrowed a sweater from a young resident of the home. The garment was small and clung to her skin, but she had no other choice.
Discovering her power of seduction
That day, the boys circled around her and would not leave her side. She would later write in her diary, “they looked at my sweater as if it were a gold mine.” For her, the revelation was momentous. Where before she had been ignored or mocked, she sensed she had found the means to arouse others' interest.
Norma Jean's transformation
It might even bring her a little power, thought young Norma Jean, who was highly ambitious. So she began to smile more often, to wear make-up more regularly, to dress differently and — bam! She did not need to do anything, not even to speak, to see the boys hanging around at her feet.
The effect on others
“All my admirers told me more or less the same thing,” she noted in her diary. “They explained that their urge to kiss me, to take me in their arms, was my fault. Some told me it was because of my passionate gaze. Others that it was my voice that egged them on. Others still that vibrations came off me and unsettled them.”
Marilyn Monroe's effect on men
A difficult start in the movies
The effect Norma Jean had on men, Marilyn tried to reproduce on the big screen. The producers all told her more or less the same thing: she was rather pretty, but not pretty enough to hope for a major role in a film. So she worked as an extra or landed truly tiny parts. Yet every time she appeared on screen, even for just a few seconds, the men in the cinemas went wild. And even so, no one saw in her performances anything that could make her a star!
The birth of the legendary walk
It was not until she was 23, in 1949, that Marilyn met someone at a dinner where casting was under way for Love Happy, Groucho Marx's new film. They were looking for a blonde, a bombshell, who could walk past Groucho in such a way as to “awaken my old libido and make the smoke come out of my ears,” in Groucho Marx's own words. So Marilyn went to the audition, improvised a walk, and made Groucho declare, “She's Mae West, Theda Bara and Bo Peep all in one!” The scene was shot the following morning. And that is how Marilyn Monroe's famous walk was born — a walk that was not entirely innate, nor even very spontaneous, but that offered a strange blend of innocence and sensuality.
Perfecting her art of seduction
In time, Marilyn learned to master her art better: her hold over men grew ever more relentless. Her voice had always been pleasant — the voice of a little girl. On set, however, that could be rather limiting. So she learned to give it a deep, lower tone. She uttered words as though breathing them out. And it even became her vocal signature: a voice at once innocent and cunning.
Building the character of Marilyn
Before appearing on set, Marilyn would spend hours in front of the mirror. Everyone thought it was vanity. In reality, she was forever building her leading character: that of Marilyn. Indeed, her greatest tragedy is that she became its prisoner. She would spend hours perfecting her image: how to apply her make-up, in what tone to answer an impertinence, what look to cast… What is more, at the height of her fame, she loved one game in particular: walking through the city streets without make-up or glitter, and seeing how she went unnoticed.
The trap of her image
Because of the image she projected, the studios never offered her the serious roles she dreamed of. Little was expected of her, other than to be blonde and sexy. Marilyn loved the effect she produced, but her appearance confined her and kept her from moving on to other things.
The universal power of the sirens' voice
Unlike the theatrical siren, the sultry siren affects men immediately. Yet it would seem that all sirens have one thing in common: the voice. It is, after all, the attribute with which Homer endowed them. Remember, in ancient mythology, the great power these creatures were said to hold over men. It was not their beauty that was spoken of, but the sweetness of their voices… (continued and concluded)
Landmarks in the Marilyn Monroe legend
| Stage | What the article tells |
|---|---|
| Childhood | Norma Jean Mortensen grows up in an orphanage in Los Angeles, withdrawn and dreamy. |
| Age 13 | A borrowed sweater, too small, reveals to her in spite of herself her power of seduction over boys. |
| Age 23, 1949 | An improvised audition for Love Happy, Groucho Marx's film: the birth of her legendary walk. |
