In this picture, colorized by Duriez, Norma Jene Mortenson models her pre-sex symbol look. In this picture, she was around 20, and she had not yet found the look that she would become known for.
Norma Jeane Mortenson, who would later become Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles to Gladys Pearl Baker, who was a film cutter in Hollywood. Baker had married Jasper Newton Baker when she was only 15; Jasper Baker, who was 24 when they married, was allegedly abusive and after his Gladys Pearl filed for divorce, he kidnapped Monroe’s brother and sister, taking them to Kentucky. Gladys married Martin Edward Mortenson in 1924, divorcing him a few years later. Baker got pregnant with Monroe while she was separated from Mortenson, and Baker used his name on Monroe’s birth certificate. Monroe was then baptized as Norma Jeane Baker, a move by Monroe’s grandmother to hide Monroe’s illegitimacy. Monroe’s father’s identity was unknown, although it is assumed that it was Charles Stanley Gifford, Gladys Baker’s superior at RKO Pictures. During her early years, Monroe switched between the two last names.
A Difficult Childhood
Norma Jeane Baker, future film star Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962), as a teenager, circa 1938. Behind her is Ana Lower ('Aunt Ana'), a family friend with whom she lived for a while. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Shortly after Monroe was born, Gladys placed her with Albert and Ida Bolender, living with them for the first six months until she moved back to the city for work. She visited Monroe on the weekends, and in 1933, she bought a house in Hollywood, moving in with Monroe and the Atkinsons, a couple and their daughter, who were lodgers. In 1934, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was eventually committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital. Gladys’ friend Grace Goddard took responsibility for Gladys’ affairs and for Monroe, who became a ward of the state. Her life became more unstable, as she continued to live with the boarders for the first 16 months; during this time, she was sexually abused. She then moved in with Goddard and her husband Erwin for a brief period of time, before Goddard placed her in the Los Angeles Orphans Home in September 1935.
Finding Her Way Into Modelling
Posing for a shot on a postcard during her modeling career, circa 1945. Source: (Wikipedia).
Grace Goddard became her legal guardian in 1936, taking her out of the orphanage in 1937. This time, her stay with the Goddards only lasted a short time as well, because Erwin molested her, and she began living with her relatives as well as Grace’s friends and relatives. As Monroe said, some of her foster families would send her to the movies, and she decided she wanted to be an actress. In 1938, she moved in with Grace Goddard’s aunt, Ana Lower, but when Lower’s health began to decline, she once again moved in with the Goddards in 1941. When Erwin’s company transferred him to West Virginia in 1942, Monroe was unable to accompany them because of California’s child protection laws. To avoid returning to the orphanage, she married James Dougherty, the 21year-old son of the Godddards’ neighbor on June 19,1942. Just after her 16th birthday, she dropped out of high school to become a housewife. Her husband joined the Merchant Marine in 1943, and they moved to Santa Catalina Island, but he was shipped out to the Pacific, where he would remain for much of the next two years. Monroe began working that the Radioplane Company, a munitions factory, where, in late 1944, she met David Conover, a photographer sent by the U.S. Army Air Forces’ First Motion Picture Unit; he was there to photograph female workers as a morale booster. In January 1945, she stopped working there, and began modeling for Conover and his friends. By August, she had signed with Blue Book Model Agency. Because of her figure, she was considered more suitable for pin-up magazines, and she changed her look so that she could find work more easily. She straightened her hair and bleached it blonde. She appeared on 33 magazine covers by early 1946, occasionally using the pseudonym Jean Norman.
Her Transformation Was Complete
In Ladies of the Chorus, 1948. Source: IMDB.
In June 1946, she signed with an acting agency. Ben Lyon, a 20th Century-Fox executive, gave her a screen-test, and despite the fact that he was unenthusiastic about signing Monroe, head executive Darryl F. Zanuck offered her a contract, which began in August 1946. At the suggestion of Ben Lyon, she chose to use the first name Marilyn, and adopted her mother’s maiden name, Monroe. By September 1946, she had divorced Dougherty as he wasn’t happy about her career.
