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Marilyn Monroe by Maurice Zolotow
Great book!I am so glad you found this out-of-print book.I got the suggestion from another out-of-print book you found for me "Marilyn Monroe" by Norman Mailer.Both books were great, but this one talksalot about her beginning.I couldn't put it down.It was veryinteresting.Some of her books written about her say some demeaning thingsabout her past, but this one seems very true to her life.I think becausesome of it was written when she was still alive and the author actually newher.

I also would like to give you a compliment on Amazon.com customerservice.You are always very professional and I have never had anyproblems with the books I order.Thank you for your service.I probablywill always order books or VHS tapes from you.Thank you again foreverything! ... Read more

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With Friends Like This....
The authors of this book are pigs. I just read this trashy book, published and quickly, justly forgotten, in 1980. I picked it up in a thrift shop for 50 cents, which was overpayment. Lena Pepitone was apparently not only a seemstress, but, a "trusted confidant" to Marilyn Monroe,... her "closest friend" as the co-authors lie. If this were true, Marilyn ill-placed her confidence in this "friend" who decided to dispense M.M.'s supposed most personal secrets. Even if her ramblings were true, do we really need to know that Marilyn passed gas, just like everyone else who has inhabited the planet? Or that she ate like Henry The Eighth, and wiped her dirty hands all over the sheets that poor Lena had to keep re-washing? The authors try and qualify every nasty, disloyal insult by following them with backhanded compliments. This was an obvious attempt to make a quick buck on someone who is not here to refute or ignore the slander. Lena Pepitone was someone on the farthest periphery of Marilyn Monroe's life. In all the 27 books I have about M.M., I have never seen the name of her "closest friend", Mrs. Pepitone, even mentioned. I HAVEseen her on a recent documentary about M.M., which also co-featured the even sleazier than Pepitone Jeanne Carmen, another supposed "best friend" of M.M.'s and hopeless Marilyn wanna-be, who claims to have been one of the last to talk to her on her last night (if all those who claimed to have talked to Marilyn that last night were telling the truth, she never would have had time to have taken the pills...)On this show, which was filmed about a year ago, Lena Pepitone's English was still so unintelligable, they had to translate it. This would lead me to believe that sleazy co-author W. Stadiem fabricated an entire book out of the incoherent ramblings, and the few memories she actually had, that he coaxed out of Pepitone. This book is an insult to anyone who loved Marilyn Monroe. With a "best friend" like Lena Pepitone, she would have done well to stick to diamonds. That being said, I shall tonight, in honor of Marilyn, roast some weenies... one of Marilyn's favorite foods, over the burning flames of this trashy tome, whilst watching our glorious girl in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."To the "authors" of this garbage, one long foul wind your way.......

Beautiful star's desire to be average
This book, written by Marilyn Monroe's seamstress/maid, who spent almost every waking hour with the star during the last six years of her life, is a true find. To find out that Marilyn was a "bastard" child whosemother abandoned her was astonishing. It makes you wonder what the world ofentertainment would be like had that mother aborted the child instead ofgiven birth to Marilyn! "I was a mistake," Marilyn tells Lena."My mother didn't want to have me." THAT's a push for pro-lifersif I ever heard one. (And I've always been pro-choice, although I couldnever personally have an abortion). Interesting in this book is thatMarilyn had a son when she was 15, and no one in Hollywood or anywhere evertried to track him down. Marilyn didn't want to, Lena says, because shefelt he already had his life and she didn't want to "disrupt it."Marilyn had such a low opinion of herself. She didn't see herself asbeautiful and voluptuous. She saw herself as fat. She struggled with weightthroughout her life -- in fact, Lena found herself many times having to"let out" dresses so they would still fit Marilyn, who ate whenshe was depressed. Marilyn Monroe fits the perfect image of the compulsiveovereater, who might have benefited from such programs as OvereatersAnonymous, if they were around at the time.

Marilyn constantly told Lenashe was jealous of the poor maid's "normal" life, a good husband,beautiful young children. Marilyn admitted that she got to modeling andthen acting the old-fashioned way -- prostitution. "Singers, actors,prostitutes. What's the difference? It's all rotten."

While MarilynMonroe was making so much money just being beautiful and funny in movies,what she really wanted was to be taken seriously. She just could never getserious roles.

Her political attachments to people such as Frank Sinatraand the Kennedy boys (JFK and Bobbie) led some actors, such as Tony Curtis,to make the comment: "Kissing her was like kissingHitler."

Lena tells all, in a very fast-reading way. One interestingnote is that Marilyn liked to hang around her apartment absolutely nude.And when she went anywhere -- she never wore a bra and panties. This led toa hilarious remark by Marilyn about how much more shocking that famousphoto of her in a movie standing over a vent that blows her white dress upand shows her panties would have been had she been dressed normally!

Marilyn's death was a true shocker to Lena, which makes otherresearchers' belief that Marilyn was murdered ring true. Lena had seenMarilyn take her plethora of sleeping pills with alcohol, etc. Lena hadbeen there when Marilyn almost overdosed in a desperation to sleep. But atthe time of her death, Marilyn was happy, not having to use medication tosleep and was going strong in her career. Anyone interested in MarilynMonroe should find this book, as it's priceless! ... Read more

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Spanish
I'm sure this is an excellent book but buyer beware, if you don't understand Spanish don't buy this. I wish someone would have told me before I ordered it and had to return it. ... Read more

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An impressive little reference guide to Marilyn's films
The Complete Films of Marilyn Monroe is an excellent resource for those fascinated by Marilyn and her movies.It is introduced with a copy of the touching tribute Lee Strasberg delivered at Marilyn's funeral, which in turn is followed by two high-quality essays.In "One American Woman: A Speculation Upon Disbelief," Mark Harris takes a look at the course of Marilyn's life, and then Michael Conway delivers a summation of Marilyn's film career in a section dubbed "Marilyn and Hollywood."After this auspicious and respectful beginning, authors Michael Conway and Mark Ricci go about providing basic information on all of Marilyn's films in chronological order.For the most part, these descriptions are of a highly formulaic type, listing the cast and film credits alongside a synopsis of the plot, accompanied by select comments from professional reviewers of the time.Little detail about the making of each film is provided, but a number of black and white pictures from each production help the reader get a sense of perspective on the evolution of Marilyn's career.

The films Marilyn made in and after 1953, the year in which she became an undeniable star, remain pretty familiar to this day: films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot, The Prince and the Showgirl, and The Misfits.For most people, far less is known about Marilyn's early films, and it is here that this particular book serves its greatest purpose.Here you will find basic information on largely forgotten films from the early 1950s featuring Marilyn in the smallest of roles, films such as Dangerous Years, Ladies of the Chorus, A Ticket to Tomahawk, The Fireball, Right Cross, and Hometown Story.Those unfamiliar with the truly transformative period of Marilyn's career from bit player to star-in-waiting will want to check out the sections on films such as As Young as You Feel, Love Nest, Let's Make it Legal, and Don't Bother to Knock.The importance of Marilyn's small but visible roles in such classics as The Asphalt Jungle, Clash By Night, and All About Eve are also alluded to in these pages.

From Marilyn's first part in the film Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (a part that wound up on the cutting room floor) to her final completed film The Misfits and an aborted new project called Something's Got to Give, the authors trace Marilyn's cinematic evolution from a lovely young woman wanting to be an actress to a true goddess of the silver screen.

straight forward and very organized
This is a must have book for every Marilyn Monroe fan because it goes through in chronological order of Marilyn's films. It shows what critics thought of the films in the years that they came out, the songs thatMarilyn sings or dances to. Along with an extensive review of each film'splot, climax,a nd characters. ... Read more