The Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Research Paper Outline

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Lauren Smith Mrs. Prestwood English 1- A2 29 February 2012 The Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Thesis: Marilyn’s hard work, dedication, background, and talent got her well known. I. Early Life A. Born on June 1, 1926 with the name of Norma Jeane Mortensen. B. Spent Most of her childhood living in twelve different foster homes and one orphanage. C. Watched many movies, dreaming of being a star. II. Marriages A. Married James Dougherty in 1942 at the age of sixteen and divorced in 1943. B. Married Joe DiMaggio in 1953,…show more content…
Born on June 1, 1926, under the name Norma Jeane Mortenson, she was bound to leave her mark on the world. What was her secret, was it her good looks, her charm, her dedication, or just her pure talent? Norma Jeane’s family life from the very beginning did not start off very well. “You see I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy” a quote from Norma later in life (Grant 9). Gladys Baker Mortensen, her twenty-four-year-old mother, and Charles Stanley Gifford her biological father met working at a Hollywood film lab. Gladys had already been married once to her first husband Jasper Baker, and was legally separated from her second husband Ed Mortensen. Gifford refused to marry Gladys and moved away, neither Norma Jeane nor her mother ever saw him again. Gladys could not afford her daughter or take care of her while trying to find a job, so she began to send her infant daughter to a nearby family for five dollars a week. Norma Jeane spent most of her childhood living in as many as twelve different foster homes and even at one point in an orphanage while her mother was in and out of the hospital suffering from mental illness. Ever since she was a young girl…show more content…
About a year later Norma and Dougherty got divorced. Norma said, “My marriage with Dougherty brought me neither happiness nor pain, my husband and I hardly spoke to each other and this wasn’t because we were angry, we had nothing to say” (Grant, Neil 9). She began to do some modeling and getting the attention of a Hollywood film studio (“Monroe, Marilyn 170-171”). She then attracted the recruiter of Twentieth Century Fox, Ben Lyon (Peterson, Jennifer B.). During her first signing Lyon suggested Norma to change her name to Marilyn, after the actress Marilyn Miller. Norma then decided to stick with her mother’s family name, Monroe (Peterson, Jennifer B.). She was no longer Norma Jeane; she was now transformed into Marilyn Monroe. Her career started off rough; with this contract she was only getting paid $75 per week for six months. During these six months, Fox had no work for her. They renewed her contract in February of 1947 when it ran out, and shortly after that she got her first small role in “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hey!” She also got another role in “Dangerous Years,” but in August her contract was not renewed. During this period of unemployment Monroe spent her free time taking acting classes. In March of 1948, she signed her second contract with Columbia Pictures. Monroe only got one film during this contract, “Ladies of the Chorus,” and when that

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