Hello Norma Jeane
Marilyn – The Exhibition has recently arrived in Bermondsey and goes way beyond the usual stuff that we all think we know about the legendary Hollywood star, and delves deeper into her other life when she wasn’t playing up to the cameras but doing much more important work that the exhibition brings in to the spotlight, writes Michael Holland.
Underneath the arches of London Bridge Station the exhibits are displayed chronologically, taking us through Norma Jeane Baker’s life from her birth in 1926 to her sad demise in 1962.
It was tough. She was placed in care at just two weeks old and her childhood was spent as an orphan in homes and foster care until she was eleven and her mum’s friend took her in.
The new moving pictures was where the Norma Jeane’s foster family found their entertainment, and is where she came to idolise Jean Harlow – The Blonde Bombshell. She quickly learnt how to make her face up like her and in her early teens was confident enough to dress how she wanted to dress – Tight jeans and not the obligatory dresses girls were expected to wear.
To avoid going back to the orphanage she married a neighbour, five years older than the 15 year-old Norma. Aged 18 she did her first shoot for an army photographer and appears in the U.S. Army magazine. She now saw a way out of her humdrum existence in the munitions factory but her husband saw her as a housewife – The beginning of a pattern of weak but domineering husbands, none of whom could hold her back.
Norma Jeane’s career plan was acting and modelling. She had speech training, acting lessons and worked out; she read self-help books and attended evening classes in psychology, politics and history.
After changing her name and signing a contract with 20th Century Fox her career began to take off, slowly at first, but when leading roles came she was never going to look back. She demanded more money, and got it. Her acting skills were confirmed with Golden Globe awards.
Alas, while Marilyn was wowing the world her domestic life was not so successful. Her fame overshadowed her husbands’, who wanted her to stay at home, but that was not in her life plan. All three marriages inevitably ended in divorce.
Marilyn – The Exhibition has a focus on the other side of her life; Her commitment to supporting minorities, homosexuality, her academic reading, her salary that was less than the male stars and being reduced to the dumb blonde roles. WE discover how she helped the people in her former life. Marilyn took herself to the East Coast where she would study acting under Lee Strasberg at his Actors’ Studio, a move that riled 20th Century Fox, as did her flirtations with Communism.
Bad marriages took their toll, miscarriages added to the stress, her incarceration on a mental ward due to an incorrect diagnosis was a public nightmare. But she was a fighter and left New York to return to Hollywood and a smaller house where, sadly, she eventually died.
Marilyn’s story is told through iconic photos and dresses, but also by the mundane objects that a modern woman needs to keep up appearances: curlers, stockings, creams, simple scarves, tops and skirts, some of which have been eaten by moths after too many years in poor storage; there are letters, phone books, scripts, contracts, invoices, and props from some of her films. Many of the exhibits have never been seen in public before.
The dress she wore for President Kennedy’s Birthday Gala, when she sang Happy Birthday to him is there up in lights and looking gorgeous, plus the information that it was last sold for $4.2m, highlighting the myth that now surrounds the icon who has been dead for over 60 years.
Yes, of course, many people will go along to see the fantastic outfits, but I hope they spend some time taking in all the normal, mundane exhibits that was also a big part of Monroe’s life.
The collection has been curated and provided by Ted Stampfer who has spent most of his life since the 80s buying up everything he can to do with Marilyn: ‘ I was captivated by her beauty and attitude,’ he says.
An added bonus is that the voice on the audio guide is none other than Bermondsey’s Suzie Kennedy, one of the world’s top Marilyn impersonators.
Arches London Bridge, 8 Bermondsey St, London, SE1 2ER.
Tickets from £21.90.
Groups & Schools: via trade@hospitalityline.co.uk
For further details: www.marilynlondonbridge.co.uk.
