National Marilyn Day – August 17, 2024

History of National Marilyn Day

Undoubtedly, one of the most iconic people to bear the name Marilyn is the American actress, singer, and model, Marilyn Monroe. She was famous for playing comedic “blonde bombshell” characters. Monroe became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s and was the epitome of the era’s sexual revolution.

Her early life was pitted with struggles. She spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage. Marilyn also had a speech impediment — stuttering — that plagued her speech for two years in high school.

Despite this, she rose to incredible fame. Starting with a pin-up modeling career which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures, she moved to a series of minor film roles.

Performances such as “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953), “How to Marry a Millionaire” (1953), and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (1954), made her fame grow steadily and spread worldwide. Marilyn quickly became the object of unprecedented popular adulation.

In 1962 she began filming the comedy “Something’s Got to Give.” However, she was frequently ill and thus absent from the set. In May she traveled to New York City for a gala where she famously sang ‘Happy Birthday Mr.President’ to President John F. Kennedy. It was alleged that Monroe was having an affair with the president. In June, Monroe was fired from the film.

Although she was later rehired, work never resumed. After several months of living in seclusion, Monroe died from an overdose of sleeping pills in her Los Angeles home. Due to her history of drug use and previous suicide attempts, her death was ruled a “probable suicide.”

However, some people believed that she had been killed after threatening to reveal her relationship with the Kennedy brothers (President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy). Others theorized that she had information linking the two men to organized crime.