The seven deadly sins of Hollywood (1957)

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF HOLLYWOOD in a state hospital, and as she could no longer pay for her keep Norma Jeane was sent to an orphanage. The subsequent history of her childhood was a succession of moves from one family to another; and all this time she became increasingly unsure of herself, began to stutter and suffer from vague feelings of guilt. The first time anyone seemed to want her was when, at the age of fourteen, she put on a tight sweater; the boys in her class immediately took notice. After that she was not lacking in friends. She continued to wear sweaters. The rest of her life up to the time she left Hollywood in 1955 was merely an expansion of the sweater incident. She discovered that when she wiggled her hips and insinuated herself into tight-fitting dresses she made friends and influenced people. By exploiting her natural accoutrements she was able to give up her job as a factory paint sprayer and become first a model, then a small-part film actress, and eventually a star. That she did the hip-wagging and the seductive poses with such accomplishment is a measure of how much she needed to be wanted. The sequence of events which led to her present fabulous success are now a part of movie lore : how she posed for a calendar picture "with nothing on but the radio"; how she appeared with such devastating effect in The Ashphalt Jungle looking like an erotic angel ; how she married and divorced Joe di Maggio, the baseballplayer ("We had nothing to say to each other"); how she captured the public's imagination in a number of films which were not particularly outstanding but grossed 50,000,000 dollars. There is no doubt that Marilyn embraced success and what it brought with hedonistic relish ; everything — minks, cars, fan-mail, newspaper articles, jewellery, money — was for her a direct or indirect manifestation 216