Fini

Monroe's death didn't slow Strasberg's use of her name and memory to make money.

March 23, 1963, Strasberg told reporters about the Marilyn Monroe Fund, which he hoped to raise the $250,000 Marilyn's donation would've given to the Studio. He hoped 100 founders would donate at least $2500 to bankroll the idea. It would fund the construction of additional rehearsal space, expansion of studio activities, and offer financial assistance to newcomers. Lee said, "She was vitally interested in getting young people started." And that actress's friends wanted to create a permanent memorial to her. "The feeling grew that something in connection with the studio would be most appropriate. Unrealized.

Shelia Graham reported on June 23 that Strasberg would direct Rain, with Shirley Knight playing Sadie and Pat Hingle playing Davidson.

Paula Strasberg died from cancer in 1966. Lee remarried within a year to a woman who never met or knew Marilyn yet controlled her possession and likeness for decades. While she donated Monroe's items to various fundraisers, she needed to pay attention to the security of MM's possessions. In 1993, items were stolen from a 14' by 16' wire-enclosed storage unit at the Chelsea Mini Storage, including the dress worn when Monroe serenaded Happy Birthday to President Kennedy and the white Seven Year Itch costume. Everything but the white dress was recovered, except for the white dress.

The first auction of Marilyn's personal effects in 1999 through Christie's brought in an astonishing $13 million. Others followed in 2007 and finally in 2016.

After Lee died in 1982, Anna licensed Marilyn's image through CMG Worldwide, which generated tens of millions of dollars in her pocket. When that deal expired in 2010, she sold MM's image to Authentic Brands Group in 2011 for $20 million. After living a luxurious life on another's work for decades, she died in January 2024.

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Maugham's Sadie Thompson lives on in other performances since 1961 including......

Having played the role on a tour, Edie Adams discussed the possibility of reviving Serling's script in 1963 and 1966. (Oddly, no copies of any versions of Serling's scripts can be located in the repositories of his works. Though each has an extensive collection of papers, scripts, audio tapes, and more, anything connected to this project seems to have disappeared.)

A version was finally filmed in London with Carol Baker, a Monroe contemporary from the Actor's Studio, taking on the role.

Madeline Leroux starred in an off-Broadway revival that closed in three weeks but had a young John Travolta in its cast.

Roz Kelly (Happy Days' Pinky Tuscadero) starred as Sadie in Ron Link's off-Broadway musical version of Rain in 1970.

Cher as Sadie Thompson on Sonny and Cher Show February 1973 episode.

Part Nine

Earl Wilson reported on September 18 that Fox has a "half-promise" from Brando on the project and wants MM or Liz Taylor to star opposite. But only some are pleased with the possibility of Monroe in the part. One reader complained to columnist Mike Connolly on October 12 that "the role as envisioned and intended by Maugham is far above Monroe's head." Connolly's response is, "Don't underestimate Marilyn."

Marilyn meets with Jerry Wald about the role.

On December 14, Shelia Graham noted how Jane Fonda wanted to play the part, but Cukor had MM in mind for the remake of the Maugham story by Jerry Wald. On February 1, 1962, Hedda Hopper surmised that Bette Davis might not be too pleased that Marilyn could play Mildred opposite Richard Burton. Two weeks later, Walter Scott said, "20th is toying with the idea of Of Human Bondage. There is some doubt as to whether Miss Monroe is capable of essaying so dramatic a role, as she is more a comedienne."

Fox might have felt the same way, as the film Monroe and Cukor finally began work on was a remake of My Favorite Wife starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. A light, comedic romance about a wife returning after being lost at sea five years prior and just declared dead so her husband could remarry. Co-starring Dean Martin, Marilyn was about as excited to make this film as Goodbye Charlie. But as this would fulfill her contract, she did her best while fighting a chronic case of sinusitis. It was her leaving to sing Happy Birthday for President Kennedy, and the days afterward, she missed production that caused 20th to fire her on June 1, her 36th birthday.

In July 1962, Marilyn told photographer George Barris, with whom she was working on an autobiography, "I was going to do Somerset Maugham's Rain—the Sadie Thompson role. I find it an exciting one, but the deal fell through. I wanted Lee Strasberg, my drama coach, to direct me in it, but N.B.C. wanted an experienced T.V. director. I think it can be an exciting movie for the big screen."

A month later, on August 5, Marilyn was found dead from an accidental overdose by her housekeeper. Strasberg delivered her eulogy to a small group of friends and family at Westwood Village Cemetery three days later.

"Despite the heights and brilliance she attained on the screen, she was planning for the future; she was looking forward to participating in the many exciting things which she planned. In her eyes and in mine her career was just beginning. The dream of her talent, which she had nurtured as a child, was not a mirage."

Several months after her death, Hedda Hopper interviewed Henry Hathaway, who had directed Marilyn in Niagara. He told Hopper that when he'd approached Fox in 1958 about a remake of Bondage starring Marilyn and Montgomery Clift, he was "laughed right out of the studio." But he had confidence in Monroe's talent. "I firmly believe she'd be alive today if she had played Of Human Bondage. It would have given her the role she longed for, which I know she could have done."

Now, knowing all this information, it's a shame things fell apart, and Marilyn never had the opportunity to appear in any of these films, which certainly would have changed the opinion of her critics. Not to mention the possibility of her, not Taylor, starring opposite Burton in Cleopatra, which would've changed Hollywood history, one of the "greatest love affairs" of the century, "La Liz," might have remained Mrs. Eddie Fisher!

Was Rain a doomed project from the start? Was Marilyn being held back by the studio and those around her, including the Strasbergs? Marilyn's film directors loathed Paula Strasberg, like Monroe's previous drama coach Natasha Lytess, as the actress paid almost no attention to them, gazing beyond to Paula, hidden in the shadows, to see if that take had been acceptable. Director George Roy Hill told Hedda Hopper in a February 1962 column when she inquired why he left the ill-fated project: "When Mrs. Strasberg insisted upon sitting on the set, I bowed out!" Hill's more significant successes would occur years later with his directing Thoroughly Modern Millie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slaughterhouse Five, and The World According to Garp, among others.

Marilyn began filming Something's Got to Give in April 1962. Complications, illness. Fired. Re-signed. Supposedly, What a Way to Go, other films.

Everyone but DiMaggio had a financial stake in Monroe completing the project. While losing Monroe was depressing, there would be other projects for the Network, Marlowe, the lawyers, and the agents. The biggest losers were the audience. This role could've cemented Marilyn as a legitimate dramatic actress and taken her career in a completely different direction. The largest amount of blame must be laid at Lee Strasberg's feet. His selfishness and greed caused the Actor's Studio to lose a $225,000 endowment.

After Monroe's death, Lee told author Fred Lawrence Guiles. "I thought that she could have brought it to the same kind of tremulousness which I remember Jeanne Eagels possessing, an inner kind of quality, a sense of something really taking place, a reaching out, a wanting to be different and better, wanting to raise herself out of the kind of morass that she'd gotten into and her terrible disappointment when she (Sadie Thompson) discovers that the preacher is only a man, that all he wants is what every other man wants. It's very vivid in my mind...I felt that Marilyn could do that wonderfully and, in certain ways, even more so. I hate to say that because maybe it's my memory that's at fault, but I thought she could do that quite superbly. And that's what I saw in the part - a kind of colorfulness, a strange romantic quality, mainly this gauze-like quality, this tremulousness, together with the other things which had that didn't need to be worked on."

Part Eight

On June 13, N.B.C. had the final contract revisions with Schofield playing Davidson, and in a letter to M.C.A., they expressed the urgency of Monroe's approval of them so the production could move forward. However, with no control over co-star approval, notations from Frosch indicate they are to hold at least until the 19th to convince Richard Burton to take the role.

Currently appearing with Julie Andrews in Camelot appearing on Broadway, Burton feared he could miss the nightly 8:30 curtain, so he was hesitant to sign. However, it could've been written into his contract, like Gable's, that he was done with filming by 5 pm. A new production schedule was drawn up, with rehearsals to begin at N.B.C.'s Brooklyn studios on July 27, with completion of filming on August 19. Two days later, Marilyn met with Serling again to discuss the script.

On June 19, Marilyn spoke to Louella Parsons, who reported Marilyn was interested in purchasing a home "with a pool" in Los Angeles, that Harold Mirisch had offered her The Naked Truth directed by Andrea Lyvick, and that while Twentieth Century Fox hadn't come up with her next film, she had a commitment starting November 15 (per the Goodbye Charlie resolution") "I am free until then, after I do Sadie Thomson in Rain for television, hopefully opposite Burton." She finished with, "I start back to actor's school on Monday. My vacation is over."

On the 21, she meets with Strasberg and Frosch in her Sutton Place apartment. The "Artistic Control" issues are discussed in depth, with Strasberg feeling more comfortable in that capacity rather than directing. The original approved director, George Roy Hill, is an excellent choice. However, during Marilyn's meeting with N.B.C. executives the next day, she stands behind her faith in Strasberg, stating: "I want to do it because of Lee's concept. If I can't, then there's no point in going into it. It's not that I have any concern about the director or any criticism of the director, but I don't know what his ideas are or will be. I only know what Lee's ideas are, and those are the ideas I want to put into the thing. I don't again want to go into something and then find myself in something totally different from what I expected or hoped for."

For the largest possible audience, the network scheduled its premiere for Sunday, October 29, following a new 60-minute Bob Hope Comedy Special. Per Monroe's contract, forbidden products included alcohol, laxatives, medicines, and feminine hygiene, making Grey Advertisting's sponsor hunt difficult. Revlon's make-up company agreed to cover the entire estimated $350,000 cost of production. Even though there were less than one million color sets by February 1961, N.B.C. had 179 affiliates broadcasting in color. The bulk of N.B.C.'s broadcasting day was in color and had been since November 1960.

On June 23, Parsons informs her readers, "Within a matter of hours, a contract will be signed for Richard Burton to play Reverend Davidson in Rain with Marilyn Monroe. That is a coup if I ever heard one."

On June 26, Monroe attempted to add a rider to her contract regarding Strasberg's title and control. "The Artistic Coordinator shall have supervision over the artistic and creative elements of the program, subject to N.B.C.'s right of final approval. In exercising such supervision, the Artistic Coordinator shall give recognition to the functions of and due consideration to the views of the other members of the production staff." N.B.C. rejected that immediately, wanting the position to be "advisory versus supervisory."

 

Marlowe gives it one last shot and sends a June 26 telegram to Marilyn at the Beverly Hills Hotel: "Before I make final arrangements with another star, I would like to again offer you Rain for television spectacular Lee Strasberg told me you were a superb Sadie Thompson. I have an excellent sponsor. Taping depends on your availability." Perhaps stung by N.B.C.'s rejection of her mentor, Monroe's handwritten reply across the bottom is "I would only consider to if Lee Strasberg directed it." and ("Transmitted reply to Marvin Bendt(?) 6/27/61")

Marilyn's response conflicts with a June 27 note from Frosch stating that if Richard Burton is Davidson and Hill to direct, Marilyn will gladly sign, but N.B.C. stands firm and only agrees to proceed if these two demands are withdrawn. In an abrupt turnaround, another letter the same day to Marilyn Monroe Productions in care of Frosch cancels the project "immediately and completely."

On June 28, an internal MCA memo states, "Unless something new occurs, this is the kiss-off." Marilyn returns to Polyclinic Hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery, where she will remain until July 11. On July 16, Shelia Graham informs her readers that Marilyn's future projects with Fox depend (per Marilyn) "on the director and script -- notice I put the director first." and that Rain is up first with Monroe, explaining why she took part "Because Lee Strasberg will be in charge of the artistic arrangements." And telling Hedda Hopper on July 18, "I'm very anxious to do Rain. I'm going back to New York to talk about it. The problem now is a leading man. Frederic March would have been wonderful, but now he's going to do a play." (March opened on Broadway in Gideon in early November.)

But on July 22, she tells Louella Parsons she won't be able to fulfill her commitment due to delays caused by her recent illness/surgery and film commitments with Fox, in the same column in which Susan Hayward is announced to take over the role of Sadie. However, by December 29, Dorothy Kilgallen has Monroe's Don't Bother to Knock co-star, Anne Bancroft, now up for the part.

Though Rain was no longer forecast for Marilyn's future, there was another Maugham story she was very interested in.

Of Human Bondage was Maugham's first story, bringing him to prominence. Abandoning artistic ambitions, sensitive and club-footed Philip Carey enrolls in medical school and falls in love with a waitress, Mildred Rogers. She rejects him, runs off with a salesman, and returns unmarried and pregnant. Philip gets her an apartment, and they become engaged. Mildred runs off with another medical student. Philip takes her back again when she returns with her baby. She wrecks his apartment and burns the securities he needs to pay tuition. Forced to get a job as a salesman, Philip is relatively successful once he has surgery on his foot. Upon receiving an inheritance, he returns to school, where he learns Mildred is dying. Bette Davis starred opposite Leslie Howard in R.K.O.'s 1934 film.

On June 30, Shelia Graham predicts "Marlon Brando and Joanne Woodward for a remake of Jerry Wald's Of Human Bondage if he has his way, and he usually does."

In an August 7 letter from Aaron Frosch to Monroe, he mentions Strasberg meeting with Joe Moskowitz and her interest in only one project - Of Human Bondage. If Marlon Brando will co-star, Fox is prepared to acquire the rights and assign a writer to the project, but only after a "direct expression of interest" from Marilyn. Moskowitz suggests she rejected Rain's leading man, Paul Schofield, but Monroe wants Brando. - even though he's not available at the moment, I feel he would be an interesting co-star."

In June, the local Hutchinson, Kansas paper had a front-page story of Celebration coming to town to film and the possibility of Monroe as its star. But two months later, an August 9 letter from Frosch to Monroe has him passing along the information that she isn't interested in filming Celebration with former Rain director George Roy Hill at the helm. On August 30, Louella Parson told her readers Woodward was "set for Celebration" after Monroe had rejected the part. (It's often been reported that Joanne Woodward took the role after Marilyn's death, but an April 28, 1962 article mentions Woodward's casting in the now re-titled The Stripper as one of four films Fox is putting into production, one of the others being Monroe's Something's Got to Give.)

Part Seven

On May 2, 1961, George Chasin messengered two scripts, one for Celebration and the other for Lucy Crown, to Monroe's bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where she was recovering from sinus trouble. The next day, he forwarded a confidential letter from Frank McCarthy regarding a role in the film adaptation of Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm.

Giving the "acting coach" one more try, Fox contacted Frosch on May 4 to announce Strasberg was reconsidering his planned June European vacation to direct Marilyn in Goodbye Charlie. Fox doubles their original offer of $22,500 to $50,000 for his services. Whether because of greed or playing hardball to make up for his dismissal years before, Lee wanted more money and declined. Twentieth would not offer a third time, and it seemed the studio was about to lose one of its biggest money-making stars after all. Mike Connolly's May 8 column reported, "Marilyn hasn't signed for Rain as she owes Fox one more film, and with Cukor not feeling chipper, she doesn't want just any substitute. But the time for signing for Rain is drawing nigh."

Marilyn remained in Los Angeles as Parson reports of Monroe and Pat Newcomb "at the Villa Nova Restaurant dining on spaghetti," adding that if Marilyn stays much longer, "will DiMaggio be joining her?" The same day, Walter Winchell comments on the many delays, joking, "We hear Marilyn Monroe's version of Rain on teevee will be different. Reverend Davidson gets tired of waiting for Marilyn to show up at rehearsal and goes back to his wife."

A May 13 Winnipeg Free Press column mentions that not only has N.B.C. invested $100,000 so far in the projected special and how they must still pay Serling's $25,000 fee, whether or not the show was broadcast. However, coast-to-coast discussions between agents, executives, and lawyers took place that gave hope to things falling into place.

By May 15, Fox sent Marilyn Monroe Productions a letter summarizing the agreements both parties reached, including any claims made by either side that were withdrawn or canceled. The fourth year of her contract was extended but set to expire on November 15, and Fox "may not require her said services so to commence before November 15." Extending her contract but not requiring her to work at all. "And while she cannot work for another studio, appear on stage or television - she will be allowed to continue with Rain as long as it is completed by October 30, 1961." Most importantly, she wouldn't have to do Goodbye Charlie. The same day, the Long Beach Press-Telegram printed an interview she'd done with Earl Wilson. In it, she states when asked about Rain, "I don't care which year—one of these years." Later, she adds, "I can work or loaf, and now, I'm in the mood for a loaf."

May 19 found Monroe still wanting March as her leading man and George Roy Hill as her director. Monroe promised a quick reply, but nothing was heard by May 22. Two days later, the Marches officially withdrew, and all mention of their names was to be stricken from further contracts. Marlowe presented a list of unknown replacements.

Not knowing of Fox's May 15 letter, Hedda Hopper's May 24 column agrees (a little late) with Monroe's earlier dislike of the film's premise. "Before Marilyn Monroe can work at all, she has to wait until the 20th decides about Goodbye Charlie, which she hopes will never be made as far as she's concerned. I'm with her; it was a failure as a play, and Monroe's the last person to play a man who returns reincarnated as a girl."

With no knowledge of the previous day's events, Earl Wilson's March 25 column reads, "Now that MM's fee to TV-tape Rainin July and August, agents are sweet-talking Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, and director George Roy Hill about how cool the Brooklyn NBC TV studio'll be those hot months." Revision notes regarding Monroe's contract now grant the actor the ability to portray Reverend Davidson in the same size and placement before the title but after Monroe's top billing in hopes of finding a big-name replacement for the departed Marches.

June 1, Marilyn's 35th birthday, finds actor Paul Schofield for the role of Davidson at N.B.C.'s suggestion. Born in Birmingham, England, Schofield began his stage career with a 1940 debut performance in Desire Under the Elms. Compared to Laurence Olivier, he played from the Old Rep in Birmingham to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford. Scofield was noteworthy for his striking presence, distinctive voice, and delivery's clarity and unmannered intensity. His versatility at the height of his career is exemplified by his starring roles in theatrical productions as diverse as the musical Expresso Bongo to King Lear. Schofield might have been an excellent choice in N.B.C.'s eyes, but perhaps not an opinion necessarily shared by Marilyn or Strasberg. Schofield was to star on Broadway in Man of All Seasons beginning in November.

With a recent Emmy win for Best Dramatic Series, Twilight Zone, on June 6, Serling complained to Marie Torre about his displeasure with the situation. "I turned in two drafts a while ago, then sat back to await a reaction. Everybody went silent. N.B.C., the color network, went to black. It's been a very silent situation. Curious beast that I am, I attempted to find out. I didn't really, but I did hear to my chagrin, Marilyn, I was told, has become enamored of the 1922 Colton/Randolph stage play version of Rain. She's been rehearsing with that." Serling continued. "Well, if they want the old version of Rain, they'd better get another 'boy.' I've seen so much of the old Rain I'm waterlogged. It'd be pointless for me to even bother."

"This nobody will believe, but the upshot of my request was that the project is hush-hush, so secret, that nobody will part with the script. I only wrote it, you know. Two weeks ago, I told one of the Rain people that I wanted a copy of my script to revise it. This party thought it was a good idea and promised to get back to me 'momentarily.' I've yet to hear. In television, 'momentarily' means the end of the geophysical year." Serling was exasperated, closing with, "This whole experience, so help me, has been more twilight-zonish than my own series."

Marilyn seemed upbeat in several interviews. "I just had a birthday. I'm 35, and I don't mind it all. I enjoyed being a girl. I'm going to love being a woman. I was out to see Kay Gable. We stayed up late talking, and that's why things are kind of disorganized today. I saw her son; he's a beautiful boy. It was wonderful seeing Kay. Kind of sad, too." (Color footage shows Marilyn attending John Clark Gable's christening at St. Cyril's Church in Encino, demurely dressed in black with a veil covering her platinum blonde hair.) She still held out hope for her role as Sadie Thompson: "I'm very anxious to do Rain. I'm going back to New York to talk about it. The problem now is a leading man. Fredric March would have been just wonderful, but now he's going to do a play."

Two days later, within hours of returning home, Monroe met with Serling in her apartment to hopefully smooth over any hard feelings he had towards her or Strasberg and the rumors he'd complained about. As she held the final say on his script, Serling listened to Marilyn's suggestions. He found her "a warm, friendly, beautiful, but odd girl."