Page 37 of The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe

“Not quite,” DiMaggio replies. “The best I ever got was Ethel Barrymore or General MacArthur. You’re prettier.”

Marilyn practically blushes. “I’m sorry I don’t know anything about baseball,” she says.

“That’s all right,” DiMaggio replies. “I don’t know much about movies.”

He opens up to Marilyn about his life. Asks her in a deep and genuine way about hers. Marilyn recognizes in him a kindred spirit.

Both come from humble origins, Joe the eighth of nine children of an Italian immigrant fisherman who learned to play baseball on the sandlot playgrounds of San Francisco. Both pursued dreams of fame and fortune, though as she’s stepping into the limelight, he’s receding into its shadow. Six months ago, at age thirty-six, “Joe D.” turned down an offer of a $100,000 annual salary—the largest paycheck in sports—ending thirteen seasons as the New York Yankees’ superstar center fielder through ten American League pennants and nine World Series wins.

The famous ballplayer mentions that he doesn’t mind going on first dates, but often must enlist his good friend GeorgeSolotaire to “pry loose” women who attach themselves too tightly.

“I’ll try not to make him too much trouble when he starts prying me loose,” Marilyn promises.

“I don’t think I will have need for Mr. Solotaire’s services this trip” is DiMaggio’s response.

What began as a blind date blossoms into a bicoastal romance. She can’t stop thinking about him.I was surprised to be so crazy about Joe. I expected a flashy New York sports type, and instead I met this reserved guy who didn’t make a pass at me. I had dinner with him almost every night for two weeks. He treated me like something special. Joe is a very decent man, and he makes other people feel decent, too.

He visits her on set in Hollywood. She nicknames him “Slugger” and travels to New York, where she accompanies him to Toots Shor’s, a restaurant and unofficial men’s club a ten-minute walk from DiMaggio’s suite at the Hotel Elysée in New York City.

Although a steady stream of gossip links Marilyn to Fox contract player Nico Minardos, who’s making his first, uncredited film appearance inMonkey Business,and also to studio president Spyros Skouras, it’s her new relationship with DiMaggio that she tips to Sid Skolsky, who writes: “Joe DiMaggio is looking over Marilyn Monroe’s curves and is batting fine.”

“It just happens I like Joe,” Marilyn tells her friend, “so much better than I like most actors.”

Actors are often wonderful and charming people,she thinks, but as an actress,to love an actor is something like incest. It’s like loving a brother with the same face and manners as your own.

“We talked a lot about baseball, believe it or not,” Marilyn tellsPhotoplaymagazine. “Joe explained it to me.”

And he introduces her to his friend George Solotaire, who’s impressed that “she’s a real down-to-earth girl. She has plenty of heart. She has not gone Hollywood.”

CHAPTER 27

AS THEMONKEY BUSINESSshoot wraps, Marilyn is struck down by appendicitis, bent double with abdominal pain and a fever brought on by infection.

On April 28, instead of visiting Marilyn on the Fox lot, Joe DiMaggio finds her in a grand Art Deco building near the Paramount lot—the Fountain Avenue branch of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.

Marilyn is scheduled for an appendectomy but is suddenly struck by a terrible thought while prepping for surgery. What if her “routine procedure” turns out to be a “Mississippi appendectomy”? She’s heard rumors of unauthorized hysterectomies given to unsuspecting young women.

In the operating room, the surgeon pulls back the gown on an unconscious Marilyn and makes an unexpected discovery: she’s scotch-taped a message to her abdomen.

Dear Dr. Rabwin,

Cut as little as possible. I know it seems vain, but that doesn’t really enter into it. The fact that I am a woman is important and means much to me.

Save please (can’t ask enough) what you can—I’m in your hands. You have children and you must know what that means—please Dr. Rabwin—I know you somehow will!

Thank you—thank you—thank you—For God’s sake Dear Doctor no ovaries removed—please, again, do whatever you can to prevent large scars. Thanking you with all my heart,

Marilyn Monroe

Recovering in her hospital room, Marilyn is surrounded by bouquets of flowers and “Get Well Soon” cards. DiMaggio sends a dozen roses that stand in a vase by her bedside.

The studio sets up a photo shoot to show fans that their favorite star is on the mend.

Whitey Snyder arrives to do her hair and makeup. He sets her famous blond curls, applies her favorite red lipstick, and adds a bloom of health to her complexion.

Just before the photographers arrive to snap photos of her reading the get-well cards—especially the one from DiMaggio—Marilyn plants a kiss on Snyder’s cheek.

“Thank you for making me look like myself again,” she smiles. “Promise you’ll do this for my funeral.”

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