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Carmel Magazine Digital Edition SU16

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142 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 6 Photo: Sam Shaw Inc./Getty Images Clockwise from left: The aspiring starlet made a 1948 promotional appearance at a Salinas jeweler's; Norma Jeane with her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker; although Monroe's marriage to Yankee great Joe DiMaggio lasted only nine months, they remained close friends. Photo: Getty Images ters, diaries and poetry jotted down during the course of her 36 years. This diary entry (gram- matical errors are hers) is thought to date from the time of the filming of "Clash by Night." It's also around this time that the actress began dat- ing one of the most famous baseball players of his time, recently retired New York Yankee (and Italian-American) Joe DiMaggio: caught a Greyhound Bus from Monterey to Salinas. On the Bus I was the person woman with about sixty Italian fishermen and I've never met sixty such charming gentlemen—they were wonderful. Some company was sending them downstate where their boats and (they hoped) fish were waiting for them. Some could hardly speak english not only do I love Greeks [illegible] I love Italians. they're warm, lusty and friendly as hell—I'd love to go to Italy someday. Two years later—when Marilyn was a big star—she put in an appearance a little bit south of Monterey County. She and the Yankee Clipper tied the knot in a San Francisco civil cer- emony on January 14, 1954, and proceeded south toward Los Angeles by automobile. The newlyweds spend their first night as man and wife at the Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo. The next day, a reporter from the local news- paper spotted the celebrities having lunch at that establishment and phoned his newsroom to summon a photographer. San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune snapper Paul Nelson arrived on the scene and immediately spotted them. According to a November 13, 2013 story pub- lished by that paper (now the Tribune), Nelson said to DiMaggio, "I'm with the press. I would like to shoot your picture but I know you're on your honeymoon. You name it." "My wife doesn't have any make-up," Joltin' Joe replied. "I'd really rather not." And that was that. Respecting their privacy, Nelson retreated. What a contrast that story illustrates. In today's tabloid press, the couple would probably have a name like "Marjoe," or "Monaggio" and be relentlessly hound- ed by paparazzi. Had she lived, Marilyn Monroe would have celebrated her 90th birth- day on June 1, 2016. As with many much-too-early celebrity deaths, it's interesting to speculate on what kind of work she would have produced, if she had been able to tame her inner turmoil and sustain a stable, healthy life. We'll never know. But chances are, as do so many of the rich and famous, she most certainly would have come back to the Monterey Peninsula to relax and enjoy all the pleasures it has to offer. In 2010, Vanity Fair published excerpts from the book "Fragments," a compilation of Marilyn's own writings.

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