Marilyn Monroe

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0:00:04 > 0:00:12In June 1945, an army photographer set out on a routine assignment in Southern California.

0:00:16 > 0:00:22Working for an army magazine, he made his way to a parachute factory in Los Angeles.

0:00:22 > 0:00:30David Conover's mission was to take pictures of women doing war work, as a morale-booster for US troops.

0:00:30 > 0:00:36But when he got there something totally unexpected happened.

0:00:38 > 0:00:43"I came to a girl putting on propellers and raised the camera to my eye.

0:00:43 > 0:00:46"I snapped her picture and walked on.

0:00:46 > 0:00:49"Then I stopped, stunned.

0:00:49 > 0:00:52"Half-child, half-woman,

0:00:52 > 0:00:58"her eyes held something that touched and intrigued me."

0:01:00 > 0:01:04Conover had just taken the first professional photograph

0:01:04 > 0:01:09of a fresh-faced young girl called Norma Jean Baker.

0:01:09 > 0:01:13Her life would never be the same again.

0:01:13 > 0:01:19Norma Jean would become one of the most photographed women of the 20th century -

0:01:19 > 0:01:20Marilyn Monroe.

0:01:48 > 0:01:54Marilyn Monroe is known primarily as a movie star, but she always preferred being photographed.

0:01:54 > 0:02:00Faced with the pressure and chaos of the film set, she was often anxious and full of self-doubt.

0:02:00 > 0:02:05One-on-one with a photographer, she felt at ease and in control.

0:02:05 > 0:02:10Whenever the pressures of Hollywood threatened to overwhelm her, she always turned to photographers

0:02:10 > 0:02:13for the reassurance and intimacy she craved.

0:02:13 > 0:02:17Marilyn Monroe's love affair with the camera began when David Conover

0:02:17 > 0:02:24spotted Norma Jean's natural talent, and took her outside the parachute factory to pose for another shot.

0:02:30 > 0:02:32Norma Jean was 19 years old.

0:02:32 > 0:02:35She had endured a turbulent childhood.

0:02:35 > 0:02:39Her mother had suffered from mental illness, so she'd been brought up

0:02:39 > 0:02:43by foster parents and even spent some time in an orphanage.

0:02:43 > 0:02:50These early years of intense insecurity created an overwhelming need for other people's approval.

0:02:50 > 0:02:56A craving that would never leave her, despite the impact she was already having on men.

0:02:58 > 0:03:03Her figure blossomed quite early, by 14 she was quite opulent.

0:03:03 > 0:03:06She knew that high school boys, her classmates,

0:03:06 > 0:03:12were whistling at her and inviting her for sodas. This was wonderful,

0:03:12 > 0:03:19as it is for any young woman, but especially a young woman who has no family and no emotional support,

0:03:19 > 0:03:21she's now got a little fan club!

0:03:24 > 0:03:30Despite her popularity, Norma Jean still longed for a secure home life.

0:03:30 > 0:03:35At the age of 16, she rushed into marriage with a local boy, Jim Dougherty.

0:03:35 > 0:03:42But her first chance for stability was shattered when Jim eagerly signed up to fight in World War II.

0:03:42 > 0:03:46When David Conover took his life-changing photographs,

0:03:46 > 0:03:49Norma Jean was still feeling lonely and rejected.

0:03:49 > 0:03:55When he offered to introduce her to the small-time Blue Book Modeling Agency, she jumped at the chance.

0:04:02 > 0:04:06Young Norma Jean's only expectation

0:04:06 > 0:04:12was to have a job in which people would look at her and find her pretty.

0:04:12 > 0:04:16She had no experience of emotional stability,

0:04:16 > 0:04:20so she was an emotionally needy young woman.

0:04:20 > 0:04:26Norma Jean felt calm and reassured in front of the camera.

0:04:26 > 0:04:30The factory girl surprised everyone with her critical eye.

0:04:30 > 0:04:35She pored over the contact sheets, scrutinizing her own image again and again.

0:04:35 > 0:04:40She was ambitious and eager to give the camera exactly what it required,

0:04:40 > 0:04:46but Norma Jean needed a photographer with the talent to take her further.

0:04:46 > 0:04:49Only a few months later she met the man who would do just that,

0:04:49 > 0:04:55Andre de Dienes - a young Hungarian who'd made his name in New York.

0:04:55 > 0:04:57Andre had just arrived in Hollywood.

0:04:57 > 0:05:04He called the Blue Book Modeling Agency looking for a young face, a new model to photograph.

0:05:04 > 0:05:06Norma Jean arrived, and they met,

0:05:06 > 0:05:11and I think that was something really special for Andre.

0:05:11 > 0:05:15He commented that from the moment that she walked into the room,

0:05:15 > 0:05:18he was tremendously taken with her.

0:05:19 > 0:05:24Norma Jean eagerly seized her chance. The day after her husband

0:05:24 > 0:05:28returned on leave for Christmas, she hit the road with de Dienes.

0:05:28 > 0:05:31She would be gone for three weeks.

0:05:33 > 0:05:40They travelled up through California and into Arizona and Nevada taking photographs all the way.

0:05:40 > 0:05:47The resulting pictures revealed the wholesome Californian girl who would evolve into the Hollywood star.

0:05:49 > 0:05:55Norma Jean posed like somebody's sister or sweetheart on a day in the country -

0:05:55 > 0:05:59the all-American girl next door.

0:05:59 > 0:06:04We're so used to seeing Marilyn as the blonde bombshell,

0:06:04 > 0:06:09the woman towards the tragic end of her career,

0:06:09 > 0:06:14and these pictures show a completely different side of her and her personality.

0:06:14 > 0:06:20Somebody said he never saw Marilyn so fresh or so happy or so, like, light energy.

0:06:20 > 0:06:23She was 19, she was happy, I think, at this time.

0:06:27 > 0:06:33Ever since they left Los Angeles, De Dienes had been trying get Norma Jean to sleep with him.

0:06:33 > 0:06:39One night when they found themselves in a motel with only one free room, she finally agreed.

0:06:39 > 0:06:42They remained lovers for the rest of the trip.

0:06:42 > 0:06:46Throughout their journey, he also attempted to persuade her to pose nude.

0:06:46 > 0:06:53He insisted that his motives were artistic, but she refused to strip off for the camera.

0:07:01 > 0:07:06Back in Los Angeles, De Dienes quickly sold some of the photographs.

0:07:06 > 0:07:11Norma Jean soon had her first front cover on a national magazine.

0:07:14 > 0:07:21The trip had been an enormous success, it boosted her confidence and intensified her ambition.

0:07:21 > 0:07:23I really think the...

0:07:23 > 0:07:28early photographs with Andre were absolutely crucial to Marilyn's career.

0:07:28 > 0:07:36And I think that had she not met Andre, perhaps she would have never become Marilyn Monroe, who knows?

0:07:36 > 0:07:44Increasingly confident of her success as a model, Norma Jean's next step was the movies.

0:07:44 > 0:07:46Only her husband was holding her back.

0:07:46 > 0:07:50She filed for divorce and set her sights on Hollywood.

0:07:56 > 0:08:00There were thousands of pretty girls, desperate to make it in the movies.

0:08:00 > 0:08:07But Norma Jean was prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that she would stand out from the rest.

0:08:07 > 0:08:10Step one was to change her name.

0:08:10 > 0:08:17On the advice of a casting director from Fox Studios, Norma Jean Baker became Marilyn Monroe.

0:08:22 > 0:08:24Step two was more drastic.

0:08:24 > 0:08:28At a time when cosmetic surgery was risky and expensive,

0:08:28 > 0:08:32a top agent urged her to have both her nose and her chin reshaped.

0:08:34 > 0:08:36The final step was her hair.

0:08:36 > 0:08:42The head of Columbia Studios insisted Marilyn's hairline should be heightened by electrolysis.

0:08:42 > 0:08:47Then her natural brown colour was stripped away by hydrogen peroxide and ammonia.

0:08:47 > 0:08:52The result was the pale, shimmering platinum effect which became her trademark.

0:08:52 > 0:08:57Norma Jean the model, was now Marilyn, the Hollywood starlet.

0:09:05 > 0:09:11The transformation soon paid off. Over the next few years,

0:09:11 > 0:09:17Marilyn was cast in small but increasingly prominent roles by major Hollywood studios.

0:09:17 > 0:09:21But just as her career was gaining momentum,

0:09:21 > 0:09:25a single photograph threatened to end her dreams of stardom.

0:09:31 > 0:09:36The picture appeared on a calendar and featured a naked model.

0:09:36 > 0:09:39Hollywood gossip suggested it was Marilyn.

0:09:41 > 0:09:47Back in 1949, Marilyn had been broke and struggling to get noticed in Hollywood.

0:09:47 > 0:09:52Photographer Tom Kelly offered her 50 to take her clothes off for the camera.

0:09:52 > 0:09:58Where Norma Jean had once said no, Marilyn Monroe said yes.

0:09:58 > 0:10:01When I first asked her to do it,

0:10:01 > 0:10:03she turned me down.

0:10:03 > 0:10:08But after thinking it over for a few days, she came back and said,

0:10:08 > 0:10:11"I would like to do it." Cos she really did need the money.

0:10:11 > 0:10:17This is a negative of the calendar of Marilyn that sold eight million copies.

0:10:27 > 0:10:29The studio panicked,

0:10:29 > 0:10:35believing a starlet could never survive the public humiliation of a lewd photograph.

0:10:35 > 0:10:39But Marilyn didn't believe a simple denial would kill the story.

0:10:39 > 0:10:45Defiantly she set up an interview with a sympathetic journalist and gave her own version of events.

0:10:47 > 0:10:52When the article appeared, Marilyn was presented as a victim,

0:10:52 > 0:10:55forced by her poverty into bearing all for the camera.

0:10:55 > 0:10:58She became a heroine overnight.

0:10:58 > 0:11:05The photograph was such a hit that it was published again as the first ever Playboy centrefold.

0:11:08 > 0:11:13Far from destroying her career, the nude photo shoot established her name in Hollywood.

0:11:13 > 0:11:16A month after the calendar story broke,

0:11:16 > 0:11:23Marilyn Monroe adorned the cover of LIFE - the biggest selling magazine in America.

0:11:29 > 0:11:33Marilyn was rapidly becoming Hollywood's hottest property.

0:11:33 > 0:11:38In 1953, she starred in Niagara as a cheating wife who tries to murder her husband.

0:11:38 > 0:11:42# Men grow cold As girls grow old... #

0:11:42 > 0:11:49Later that year in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn played Lorelei Lee, a curvaceous, gold-digging blonde.

0:11:49 > 0:11:54The film featured her show-stopping performance of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend.

0:11:54 > 0:11:59# Diamonds are a girl's best friend... #

0:11:59 > 0:12:04On screen, Marilyn Monroe oozed confidence and charisma,

0:12:04 > 0:12:08off screen, Norma Jean was still tortured by self-doubt and insecurity.

0:12:08 > 0:12:15She was already getting a reputation for panicking on set and forgetting her lines.

0:12:15 > 0:12:19But Marilyn's public profile rocketed in January 1954,

0:12:19 > 0:12:24when she married the retired baseball star and national hero Joe DiMaggio.

0:12:28 > 0:12:32She was rapidly becoming one of the most photographed women in the world.

0:12:32 > 0:12:39The increased exposure was great for her career but disastrous for her marriage.

0:12:41 > 0:12:49He was the man who'd established his greatness within a field and was now sort of in a plateau of life.

0:12:49 > 0:12:55Joe DiMaggio, the former baseball player or, worse, Joe DiMaggio, the baseball legend.

0:12:55 > 0:13:02Whereas Marilyn is, as the Italians say, del mondo, she belongs to everybody.

0:13:02 > 0:13:04He didn't see it that way.

0:13:04 > 0:13:07For DiMaggio there was worse to come.

0:13:07 > 0:13:10In the middle of their honeymoon in Japan,

0:13:10 > 0:13:13Marilyn accepted an invitation to visit American troops in Korea.

0:13:13 > 0:13:1860,000 soldiers got their cameras out for Marilyn.

0:13:18 > 0:13:23It was her biggest photo shoot ever. DiMaggio was furious.

0:13:23 > 0:13:28Joe was back in town with his cronies and she went back and she said,

0:13:28 > 0:13:35"Oh, Joe, it was such a wonderful experience, you never heard such applause."

0:13:35 > 0:13:37And he said, "Oh, yes, I have."

0:13:38 > 0:13:43Joe's expectations were that she would give it up,

0:13:43 > 0:13:48stay home, raise babies, and make marinara sauce for the pasta.

0:13:48 > 0:13:50No way would she do this.

0:13:54 > 0:14:00In September 1954, Marilyn came to New York to work on her latest movie.

0:14:04 > 0:14:11On her first night in the city, she met someone who would become her most unlikely photographer.

0:14:11 > 0:14:18James Haspiel was only 15 years old. He was just another enthusiastic fan, but he was bolder than most.

0:14:18 > 0:14:22I said, "Miss Monroe, would you give me a kiss?"

0:14:22 > 0:14:26And she looked at me and there was "no" written all over her face.

0:14:26 > 0:14:30And I begged her, I said, "Just here on the cheek."

0:14:30 > 0:14:34And the crowd, I think vicariously started to oooh and aaah,

0:14:34 > 0:14:40and I think she responded to the crowd. She put her arms around me and kissed me. So it started with a kiss.

0:14:42 > 0:14:45Haspiel was hooked, and he was determined

0:14:45 > 0:14:50to get a record of the next kiss, so he quickly acquired a camera.

0:14:50 > 0:14:55It was a Brownie Hawkeye, it was 5, and I began to photograph her

0:14:55 > 0:15:00with this 5 camera, and those photographs are regarded today as brilliant.

0:15:00 > 0:15:04It wasn't anything I did, it was what she was about

0:15:04 > 0:15:07when she was made up that made the pictures as wonderful as they are.

0:15:11 > 0:15:17Over the next two years, Haspiel watched and waited for opportunities to photograph Marilyn.

0:15:17 > 0:15:22Whenever she was feeling lonely or vulnerable, she would encourage his infatuation.

0:15:22 > 0:15:29Leafing through his growing collection of pictures, she even chose a personal favourite.

0:15:32 > 0:15:35She asked if she could borrow that slide.

0:15:35 > 0:15:40And I loaned it to her, and it took me two and a half weeks to get it back.

0:15:40 > 0:15:44She didn't want to give it back to me, and having retrieved it,

0:15:44 > 0:15:48I looked at it again and thought, "Why does she like this?

0:15:48 > 0:15:51"Maybe it's because the camera's not up her nose."

0:15:51 > 0:15:55She's just a human being in a city setting, with other people

0:15:55 > 0:16:00and buildings and street-lamps and whatever. But she loved that picture.

0:16:05 > 0:16:10On 15th September, Marilyn was shooting a scene for The Seven Year Itch.

0:16:10 > 0:16:16Photographer Sam Shaw, then in charge of publicity at Twentieth Century Fox,

0:16:16 > 0:16:20had an inspired idea for an image to sell the movie.

0:16:20 > 0:16:24As the cameras rolled on that late summer evening,

0:16:24 > 0:16:29Marilyn walked over a Manhattan subway grating and into Hollywood history.

0:16:29 > 0:16:34Sam Shaw had reserved the spot right next to the movie camera for himself.

0:16:34 > 0:16:38His 17-year-old son Larry was lucky enough to be his assistant that night.

0:16:38 > 0:16:41It wasn't my first time on a movie set.

0:16:41 > 0:16:47What was different was the excitement of the people, there were a lot of people.

0:16:47 > 0:16:53And the guys who had to keep the crowd quiet had a big job, big job.

0:16:57 > 0:17:01James Haspiel had pushed his way to the front of the crowd.

0:17:01 > 0:17:03I was very startled,

0:17:03 > 0:17:10because I could see through her panties, which meant everybody could see through her panties.

0:17:10 > 0:17:12I subsequently learnt that in the dressing room,

0:17:12 > 0:17:16she had examined herself and could see through her panties.

0:17:16 > 0:17:20Always with costuming, there's more than one of everything,

0:17:20 > 0:17:24so she asked for a second pair of panties and put them on over the first pair.

0:17:24 > 0:17:30In the dressing room that was fine, but outside under the klieg light, it wasn't.

0:17:31 > 0:17:33Joe DiMaggio was livid.

0:17:33 > 0:17:41Marilyn relished the adulation of her fans but increasingly resented being type-cast as the dumb blonde.

0:17:41 > 0:17:47The studio was delighted with the shot and turned it into a massive billboard in Times Square.

0:17:47 > 0:17:53It was the most erotic image ever to have been publicly displayed in the United States.

0:17:53 > 0:17:57It's wonderful. I think it's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

0:17:57 > 0:17:59I think it's very nice but I'd rather it were me.

0:17:59 > 0:18:06I said, "What has Marilyn Monroe got that a million other women have and prefer not to show?"

0:18:06 > 0:18:09It's pretty vulgar if you ask me.

0:18:09 > 0:18:12For DiMaggio it was the final straw.

0:18:12 > 0:18:18Their marriage of only nine months was brought to an end by one of the defining photographs of the century.

0:18:21 > 0:18:26Her marriage over, Marilyn was determined to take control of her life.

0:18:26 > 0:18:29She decided to stay in New York to take up acting lessons

0:18:29 > 0:18:33and establish her independence from Hollywood.

0:18:38 > 0:18:43Marilyn entered one of the happiest periods of her life.

0:18:43 > 0:18:50Three months after settling in the city, she met and fell in love with the playwright Arthur Miller.

0:18:50 > 0:18:53Stability and contentment seemed to be within her grasp.

0:18:57 > 0:19:02But her old fears of rejection could never be completely banished.

0:19:02 > 0:19:08Marilyn still craved the unthreatening intimacy she only found in front of the camera.

0:19:08 > 0:19:15Sam Shaw, the man behind the Seven Year Itch shoot, soon became a trusted friend.

0:19:15 > 0:19:19He went to pick her up one day at her hotel room

0:19:19 > 0:19:23and he walked in the door and he said, "Marilyn, where are you?"

0:19:23 > 0:19:27A voice came from the bathroom, so she said, "Sam, come on in,"

0:19:27 > 0:19:31and he went into the bathroom and she was lying in the bath tub.

0:19:31 > 0:19:32He was shocked.

0:19:32 > 0:19:39Not because she was lying in a bath tub, but she was lying in a bath tub of ice cubes.

0:19:39 > 0:19:45See, you're shocked! He sat down on the toilet and he said, "Marilyn, why are you doing this?"

0:19:45 > 0:19:51And she said, "I'm fighting gravity, the body must be firm."

0:19:52 > 0:19:58Marilyn came to depend on Shaw more than any other photographer she'd ever worked with.

0:19:58 > 0:20:02I think Marilyn saw in my father...

0:20:02 > 0:20:05maybe the father she didn't have.

0:20:05 > 0:20:09He was a mentor to her, he was a best friend to her,

0:20:09 > 0:20:11he was a companion to her.

0:20:13 > 0:20:19He was a really good teacher and I think she trusted him to the end.

0:20:25 > 0:20:27One autumn day in 1956,

0:20:27 > 0:20:34Sam Shaw set out to photograph Marilyn in a way she'd never been seen before.

0:20:37 > 0:20:42He had this idea, just a very simple idea, a day in the life of Marilyn Monroe.

0:20:42 > 0:20:49He met her and Arthur, they were living in Brooklyn at the time, Arthur drove her in to New York City,

0:20:49 > 0:20:57and somewhere around Fifth Avenue left Marilyn with my dad, and Arthur went off.

0:20:57 > 0:21:03And they just travelled around New York, taking pictures, doing various things -

0:21:03 > 0:21:09shopping, going to Central Park, going in a row boat, having sodas, eating a hot dog.

0:21:09 > 0:21:13And then later on, down at Battery Park,

0:21:13 > 0:21:17they met up with Arthur Miller,

0:21:17 > 0:21:21and Sam followed them back into Brooklyn, taking pictures,

0:21:21 > 0:21:26and that's all it was, A Day In The Life, and it was very successful.

0:21:29 > 0:21:33Marilyn and Arthur Miller had been married that summer.

0:21:33 > 0:21:36The shots of the couple fresh from their honeymoon are intimate

0:21:36 > 0:21:42and revealing, natural and spontaneous pictures of two people in love.

0:21:42 > 0:21:47I think Arthur Miller was attracted to Marilyn Monroe because she was beautiful

0:21:47 > 0:21:52and funny and warm and supportive of him

0:21:52 > 0:21:57and she respected his work and learned from it

0:21:57 > 0:22:03and was, I'm sure, in their intimate life, a wonderful companion.

0:22:03 > 0:22:09What she found in him was very simple - a wise, learned,

0:22:09 > 0:22:14successful, serious playwright who thought she was pretty hot stuff!

0:22:18 > 0:22:21Marilyn's happiness wasn't to last.

0:22:21 > 0:22:27Once she returned to the demands of film-making, all her insecurities came flooding back.

0:22:27 > 0:22:31She grew increasingly dependent on alcohol and barbiturates

0:22:31 > 0:22:35to help her sleep, even her relationship with Miller was under strain.

0:22:35 > 0:22:42But she was about to take on a new role that would confirm her reputation as a serious actress.

0:22:47 > 0:22:51I don't feel that way about you, Gay.

0:22:55 > 0:22:57Don't get discouraged, girl, you might.

0:22:57 > 0:23:03Arthur Miller wrote the role of Roslyn in The Misfits especially for Marilyn.

0:23:03 > 0:23:09She plays a sensitive and confused young woman tormented by the brutality of the men around her.

0:23:09 > 0:23:12Miller based it on his observations of her own life.

0:23:12 > 0:23:18The making of The Misfits was photographed more than any other film ever made.

0:23:18 > 0:23:25A rota of top photographers was permanently on set throughout the shoot.

0:23:25 > 0:23:30Bruce Davidson was one of them. He remembers observing Miller and Monroe up close.

0:23:30 > 0:23:33They were such a beautiful couple to me.

0:23:33 > 0:23:36I mean, Arthur was like...

0:23:36 > 0:23:41to me, what Abraham Lincoln might have looked liked as a young man.

0:23:41 > 0:23:48And he had this kind of incredible intelligence, and he was very masculine, very virile.

0:23:48 > 0:23:52And when they sat together, the contrast was almost amazing.

0:23:52 > 0:23:57She was very vulnerable and soft and feminine

0:23:57 > 0:24:01and he was like a cowboy on a horse.

0:24:05 > 0:24:09Davidson saw an opportunity to photograph the couple in all the chaos of the movie set.

0:24:09 > 0:24:16He came away with one image which captures the mood of the final days of their marriage.

0:24:16 > 0:24:22This photograph, there's just one image, one moment when they're clear,

0:24:22 > 0:24:27without the make-up man or somebody else appearing in the frame,

0:24:27 > 0:24:32which spoiled the balance of the picture, and didn't give the total information I wanted to convey.

0:24:32 > 0:24:35So they're really in their own world,

0:24:35 > 0:24:38and I caught them in their own separate worlds -

0:24:38 > 0:24:43Arthur the writer, Marilyn the actress.

0:24:56 > 0:25:02A year later, her marriage to Miller and her love affair with New York were over.

0:25:02 > 0:25:05She returned to Los Angeles for good.

0:25:05 > 0:25:11In 1961, she began work on Something's Got To Give, a film she would never complete.

0:25:11 > 0:25:17She was now repeatedly turning up late on the set and suffering crippling panic attacks.

0:25:17 > 0:25:20The papers were full of gossip about her erratic behaviour -

0:25:20 > 0:25:25Marilyn's life and career were spinning out of control.

0:25:28 > 0:25:33Once again Marilyn seized the opportunity to find salvation in the camera.

0:25:33 > 0:25:36One of her good friends, photographer George Barris,

0:25:36 > 0:25:41had an idea for a book of intimate photographs telling her own story.

0:25:41 > 0:25:44She was quite excited about us doing a book together,

0:25:44 > 0:25:50and she said, "I can tell everything I really want to tell about my life,

0:25:50 > 0:25:55"and we can get rid of all those lies that the press has been saying about me."

0:25:58 > 0:26:04They decided to take photographs by the ocean at Santa Monica.

0:26:04 > 0:26:08It was a place with special memories for Marilyn, and for Norma Jean -

0:26:08 > 0:26:11she'd played there when she was a child.

0:26:11 > 0:26:17Barris planned to keep the shoot simple with only Marilyn, the beach and a towel in frame.

0:26:20 > 0:26:26I said, "Marilyn, let's try to use this towel as a prop.

0:26:26 > 0:26:30"Maybe you can dance around it, hold it in front of you,

0:26:30 > 0:26:34"it could be daring, it could be sexy, it could be fun."

0:26:34 > 0:26:38And we had fun doing it, and the towel became a wonderful prop.

0:26:49 > 0:26:55Barris prepared to shoot the last roll of what would be Marilyn Monroe's final photo session.

0:26:57 > 0:27:02The sun had gone down, it was windy, it was cold,

0:27:02 > 0:27:05and Marilyn said,

0:27:05 > 0:27:08"Can't we stop? I'm getting cold."

0:27:08 > 0:27:13And I said, "There's only one film left in the camera."

0:27:13 > 0:27:19And she said, "But, George, you're always saying that," and I said, "No, honestly, it's the last picture."

0:27:19 > 0:27:25So we took the towel, or the blanket, we put it over her legs,

0:27:25 > 0:27:29and she said, "I'll blow a kiss to you."

0:27:32 > 0:27:38She puckered up her lips and she said "George, this is just for you."

0:27:38 > 0:27:40And...

0:27:40 > 0:27:45I'll never forget... that was the last picture we took.

0:27:45 > 0:27:48We got up, it was rather chilly...

0:27:49 > 0:27:54..on the 13th of July. We both walked off the beach,

0:27:55 > 0:27:58and that was the end of our photographic session.

0:28:02 > 0:28:08All her life Marilyn had relied on photographers to rescue her from her darkest fears.

0:28:08 > 0:28:15But nothing could ever rid her of the anxieties that had haunted her since childhood.

0:28:15 > 0:28:20On 5th August 1962, Marilyn was found dead by her housekeeper.

0:28:20 > 0:28:25The autopsy concluded that she had overdosed on barbiturates.

0:28:25 > 0:28:29Overwhelmed at last by the ghost of Norma Jean,

0:28:29 > 0:28:34not even the camera could save Marilyn Monroe from destruction.