Just a Feeling

— Nina LaCour

Kirsten Dunst on the set of Marie Antoinette (2006)

First known photo of Norma Jeane in 1926.

       When Gladys gave birth on 1 June 1926, she had hoped [Charles Stanley] Gifford would accompany her to the hospital. She was greatly disappointed, however, as he purposely stayed away, refusing to have anything to do with her or the child. Gladys perhaps would not have been shocked by this had she known that in 1922, when his wife Lillian gave birth to their son Charles Stanley Jr, Gifford took her to the Lomashire Hospital, excused himself immediately and walked out of the building.        Knowing that Gifford was to play no part in the child’s upbringing, Gladys reluctantly decided to get on with her life. She named the child after the little girl she had looked after whilst in Kentucky and, for the sake of respectability, also gave the surname of her former husband, hence naming Norma Jeane Mortenson (she added an ‘e’ to Norma Jeane and changed Mortensen to Mortenson on the birth certificate). Shortly afterwards she changed her mind and declared that both she and her daughter would be known by the surname of her first husband, Baker.      Shortly after the little girl’s birth, perhaps  feeling mild curiosity or a pang of guilt for the way he had treated her in the past, Gifford asked Gladys if he could see the child. His plea fell on deaf ears, however, and she refused point-blank to let him have anything to do with her. ‘He felt the mother had been unfair,’ remembered Gifford’s minister, Dr. Liden. 'She had cut him off and didn’t allow him to see the child.’     On leaving hospital, Gladys took Norma Jeane to her apartment at 5454 Wilshire Boulevard, but it was only a matter of days before she mad a trip to East Rhode Island Avenue to deposit her child at number 459, the home of the Bolender family. Marilyn Monroe: Private and Confidential by Michelle Morgan

Happy Birthday Marilyn Monroe!! (June 1, 1926 - ∞) 

Anita Ekberg by Peter Basch, 1950s

happy birthday Ｍａｒｉｌｙｎ  Ｍｏｎｒｏｅ // june 1, 1926 - august 5, 1962 // “i sometimes feel as if i’m too exposed. i’ve given myself away, the whole of me, every part, and there’s nothing left that’s private, just me alone. if you feel low, you might worry that there’s nothing new to give. but that’s not true – not ever. you discover things inside yourself you never knew were there. you always go on developing.”

Merle Oberon