It is an amazing feat that a woman from more than fifty years ago is still a part of today’s pop culture. Spending most of her childhood in foster homes, she found comfort in creating a persona that gave her status in Hollywood as an actress, a model, a sex symbol, and an American cultural icon. Norma Jeane Mortenson created the stage name “Marilyn Monroe” in the late forties and legally changed her name in 1956.
Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, on June 1, 1926, married early at the age of sixteen, to keep from entering another orphanage. His name was James Dougherty, and they had been dating for some time. Dougherty went off to war, and Monroe went to work in a factory where her career in modeling began. Photographs had been taken of her working and posted in local magazines. While her husband was away, she found more modeling work and became a pin-up girl. People in the industry were taking notice of this attractive young woman who was starting to show up in the local and regional papers. When her husband returned, Monroe chose her career over her marriage, and the couple divorced.
Monroe moved to the Los Angeles area, where she met Ben Lyon, the casting director at Fox. A few days after his initial meeting with Monroe, Lyon arranged a screen test and set up a tentative contract. After signing the contract, Monroe wanted to celebrate but had no close friends or relatives except her new associate Mr. Lyon and his wife, actress Bebe Daniels. The couple was delighted to share her good fortune but decided the first order of business would be to change her name. Lyon “loathed” the name Norma Jeane. He recommended a long-ago stage actress from the 1920s, Marilyn Miller, he thought it would suit her better in Hollywood. Monroe liked the name but chose to go with her mother's family name of “Monroe” (Doll). She then dyed her hair blonde, started using her new name, and this is where the Marilyn Monroe that world c...