Week 24/2026

In 1962, before beginning an autopsy, a young coroner read the description of the body on the table before him: “White woman, blue eyes, 36 years old, 1.62 metres, 52 kilograms.” But when he reached her name, Norma Jeane Mortenson, he was stunned. The woman in front of him was Marilyn Monroe. Ever since, generations of journalists have tried to uncover the story behind her death. 

On July 1, it will be 100 years since Norma Jeane was born to a single mother struggling with mental illness. As a child, she lived for a time with one of her mother’s friends, until the couple had to relocate for work and could no longer care for her. They gave the sixteen-year-old girl two options: return to the orphanage, where she spent part of her childhood, or get married. Norma Jeane married her neighbour and moved in with his parents.

According to a now-familiar Hollywood myth, she was discovered while spraying flame retardant on warplanes during the war and soon became known as the “blonde bombshell.” This week’s films reflect the persona she incarnated: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953) and The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955).

At the time, marriage was both a way to escape from the orphanage and a way to disappear from public life. In another film by Howard Hawks called His Girl Friday, the reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) dreams of leaving journalism behind to marry. Her editor and ex-husband (Cary Grant), tries to lure his ace reporter and love interest with the promise of a career-defining scoop. Reportedly frustrated that Grant’s character had the sharper dialogue, Russell secretly hired a writer to provide her with additional lines during filming. She decided that even if a woman cannot choose the narrative imposed upon her, she can still rewrite it.