The biopic ‘Blonde’ on Netflix chronicles the events that took place in the life of Marilyn Monroe, but with a significant amount of creative license taken. It begins with her childhood, where her traumatic past is put into perspective, which provides context for the issues that continue to plague Monroe throughout her life. She tries to fill the void that is created in her life because of the problematic relationship she has with her mother and the fact that her father is never around. This is especially true when it comes to the interactions she has with the men in her life.
It seems that if Monroe had been raised in a healthy and loving atmosphere as a child, the circumstances surrounding his life would have been different. If you are curious about how Monroe spent her childhood and whether or not she made it as an orphan, it is important that you know the following information about her.
Marilyn Monroe
Was Marilyn Monroe an orphan?
On June 1, 1926, Marilyn Pearl Baker and Charles Stanley Gifford gave birth to their first child: Marilyn Jean Monroe. It is rumored that her father never played a role in her life as he was already married at the time he had an affair with Gladys. Although her mother never asked Gifford to help raise their daughter, she was completely unable to do so, both intellectually and financially. Although her mother never asked Gifford for help, she was unable to raise Monroe properly. Gladys decided to give her newborn up for adoption a few weeks after birth, and Ida and Albert Bolender took her in as an adopted child. Young Norma Jeane lived here for the next seven years, during which time her mother paid weekend visits.
Her adoptive parents had expressed interest in adopting her at one point, but Gladys was adamant that she would not go with them. Monroe moved to Hollywood in 1933 after being brought there by Gladys, where she stayed in a house she shared with George and Maude Atkinson. Gladys was hospitalized for the rest of her life after suffering a mental collapse in 1934 which caused her to be committed to a hospital, where she resided for the rest of her life. As a direct result of this event, Monroe was adopted by the state. Marilyn Monroe responded to a question about her family by saying she was an orphan and had no memory of her biological parents.
Monroe wrote the following in an interview published in Modern Screen magazine: “Before I was born, my father was killed in a car accident while on a business trip in New York.” Shortly after, my mother fell very ill and when I was still too young to understand much about what was going on, I became an orphan. His mother was still alive and was in Norwalk, California at the time. Her true identity was revealed after she was stalked by a gossip reporter working for Hearst. Regarding Monroe’s relationship with her father, Gifford has maintained her estrangement from her daughter despite her efforts to communicate with him. It wasn’t until a DNA test was conducted in 2022 that Gifford’s status as Monroe’s biological father was established for the world to see.
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Was Marilyn Monroe adopted?
Following her mother’s absence, Marilyn Monroe was placed in the care of the Atkinson family, with whom she would spend most of the next year residing. In 1935 she shared a room with Gladys’ close friend Grace Goddard for a short time. But soon after, Grace wrapped up the baby and dropped her off at the Los Angeles Orphans’ Home, where the girl would spend the next year. In 1937, Monroe moved her house back into the Goddard house, and Grace subsequently became her legal guardian. A few months later, Monroe’s living conditions were again disrupted and she was transferred to live with various relatives of her mother or Grace.
By 1938, Monroe had found a forever home with Grace’s aunt, Ana Lower. Here, things were able to stabilize for a while. But after Lower suffered health problems and was deemed unable to care for the young girl, Monroe found herself living with the Goddards once more. In 1942, about a year later, Grace’s husband, Doc Goddard, found work in the state of West Virginia. Due to the fact that Monroe was only 16 at the time, the law stated that she could not be expelled from the state.
She should be sent back to an orphanage now that the Goddards are no longer caring for her. On the other hand, neither Monroe nor Grace wanted that to happen. Therefore, when Monroe turned 16, she married James Dougherty, their neighbor’s son, who was 21 at the time of their marriage. Despite spending her childhood bouncing between numerous foster homes and orphanages, Marilyn Monroe has insisted she doesn’t consider herself an orphan, as revealed in the Netflix documentary titled “The mystery of Marilyn Monroe: the unreleased tapes”. I had a really poor upbringing. I never got used to being happy, so it took me a while to get used to it.
Monroe, having personally experienced the difficulty of not having a stable environment in which to grow as a child, decided to advocate for children faced with a situation analogous to his own. Monroe joined the World Adoption International Fund (often known as WAIF) shortly after it was founded in 1955 by actress Jane Russell, who was also a founding member. The book “Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe” written by Anthony Summers states that Marilyn Monroe’s involvement with WAIF “marked the beginning of Marilyn’s active involvement in children’s causes, a commitment she will continue to until the day of his death”.
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