Former Honolulu Star-Bulletin columnist Jim Becker spoke at the Honolulu Quarterback Club recently, and one of the things he talked about was Marilyn Monroe.
I don’t know anyone who has met the starlet, let alone has a story to tell about her. I leaned in as Becker spoke.
A year after the release of her hit movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” 28-year-old Marilyn Monroe married former New York Yankee baseball player Joe DiMaggio on Jan. 14, 1954. They stopped in Hawaii on their honeymoon and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian.
A crowd of over 1,000 people greeted the “blond bombshell” and the “Yankee Clipper” at Honolulu Airport on Jan. 30.
Police Sgt. James Cullen shook hands with DiMaggio and put a lei around Marilyn’s neck and kissed her on the cheek. A team of police ringed the couple and escorted them through the crowd to their powder-blue convertible and to the Royal Hawaiian.
Many of my readers probably recall that DiMaggio had some history with Hawaii. He played in front of 20,000 fans at the old Honolulu Stadium 10 years earlier in 1944 when he served in the Army during World War II.
“Joltin’ Joe” famously hit two home runs to left field, which was hard to do into the tradewinds coming out of Manoa. One landed on Isenberg Street, and the other landed in the Saint Louis Alumni Association Clubhouse, according to Dan Cisco’s book, “Hawaii Sports: History, Facts and Statistics.” DiMaggio returned to play again in 1951.
SUPPORTING THE TROOPS
After a day at the Royal Hawaiian, the newlyweds flew to Japan. Becker, then an Associated Press reporter, was staying at the Kawana Hotel in Shizuoka when the famous couple arrived and was able to interview them.
“Marilyn was so sweet,” Becker recalled. “She seemed fragile, and I just wanted to protect her. I wanted to be her big brother and take care of her.”
Becker said an Army colonel approached the honeymooners and asked if Marilyn would come to Korea and entertain the troops. Even though the Korean War was over, 250,000 troops remained.
Marilyn’s response to the colonel was, “Good God, no,” Becker reported. “I have never been on a stage in my life. I have no act. I know the words to only two songs and have nothing to wear!”
DiMaggio encouraged her to go anyway to support the troops. DiMaggio stayed in Japan and golfed while his new bride went with a friend and Becker to Korea.
Becker said she was as “fresh as paint, eager to embrace life, so keen to please and so vulnerable.”
The one show she agreed to was a huge success, and the Army asked her to do another and another and another — 10 more over the next several days. The audience totaled over 100,000.
She performed 11 times in the dead of winter, with temperatures sometimes below zero, wearing a purple sequined dress. She sang the same two songs, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Two Little Girls From Little Rock,” both from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” and received standing ovations.
Becker watched from behind the stage. He described the reception as “electric and enthusiastic to the point of hysteria.”
APPLAUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME
Back in Japan, Monroe told Becker that she had never felt like a celebrity before. When a movie scene was being filmed, the director yelled “cut,” and she’d go back to her dressing room. There was never applause.
The applause she got in Korea was the first she had gotten in her life. “The reception of the troops was fantastic,” the actress said. “When I got on stage, they cheered for a full five minutes before I could say anything. It was a beautiful sound. It was the first time I really felt like a star.
“For the first time in my life, I had the feeling that the people seeing me were accepting and liking me.”
DiMaggio met them when they flew into Tokyo, and Monroe told him about the soldiers’ reaction. “You never heard such cheering,” she told him, but he replied, “Oh, yes I have.”
DiMaggio staying in Japan while his bride flew off to Korea was just one of many fissures in their marriage. Their union ended in divorce later that year.
Becker said he had reported on many baseball games with Joe DiMaggio in the lineup prior to his marriage to Monroe.
“The New York Yankees center fielder was the greatest baseball player I ever saw,” he said.
“I never saw him run for a ball. He glided across the field. That’s why they called him the Yankee Clipper. He always just seemed to be under it. I never saw him make a mistake. He never threw to the wrong base. He made it look easy. It was a joy to watch.
“However, he was not a great interviewee. He was a man of very few words.”
Monroe died of a drug overdose on Aug. 5, 1962. She was only 36. DiMaggio, who never remarried, had roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years. He died March 8, 1999, at age 84.
SHUNNED BY SIMMONS
Six years before DiMaggio and Marilyn married, Jim Becker interviewed Jean Simmons, the famous British actress, in New York. She was starring in the 1948 movie adaptation of “Hamlet” with Laurence Olivier (they both won Oscars).
“She was the second most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Becker said. “Elizabeth Taylor would have to be No. 1, but Jean Simmons was absolutely gorgeous.”
She didn’t want to sit for more interviews. She wanted to see New York, so Becker offered to show her around. They ended up at a famous sports bar called Toots Shor’s Restaurant on 51st Street. It was a hangout for stage, film and sports celebrities and had been a speakeasy in its early days.
“Heads turned as we walked in,” Becker said. “Joe DiMaggio happened to be there, too.
“DiMaggio saw me sitting with her and realized I was his excuse to come over and say hello. The King of New York pulled up a chair and sat down and chatted with us.
“After 30 minutes he had gotten nowhere with Jean Simmons and got up to leave. After he had left, she turned to me and said, ‘Who was that again?’
“She was the most beautiful girl in New York but had never heard of Joe DiMaggio!”
Jim Becker is 90 now and retired. He wrote more than 2,000 columns for the Star-Bulletin from 1965 to 1972 and had a long and illustrious career as a foreign correspondent. His 2006 book, “Saints, Sinners and Shortstops,” is a real treat. I‘ll share more of his stories in future columns.
Bob Sigall, author of “The Companies We Keep” series of books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him via email at sigall@yahoo.com.
