Legend has long said that Marilyn Monroe’s birth name, Norma Jeane, was a combination of two movie stars: Norma Talmadge and Jean Harlow. It’s a great story, especially considering that little Norma Jeane would grow up into a movie star herself.
Like a lot of the stories about Marilyn Monroe, however, it’s not quite the truth. The part about Norma Talmadge might actually be true; the Jean Harlow half of Norma Jeane, though, is not. When Marilyn was born on June 1, 1926, Jean Harlow (then still Harlean Carpenter) was just 15 years old and not yet making movies.
Although that story is not true, the parallels between the lives and careers of these two blondes are stunning. Here’s a brief overview:
Complex relationships with their mothers
Harlow’s mother was domineering and manipulated her daughter and her career
Monroe’s mentally ill mother was often absent from her daughter’s life
Acted under their mothers’ maiden names
Harlow, born Harlean Carpenter, signed her Central Casting paperwork with her mother’s maiden name on a whim
Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, was renamed when she signed her first contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. An executive selected the name Marilyn; she selected her mother’s maiden name, Monroe
Eschewed underwear
Harlow literally jiggled on the screen
Monroe was bustier and wore bras but went without underwear when she could
Sought out father figures
Harlow’s spitfire mother divorced her mild-mannered father when she was still young. Although she loved her father, she was rarely permitted to see him after parents’ divorce. She was often attracted to older men.
Monroe was told by her mother that her biological father was a man named C. Stanley Gifford. Gifford, however, always denied paternity and she grew up without knowing a father. She was often attracted to older men.
Exposure to Christian Science faith
Harlow’s mother was a Christian Scientist
Monroe’s foster mother, “Aunt” Ana Lower was a devoted Christian Scientist
Worked hard to improve their acting skills
Harlow knew she wasn’t a great actress and sought to improve, which she did
Monroe enrolled at the Actors Studio and studied privately with its director, Lee Strasberg
Experienced anguish over their sex symbol images
Harlow referred to her characters as “sex vultures”
Monroe hated playing “dumb blondes”
Both married three times, with the first marriage taking place at age 16
Harlow fell in love with and married a dashing millionaire named Chuck McGrew
Monroe’s guardian, Grace Goddard, moved East and couldn’t take her charge so she arranged for the teenager to marry a neighbor’s son
Were avid readers
Harlow read several books per week
Monroe opened one of her first charge accounts at a bookstore; she also took a literature course at UCLA
Loved animals
Harlow had several pets, including dogs
Monroe had several pets, including dogs
Lived on Palm Drive in Beverly Hills
Harlow’s last home was on Palm Drive; here she languished with kidney failure
Monroe lived on Palm Drive twice—once with lover Johnny Hyde and again, down the street, with Joe DiMaggio during their short marriage in 1954
Participated in presidential birthday celebrations shortly before their deaths
Harlow: Went to Washington in January 1937 for FDR's annual birthday ball
Monroe: Went to New York in May 1962 to sing "Happy Birthday" to JFK
Their last movie co-starred Clark Gable
Harlow: Saratoga (1937)
Monroe: The Misfits (1961)
Died young and under mysterious circumstances
Harlow: Rumors swirled about the cause her early demise, including a story that the products used to bleach her signature platinum blonde hair were responsible for her death. The most commonly repeated story, though, is that Jean’s Christian Scientist mother refused to allow doctors to treat her. In fact, Jean Harlow received around-the-clock medical attention but there was no cure for kidney failure in 1937. She was 26.
Monroe: A cottage industry has built up around the subject of Marilyn Monroe’s death. Officially, her passing has been ruled a “probable suicide.” Since then, however, many have expressed doubts over the verdict. Some theories are more believable than others, but they include everything from an accidental overdose to various murder scenarios. She was 36.
The heydays of Harlow and Monroe were 20 years apart; Harlow was queen of the box office in the 1930s and Monroe claimed that title 20 years later in the 1950s. Jean Harlow didn’t live long enough to form an opinion of Marilyn Monroe, but Marilyn Monroe was keenly aware of Hollywood’s original platinum blonde and the influence she had on her life.
Whether or not all the similarities were coincidences or not remains a mystery and even Marilyn herself wasn’t sure. She once told her business partner Milton Greene, “I kept thinking of her, rolling over the facts of her life in my mind. It was kind of spooky and sometimes I thought, ‘Am I making this happen?’ I don’t think so. We just seemed to have the same spirit or something. I don’t know. I just kept wondering if I would die young like her, too.”
Growing up in Hollywood in the 1930s, young Norma Jeane idolized Jean Harlow. In her youth, her mother, Gladys, and her mother’s best friend, Grace Goddard, were avid movie fans and regularly took the little girl with them to the theater. Grace especially admired Jean Harlow, even to the point of bleaching her own hair platinum and dressing all in white just like the screen siren. She also went so far as to buy white clothes for Norma Jeane and told her that when she grew up she would be a great woman—just like Jean Harlow.
There were, however, some important differences between the two women. While Marilyn was raised in poverty in Los Angeles and dreamed of becoming a movie star, Harlow, in contrast, was born to a comfortable family in Kansas City, Missouri.
It wasn’t until newlywed Harlean Carpenter McGrew moved to Los Angeles with her husband that a movie career would present itself. Friends of the teenage bride dared her to audition for movie roles. She had no interest in an acting career, but she took the dare and registered with Central Casting. She didn’t even bother to use her real name.
To her surprise, the newly anointed Jean Harlow began receiving extra work and then became an overnight sensation when Howard Hughes cast her in “Hell’s Angels.” Her co-star was Ben Lyon, who later became a talent executive at Twentieth Century-Fox, where his claim to fame would be giving a pretty model Norma Jeane Dougherty the new name of Marilyn Monroe.
Jean Harlow’s star rose thanks to playing women of loose moral character. Her movies made huge money (during the Great Depression no less) and she became a phenomenon with the public. There was just one problem: She hated her image.
She fought bitterly with MGM to be taken seriously and to stretch her acting ability, which she diligently worked to improve upon (and did). Worse, in an era in which beauty and sexiness were not synonymous with intelligence, the witty, avid reader fretted that audiences, regardless of how much they loved her, would confuse the real person with the “sex vulture” image.
Marilyn’s rise to fame followed a similar path. The 1950s movie audience’s love for her was insatiable, but despite her popularity she longed to star as something other than a dumb blonde. Marilyn, also known for her witty personality and her love of books, feared the public believed she was same person off screen that she was on.
Both women had some improvement in their respective careers, but for different reasons. In 1934 the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association began enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly known as the Hays Code, after censor Will Hays.
The new code emphasized morality, which meant Harlow’s sex vultures were no longer welcome birds in Hollywood. Harlow herself was thrilled. To denote the change, her hair was toned down to match her new roles.
In her own effort to obtain better roles, Marilyn Monroe felt she had no choice but to go on strike. During her self-imposed exile in New York, she enrolled at the renowned Actors Studio and began taking private lessons with its director, Lee Strasberg. Her strike worked; she won the right to approve scripts, directors and cinematographers—a huge leap for women in the entertainment.
With both women, audiences flocked to their films before and after their career changes. Despite the fears about the public’s perceptions of them, audiences never wavered in their devotion to their favorite blondes. Probably without realizing it, both Harlow and Monroe were able to combine sexuality with vulnerability and wit. And for all their sensuality, they were both innately childlike, with Harlow known as “the Baby” by her family and, later, everyone on the MGM lot. Consequently, they were desirable to men and beautiful without being threatening to other women. They were wholly liked by everyone.
They also didn’t give themselves enough credit as natural comediennes. Their real-life wit crept into their pictures and the ability to be funny is not easily learned. Audiences responded to well to them because, quite simply, they are fun to watch.
Perhaps it is not just their screen legacies that continue fascinate film buffs. Years before the Women’s Movement, they risked their careers to demand fairness in a male-dominated industry. Struggles in their personal lives, the desire to continually better themselves and their tenacity make more than untouchable celluloid images. They are human and relatable.
Marilyn Monroe was likely born with these qualities, but her admiration of Jean Harlow was well placed. In Jean Harlow, Marilyn found a strong, sexy and intelligent role model.
In 1958 when, in a photo shoot with Richard Avedon, she dressed as screen goddesses who had come before her. With a childlike glee, Marilyn dressed up as Marlene Dietrich, Lillian Russell, Theda Bara, Clara Bow—and Jean Harlow. In her lifetime, Marilyn dreamed of making a movie about Jean Harlow’s life. She reportedly even met with Mother Jean for her blessing and permission to move forward with the project.
But that movie was never made. Marilyn’s prediction that she would die young was, sadly, correct.
It’s difficult to say what would have happened if Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe had lived. Each died at the twilight of an era and it’s difficult to say if the changing societies would have embraced them as warmly as the last. With Harlow, the pre-code Depression audiences would soon give way to the World War II Golden Era of Hollywood. MGM brought in a new crop of blondes, such as Lana Turner, to satisfy changing tastes. For Marilyn Monroe, the 1950s Eisenhower post-war years had come to a close and the turbulent 1960s were about to dawn. Would their careers have lasted? It’s impossible to know, but their careers and images live on in their timelessness.
And in death we find the last parallel between the blondes Jean Harlow and Marilyn and Marilyn Monroe. After Jean Harlow’s June 1937 death, her boyfriend, actor William Powell (who starred in How to Marry a Millionaire with Marilyn in 1953), regularly sent flowers to the final resting place of his beloved Jean. In death, Marilyn’s devoted ex-husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, sent flowers to her grave three times a week for 20 years. They never forgot the great loves of their lives, and neither has the public.
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