The Making of Marilyn Monroe

Welcome to our second episode of our Marilyn Monroe Month!

Norma Jeane is gone... Marilyn Monroe is about to be born.

This week, we follow Marilyn's extraordinary transformation from a lonely aircraft factory worker into one of the most photographed women in America. After being discovered on a wartime assembly line, she throws herself into modeling, bleaches her hair, signs with the Blue Book Modeling Agency, and quickly realizes that beauty alone isn't enough. Hollywood is a game, and she's determined to learn how to play it.

We dive into the complicated, often exploitative relationships that shaped her early career, from powerful studio executives and photographers to the acting coaches and mentors who recognized her undeniable star power. Along the way, Marilyn navigates ambition, reinvents herself from Norma Jeane Dougherty into Marilyn Monroe, lands her first studio contracts, and begins chasing the movie career she believes she's destined for.

We end with the now-infamous nude calendar photos, a $50 modeling job she never imagined would follow her forever. The images that could have destroyed her career instead became one of the most pivotal turning points in Hollywood history.

Created and produced by Tess Bellomo & Claire Donald

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Sources: Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto

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