D.+Drugs,+Alcohol+and+JFK



DRUGS AND ALCOHOL:

Since childhood, she had been unable to cope with any form of rejection or criticism and, on a number of occasions, took pills in apparent suicide attempts. Insecure, needy and with three failed marriages, she was desperate to find a man to compensate for the lack of a father figure in her disrupted childhood.

Her first marriage, at the age of 16, had been to a neighbour's son, Jim Dougherty, whom she called, bizarrely, Daddy. In the early days of their marriage she told Jim she thought she was being followed, and she began to use threats of suicide to gain attention: 'If anything bad happens to our marriage,' she would warn him, 'I'll jump off a bridge, Daddy.'

The marriage failed when Marilyn's photogenic potential was spotted and she was encouraged to try her luck in the ruthless Hollywood studio system. She was noticed in 1949 by Johnny Hyde, a powerful agent with the William Morris agency. He became obsessed with her; she, in turn, saw him as a powerful father figure who, more importantly, had a way of fixing the voices she heard in her head. He believed that barbiturates would help, and at his behest studio doctors began prescribing drugs to her on a regular basis. They did help - at least, in the short term. Her anxieties decreased and the voices became softer and bothered her less. It was the start of a lifelong relationship with medication. But in December 1950 Johnny Hyde died of a heart attack. A couple of days after his funeral, Marilyn's acting coach Natasha Lytess found her collapsed in her bedroom. Horrified, Natasha rushed to her side and forced open her mouth. It was full of dissolving pills.

TRAGIC- JFK HAD AN AFFAIR WITH MARILYN MONROE! SCANDALOUS!

At the end of February 1962 the British actor Peter Lawford and his wife Pat - John F. Kennedy's sister - invited Marilyn Monroe to a dinner party in New York that was being held to honour the President. 'Jack' Kennedy loved Hollywood culture and celebrities, especially beautiful actresses, or, more specifically, beautiful blonde actresses - though he never tossed a brunette or redhead out of his bed either. Marilyn had actually met Kennedy twice before, once when their flirtatiousness was noticed by onlookers, but she did not have a chance to speak to him in depth. Dinner was at eight, but at 9pm Marilyn was still sitting in front of her dressing-table mirror, putting the finishing touches to her make-up. Notoriously late for everything, she was happy to keep the President of the United States waiting.

She eventually arrived at JFK's hotel, more than an hour late, with Lawford's business partner Milt Ebbins. She drew a deep breath, smoothed down her dress and said: 'OK, shall we?'

'When she walked in, it was like the parting of the Red Sea,' Ebbins recalled. 'There were about 25 people in there and the crowd divided into halves as she walked through the room.' The actress Arlene Dahl, who was also at that party, said: 'Marilyn walked in and everything stopped, everyone stopped. It was magical, really. I've never seen anyone stop a room like that.

'The President turned around and you could see that he was immediately attracted to her. "Finally! You're here," he said, with a big smile. "There are some people here who are dying to meet you." Then she was descended upon. People just wanted to stand near her, smell her fragrance, breathe the same air.'

JFK took Marilyn's arm and off they went to the table - but not before turning to Ebbins and giving him a wry little smile and a wink.

Before she left, JFK asked for her phone number. Of course, she gave it to him. He called her the very next day with a suggestion - he was going to be in Palm Springs on March 24, why not join him there? Oh, and incidentally, he told her: 'Jackie [his long-suffering and much cheated-on wife] won't be there.'

Philip Watson, a former Los Angeles county assessor, met Marilyn while she was with Kennedy at Bing Crosby's Spanish-style house in Palm Springs. He recalls that she seemed calm and relaxed, and was wearing what he described as 'kind of a robe thing' - which was not too out of place, as there were a lot of people by the pool.

'There was no question in my mind that Marilyn and the President were together,' he said. 'They were having a good time. She'd had a lot to drink. It was obvious they were intimate and that they were staying there together for the night.'