1956 1st HC WILL ACTING SPOIL MARILYN MONROE? Pete Martin VG Early MM Biography

Description: Title: Will Acting Spoil Marilyn Monroe?Author: Pete Martin Publisher: Doubleday Description: This is the second book written about Marilyn Monroe. The first was Joe Franklin's biography in 1953. Pete Martin interviewed Marilyn for the Saturday Evening Post magazine and the interview appeared over the course of three issues. These interviews were then turned into a book. Illustrated with 43 photos. Of the over 200 books written about Monroe less than a half dozen were written while she was alive. This book remains out-of-print book and can be difficult to find. A MUST-OWN for any Marilyn fan or the casual movie fan. From the book:Will leaning spoil the Tower of Pisa? Does whirling spoil dervishes? Did hanging spoil the Gardens of Babylon? Is hanging good enough for anybody who’d ask such a question in the first place? Pete Martin, author of this delightful tract, craftily side-steps any responsibility implied in its title, and concentrates instead on giving usa fresh and un-hoked-up look at Marilyn, the All-Girl Girl. Don't expect any "hello from Hollywood" stuff here; that department has already been amply taken care of by a phalanx of press agents and burbling lady columnists. What Mr. Martin provides is a newidea of what makes the 17-jewel, self-winding Monroe movement tick. He was helped considerably in writing these ideas down by Marilyn herself. It’s Norma Jean Mortenson talking about Marilyn Monroewith the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a fan-club president and the steel-trap objectivity of a critic. Reading this book is going to be fun. If you can't read, there are always the pictures. Original New York Herald Tribune review -1956In his day Pete Martin, of "The Saturday Evening’ Post," has talked with more actors and actresses than the law says one person is obliged to meet in a lifetime, but every once in awhile he runs across a treasure that must make it all seem worthwhile. You're not denying, are you, that Marilyn Monroe is a treasure? And not just because her last five pictures have grossed more than $50,000,000. Despite what has often seemed pictorial evidence to the contrary, there is more to this subject than meets the eye. Some of it is pretty disturbing, too, as the title of Mr. Martin's treatise suggests. Will acting really spoil her? Old Monroe fans have reason to be alarmed, and this book won't cheer them, though Mr. Martin concludes that she has assets that even art can’t hide. He ought to know, I suppose, because he is a good reporter who has talked at length with her and with a number of people who have attended to the building of her career. Still, there are danger signs, as any one can see. It was all right when she talked about playing in a screen version of "The Brothers Karamazov," but the threat was admittedly serious when she came to New York to study at Lee Strasberg’s Actor's Studio, it grew ominous when she made "Bus Stop," it arrived at the crisis stage when she signed to appear opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in "The Sleeping Princess." When her new husband, Arthur Miller, described her as "a great actress," the old Monroe fans could accept it as an honest if uxorious judgment. But. for the rest they had to ask, "What goes on here?" It would be bad enough if they were never again to see her as she was in "The Asphalt Jungle," but what really worries them is the thought that she may have to take on a new public character if Serious Art really gets its grip on her. What then becomes of the girl who said to a soldier audience at Camp Pendleton, Calif: "You fellows down here are always whistling at sweater girls, Well, take away their sweaters and what have you got?"? And who, asked by the bold Mr. Martin if she wore "falsies," replied("her greenish-blue eyes flashing indignantly"): 'Those who know me better know better'? A young woman who is on the-way to being the new Mrs. Siddons isn’t going to be able to say things like that. Any More Questions? This would amount to a tragedy, because there is a dearth of reliable humorists in our time. That Miss Monroe is one of them Mr. Martin's investigations leave no doubt. Suspecting that her choicer offhand observations were created by press agents for her use, he inquired throughout the industry about this. But no, he was told on every hand, they are her very own, and at least one of them rescued her from what might have been a damaging situation: the disclosure that, in her early and fiscally lean days, she had posed in the nude for a calendar picture. Was it true, asked an ostensibly shocked gossip columnist, that she literally had nothing on? "I had the radio on," said Miss Monroe, which took care of the matter very neatly. A solemn profile in the London "Observer" describes this gift for the apt remark under extraordinary circumstances as stemming from "an innocent, almost involuntary wit, an engaging acceptance of all the facts of life." If there is such a thing as unconscious humor, this might just be true. You can’t be dead sure, though, and in this uncertainty lies much of the Monroe's charm. "As for my mouth being open all the time, I even sleep with it open," she told her interviewer. "I know, because it’s open when I wake up. I never consciously think of my mouth, but I do consciously think about what I’m thinking about." Stand off and look at that statement for awhile, and you still may have trouble deciding whether it means nothing at all or is one for Bartlett and the ages. Only slightly less impressive are her "I sit down the way I feel." "If you ask me, I’m a mixture, of what I don’t know—sometimes I feel very simple and sometimes not," "If I can’t be myself, who can I be I would like to know," and "I don’t care about money, I just want to be wonderful." Let Us PrayIs this Marilyn Monroe gone for good? She herself seems to think so. Referring to her acting lessons at Mr. Strasberg’s serious-minded atelier, she said, "Somebody asked me when I was born and I said, 'Just recently, in New York.' Possibly, though, she is not the best judge of that. After all, she had another and earlier life under the name of Norma Jean Mortenson, child of a broken home, shunted off to various foster homes and an orphan asylum, a war factory worker, married at sixteen and divorced shortly after, all of which Mr. Martin relates in lively detail, She could not have guessed then what was ahead, and she could be: wrong now about how definitely she is breaking with the phase that launched her into a thousand chips a week, with more to come. As of now, the Hollywood director who presided over her performance in "The Seven-Year Itch" calls her a personality rather than an actress. Miss Monroe will be dismayed by this, but her more ardent admirers will trust that the director is right and keeps on being so. If the girl who appears in the forty-three photographs adorning Mr. Martin’s book turns into an actress, something irreplaceable will have gone out of our world, Who needs another Lady Macbeth? Condition:A very nice copy in very good plus condition. Plain black covers have light wear. Corners are excellent and sharp. Spine and red titling is very good. Hinges tight and text block fine and firmly bound with almost no wear. No writing on any pages. No Dustjacket Details:Hardcover128 pages1956 - stated first edition on printing pagesize: approx: 5 1/2" x 8" Terms (payment, shipping, tax, returns, feedback, etc.) Please read before buying U.S. bidders only Payment Please pay within 48 hours of winning. eBay managed payments Shipping Shipping will be $6.50 and will be shipped USPS media mail with tracking. We may upgrade your package at our discretion to USPS Ground Advantage. Package will be shipped within 4 business days after payment - usually faster. The USPS can be notoriously slow, it could take 2-3 weeks for delivery. Please take that into account when leaving feedback, that we will ship quickly, but the USPS can take a long time to deliver, and we have no control over delivery time. 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End Time: 2024-11-18T00:16:23.000Z

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