Alan Young Remembers Marilyn

Alan Young, left, with Marilyn in 1946

In December 1946, Marilyn – who had changed her name just a few months before – appeared on a Rose Bowl float in Los Angeles, promoting the Alan Young Radio Show. The Northumberland-born actor and broadcaster dated Monroe twice, as he first told the Saracota Herald-Tribune in 1953.

Alan Young, now 92, is best known as Wilbur Post in the 1960s TV sitcom, Mister Ed. He spoke fondly about Marilyn to biographer Michelle Morgan, and his memories featured in her 2007 book, Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed.

A new interview with Young is published today in Scotland’s Daily Record:

 “I dated her when she was very young, about 17 (actually, she was 20). I had just come out to California.

I have a picture on my wall with Marilyn Monroe where I’m playing the bagpipes and she is blowing the chanter.

I went out with her twice and she was such a lovely young lady. I met her again several years later but I didn’t know who she was from her name.

Someone said to me, ‘How long have you known Marilyn Monroe?’ I said I knew her as Norma Jean Dougherty. She did some publicity shots with me.

She was exactly the same person – so naive and really sweet. That’s why she landed in so much trouble later on because she trusted everybody. That was a real shame.”’

At the Rose Bowl Parade, 1946

Sarasota Herald Tribune, 1953


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