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Happy Birthday, Mister Lemmon

Marilyn with Jack Lemmon (centre) and Tony Curtis in ‘Some Like It Hot’

Jack Lemmon was born on this day in 1925. Today, Hannah Gatward has posted a selection of Lemmon’s best films on the BFI blog – and unsurprisingly, Some Like It Hot is right up there.

“The first of seven films with Billy Wilder, and Lemmon’s most iconic comedic performance. On the run after witnessing the St Valentine’s Day massacre, musicians Jerry (Lemmon) and his partner Joe (Tony Curtis) disguise themselves as women and escape in an all-girls band, befriending Marilyn Monroe’s magnificent Sugar Kane along the way. It’s timeless farcical fun, with every scene expertly executed. One of the film’s greatest joys is the way Lemmon immerses himself into his alter ego Daphne – his enthusiasm is infectious.”

Meanwhile, the ever-popular Some Like It Hot will be screened soon in two very different, yet fitting venues: firstly, at the Pickwick Theater in Chicago’s upscale Park Ridge district on February 13 (the movie’s storyline begins in Chicago); and secondly, at the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey on February 14 (Some Like It Hot also features the notorious St Valentine’s Day Massacre as a plot device.)

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‘I Met Marilyn’: Interviews With Neil Sean

Neil Sean is a British entertainment and royalty pundit for broadcast media in the UK And USA. He is also the author of three books: How to Live Like a Celebrity For Free (2012); Live at the London Palladium (2014); and The Downing Street Cats (2016.)

Co-authored with Michael Dias, he has now published I Met Marilyn, a collection of interviews with stars who knew and worked with MM. These include Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis, Celeste Holm, Jane Russell, Lauren Bacall, Johnnie Ray, Ethel Merman, Jack Cardiff, Sir Laurence Olivier, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, George Cukor and Cyd Charisse; and other celebrity acquaintances, such as Jerry Lewis, Eartha Kitt, Andy Williams, Sandra Howard, Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher, James Garner, Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston, Ricci Martin (Dean’s son), Buddy Greco, and Frank Sinatra Jr.

Mr Sean clearly has lengthy experience in the show-business world, with some interviews dating back to the late 1970s (and of course, most of his interviewees are now deceased.) His media profile has garnered coverage for I Met Marilyn in Scotland’s Weekly News and Sunday Post. He explains that the transcripts were made from his own notes and tape recordings. Unfortunately, the book is filled with run-on sentences, and punctuation so erratic that it’s often hard to distinguish between his own observations, and quotations from others. There are no pictures of Marilyn inside, but the interviews are accompanied by photos of Sean with various stars.

As with Boze Hadleigh’s recent book, Marilyn Forever, the tone is often speculative and gossipy. Many of the interviewees seem to believe that Marilyn’s alleged affairs with President Kennedy and his brother Robert were common knowledge in Hollywood, and yet there is little direct evidence.

Jack Lemmon, who was a neighbour of Peter Lawford, claims to have seen Marilyn “frolicking” with Bobby in Lawford’s pool. This story has been told by his son Chris, who was a small child at the time. I have never before seen it attributed to his father, and this apparent indiscretion seems uncharacteristic of the gentlemanly Lemmon. There is also a question of plausibility: could he really have identified them from over the fence?

To his credit, Mr Sean shows some scepticism towards the more outlandish claims of Mickey Rooney, for example. Singer Eddie Fisher recalls that while married to Elizabeth Taylor, he performed a double-bill at The Sands in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra. Fisher told Mr Sean that Marilyn flirted with him all evening, but photos from the event show her gazing at Sinatra.

Whereas Boze Hadleigh depicted Marilyn as ahead of her time in embracing the gay community, Neil Sean portrays her as being unable to understand why closeted actors like Rock Hudson weren’t attracted to her. Both authors seem to be imposing their own views upon the past, but the fact remains that whatever her personal inclinations, Marilyn was never discriminatory. She had several gay friends, and defended her Misfits co-star Montgomery Clift against homophobic bigotry during a private interview with W.J. Weatherby (published posthumously in his 1976 book, Conversations With Marilyn.)

Perhaps the most insightful comments come from other women. “I was so upset [by Marilyn’s death] because she could have reached out, but the thing is she always wanted you happy first – she was selfless in that way,” singer Eartha Kitt told Sean. “I remember receiving one of her old fur coats to wear at a premiere because she heard me saying I did not have one. What a kind gesture, and to someone just starting out in the business.”

Cyd Charisse, who co-starred with Marilyn in the unfinished Something’s Got to Give, also gives a sympathetic account. However,    the interview includes several quotes attributed to Marilyn by Lawrence Schiller in his 2012 book, Marilyn & Me. (Cyd Charisse died in 2008.)

I Met Marilyn is certainly an interesting read, but should probably be digested with a large dose of salt. Marilyn was essentially a loner, and didn’t have many close friends in Hollywood – and besides, stars are as susceptible to wild rumours as everyone else, especially when asked to provide a fresh perspective on an actress who died over fifty years ago.

“I think it all goes so quickly so it’s better to live in the moment,” Lauren Bacall told Mr Sean. “And when people ask me about what, say, Marilyn Monroe was like, it’s not like we were the best of friends or anything. I mean, we made a movie together which was very successful, but it was a long time ago…”

I Met Marilyn is available now in paperback and via Kindle.

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Marilyn, Jerry Lewis and ‘Some Like it Hot’

Marilyn with Dean Martin (left) and Jerry Lewis (right) at the Redbook Awards, 1953

Comedian Jerry Lewis has claimed that he turned down the role of Jerry/Daphne in Some Like it Hot, which was ultimately played by Jack Lemmon, the New York Post‘s Page Six column reports. Lewis revealed his greatest regret to film director Martin Scorsese and critic while being induced into the Comedy Hall of Fame this week.

“I would have had a chance to kiss Marilyn Monroe. Instead, [director Billy] Wilder called me ‘the schmuck who turned down Some Like It Hot’ for the rest of his life, and Lemmon [who was nominated for an Oscar for it] sent me chocolates every year until he died.’’

Marilyn was fond of Jerry Lewis. She appeared on his radio show with Dean Martin in 1952, and later named Lewis among a list of attractive men in a magazine interview. When Lewis was being honoured for charitable work in 1955, Marilyn stepped up to the mic to give him a kiss, adding, ‘I love you, Jerry.’

However, Lewis wouldn’t have had an opportunity to kiss her again in Some Like it Hot. While MM and Lemmon briefly – and chastely – shared a bunkbed during the train scene, her love interest in the movie was played by Tony Curtis.

In recent years, Lewis has even claimed he had an affair with Marilyn, though there is no evidence to support that allegation.

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Chris Lemmon’s Poolside Memories

Jack Lemmon’s son, Chris, is currently starring in a one-man show, Jack Lemmon Returns, at the Laguna Playhouse. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he shared his memories of growing up among the stars, including one decidedly fishy story about Marilyn and her alleged paramour, President John F. Kennedy:

“I was walking by Marilyn’s house. We used to live at Harold Lloyd’s old house, my mom rented it from him, and sure enough there’s this helicopter in a low lazy circle and these guys in funny suits and funny glasses standing around watching Marilyn Monroe and JFK having a frolic in the pool. I was six or seven years old and these guys went, ‘I think it’s time for you to leave,’ and they yanked me out of there.”

Chris Lemmon was born in June 1954, so this would place the story around 1960-61. Marilyn was filming in Hollywood at the time, but did not have a permanent residence. She returned to her home New York in October 1960, and did not move back to Los Angeles until summer of 1961. (John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president in January of that year.) She then rented an apartment at North Doheny Drive, West Hollywood, for the rest of 1961. But she did not have a pool there, and according to her neighbours, lived very quietly.

In early 1962, Marilyn bought a modest bungalow in the middle-class suburb of Brentwood. She did have a pool there, but seldom used it. In any case, the pool was in the back garden, and could not be seen from outside. The house was located off the beaten track, in a quiet cul-de-sac. A high gate at the front of the bungalow ensured maximum privacy.

Peter Lawford’s pool

Chris Lemmon may be thinking of Peter Lawford’s much grander residence, which was indeed located in Santa Monica, right by the beach. Marilyn often visited the Lawfords there, from late 1961 until her death. And of course, Lawford was married to Patricia Kennedy. Her brothers, John and Robert Kennedy, also visited the house whenever they were in Los Angeles.

Marilyn met Jack and Bobby at the Lawford home on a handful of occasions. However, even if she had ‘canoodled’ with JFK there, it’s hard to believe that he would have drawn attention to the fact by having a helicopter flying ahead. And while she was a regular guest, it was never ‘Marilyn’s house.’

Would it be too cynical to suggest that he had few memories of his father’s erstwhile co-star (after all, Some Like it Hot was filmed when Chris was just four), and when pressed for an anecdote, drew on the well-worn gossip surrounding his former neighbours, the Lawfords?

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Keep Cool (And Stay Hot) With Sugar

Some Like it Hot is screening for free today at 1pm in Barrington Public Library‘s air-conditioned auditorium on Rhode Island. Introduced by librarian Doug Swiszcz, it will be followed by two other classic Jack Lemmon films; Billy Wilder’s The Apartment on July 24th, and The Odd Couple on the 28th.

And on July 25th at 7pm, Some Like it Hot will be screened at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Vermont. The event is a benefit for the Windham County Heat Fund, which helps needy families in the area.

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Marilyn, Shirley and ‘The Apartment’

The photo above shows Marilyn attending a preview of The Apartment with Yves Montand in June 1960.

There has been some debate over what dress Marilyn wore that night. To me, it looks a little like the grey halter-dress that she had also worn at a press conference that year, and would wear again in Reno that summer.

Eve Arnold, 1960

However, Shirley MacLaine, star of The Apartment, told guests at the LA Film Fest Q & A last week:

“I’ll tell you a story: I came out of the first screening of The Apartment, and it was at some little screening room here in town. I left before the lights went up, and I walked out of the door and there, up against kind of a bar because they were serving food and drinks, was a woman — a blonde swathed in a white mink coat. I walked over to her just to talk, and she said [whispering], ‘You were so wonderful! Just brilliant!’ She opened up the coat and she had nothing on. Marilyn.”

I find it a little odd that Shirley has not mentioned this detail on her website:

“I remember Marilyn Monroe was at the screening. She had no makeup on and was wrapped up in a mink coat. In her low whispery voice she said… ‘The picture is a wonderful examination of the corporate world.’ My mouth flew open! She got it!”

Also, the fur coat in the photograph is dark, not white. However, Montand – Marilyn’s co-star in Let’s Make Love, with whom she had an affair – told biographer Anthony Summers that MM had once entered his hotel room wearing nothing but a fur coat. And so, whether true or false, the rumour is not unprecedented.

Shirley’s co-star in The Apartment was Marilyn’s friend, Jack Lemmon (her co-star in 1959’s Some Like it Hot.) Both movies were directed by Billy Wilder, with whom Marilyn had fallen out. However, Marilyn was seen embracing Billy at the screening of  The Apartment, so it seems that they must have made up their differences.

While Marilyn has often been criticised for her ‘difficult’ behaviour on film sets, Shirley also found Wilder hard to please. ‘He was un-empathetic,’ she recalled. ‘We looked at a scene in front of everyone, and he stood up in front of everybody and said, “I tried.”‘

Marilyn considered several roles that were ultimately played by Shirley MacLaine: in Some Came Running, Wilder’s Irma La Douce and What a Way to Go! Also, both actresses were friendly with Rat Packers Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.