Reading Response 1: More complicated than meets the eye

I found Thomas Harris’ article interesting in looking at the very carefully crafted public images of both Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. The hyper-managed personas of stars are something associated with the studio era but undoubtedly occurs on a star to star basis today. The subcategories of celebrity promotion Harris lays out, publicity, advertising, and exploitation, definitely still rule the star industry today. What I found most interesting, however, was the conclusion drawn in 1957 that both Kelly and Monroe’s personal lives in one way contradict their publicized personas. But despite these glaring inconsistencies, all-American Kelly marrying a foreign prince and dumb blonde Monroe marrying an intellectual, their legends reflect the studio personas and not the inconsistency. Monroe, particularly, is an interesting case of mismatched qualities both on and off screen.

I had never seen an entire Monroe film before and I was really taken aback at how unabashedly she plays up the dumb, child-like personality in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The scene that sticks out the most in my mind is when Lorelei’s husband is trying to talk to her about something serious before he gets off the boat and she gets distracted by the bed and acts like a child bouncing on the bed and ignoring her parents. But as the film progresses it is clear that Lorelei is not as dumb as she seems. She comes up with great ideas and clever solutions to the jams they get themselves in, there was even a moment when she remarks something like, “I can be quite smart sometimes.” There is also this sense that she must have more to her if her very loyal best friend is the clearly intelligent Dorothy. This is the same in her personal life; there must be something more to Monroe if she gets married to intellectual playwright, Arthur Miller. Monroe was not a dumb person; she climbed to the top and managed her career with deliberate aptitude. But even as Harris seems to predict in 1957, her image is remembered as simplistic as the persona the studios put forth.