Padding Faye Miller or Someone Like Her

     It's possible that no one realized that Faye Miller had recently completed a film during which her famous leading man had weakened and died immediately after the shooting and before the release  or that her marriage to the famous writer of the film had collapsed into ruins during the making of the film and that the director of the film was at his meanest, most sadistic and self-destructive behavior while taking the side of the writer who was alienating himself from Faye by coming up with new lines for her to memorize every day even as it was becoming clear that the whole project was becoming an incomprehensible mess.

     Yeah, they might not have known all that but they had to realize that Faye Miller was actually Marilyn Monroe.

     Yeah, Marilyn was in a dark mood that New York winter. Her last two moives had failed and she could find no consolation in the hope of the  immediate employment that always sustained her. Marilyn stayed at home in her bedroom listening to records and subsisting on sleeping pills.

     For the past five years Marilyn had been under the care of several psychiatrists under the recommendation of Lee Strasberg who insisted that Freudian analysis would help her to become a better actress by confronting the shadows of her tumultuous childhood. One of the most influential doctors during the dark winter was Marianne Kris who suggested that Marilyn as she had arranged, under the name of Faye Miller, check into a private ward of a New York hospital for a work up and a rest which Kris had arranged. Kris drove Marilyn to the hospital and after signing her own admission papers, Faye/Marilyn was placed in a padded room used to contain the most disturbed patients.

     Let's face it, such a surprise incarceration would cause almost anyone to lose their shit, which of course Faye?Marilyn immediately did which convinced the staff that she truly was a psychotic case. They removed her clothes, put her in hospital garb and cautioned her that she was close to a straitjacket because she was extremely disturbed and potentially self destructive. Marilyn had been taken completely by surprise.

     Throughout her entire life and career, Marilyn had been haunted by the fragile mental condition of her mother. This haunting had caused Marilyn tremendous self-doubt and she battled that self doubt through ambition, overachievement, endless psychotherapy, word wide success and recognition. The thought of being placed in a straitjacket, seemingly a confirmation of her life long fears, must have been excruciating for Marilyn/Faye/Norma Jean who already had severe identity problems and had a childhood fear of locked doors. Furthermore, the staff kept asking her why she was so unhappy as if she or anyone else could be happy stashed away against their will into a lunatic asylum filled with the screams of the suffering/mistreated/authentically disturbed women in the ward.

     Marilyn was granted one reprieve from her lockup when she was given the chance to go the occupational therapy room and play cards and or checkers with some of the other residents. Marilyn rejected that opportunity, fearing that if she did so, she would indeed be crazy.

     For the first forty hours, Faye was not allowed to use a telephone. Finally, as the walls were closing in, she got the opportunity to make a call. Who would she call? She had been committed under doctor's orders and had willingly signed her admission papers. Marilyn could make one call. Trying to stay calm, she called a couple of "friends" who were not home. Finally she reached Joe DiMaggio in Florida.

     Joe had not seen Marilyn in six years although his love for her never had diminished and would continue for the rest of both of their lives. Joe flew up from Florida that evening and demanded that Marilyn/Faye/Sugar/Lorelie/Norma Jean be released into his custody or if she wasn't he would take the hospital apart brick by brick

     Things happened quickly. Joe contacted Kris who suggested that Marilyn enter another hospital more to her liking. Marilyn was released. Marilyn fired Kris. Joe determined that Marilyn, anorexic and shaking, did need help to recover from the harrowing experience. He helped Marlyn settle into a private room where she remained for 22 days until she emerged looking radiant and healthy and on the road to meeting the Kennedys. She never completed another film.