A new book has just been published called JOE AND MARILYN: LEGENDS IN LOVE by #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author C. DAVID HEYMANN. [Atria/Emily Bestler books, a division of Simon & Schuster; (July 1, 2014)] [ISBN: 1439191778] [ISBN-13: 978-1439191774]
There are many many fascinating new revelations on JEANNE CARMEN and MARILYN MONROE in this new book. But the most amazing story is the new revelation of MARILYN and JEANNE dancing that night away at an early L.A. GAY DISCO as told to author C. DAVID HEYMANN by MARILYN’s personal masseuse and good friend RALPH ROBERTS.
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In the late afternoon of August 1, MARILYN called RALPH ROBERTS and asked him to take her to LARGO, a Los Angeles nightspot with a strip club on one side of the establishment and a gay bar on the other. “Largo was a bit sleazy,” said ROBERTS, “but it was unique in that it catered to both heterosexuals and gays. You had a lot of straight men watching the young female strippers on the club side, and a whole gay crowd—men and women—packed into an adjacent bar. The bar had a jukebox and a small dance floor. The men danced with men, the women with women. A soundproof wall separated the bar from the strip club.
“I picked up MARILYN at her house and learned that JEANNE CARMEN would be joining us. MARILYN gave me a drink and poured herself one as well. We stepped outside into the gardens, which was illuminated by a floodlight. She told me she’d been to a shop on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood., where she’d acquired a few items of furniture and a wall hanging depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. From her local nursery she’d also purchased three more citrus trees and a half dozen rose bushes that were supposed to be delivered on August 4. I found this a bit odd in light of the fact that she kept telling me she intended to leave Los Angeles and move back to New York.”
By this time, JEANNE CARMEN had arrived, and the three of them set off for LARGO. “En route,” continued ROBERTS, “JEANNE started talking about ROBERT KENNEDY, which I didn’t think was a great idea. She said BOBBY and MARILYN had frequently engaged in phone sex. ‘Can’t you just see the attorney general jerking his chain while MARILYN talked him through the sex act?” To change the subject, I asked MARILYN about JOE DIMAGGIO. She said he and his brothers Vince and Dom had agreed to participate in an Old Timers’ charity baseball game in San Francisco on August 4 and that he’d be joining her again in Los Angeles a day later. To which JEANNE said, “Yeah, but he bugged your phone just like the rest of them.’ ‘If that’s true,’ responded MARILYN, ‘it’s because he wants to protect me. Listen, if it weren’t for JOE, I’d probably have killed myself years ago.’”
Those were MARILYN’s last coherent words that evening. When they reached Largo, MARILYN—in her usual disguise—headed straight for the bar, ordered three bottles of champagne, handed one each to RALPH and JEANNE, chugalugged the third herself, ordered another, grabbed JEANNE’s hand, and hit the dance floor.
“I spent the better part of the night,” said ROBERTS, “standing at the bar, declining offers to dance from a variety of men in leather and chains. When I drove MARILYN home at three in the morning, her eyes were vacant. She looked like a zombie. She was drunk and drugged. The sight of her in that woeful state, as she wobbled out of the car and into her house, saddened and haunted me. After that night, we spoke on the phone once or twice, but I never saw MARILYN again.”
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