1. Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy." It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their betterefforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie.
2. The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me." Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide.
3. That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle."
4. Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve." The movie, released in nineteen fifty, was about a movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- "a dumb blonde."
5. In nineteen fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." This performance at last won her widespread fame.
6. Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies: "How To Marry a Millionaire." "The Seven Year Itch." "Bus Stop." "Some Like it Hot."
7. Her part in "Some Like it Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh. Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money.
8. Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie.
9. She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio school in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her.
10. MARILYN MONROE: “What I’d like to do, that is, what I would like to accomplish, I would like to be a good actress. And it’s not a matter of being on top because I think some of the best actors and actresses perhaps aren’t on the top. So that’s not the thing. I’m terribly grateful for everything that’s happened because I remember when things weren’t like this at all. But you do miss sometimes just being able to be completely yourself and some place and people just know you as another human being.”
11. But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell." Few people thought of her as a serious actress.
12. She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen fifty-four she married again. Herhusband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe Di Maggio. They were together for only a few months.
13. Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen sixty-one, after five years.
14. Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs.
15. She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming.
16. By nineteen sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give.”
17. She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her.
18. On August fourth, nineteen sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death.
19. Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean.
Vocabulary
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