During her marriage to Arthur, Marilyn had two parakeets , Butch and Bobo. Norman Rosten wrote about Butch: “Marilyn calls to him (her); he sits on her shoulder, she coos and whistles, carries him to her lips, and ole Butch leans over and kisses her. ‘You’re a cute parakeet,’ Marilyn says to Butch. Butch loves to hear her voice, figuring she’s just as cute as a parakeet herself. I believe that Butch is in l’amour with her.”


Marilyn loved Hugo, but the dog seemed perpetually depressed. Marilyn once tired to cheer him up par giving him a teaspoon of Scotch. Soon he “rapturously”...

Marilyn Monroe was a legend.

In her own lifetime she created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived background could attain. For the entire world she became a symbol of the eternal feminine. But I have no words to describe the myth and the legend. I did not know this Marilyn Monroe.

We, gathered here today, knew only Marilyn - a warm human being, impulsive and shy, sensitive and in fear of rejection, yet ever avid for life and reaching out for fulfillment. I will not insult the privacy of your memory of her - a privacy she sought and treasured - par trying to describe her whom toi knew to...