Marilyn Monroe and Milton H. Greene arrive at Idlewood Airport, New York the day after her 30th birthday, 1956
While the DiMaggio marriage faltered-it lasted only nine months-the Monroe-Greene collaboration flourished. Not the sittings. They became perfunctory and mostly documentary for the time being. Marilyn and Milton had bigger fish to fry. From their months of brainstorming, the idea of Marilyn Monroe Productions had evolved, a creative collaboration that would give them control of Marilyn's future projects. Why had she entrusted her career to a magazine photographer with no track record in the movie business? Yes, he gave her respect and affirmation. Yes, his pictures of her plumbed the depths. But this was the most profitable commodity of a powerful fiefdom run by Darryl F. Zanuck, one of the biggest bastards in a Monument Valley of bastards. Why this David to fight these Philistines? Judy Balaban Quine, a child of that world and a key player in the MMP saga, explained that Milton's camera communicated with and let us communicate with the whole Marilyn, which was an incredible validation for her, because people like Zanuck saw only the most obvious external, blatant representation of her and defined her as that alone:
"You know how as a child, if you have loving reinforcement from parents or teachers or friends you see yourself in their eyes and it helps develop the sense that you can handle problems and all kinds of things? I don't think Marilyn got it from anyplace. So the voices that defined her were very rejecting, very critical and very demeaning, and basically that was her sense of self. She was just so wounded that vulnerability is not even the right word. Yeah, there was vulnerability in her, but it was a seriously wounded vulnerability that couldn't find it's way out of that damaged inside. Suddenly, along comes Milton who validates the innocence with the camera and wants to protect that definition. He not only redefines her for herself but he is willing to fight for her redefinition to survive in her career. That's heavy stuff. That's superseductive emotionally for somebody who was so fragile, for someone so wounded."
By the end of 1954, Milton had taken the legal steps required to create Marilyn Monroe Productions...
Excerpted from Milton's Marilyn, written by James Kotsilibas-Davis & Directed by Joshua Greene. Published by Moss Run, LTD.