Marilyn Monroe<\/a>, who would have turned 100 this month.<\/p>\n\n\tMamie \u2014 rhymes with \u201cpay me\u201d \u2014 knew her before she was Marilyn. To her, she is still Norma Jeane Baker, a teenager who defended a stranger at the Ambassador Hotel pool during the war years in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\n\tBy the 1950s, Hollywood had repackaged them both as blond bombshells and set them against each other \u2014 Van Doren was Universal\u2019s answer to Fox\u2019s Monroe, measurements printed side by side in fan magazines. Monroe died in 1962. Van Doren kept going. She has stories she has kept quiet for decades \u2014 about Howard Hughes, Tony Curtis, Jack Webb and others. Some, she is telling fully for the first time. She recently spoke with THR<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tYou\u2019re 95. You seem extraordinary. What\u2019s the secret? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWell, one thing: I never smoked. I never did drugs. When I was a teenager, I did smoke pot, but I didn\u2019t like it. I never drank that much. I stayed away from bad people. I love dogs. I\u2019ve always had dogs, and they\u2019re my best friends. And I didn\u2019t stay with anybody that wasn\u2019t kind to me. I\u2019ve kind of been my own woman. I do pretty much what I want to do and what makes me feel good.<\/p>\n
\n\tWho did you look up to when you were coming up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019ve always admired older actresses. When I was younger, I just loved Mae West and Marlene Dietrich. I just followed them and copied them in everything. And of course my favorite was Jean Harlow \u2014 I was only five when she died. After seeing pictures of her with platinum blonde hair, I thought: one day I\u2019m going to have that hair. And so I bleached it, made it blonde.<\/p>\n
\n\tYour name used to be Joan Lucille Olander. How did it become Mamie Van Doren?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t[A photographer] came to see me for some sexy pictures. He was going to do a story on the new contract player. That\u2019s me. So he went over to the gallery where I was taking pictures and met me and said I didn\u2019t have a name. And he says, \u201cWhat about Mamie?\u201d Because Mamie <\/strong>[Eisenhower<\/strong>] was the first lady then. And then they got the Van Doren from somebody\u2019s nickname around there, and they took that name and gave it to me, made me Mamie Van Doren.<\/p>\n\n\tWhat did you think?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI thought it sounded too old. It sounded more like a mature woman. I said, \u201cI\u2019m going to have to create another image for this name. I\u2019m going to have to make it happen.\u201d And I think I did.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019ve known Marilyn Monroe since before she was Marilyn Monroe. How did that start?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI met her when I was 12 years old. I was swimming in the pool at the Ambassador Hotel. She was a model, and they were having this beauty contest, and they were walking around the swimming pool, and I was in the pool carrying on, trying to get some attention. Somebody said, \u201cGet the kid out of the pool.\u201d I\u2019ll never forget it. I felt horrible. And then some gal, Norma Jeane, said, \u201cDon\u2019t talk to her like that.\u201d I thought: \u201cThis is coming from somebody, a real beauty.\u201d I ran over to her and I said, \u201cMy name is Joanie Olander. I know your name is Norma Jeane. I just want to thank you.\u201d She said, \u201cYou\u2019re so sweet.\u201d And then I just went back to my place \u2014 my apartment with my family was right behind the Ambassador Hotel.<\/p>\n
\n\tBy the time you were both at the studios, you were being set up as rivals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tUniversal would market me as their answer to Fox\u2019s Monroe. The Hollywood magazines had us side by side. But I ran into her at parties during those years, and she only had one black dress that she wore all the time. I thought: \u201cDoesn\u2019t she have any money to buy another dress?\u201d She was under contract at Fox. She just had one of those cheap contracts \u2014 $60 a week or something like that.<\/p>\n
\n\tTony Curtis told you something about her once.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe said she was a bad lay. I thought: \u201cWhat is he going to say about me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen was the last time you saw her?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI saw her at the Russian Tea Room in New York a week before she died. I was doing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes<\/em> onstage. And I was asleep \u2014 I always sleep during the day \u2014 and I got a call from [columnist] Earl Wilson. He said, \u201cHave you seen what\u2019s happening on television? Turn it on.\u201d So I turned it on, and Marilyn was being carried on a gurney with a dirty, old-looking blanket on top of her. I was devastated. Then I had to do that play that night, and I could hardly get through it. I started to cry.<\/p>\n\n\tDo you feel Hollywood ate her alive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWell, it seemed that way, doesn\u2019t it? She was vulnerable, and I think she actually thought that Bobby Kennedy was going to leave his wife for her. And she probably thought JFK would do the same thing. He had no intention of doing that, and neither did Bobby. So, they disillusioned her, and it was more rejection. And she had the rejection from Yves Montand, who she was doing a movie with \u2014 she thought he was coming back and marrying her and divorcing Simone Signoret. I can\u2019t tell you any more because I\u2019m going to write my book. I\u2019ve got some real goodies in there. You won\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n
\n\tTell me about Howard Hughes.<\/strong> You were 14 years old when he discovered you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI went to the Mocambo club \u2014 I\u2019d never been there, I\u2019d been outside asking for autographs. A family friend took me inside, and all of a sudden a waiter came over and gave me a note. It said that Howard Hughes would like to meet me. The people that were with me said, \u201cOh my God, it\u2019s wonderful. He owns a studio.\u201d I gave his associate my phone number. [The next day at] about 8 o\u2019clock in the morning, he called me. I hadn\u2019t even had a chance to tell my mother.<\/p>\n
\n\tYour mother was okay sending you in a car to meet Howard Hughes, knowing his reputation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tMy mom was 16 when she got pregnant and had me at 17. She didn\u2019t think anything much about it. I told her everything \u2013 I didn\u2019t keep any secrets from her. She told me, \u201cIf you do anything, you\u2019ve got to tell me so you won\u2019t get in any trouble.\u201d She really protected me.<\/p>\n
\n\tSo you had breakfast together. What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe sent a car, and we went to the Players restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. The first thing he asked me was if I was a virgin. So, I knew he was looking for a virgin. I didn\u2019t tell him whether I was or I wasn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t think it was any of his damn business.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd then he took you to the Garden of Allah. What was that place like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tOh, it was like a little town in there. A lot of trees \u2014 beautiful, full trees. And then the pool was shaped like the Mediterranean. The water was very dark blue and very, very cold. And they had cottages \u2014 little houses \u2014 and they were really beautiful inside. Very large and open. And then it smelled \u2014 you could smell the wood. I remember the strong scent of the room because it was kind of old.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was the essence of Hollywood in one place. Writers, movie stars, parties every night.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tOh, yeah. A lot of writers went there because they liked to write there and there was a lot of history there. We had a wonderful dinner, and it was an experience where I didn\u2019t know whether I should or I shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t A magazine article compared Van Doren to her chief rival \u2014 and longtime friend \u2014 Marilyn Monroe.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBettmann\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tAnd that\u2019s when you had your Jean Harlow moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI got out of the shower with a towel around me, and I was thinking \u2014 did Jean Harlow do it? Do you think I should? And I thought: \u201cHell, Jean did it. I\u2019m going to do it.\u201d So I jumped in.<\/p>\n
\n\tHow was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe treated me really kindly. And I told him, \u201cI can\u2019t be with you without a condom.\u201d And I looked, and there was one already on. When I looked, there wasn\u2019t that much there. Compared to the one [man] I\u2019d had before, this one was smaller.<\/p>\n
\n\tTony Curtis was another story entirely.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI had a bungalow at Universal right between Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis \u2014 those were for the superstars. He was doing Spartacus<\/em>. He knocked at the door at lunchtime, and I invited him in. And that was when we did it.<\/p>\n\n\tHow was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tOh my God. He just came and came and came. I\u2019ve never seen anyone like that. I thought, \u201cWell, maybe he hadn\u2019t been doing it with Janet [Leigh]. What was he saving it up for?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tYou write in the book about Elizabeth Short \u2014 the Black Dahlia. You knew her.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI kept that to myself for a long time. I promised my mother I wouldn\u2019t say anything to anybody because everybody was under suspicion and I was scared to death. But she was not a prostitute. Everybody called her a whore. She wasn\u2019t a whore. She worked her butt off to get tips \u2014 to go to Hawaii.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhy Hawaii?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tShe wanted to go there with her fianc\u00e9. He was a flying ace \u2014 he got killed, went down on his last flight. They were planning on going to Hawaii together, and then his body was sent there. She wanted to go there and fulfill what they were going to do together. She was staying through New Year\u2019s to make more money. And I gave her the $100 that I got so she could get there faster.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd then she was murdered.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWhen I saw that picture in the newspaper that morning, I fainted. My mother had to call the doctor. I thought I was going to die.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe police never questioned you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tNever. Never heard one word from the police.<\/p>\n
\n\tThere\u2019s another, more disturbing chapter in the book about Jack Webb, the star of <\/strong>Dragnet<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI had told it a long time ago \u2014 about 30 years ago \u2014 and nobody really saw it. Aaron Spelling introduced us. Jack said he\u2019d like to meet me and he asked me to go to dinner. Very boring. I didn\u2019t enjoy it at all. About two weeks later, he asked if I\u2019d like to come to his producer\u2019s house to look at a movie.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the way home, he said he had to stop off at his house. I said I\u2019d wait in the car. He was adamant about me coming in. So, I went in and sat near the door. He comes out of the kitchen with a glass of wine and says, \u201cThis is the greatest wine you\u2019ve ever tasted. Just take a sip of it.\u201d I took a tiny, tiny sip. All of a sudden, I started getting dizzy. The next thing I knew, I was tied up in a chair. Then I was in a bed. I was drugged and raped.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhy couldn\u2019t you go to the police?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe was connected with the police department. Nobody would believe me. So I had to endure it. That was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I never trusted a man after that.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd you kept it secret for decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tNobody would believe me. He was Jack Webb.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s in the book now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt is. And I\u2019ll tell you something \u2014 I\u2019m very, very grateful that I have lived this long. I appreciate things more today than I ever have.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis story appeared in the June 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every morning, Mamie Van Doren walks down to the beach near her home in Southern California and sits on the same rock with her feet in the Pacific. \u201cIt kind of heals me,\u201d she says. At 95, she has outlived just about everyone. Her memoir, You Thought I Was Dead: My Life of Celebrities, Sex, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1636,633,4920,4918,4919,612],"class_list":["post-5488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fashion","tag-hollywood","tag-howard","tag-hughes","tag-marilyn","tag-monroe","tag-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5490,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5488\/revisions\/5490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}