In the 1930 census of the US, a small house in East Rhode Island Street, Hollywood, was listed as the home of two mothers: Ida Bolender (with her husband and four foster children) and Gladys Baker (and her four-year-old daughter). This census entry is unlikely to be true based on what had happened by this time between these two mothers.
Your comment about Marilyn being "notoriously dishonest" struck home for me. Reading many of her accounts -- especially in the "My Story" book by Ben Hecht -- it seems clear that Marilyn presented many things about herself and her life in a calculated way to fit into the image she had created. The stories she told later about Norma Jeane seem like an effort to rewrite her past in a way that Marilyn was the true persona and Norma Jeane was the fraud, when it is clearly the opposite. I find accounts by the people who knew Norma Jeane before "Marilyn" was created to be more believable than the imagined narrative presented by her stage persona.
Your comment about Marilyn being "notoriously dishonest" struck home for me. Reading many of her accounts -- especially in the "My Story" book by Ben Hecht -- it seems clear that Marilyn presented many things about herself and her life in a calculated way to fit into the image she had created. The stories she told later about Norma Jeane seem like an effort to rewrite her past in a way that Marilyn was the true persona and Norma Jeane was the fraud, when it is clearly the opposite. I find accounts by the people who knew Norma Jeane before "Marilyn" was created to be more believable than the imagined narrative presented by her stage persona.
Thanks Kamran. I hadnt found the Ben Hecht book so will check it out.