Barbie as Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Doll

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Still, Monroe prevailed. Her natural beauty helped her get through the door, but it was her hard work that cemented her rise to superstardom. “She had a drive to better herself by reading books on psychology, philosophy, poetry, art, drama, you name it,” says Vogel. “She studied at the prestigious Actors Studio in New York, with Lee Strasberg, because she had the desire to be a drama student, even after she was already a famous Hollywood actress. She was a trailblazer, and in many ways a feminist before the term was really known or understood.” For Blonde’s lead actress, de Armas of Knives Out fame, the role was an emotional and spiritual revelation. “I truly believe that [Marilyn] was very close to us, she was with us,” de Armas tells Deadline . “… She was all I thought about, she was all I dreamed about, she was all I could talk about.” The actress adds, “I knew I had to let myself open and go to places that I knew were going to be uncomfortable, dark and vulnerable. That’s where I found the connection with this person.” Marilyn Monroe’s final interview is a heartbreaker. Published in Life magazine on August 3, 1962—just a day before the actress died of a barbiturate overdose at age 36—it found Monroe reflecting on her celebrity status, alternatively thoughtful, frank and witty. Barbie was first introduced to the public on March 9th, 1959, at the American International Toy Fair in New York. It was named after creator Ruth Handler’s daughter, who inspired her to make a doll that was based on a full-grown character rather than a baby. Ruth saw her daughter role-playing with her toys and thought of toys that could fill in the niche as nothing similar was available on the American market. She forwarded the idea of the toy to her husband, who was at the time the cofounder of Mattel, an American toy company founded in 1945. Narratives of Monroe’s life, whether they’re based in fact or fiction, tend to focus on her trauma at the expense of her hard work and dedication. The myths surrounding her life have obscured what originally helped make her famous: her craft as an actress.

I wouldn’t settle for second best,” Monroe later said. “I would take home photographs of myself to study how I looked and if I could improve myself posing in front of a mirror.” Just as importantly, she learned how to charm others. “She made everyone she talked to feel as if he were the only one in the world,” recounted modeling agent Emmeline Snively. Despite Barbie’s initial success, many parents were concerned about the mature appearance of Barbie’s body, but Ruth Handler saw it as important to give young girls a distinctly adult role model to look up to and aspire to. She was a doll that represented a modern, well-rounded woman who could be anything from a mother to a doctor to an astronaut. Created by Mattel co-owner Ruth Handler, the inspiration for Barbie was born when Handler saw her daughter play with paper dolls and realized that there was a need for more physical dolls. The idea was that young girls would be able to see themselves in the dolls, which wasn’t as easy with a two-dimensional doll. With a three-dimensional doll, you can feel it, hug it, and brush its hair, and the user gets a better attachment to it. That same question—who was the real Monroe?—has sparked debate among cinema scholars, cultural critics, historians, novelists, filmmakers and the general public for decades. Was “Marilyn,” the personality and persona brought to life by the star’s younger self, Norma Jeane Mortenson, a real person? Or was she simply a manufactured image? Cultural historian Sarah Churchwell, meanwhile, contends in The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe that “Monroe is not best understood as only an image, or as an ‘artificial creation of a woman.’ … Something that is not natural can still be real: It has been made. One of the questions the stories about Marilyn’s life beg, therefore, is how much any of us is natural, whether any identity is not made.”This portrait marked Monroe’s discovery. Her marriage fell apart as she pursued a career in modeling, but she was determined to make a name for herself. Monroe’s wholesome look, completed by her winning smile and large bust, made her a natural for pin-ups. She continuously strove to improve her craft, honing her ability to work the camera through modeling classes and study. She also bleached her curly, reddish-brown hair, becoming a platinum blonde. As with all kinds of collectibles – the rarer, the better. The same goes for Barbie dolls. Over the years, there have been a couple of Barbie dolls that have been sold in limited numbers. The limited editions are often made to highlight a special celebration or an anniversary. Here are some of the more memorable dolls: Monroe’s career soared as her romantic life foundered, with two successive husbands failing to understand the woman she wanted to be. Baseball hero Joe DiMaggio balked at the sexuality of his wife’s public image. Playwright Arthur Miller was disgusted by her cult of celebrity. “Marilyn Monroe desperately wanted to be loved,” said film historian Karina Longworth in a 2017 episode of the “ You Must Remember This” podcast. “But she never had the courage to figure out that she could choose who to love.” According to Vogel, “It’s as if we feel robbed of what could have been had Marilyn lived longer, so we cling on to everything she gave us, and repeatedly watch it, over and over and over again. … Maybe we’ll see or hear something new this time, or maybe it will be a comfortable reminiscence of memories that makes us feel nostalgic joy in knowing that no matter how much time has passed, she is still there, and will be for as long as we can turn on a television.”

While her public image is known to many, it is her private life that has always held our attention, and thus is the focus of the Marilyn Monroe Collection. Scott continues to seek items to add to the collection, a never ending quest to celebrate and remember the life of a truly amazing woman. As with modern Barbie dolls, it's also very sought-after for vintage Barbie dolls to be untouched and to be in their original box. That can have a massive effect on the value. Monroe’s hardships persisted as she came of age. In one foster home, she was sexually abused, fondled by a lodger at just 8 years old. At school, she was the target of other children’s hurtful jests. “I was tall for my age and scrawny and my hair was short and rather thin and scraggly,” she said in a May 1952 interview. “The boys used to yell ‘Norma Jeane—string bean!’ and they thought it was so funny that I wanted to be an actress. … Somehow they thought I looked like a boy, I was so straight up and down.”In the case of Marilyn, people believe what they want to believe. She lives in the fantasies of the national imagination, enshrined in a story with endless possibilities, plots, characters and events. Marilyn’s life and death have become flexible, plastic representations of a real person and a real event. … No one can deny the power of her representation: She is the [blonde] who has haunted the American imagination.

At the age of 36, Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home. Was her death a suicide? An accident? A cover-up concocted by the Kennedys? A murder at the hands of her doctors? Sixty years later, the exact nature of her demise remains the subject of spirited debate. When Monroe is on screen, you watch her,” says film scholar Steven Cohan in an interview. “[T]here was something just physical about Monroe that exploded on film. … She just photographed luminously. So, there’s something very beautiful about [her] performance. And she had great timing—just watch her deliver lines.” We should care about Monroe because of how much she cared about us, her audience. Her films enliven her myth but also remind us of the person she was. Yes, her life was a tragedy, but it was also a triumph—American history in miniature. Happy Holidays Barbie: Released in 1988, this series of dolls features Barbie in a different holiday-themed outfit each year.

Why should we still care about Monroe?

So, who was Marilyn Monroe? Once upon a time, she was a real person, a childhood dream come true—the dream of a little girl named Norma Jeane Mortenson. Who was Norma Jeane Mortenson? An old journal reveals the depth of Monroe’s grief: “I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.” The fact that the actress was seemingly unable to carry a child to term (two pregnancies ended in miscarriages, while a third was ectopic) compounded these fears; in her view, her inability to bear children “damaged her femininity, her status as the representative of all women,” writes historian Lois Banner in Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox. Here’s what you need to know about the true history behind Blonde—and the woman, actress and image that was Monroe—ahead of the film’s release on Netflix on September 28. Is Blonde based on a true story? Pink Jubilee Barbie: Released in 1989 to mark the 30th anniversary of Barbie. The doll wears a beautiful pink/silver dress.