Icon: The Life, Times and Films of Marilyn Monroe
Exclusive Book Giveaway!
We are happy to say that it’s time for our next book giveaway! This time CMH will be giving away TWO COPIES EACH of ICON: The Life, Times and Films of Marilyn Monroe, Volume 1 and ICON: The Life, Times and Films of Marilyn Monroe, Volume 2, by Gary Vitacco-Robles, courtesy of Bear Manor Books.
Before we get started, I just want to extend a Big Thank You to Gary for arranging this contest — and for his exclusive CMH blog series “Marilyn: Behind the Icon” which explores Monroe’s memorable and hidden films and performances.
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In order to qualify to win one of these paperback books via this contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, August 29, 2020 at 6PM EST. However, the sooner you enter, the better chance you have of winning, because we will pick a winner on four different days within the contest period, via random drawings, as listed below. So if you don’t win the first week that you enter, you will still be eligible to win during the following weeks until the contest is over.
- Aug 8: Volume 1 (one winner)
- Aug 15: Volume 1 (one winner)
- Aug 22: Volume 2 (one winner)
- Aug 29: Volume 2 (one winner)
We will announce each week’s winner on Twitter @ClassicMovieHub and/or right here on this Blog in the comment section below (depending on how you entered), the day after each winner is picked around 9PM EST — for example, we will announce our first week’s winner at 9PM EST on Sunday Aug 9.
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And now on to the contest!
ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday, Aug 29 at 6PM EST — BUT remember, the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win…
1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post
2) *Then TWEET (not DM) the following message (if you don’t have twitter, see below):
Just entered to win the “ICON: The Life, Times and Films of Marilyn Monroe” #BookGiveaway courtesy of @BearManorMedia , you can enter too at: http://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/icon-the-life-times-and-films-of-marilyn-monroe-book-giveaway-august/
THE QUESTION:
What is one of your favorite Marilyn Monroe roles/movies and why?
NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.
*If you do not have a Twitter account, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: “I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.”
Click here for the full contest rules and more details.
Please note that only Continental United States (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and the territory of Puerto Rico) are eligible.
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About the books:
Volume 1: Psychotherapist & author Gary Vitacco-Robles reframes & redefines the fascinating woman behind the iconic image through an analysis of her psyche and an appreciation of her film & stage performances in Volume One of this definitive biography. After a decade of meticulous research, Vitacco-Robles offers a treasure trove of facts comprehensively documenting each year of Monroe’s inspiring life within the context of her tumultuous times & through her relationships with literary, entertainment, & political figures. Monroe is resurrected a half-century after her tragic death in this detailed & sensitive biography that intelligently explores her passionate desires: to be loved, become a serious actress, & have a family. Volume One examines the first thirty years of Monroe’s life and her impact on the culture, providing a deeper understanding of the remarkable woman and the lasting impression she left behind. Based upon interviews, diaries, & personal files-void of sensationalism-Icon: The Life, Times, & Films of Marilyn Monroe dispels many myths & reveals the ultimate truth about Hollywood’s most charismatic, beloved, & enduring star.
Volume 2: Psychotherapist & author Gary Vitacco-Robles reframes and redefines the fascinating woman behind the iconic image through an analysis of her psyche and an appreciation of her film and stage performances in Volume 2 of this definitive biography. After a decade of meticulous research, Vitacco-Robles offers a treasure trove of facts comprehensively documenting each year of Monroe’s inspiring life within the context of her tumultuous times, and through her relationships with literary, entertainment, and political figures. Monroe is resurrected a half-century after her tragic death in this detailed and sensitive biography that intelligently explores her passionate desires: to be loved, become a serious actress, and have a family. Volume 2 examines the last six years of Marilyn’s life and her impact on our culture in the five decades following her early tragic death. Its pages provide a deeper understanding of this remarkable woman and the lasting impression she left behind. Based upon interviews, diaries, and personal files-void of sensationalism-Icon: The Life, Times, & Films of Marilyn Monroe Vol. 2 dispels many myths and reveals the ultimate truth about Hollywood’s most charismatic, beloved, and enduring star.
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If you don’t want to wait to win, you can purchase the books on amazon by clicking the images below:
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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub
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My favorite film of Marilyn Monroe is Niagara. Love her role and how she plays it as well as the other cast members. I also love seeing Niagara Falls before it became so comercialized!
That’s a really hard question since I enjoy her films so much. She’s hilarious and so sexy in Some Like it Hot but I think I prefer her more serious role in The Misfits because of the wonderful cast, and the great script. Thanks for the chance to win these terrific looking books.
I love #some like it hot. Its a great fun movie that pokes fun at the gangster movies of the times, shows women to be talented musicians while discussing relationships in a way that is light hearted but still can provoke conversation. Tony Curtis gives a nod to Cary Grant by imitating him. All good fun, with some music to boot!
My favorite Marilyn film is Some Like It Hot. There’s the iconic skirt scene and it’s just such a funny story. Great cast in the film as well. Marilyn is fantastic as always.
Hope I win!
I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
The role of Cherie, in BUS STOP makes full use of Monroe’s delicate emotional touch as well as her comedic gifts. The romance is both heart-breaking and heart-warming. I’ve been enjoying Gary Vitacco-Robles’ insights in his recent posts and would love to read more.
My favorite MM film is probably Niagra…Her portrayal of Rose Loomis is just fantastic and showcases her considerable acting abilities. So many people today think of her as just a tragic sex symbol. She was so much more than that. Niagra is a terrific and suspenseful film with a great cast. I’d love to read Icon and I can never read enough about Marilyn and her career.
While I love Marilyn’s performances in Some Like it Hot, Niagara, The Seven Year Itch, among others, my favorite performance is in her last completed film, The Misfits. I think she was mature enough as an actress to let some of her personal tragedies seep into her performance without ever overwhelming it. She also was able to play on the innocence that was a hallmark of her acting style. If there were ever a more heartbreaking scene in movies than her & Gable riding in the truck at the film’s conclusion I’d like to see it. Hauntingly poignant.
My Favorite Film of Marilyn Monroe’s was , How to Marry a Millionaire!
Marilyn was paired with Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable!
This was a funny movie about Women’s Friendship!
They work together to land Rich Millionaire Husbands , only to wind up with the true men they loved. They thought the gentleman were not well off. After they were together they confess. One of best endings ever in Diner. I love all of Marilyn Monroe’s movies and read several books. I’d love to win one.
One wonders how Something’s Got to Give might have been.. but Some Like It Hot: “Yeah. Real Hot!”
Marilyn shines as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She simultaneously perpetuates the “dumb blonde” image while she skewers it. Her honesty with her fiancé’s father telling him she’s marrying him not for your son’s money but for yours is priceless. And the running “thank you ever so” is so endearingly adorable that every time I watch it again I catch myself saying it for weeks.
i liked marilyn in small doses, to me her effort really shined through as a character actress. my favorite role by her, believe it or not, is ms. casswell in “all about eve”. she really shined in her part; she came across as really understanding the role. i would even say she stole the scenes that she was in. she, gregory ratoff (max fabian) and thelma ritter (birdie), were fantastic. i can’t think of the big dogs (bette davis, anne baxter, george sanders, celeste holm) without thinking of them, too. i think it’s okay to be the best character actor you can be. those roles allow you to give your heart and soul on a smaller scale with just as great an outcome – people still remember your effort. but, marilyn was already ‘marilyn’ when “all about eve” premiered, and didn’t have the liberty or luxury to be obscure and confident. she was terribly self-conscious and ended up a victim of studio engineering, famous as well as infamous. to me, fame destroyed her.
For me, it has to be THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. She’s so innocently naughty in this role…just one hilariously great movie!
I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
My favorite is Bus Stop. The role of Cherri or Cherry was great for her. Also being surrounded with a great supporting cast of Hope Lange, Don Murray and Eileen Eckhart.
Her role in : some like it hot, I think she did very well and good with Tony curtis and Jack lemmon, she played her role perfectly.
She also sings beautifully
Love the movie Niagara. Just a great thriller. It’s a movie earlier in her career and later movies her acting is better, but just love the movie, it’s plot and location. Polly’s line….Listen. For a dress like that, you’ve got to start laying plans when you’re about thirteen. I got to laugh and I think Marilyn was laying plans at 13
I’ve been discovering more and more of Marilyn’s films in recent years. But my favorite one is still my first – How to Marry a Millionaire. I believe it not only shows her charm and vulnerability, but excellent comic timing, even as it makes fun of public assumptions of her as a ditzy blonde.
“I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.”
Though I love her in The Misfits, Monroe as Sugar in Some Like It Hot is probably my favorite. I’ve loved that film since I was a kid and passed that love onto my daughters. She is a lot of fun in comedic roles and looks like she is enjoying herself.
As Cherie in Bus Stop Marilyn combines her child- like innocence against a deep intuitive intelligence battling her internal female conflicts. The execution of lines, bellowing deep emotional passions, against the extraordinary acting of her co star Don Murray in his own brilliant performance, hits it out of the ball park. Her comedic timing, in every movie she took on was her forte, and clearly deep artistic execution, but the underlying drama of BusStop takes all of her talents and brings it to a higher level. This was an actress who knew what she was doing and committed to her roles with an authenticity rarely seen today. May her name be written in the book of life.
The misfits!! This was my all time favorite movie how she just looked so pretty.
“Some Like It Hot” because she is so funny, beautiful and talented.
I tweeted
I love Marilyn Monroe as Sugar in Some Like it Hot. I used to watch that film with my parents when I was a kid. I can’t wait to share that experience with my own children soon. She had such great comedic timing and the movie is hilarious!
I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
My favorite role of Marilyn Monroe is Pola in How to Marry A Millionaire. The film is simple, silly, and cute. The love of Pola to me is a big deal. Growing up as a child and now as an adult I have bad eyesight. I’m very near-sighted. I was teased, bullied & made fun of for wearing glasses. When I saw one of the most beautiful women in the world hiding her glasses from men and bumping into things because she wasn’t wearing them, it reminded me of me. I wear contact lenses but it took a long time before I could wear them. I still hide my glasses if I need to wear them. When I was a teen and in my 20s, I always hid my glasses from the guy I was dating. I never wanted them to see me that way. Turns out Pola ends up being loved by a man by simply being herself and wearing her glasses. It makes me feel wonderful.
I don’t think I’ve actually seen MM in a movie, even though she’s an iconic American actress. I’m currently rewatching Smash, the tv 2 season show, which is about a creative team writing a broadway show about Marilyn, and trying to get the show to broadway. It’s so good, so many of my favorite broadway actors are in it. Anyway, watching that again has me very interested in learning more about Marilyn and watching the movies she’s in. I’d love to read about her too.
I do not have a twitter account so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message. My favorite Marilyn movie is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her sense of comedic timing is perfect and her character is sweet and adorable but also hilariously conniving. My favorite moment is when she and her best friend get the investigator drunk so they can search for the incriminating photos he took. Such an entertaining movie that lets Marilyn shine in comedic moments and memorable song and dance routines!
Some of my favorite roles of Marilyn would be in Don’t Bother To Knock, The Seven Year Itch, Gentleman Prefer Blondes and How To Marry A Millionaire
My favourite Marilyn Monroe film is ;Bus Stop’ because she was independent,free and able to display the full range of her talent. Her acting is superb, she covers and expresses every human emotion so perfectly and under such scrutiny. The ranges of hope,fear disappointment, irony and humour are acted out perfectly in extreme closeup on the big screen.Marilyn achieves all of this with minute changes ,twitches of expression utilising ,in my opinion her greatest asset, her wonderful face.
I do not have a Twitter account so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message
I still have quite a few Marilyn Monroe movies that I haven’t seen yet, but from what I have seen, I’d say “The Seven Year Itch” is my favorite. That’s probably because it’s the first Marilyn Monroe movie I ever saw (and once I saw and heard Marilyn, I was hooked). I don’t know if it was difficult for Marilyn to play a beautiful sex symbol, since she seems to have a natural sweetness and innocence about her. All of that beauty seems to radiate from the inside out as much as from the outside … going even farther out. I can’t imagine anybody else in that role, coming across so sweetly. Fun, somewhat silly movie! 🙂
Some Like It Hot, just by a whisker, although I would happily watch and re-watch all Marilyn’s films! This comedy film set in 1929, directed by the fantastic Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn, also has two of my favourite actors, legends themselves, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon they are equally hilarious and brilliant as two musicians who dress in drag in order to escape from hoodlums whom they witnessed commit the Valentines Day Massacre. I adore this film for all the marvellous acting and humour and of course the stunning beauty of Marilyn.
I love her in, Some Like It Hot, but Don’t Bother to Knock showed her true range as an actress. She was such an underrated performer, people focusing on her beauty, not her depth of soul.
Thanks to all who are participating! Four lucky people will receive a copy of my ICON. Follow me on BehindTheIcon.com.