Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 33

Chicago Tribune, Sunday, August 1, 1982 Section 3 '1 20 uears after her death. Marilyn's magic lives on If rVr- ivt By Bob Thomas HOLLYWOOD (AP) Twenty years have passed since too many sleeping pills silenced that naughty, breathless whisper. But goddesses don't die. So it is with Marilyn Monroe. The platinum blond hair.

The grace-note mole. The wide-eyed innocence. The sense of vulnerability. And, to be sure, the erotic allure her sensuous saunter, the glowing complexion, the luscious ripeness of her form. They live on a generation after her death.

On stage and on the screen, in television movies and in newspapers, books and magazines, Marilyn Monroe still inspires fantasy, still captures hearts and, with few parallels, still sells. "I LOVK HICK more every day, and I miss her more every day," said Billy Wilder, who directed her two most successful movies, "The Seven-Year Itch" and "Some Like It Hot." Roses arrive three times a week at her grave. They come from Joe DiMaggio, the ex-husband and New York Yankee baseball star generally the great love of her life. But those who knew her are not alone in the remembrance. As many as 25 fans visit her crypt at the Westwood Memorial Park each day.

"They take the roses sent by Joe DiMaggio, but usually replace them with other flowers," said Mike Steen, director of the three-a'cre cemetery. ONE PENNSYLVANIA fan sends 37 white-stemmed roses four times a year on the anniversaries of her death, on June 1, Easter and Christmas. Steen said the fan has told him he goes to church to recite a Rosary for Marilyn each day. It was 20 years ago Thursday that Marilyn Monroe was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 36 years old.

Was it suicide or an accident? No one will ever know. But speculation about her death continues after two decades. Her third marriage, to playwright Arthur Miller, had broken up. She had been fired by her studio for tardiness. She was alone and distraught.

One theory advanced in books and scandal tabloids suggested Marilyn was in love with then Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy and took her life because he would not leave his wife for her. There were also rumors that she had a brief fling with President John Kennedy. BUT ALTHOUGH Marilyn Monroe knew and admired the Kennedys, there is no real evidence that she was romantically involved with them.

Biographers have a rich vein of American folklore in the Monroe saga. Her supposedly illegitimate birth as Norma Jean Baker in Los Angeles (although it has been cast into doubt in the last year with new findings). Her wretched childhood in foster homes. Her decision to pose for a nude calendar when she was broke. Her starlet days.

Her reign as superstar. Three marriages and many romances. Her loss of emctional control and her tragic end. Jayne Mansfield, Sheree North and others tried to imitate her formula but all failed. Like all great stars, Marilyn Monroe was unique.

Marilyn was never nominated for an Academy Award. The critics didn't take her seriously as an actress until she made the "Seven-Year Itch" and "Bus Stop" in the mid '50s, midway through her career. AFTER THOSE SUCCESSES, some critics began to concede that the actress was more than just a sex bomb and actually an excellent light comedian. Still, despite her eventual acclaim, Marilyn Mori-roe's films do not appear on Hollywood's list of the top 250 box office hits of all time. Most, however, were moderately successful.

Her best year at the box office came in 1953, before the critical peak of her career, when "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "How to Marry a Millionaire" were among the top 10 moneymakers of the year. Her last two films, "It's Make Love" and "The Misfits" were box office disappointments. Why does the Monroe magic continue? TOM EWELL, HER costar in "The Seven-Year Itch," has toured 127 cities during the last year, giving readings of American humor and, to people about Marilyn Monroe, He has an Continued on page 16, Sec. 3 A CounterFest might be in the works as part of Rev. Jesse Jackson's boycott of ChicagoFest.

INC. has lear- ned that Jackson's Operation PUSH contacted the Chicago Park District on Friday to determine the availabil-. ity of Soldier Field for an August concert by Stevie Wonder. The singer, who is a friend of Jackson, kissed $160,000 goodbye when he canceled his Saturday Chi-JcagoFest appearance after Jackson called for a black boycott of the Navy Pier festival. INC.

Update: A contract clause that bars ChicagoFest entertainers from playing within 100 miles of the city 30 days prior to or 15 days after ChicagoFest would not stop Wonder because his representatives never returned a signed contract or an $80,000 advance sent to Wonder via Federal Express on July 8. Festivals producer of ChicagoFest, has hired the law firm of Roan and Grossman to try to iron it out. Wonder's scheduled appearance was by verbal agreement. This leads some observers to speculate that the JacksonWonder boycott act might have been prearranged. If Wonder does come to town for Jackson, it won't be at Soldier Field.

Park District officials advised PUSH the field is being refurbished for a Chicago Bears preseason game and is unavailable this month. i The question of whether Aretha Franklin will appear in Wonder's place at ChicagoFest is still up in the air. Her offer to sing on the MainStage Aug. 7 hinges on whether she can reschedule a same-day concert in Pittsburgh. I i Romance go round i jj Richard Harris and Ann Turkel, after three years of (waiting, got their divorce papers from a Bahamian judge.

You might say there's a more leisurely pace in 5 the islands New York gossips report that Warren Beatty and NBC-TV newswoman Jessica Savitch looked lawfully chummy while lunching at the Carlyle Hotel. And ABC-TV newsie Barbara Walters laughed and lunched at "21" for the whole world to see with Sen. Warner who's estranged from but still married to Elizabeth Taylor Phillipe Junot, Princess Caroline's ex, is ready to announce his engagement to another European princess, 25-year-old Anne Sophie of Hapsburg, who's very pretty and very rich Mikhail Baryshnikov won't talk about it, but he and actress Jessica Lange, who have a beautiful daughter named (Alexandra, now are free to marry. She received a divorce last week from former filmmaker Paco Grande. i ml AP Laserphoto Quintessential Marilyn, photographed while making "Tiyj Seven-Year Itch." Looping the town The Zagreb Theater Company of Yugoslavia is forming "The Liberation of Skopje" through Aug.

8 in St. Michael's Church and at an adjoining outdoor jpk 0 0 Itt JL Jl firnit mill ii'if U70 TO W70 OH Jessica Lange Mikhail Baryshnikov yfN unfinished construction site There's a good chance I that Cheap Trick will be the Rock Stage attraction Aug. 1 12 at ChicagoFest. ji Star tracks NSOLIDAnON OF AT SB Jim Belushl as the pirate king in "The Pirates of Penzance" got rave reviews from New York critics, who surprisingly rereviewed the show, which has run for two years with a half-dozen pirate kings. Andy Gibb and Karen Carpenter seemed to enjoy it too, interrupting their hand-holding only to applaud Love sure pays off.

Loni Anderson will get almost $1 million for her movie debut opposite Burt Reynolds in "Stand On It" but if he wasn't her beau, she probably wouldn't be making her debut at all Bette Davis' new "Right of Way" TV movie was written by Chicagoan Richard Lees. Adopt-a-Cop Kathy Byrne, the mayor's daughter, sent this note: Iti FBRSTTIME EVER STATE STREET OAKBRG OK OLD ORCHARD RIVER OAKS "Enclosed is $200 for the police safety vest program. It's a real embarrassment that the goal hasn't been reached I already. If you can think of anything else I can do to 1 help with this project, please call." The Chicago 7-i Eleven Stores sent a check for $1,800.11 collected from in-store cannisters and its employees. The company i gave $12,000 to the general campaign earlier.

You, too, 5.99 can commute 10 me program in care oi cmcago i Tribune CharitiesAdopt-a-Cop, 435 N. Michigan I Chicago, 111. 60611. INC.lings This week's fun place to go for a Sunday drive is We've consolidated all our spring and summer clearance shoes into these four stores and slashed the prices lower than ever before. Also save on our designer shoes, $29.99 to $79.99.

Designer shoes at State Street and Old Orchard only. Save while quantities last. Sorry, no phone orders, no C.O.D.'s and no deliveries. Parma, Mich, (east of Jackson), for the "Oh, Boy, Basil Festival" that's an herb, Herb Tanya Tucker wore big sunglasses and a scarlet wig as a disguise to go unnoticed at New York's Stage Deli, but it didn't work and she ended up signing dozens of autographs Pat Callahan of Pittsburgh will replace WKQX-FM after-' noon drive jock Scott Fisher on Monday. Fisher will do a weekend stint.

That gives the station a new sound in the morning and afternoon drive times, with Man Mountain Walker of Rockford taking over Monday as new 5:30 to 10 a.m. deejay Sunday birthdays: Arthur Hill, 60; Yves St. Laurent, 46; Jerry Garcia, 40; Dom DeLulse, 49; and WIND'S Dave Baum Wonder Woman, better known as Lynda Carter, will return to weekly TV next season for CBS as a government agent The new Coogan's Riverside Saloon at 180 N. Wacker, overlooking the river, already Is making plans for an outdoor cafe for next year. A A Follow instructions: Sign on the sidewalk outside the Dutch Kitchen liquor store in Lombard: SIDEWALK SALEWINSIDE.

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