New Details on Jeanne Carmen, Tony Curtis & Marilyn Monroe in American Prince: A Memoir

L-R: Jeanne Carmen, Tony Curtis, Jill Curtis
MGM Grand Hotel - Penthouse - Las Vegas

Hollywood Legend TONY CURTIS has published the book AMERICAN PRINCE: A MEMOIR: Crown Publishing Group: ISBN-13: 9780307408495

Marilyn Monroe said that when she was a child her mother had been sick. Marilyn didn’t mention her father. She had a friend named JEANNE CARMEN, a showgirl, who was very important to her, but on the whole Marilyn made it sound as if she was very isolated. We started to kiss and fondle each other, but that was the extent of the evening. At 11 o’clock, I drove her back.

I liked Marilyn very much and really enjoyed her company. She was a little odd, but so was I. We both acted very outgoing, but deep down we weren’t at ease with ourselves. Her reluctance to open up about her life just made me that much more interested in her, but the next few times I called to make a date she told me she was busy. Marilyn had been spending time at the Twentieth Century Fox studio. She was changing her style, her look, even her persona. When we had first started going out, she spoke in a normal voice, plainly and directly. Now she was learning what the public wanted, and by the end of our relationship she was beginning to talk with that breathy, sexy affectation that became her trademark. She also changed her hair colour, from red to platinum blonde.

On our next date we went for lunch at the Twentieth Century Fox commissary. That weekend I asked Howard Duff if I could use his house again. I bought a couple of steaks and picked Marilyn up at her hotel. Howard had a little grill in his garden. I cooked the steaks, opened a can of string beans, cut up some tomatoes, and uncorked a bottle of wine.

We had a leisurely dinner; then we walked outside in the moonlight. I knew something was going to happen, and so did she.

About two o’clock we went up to the bedroom, and I took off my shirt. Marilyn made herself comfortable, stripping down to her panties and bra, and sat on the edge of the bed. She was magnificent. We started to kiss and hold each other, and I undid her bra. Her breasts were every teenage boy’s fantasy come true. As we began to make love, I could tell that this was not her first time. She moved easily and seemed comfortable, which made her comfortable, too.

Something about it just seemed so right. I was bedding more than a few great-looking girls at this time in my life, but I liked Marilyn more than any of the others. She was different. She was very fragile and vulnerable, which attracted me greatly. We continued seeing each other for awhile. We would go to her friend JEANNE CARMEN’s place, or Howard’s bungalow, and once we even went to Marilyn’s hotel room. We almost never went out at night in public, though.

Marilyn was the first woman I ever truly felt close to. We had real feelings for each other, although I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, and neither was she. Neither one of us was willing – or able – to take what we had between us to the next level.

New Details on JEANNE CARMEN, MARILYN MONROE in THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Pin Up Icon Jeanne Carmen was interviewed by THE LOS ANGELES TIMES after the death of Marilyn Monroe on August 4, 1962.

In the article, the Times stated that “from other sources”—including Jeanne Carmen, housekeeper Eunice Murray and film director John Huston—a darker, more mysterious version of Monroe’s last days was already emerging.

The Times reported that Carmen was “a neighbor” of Monroe and that she had seen Marilyn two weeks earlier and had stated that Monroe “looked like death.”

After the death of Monroe, Carmen “felt her own life was in danger” because of her knowledge of Monroe’s affairs with President John F Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy.

So Carmen “skipped town” leaving Hollywood behind and landing in the small desert town of Scottsdale, Arizona where she lived incognito for over a decade.

Carmen abandoned her platinum blonde locks, had three children and lived a quiet life, never mentioning her prior life in Hollywood

Carmen would not be seen again on the big screen, TV or in print for over two decades.

Source: ^ “Housekeeper Discloses: Mystery Phone Call Received by Marilyn”, Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1962

Source: ^ ”E! True Hollywood Story” Jeanne Carmen: Queen of the B-Movies (1998) at the Internet Movie Database

www.jeannecarmen.com

New Details on JEANNE CARMEN, MARILYN MONROE in GODDESS: THE SECRET LIVES OF MARILYN MONROE

Investigative journalist Anthony Summers has published the New York Times bestseller GODDESS: THE SECRET LIVES OF MARILYN MONROE.

Among the revelations was new evidence on the long-rumored affairs between Monroe and President John F. Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Summers had tracked down Jeanne Carmen, who was then living in Newport Beach, California, and interviewed her extensively about her career and relationships with such notable Hollywood entertainers as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Monroe.

Carmen confirmed that she was present during romantic trysts between President Kennedy and Monroe that took place at Lawford’s Santa Monica beachhouse.

Carmen also confirmed that she was present during Robert F. Kennedy’s romantic trysts with Monroe and that, on a dare, the threesome ventured out to a nude beach in Malibu north of Point Dume. Kennedy wore a disguise made up of a baseball cap, sunglasses and fake goatee-style beard most likely borrowed from the studio makeup and FX department at Monroe’s studio 20th Century Fox

Source: ^ Summers, Anthony (1985). Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Macmillan Publishing Company, 25,232,252,282,330,334,348,353,354,368,369,on Monroe and drugs, 203-4,on Robert Kennedy and Monroe, 257-60. ISBN 0-451-40014-3

www.jeannecarmen.com

New Details on JEANNE CARMEN, MARILYN MONROE in MARILYN'S LAST WORDS: HER SECRET TAPES AND MYSTERIOUS DEATH

British author Matthew Smith has published the book MARILYN'S LAST WORDS: HER SECRET TAPES AND MYSTERIOUS DEATH in the United States.

The same book was published in the U.K. and in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with the title VICTIM: THE SECRET TAPES OF MARILYN MONROE.

Smith states that “Marilyn’s friend Jeanne Carmen” was aware of Marilyn’s issues with low self esteem and that Carmen believed Marilyn’s “general insecurity problem related to her lack of education” and that “a girl needs a dad to tell her she’s wonderful, and Marilyn didn’t have that.”


Carmen also said that when Marilyn was Norma Jean she was a “fun person, just an ordinary, nice person” but when she would “step over the threshold” and make the “change to Marilyn Monroe” she radiated beauty and charm and elegance. “She was a queen”.

Source: ^ Smith, Matthew (2003). Victim: The Secret Tapes Of Marilyn Monroe. Century - London, 93,125,141,145,149-51,153,159,176,247,289,291. ISBN 0-7126-6278-2

Source: ^ Smith, Matthew (2004). Marilyn’s Last Words: Her Secret Tapes and Mysterious Death. Carroll & Graf, 247. ISBN 0-7867-1380-1

http://www.jeannecarmen.com/

New Details on JEANNE CARMEN, MARILYN MONROE in PETER LAWFORD: THE MAN WHO KEPT THE SECRETS

Author James Spada has published the book Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept The Secrets.

Spada states that Jeanne Carmen was Marilyn Monroe’s “best girlfriend” and that the two women had both dated Peter Lawford and were both curious as to why Lawford never made a pass at either of them.

Carmen and Monroe considered themselves “the sexiest things on two feet” and were perplexed at Lawfords seeming indifference to there feminine charms.

Carmen had often been present at parties at the Lawford beach house in Santa Monica; parties that included “Marilyn and Jack Kennedy”.

According to Carmen “Peter introduced me to the President at the beach house.”
At the height of Marilyn’s affair with Jack Kennedy, Marilyn said to Carmen “Can’t you just see me as First Lady?”

On August 3, 1962, Marilyn told Jeanne Carmen that she “was disturbed repeatedly throughout the night” by a series of crank calls. The caller sounded like a woman and kept saying the same thing over and over: “Leave Bobby alone, you tramp. Leave Bobby alone.”

The next night on August 4, 1962, Monroe telephoned Jeanne Carmen looking for sleeping bills but Carmen “begged off” because she was too “hammered” or drunk to drive.

Monroe was found later that night dead from a drug overdose that has never been fully explained

Source: ^ Spada, James (1991). Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept The Secrets. Bantam Books, 143-44,183,301,306-8,315,317,320. ISBN 0-553-07185-8

http://www.jeannecarmen.com/

New Details on JEANNE CARMEN, JOE DIMAGGIO & MARILYN MONROE

Morris Engelberg, — Joe Dimaggio’s long time “business advisor, attorney, and confidante during the last 16 years of the ballplayers life” — has published the book Dimaggio: Setting The Record Straight.

Engelberg states that Carmen was “a longtime friend of Marilyn’s” and that Carmen “didn’t agree with the suicide theory”.

Engelberg says that Carmen had “warned Marilyn” about her “gangster friends”, “especially Johnny Rosselli” because of his close ties to Mob boss Sam Giancana

Source: ^ Engelberg, Morris (2003). Dimaggio: Setting The Record Straight. MBI Publishing Company, 279-80. ISBN 0-7603-1482-9

http://www.jeannecarmen.com/

New Details on JEANNE CARMEN & MARILYN MONROE in THE MEN WHO MURDERED MARILYN

British Investigative journalist Matthew Smith has published the book The Men Who Murdered Marilyn in Britain.

Smith stated that Jeanne Carmen was Marilyn's “friend and neighbor” when she lived in an apartment on Doheny drive in West Hollywood.

Smith also stated that Marilyn had received a series of disturbing phone calls the night of August 3 and into the wee hours.

The caller repeatedly told Marilyn to “‘Leave Bobby alone you tramp’ or something similar”.

Marilyn called Carmen to tell her about the phone calls early the next morning.

According to Smith, “Marilyn’s early morning call to Jeanne Carmen speaks reams for their friendship”.

Source: ^ Smith, Matthew (1996). The Men Who Murdered Marilyn. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 23, 203-04. ISBN 0-7475-2722-9

www.jeannecarmen.com