The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story by Keith Badman Page B

own heads examined.
    And so, at five o’clock on Friday evening, when the majority of the waiting press hounds had seemingly gone home for the night, Joe began the daunting process of transferring his former wife from one hospital to another. However, their attempts to flee the building were hampered by two ever-vigilant members of the American paparazzi. Journal-American photographer John Dolan hid himself in the hospital’s back entrance, while reporter James Clarity held position in the hospital’s lobby. His persistent patrolling of the foyer was enough to hinder DiMaggio in his attempt to abscond. When the baseball legend caught sight of the reporter patiently patrolling his patch, he immediately turned on his tracks, returned inside and was forced to flee in a freshly hailed taxi.
    Following Joe’s tip-off, an emotionally distraught Marilyn was forced to escape from the hospital through a maze of underground tunnels to another exit. This in turn led to a parking lot to where a limousine was waiting, motor running, to whisk her to her next destination, the New York Central Park West home of Lee and Paula Strasberg. Their daughter Susan recalled Monroe’s visit that day. ‘I saw her face just after she had been released from that New York mental clinic. There was an expression of amazement on her face as she talked. She said, “I was always afraid I was crazy like my mother but when I got in that psycho ward I realised they were really insane and I just had a lot of problems.”’
    Following her brief meeting with the Strasbergs, Marilyn travelled on to the far less intimidating Neurological Institute of New York, at Fort Washington Avenue and West 168th Street. There, for the next 22 days, she rested in a private room to which her maid Lena Pepitone would regularly drop in soup, pasta, chocolate pudding and a fresh nightgown, and which DiMaggio would visit daily and decorate with fresh red roses.
    Following her hasty departure from Payne-Whitney, the waiting paparazzi were left completely in the dark as to Monroe’s next destination. Innumerable phone calls to all the nearby hospitals and clinics were made by the news-hungry media. However, their attempts to find news of the actress’s current whereabouts were thoroughly fruitless. For the first time in many years, Marilyn had, albeit temporarily, successfully managed to evade the nation’s reporters. For 19 long hours, the whereabouts of the world’s most famous film star were completely shrouded in secrecy.
    The ambiguity finally concluded at midday on Saturday 11 February, when a Columbia Medical Center spokesman announced that Marilyn had indeed been admitted there. In an exercise of damage limitation, a now fully clued-up John Springer moved swiftly to announce that ‘Miss Monroe was in the hospital for a complete psychical checkup. She is feeling well and is expected that her stay will not be prolonged.’ DiMaggio, along with Lee and Paula Strasberg, visited the actress on Sunday 12 February. With a large bunch of flowers resting firmly in his arms, DiMaggio forcibly informed reporters camped outside the building that the ‘exaggerated reports’ of her illness had ‘distressed’ her, adding, ‘She is suffering from nothing more than exhaustion following completion of two movies.’
    Marilyn’s time at the hospital was indeed restful but it was also costly. Surviving hospital bills show that, on Thursday 23 February, the costs of a hired television, round-the-clock nurse and telephone calls to California came to a total of $1,113.38. Thanks to DiMaggio’s dinner and even more calls to Los Angeles, her bill the following day increased to $1,466.00.
    Friends naturally rallied round. On Monday 27 February, the actress received a most uplifting telegram from Marlon Brando. In full it read, ‘Dear Marilyn, The best reappraisals are borne in the worst crisis. It has happened to all of us in relative degrees. Be glad for it and don’t be afraid of