Marilyn Monroe's personal working
script for "How
To Marry A Marry A Millionaire" dated 5 November 1952,
annotated in Marilyn Monroe's hand. 119 pages of mimeographed
typescript with blue paper covers printed with the film's original
title The Greeks Had a Word For It, including several pages
of script revisions.
Many pages have the part for Marilyn's character "Pola" circled in pencil, the reverse of the last page annotated in
Monroe's hand in pencil:
"Anna, know my yaps, How does
she look, a loose-ness, shoulders hang, let the thought say it,
drawing from partner."
From "Marilyn Monroe"
A Biography by Maurize Zolotow, Page 176:
"The studio had paid Doris Lilly, a society authoress, $50,000 for
the movie rights to a work of non-fiction, How To Marry A
Millionaire. Assigned to do something about this expensive
property, (Nunnally) Johnson set to work employing bits and pieces
of characters and plot from two Broadway Plays, The Greeks Had A
Word for It (by Zoe Atkins) and Loco (by Katherine and
Dale Eunson). Johnson spliced it all with his own sardonic
wit. The result was a flashing comedy of modern manners that
retained only the title of Miss Lylly's vade maecum (pocket
reference)."
Twentieth Century-Fox brought out big
guns Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall to star with Marilyn in this
story of gold diggers prospecting to catch a rich husband. The
studio was keen to show off its top three stars in the first
wide-screen Cinemascope movie ever made (though it came out after
the second, The Robe, a religious-themed movie starring
Richard Burton and Jean Simmons). Writer Nunnally Johnson
claimed that he adapted the characters to match the personalities of
the three stars.
Although the studio tried to arouse
press interest with stories about intense rivalry between chief
blondes Grable and Monroe, the actresses got on well behind the
scenes. By all accounts Grable graciously handed over her
mantle after ten years as the nation's sweetheart.
Marilyn was originally drawn to Loco,
the character Grable played, because she didn't like the idea of her
character Pola wearing glasses. Director Jean Negulesco
persuaded her that this was the best part. He was right.
The comic possibilities of severe myopia earned Marilyn a number of
favorable notices about her comedic touch. Marilyn, though,
did not regard this movie performance as one of her best. When
she asked the director what the motivation for her character was, he
replied, "You're as blind as a bat without glasses. That is
your motivation." This was not enough to satisfy Marilyn's
ambition to throw her all into her work.
Marilyn knew she had made it to the
very top of the trade with the movie's premiere. It took over
six hours of hard work by William Travilla, Alan "Whitey" Snyder,
and Gladys Rasmussen to prepare her for her entrance. She was
sewn into a dress borrowed from the studio wardrobe: a flesh-colored
crepe de chine and shimmering sequins. Marilyn wore long white
evening gloves, and a white fox stole and
muff.
Within
a few months of opening, the film had grossed five times
its extravagant budget of $2.5
million. Film Reviews:
New York Daily News
"Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall and
Marilyn Monroe give off the quips and cracks, generously supplied by
Nunnally Johnson, with a naturalness that adds to their strikingly
humorous effect, making the film the funniest comedy of the year"
New York Herald Tribune
"The big question, 'How does Marilyn
Monroe look stretched across a broad screen?' is easily answered.
If you insisted on sitting in the front row, you would probably feel
as though you were being smothered in baked Alaska. Her stint
as a deadpan comedienne
is as nifty as her looks. Playing a
near-sighted charmer who won't wear her glasses when men are around,
she bumps into furniture and reads books upside down with a limpid
guile that nearly melts the screen....How To Marry A Millionaire
is measured, not in squire feet, but in the size of the
Johnson-Negulesco comic invention and the shape of Marilyn Monroe -
and that is about as sizable and shapely as you can get."
New York Post
"It is particularly noteworthy that
Miss Monroe has developed more than a small amount of comedy polish
of the foot-in-mouth type."
Provenance: Christie's
New York: Film and Entertainment Auction, June 22, 2006
Within
a few months of opening, the film had grossed five times 
