no there was no wake or memorial
of any "hollywood" kind. joe dimaggio made all of the arrangements for marilyn's funeral with help from marilyn's half sister and her former business manager. most of hollywood including the majority of marilyn's friends and past lovers were excluded including frank sinatra, dean martin and the rest of the sinatra clan that marilyn had been close to in her previous months. frank sinatra especially had been a lover the year before and always did everything to help her when she needed it!
the 24 people he allowed to attend her memorial at westwood cemetary included her psychiatrist and his family (the Greensons), who marilyn had become a regular house guest to, her publicist pat newcomb, her housekeeper mrs. murray, joe dimaggio's son, the strassbergs from new york (marilyn's acting coach and another extended family) and a few other non hollywood friends, her lawyer, other business associates,
her massuer ralph roberts, her wardrobe assistant. lee strassberg gave her eulogy and judy garland's "over the rainbow" was played as it was one of marilyn's favorite songs.
excluded friends were beyond shock that they could not attend her funeral, some more livid than others. some simply sad. frank sinatra, ella fitzgerald and sammy davis jr. tried to bully their way in using their own security to no avail.
it was especially sad that her best friend robert slatzer whom she knew since the late 40's was not allowed to attend. he was one of her biggest allies and spend the rest of his life investigating her murder. he stood outside the gates with walter winchell and remarked that the only people allowed at her funeral were "strangers, strangers who worked for her". no one tried to seriously confront joe dimaggio as he was stedfast in this decision to exclude the hollywood crowd that he felt had only harmed her. he was particulariy vocal about the mandate that "none of those damn kennedys attend". he felt they were involved in her death. if only he knew then what we know now! maybe he did! marilyn had voiced her concerns and fears to more than a few close friends in her final days! she had confided to robert slatzer the week before she died on the beach at malibu, knowing that her phone was bugged and probably her home. his reply to her was "that kind of information can get you killed". the night of her death she talked to sidney guilaroff about her problems with bobby kennedy and he was shocked. she ended the conversation telling him "you know sidney, i know a lot of secrets about the kennedys". "what kind of secrets" he asked. "dangerous one's" was marilyn's reply as she hung up the phone. jose bolanos, a mexican screenwriter who had been a lover earlier that year and escorted her to the golden globe awards remarked after her death that he had been the last person to talk to marilyn the night she died. he said that "marilyn told me something that will one day shock the entire world". now we know that he was most probably referring to marilyn's knowledge of the then top secret "operation mongoose" cia/ mafia plan to assassinate fidel castro. bobby kennedy had made her privy to this information and i believe it is directly related to her murder. it is what robert slatzer was referring to when he told her "that kind of information can get you killed". soviet news agency tass concurred with this theory when after marilyn died it published a news item stating "marilyn was killed by the cia because she planned to expose the plot to assassinate fidel castro". as norman mailer wrote in his 1972 biography "marilyn" "high stakes were riding on her life, even higher stakes on her death". people thought he was crazy at the time, now they don't. and now we know that jose bolanos was indeed the last person to talk to marilyn that night as she put the phone down to answer her front door and never returned, just as he stated!
this is a very emotional subject for me, i could go on, evidence after evidence, fact after fact! but back to her funeral.
the decision was made to use the wig from the misfits by marilyn's makeup artist whitey snyder and his fiance marjorie pletcher who had the heartbreaking task of making her up for her funeral. marilyn had asked whitey to do it for her years ago and he did not let her down.sidney guilaroff had orgionally shown up to do her hair but on seeing marilyn's remains after autopsy fainted on the floor. so whitey and his future wife (who had both just been to marilyn's house the previous wedesday for a cookout to celebrate her new million dollar contract on "somethings got to give" and "what a way to go") decided to use that wig when attempts to style her own post autopsy formaldehyde soaked hair had failed.
anyone who has seen that autopsy photo can see why that wig was used and why sidney guilaroff fainted. it was a shocking picture! marjorie pletcher did manage to joke a bit with her future husband that if marilyn could see herself with no breasts she would die! they cut up a cushion to make marilyn a bosom for her funeral. the green pucci dress selected had a very high neckline.
all in all extermely sad for all of marilyn's close friends to be excluded from her funeral and for whitey and marjorie especially to have to make her up dead when only a week before they had been celebrating with her in life!
and for joe dimaggio it was extremely painful in spite of whether he did the right thing or not with her funeral. he spend the night before her funeral at her coffin side on his knees and ofcourse we all know he sent roses to her crypt 3 times a week for the next 20 years, only stopping due to expense later in his life. robert slatzer took over by sending white roses after dimaggio stopped. both joe dimaggio and robert slatzer carried her torch and memory till their dying day! her friends who are still alive still speak of her with the utmost respect and love! and more often than not with tears.
so these people who want to sell the crypt above her and the people who dream of buying it know nothing of the real marilyn monroe! her life or her death! that's my take on it, some may disagree, it's ok! `