FRANK LLOYD WRIG H T

designs a house for

MARILYN M O N RO E
The Plaza Hotel, Fifth Avenue, New York Autumn 1957 One afternoon in the autumn of 1957, the most venerated architect in America, Frank Lloyd Wright, now aged ninety, is working in his suite in the Plaza Hotel, New York, when the doorbell rings. It is Marilyn Monroe, come to ask him to design a house. Since their marriage in June 1956, Arthur Miller and his bride Marilyn Monroe have been based at Millers modest two-storey country house near Roxbury, Connecticut. Dating from 1783, it has 325 acres of land planted with fruit trees. A verandah at the back looks out across endless hills. A short walk from the house is a swimming pond, with clear spring water. It is just right for Miller, who likes to live in the countryside, away from the flash world of celebrity, and is known to be careful with money. But Marilyn has other plans. She loves to spend, and has firm ideas about what is glamorous and what is not. Her self-esteem is bound up with her ability to splash out: she craves nothing but the best. Like so many men, Frank Lloyd Wright is immediately taken with Marilyn.* He ushers her into a separate room, away from his wife and his staff, and listens intently as she describes the sort of home she has in mind. It is spectacularly lavish. Once she has left, Wright dips into his archives and digs out an abandoned plan for a building he drew up eight years earlier: a luxury manor house for a wealthy Texan couple. The parsimonious Miller is taken aback when he hears of Marilyns grandiose vision for their new home. That we could not really afford all of her ideas I did my best not to dramatize, but it was inevitable that some
* Later, when cheekily asked on a talk show, What do you think of Miss Monroe as architec- ture? Wright replies, I think Miss Monroes architecture is extremely good architecture.

67

One on One.indd 67

F R A N K L L O Y D W R I G H T + M A R I LY N M O N R OE

of my concern showed. When she tells him the name of the architect, Millers heart sinks. But he bites his lip, hoping good sense will prevail. It had to seem like ingratitude to question whether we could ever begin to finance any Wright design, since much like her, he had little interest in costs. I could only give him his day and let her judge whether it was beyond our means or not. One grey autumn morning, the Millers drive Frank Lloyd Wright to Roxbury. Wright is wearing a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. He curls up in the back seat and sleeps throughout the two-hour journey. The three of them enter the old house together. Wright looks around the living room, and, in what Miller describes as a tone reminiscent of W.C. Fieldss nasal drawl, says disparagingly, Ah, yes, the old house. Dont put a nickel in it. They sit down to a lunch of smoked salmon. Wright refuses any pepper. Never eat pepper, he says. The stuff will kill you before your time. Avoid it. After lunch, Marilyn remains in the house while the two men trudge half a mile up the steep hill to the crest on which the new house is to be built. Wright never stops to catch his breath: Miller is impressed. At the crest, Wright turns towards the magnificent view, unbuttons his fly and urinates, sighing, Yes. Yes indeed. He glances about for a few seconds, then leads the way back down the hill. Before they go back into the house, Miller steals a quick private word with Wright. I thought the time had come to tell him something he had never bothered to ask, that we expected to live fairly simply and were not looking for some elaborate house with which to impress the world. The message is plural, but it should have been singular. An elaborate house with which to impress the world is, in a nutshell, just what Marilyn is after, which is why she hired Frank Lloyd Wright in the first place. But Wright affects not to hear. I saw that this news had not the slightest interest for him, says Miller. A few days later, Miller visits the Plaza Hotel alone. Wright shows him a watercolour of his extravagant plan: a circular living room with a dropped centre surrounded by five-foot-thick ovoid columns made of sandstone with a domed ceiling sixty feet in diameter, rounded off with a seventy-foot-long swimming pool with fieldstone sides jutting out from the incline of the hill. Miller looks at it in horror, mentally totting up the
68

One on One.indd 68

F R A N K L L O Y D W R I G H T + M A R I LY N M O N R OE

cost. He notes with indignation that Wright has added a final flourish to his painting a huge limousine in the curved driveway, complete with a uniformed chauffeur. Miller asks the cost. Wright mentions $250,000, but Miller doesnt believe him: it might cover the cost of the swimming pool, if that. He also notes that Wrights pleasure dream of Marilyn allowed him to include in this monster of a structure only a single bedroom and a small guestroom, but he did provide a large conference room complete with a long board- room-type table flanked by a dozen high-backed chairs, the highest at the head, where he imagined she would sit like the reigning queen of a small country, Denmark, say.* The marriage goes from bad to worse. Miller and Monroe have nothing to say to each other. He makes me think Im stupid. Im afraid to bring things up, because maybe I am stupid. Marilyn adds that Im in a fucking prison and my jailer is named Arthur Miller Every morning he goes into that goddamn study of his, and I dont see him for hours and hours. I mean, what the fuck is he doing in there? And there I am, just sitting around; I havent a goddamn thing to do. Miller fails to give the go-ahead to Wright, who dies in April 1959. Miller and Monroe divorce in 1961; Monroe dies in August 1962. Thirty years later, the plans are dusted off and enlarged. Marilyns dream home finally emerges as a $35-million golf clubhouse in Hawaii, complete wtih banqueting rooms, a mens locker room and a Japanese furo bath with a soaking pool, not to mention seated showers.

* Wright also incorporates an elaborate nursery suite in his plans, but thirty years later Miller fails to mention this detail in his autobiography.

69

One on One.indd 69

M A R I LY N M O N R O E + N I K I TA K H R U S H C H E V

MARILYN M O N RO E
wears her tig htest, sexiest dress for

NIKITA K H RU S H C H E V
The Caf de Paris, Hollywood September 19th 1959 In her bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Marilyn Monroe is preparing to meet the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. When she was first invited, his name hadnt rung a bell, and she wasnt keen to go. It was only when her studio told her that in Russia, America meant two things, Coca-Cola and Marilyn Monroe, that she changed her mind. She loved hearing that, recalls Lena Pepitone, her maid. Marilyn tells Lena that the studio wants her to wear her tightest, sexiest dress. I guess theres not much sex in Russia, she concludes. Her preparations are lengthy and elaborate, involving a masseuse, a hairdresser and a make-up artist. When they are halfway through, the president of Twentieth Century-Fox, Spyros Skouras, arrives, just to make sure that, for once in her life, Marilyn will be on time. As agreed, she squeezes into a low-cut, skin-tight black lace dress. Her chauffeur drops her at the studio before noon. The parking lot is empty. We must be late! It must be over! gasps Marilyn. In fact, they are far too early.* Nikita Khrushchevs American tour has had more than its share of ups and downs. He is a temperamental character, apt to flair up at the slightest provocation. Perhaps because of this, the American media cannot get enough of him. Its Khrush, Khrushy, Khrushchev! writes a columnist for the New York Daily News. The fellows all over the dials these days The pudgy Soviet dictator is smiling, laughing, scowling, shaking his forefinger or clenching his iron fist. Others have been less generous. A rival column- ist in the New York Mirror describes him as a rural dolt unwittingly proving a case against himself and his system. The three main television
* Hearing this, Marilyns long-suffering director Billy Wilder remarks that Khrushchev should direct her next picture.

networks show live coverage of his visit, repeating it every night in

M A R I LY N M O N R O E + N I K I TA K H R U S H C H E V special thirty-minute bulletins. He is followed everywhere by 342 reporters and photographers, the largest travelling media group the world has ever known. On the fifth day of his tour, Khrushchev arrives in Los Angeles, in time for lunch for four hundred people at Twentieth Century-Fox. There has been such demand for places that spouses have been banned unless they also happen to be stars. There are one or two couples Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh but they are few and far between. Khrushchev enters a packed room. Everyone who is anyone is here: Edward G. Robinson, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chevalier, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Mrs Khrushchev is seated between Bob Hope and Gary Cooper. Conversation proves stilted. Why dont you move out here? Youll like the climate, suggests Cooper. No, replies Mrs Khrushchev. Moscow is all right for me. Khrushchev is on the top table, next to Skouras. Lunch has its awkward moments. When Khrushchev is told that his spur-of-the-moment request to visit Disneyland has been turned down, owing to security worries, he sends the American Ambassador to the UN a furious note. I understand you have cancelled the trip to Disneyland. I am most displeased. The after-lunch speeches are awkward. Khrushchev heckles Skouras during his speech of welcome, and further heckles Henry Cabot Lodge as he speaks of Americas affection for Russian culture. Have you seen They Fought for Their Homeland? he yells. It is based on a novel by Mikhail Sholokhov. No. Well, buy it. You should see it. In his own speech, Khrushchev grows very bullish. I have a question for you. Which country has the best ballet? Yours?! You do not even have a permanent opera and ballet theatre! Your theatres thrive on what is given to them by rich people! In our country, it is the state that gives the money! And the best ballet is in the Soviet Union! It is our pride! After going on like this for forty-five minutes, he suddenly seems to remember something. Just now, I was told that I could not go to

71

One on One.indd 71

M A R I LY N M O N R O E + N I K I TA K H R U S H C H E V

Disneyland. I asked, Why not? What is it? Do you have rocket-launching pads there? Just listen to what I was told: We which means the American authorities cannot guarantee your security there. What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there? Have gangsters taken hold of the place? He punches the air, and starts to look angry. Thats the situation I find myself in. For me, such a situation is inconceivable. I cannot find words to explain this to my people! At last he sits down. The Hollywood audience applauds. As he is being shown to the sound stage to watch the movie Can-Can being filmed,* he recognises Marilyn Monroe and darts over to shake her hand. All wideeyed, Marilyn delivers a line that Natalie Wood, a fluent Russian speaker, has coached her to say. For once, she gets it right first time: We the workers of Twentieth Century-Fox rejoice that you have come to visit our studio and country. Khrushchev seems to appreciate her effort. He looked at me the way a man looks on a woman, she recalls. Youre a very lovely young lady, he says, squeezing her hand. My husband, Arthur Miller, sends you his greeting. There should be more of this kind of thing. It would help both our countries understand each other. Afterwards, Marilyn Monroe enthuses, This is about the biggest day in the history of the movie business. But when she gets back home, she has changed her tune. He was fat and ugly and had warts on his face and he growled, she tells Lena. Who would want to be a Communist with a President like that? But she is pretty sure that the Premier enjoyed their meeting. I could tell Khrushchev liked me. He smiled more when he was introduced to me
* Throughout the racy can-can routine, involving a male dancer diving under the skirt of Shirley MacLaine and emerging holding her red knickers, the Russian Premier appears to be having a whale of a time, but he later denounces it as immoral, pornographic exploitation, adding that a persons face is more beautiful than his backside. Her husband Arthur Miller, who was not invited, gives a rather diplomatic account of Marilyns opinion of Khrushchev in his autobiography. The Soviet chairman was very obviously smitten with her, and she in turn liked him for his plainness, he writes. Millers achievements are in many ways overshadowed by his association with Marilyn. When Arthur Miller shook my hand I could only think that this was the hand that had once cupped the breasts of Marilyn Monroe, recalls Barry Humphries in July 2010.

72

One on One.indd 72

M A R I LY N M O N R O E + N I K I TA K H R U S H C H E V

than for anybody else at the whole banquet. And everybody else was there. He squeezed my hand so long and so hard that I thought he would break it. I guess it was better than having to kiss him.

From HELLO GOODBYE HELLO by Craig Brown. Copyright 2012 by Craig Brown. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.