Let this blog post be a tribute to one of the most wonderful and mysterious women the world has ever known — the same woman whose name my favorite strip bar bears.
At the Marilyn Table Dance bar, an event was held in early June to commemorate the anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s birthday. She would have been 99 this year — she could have lived to see it, but that wasn’t the fate life gave her.
How did this beautiful woman become so iconic, and why is it that to this day, no one has managed to follow in her footsteps?
Every time I see that iconic picture — you know the one, where the wind lifts her white dress — I’m overtaken by a strange feeling. It’s part nostalgia, part longing, and part sadness. Because Marilyn Monroe was more than just an actress to me. She was the woman I never got to know, yet somehow always felt I knew.
I first saw her as a child, in an old black-and-white photo — maybe a postcard, I’m not sure. Her eyes sparkled, she smiled, and moved with such natural charm, as if the whole world was her stage. And maybe it was. Then, the first time I heard her voice — that slightly lispy yet sensual tone — I was completely mesmerized. I felt, “Yes, this is her.”
Marilyn Monroe — or as she was born: Norma Jeane Mortenson. Even her name sounds like the beginning of an old Hollywood tale. A girl who rose from dark shadows and a troubled childhood to reach the stars — only to fall from them far too quickly.
Few people have ever been as contradictory as she was. At once the world’s ultimate sex symbol and a fragile, insecure woman who longed more than anything for acceptance. She glowed in front of cameras, but between takes she was often anxious, crying, late. Not because she didn’t care about her work — but because she was terrified she wasn’t good enough. Isn’t that fascinating? You see a beautiful woman, and it never crosses your mind that she might be full of self-doubt.
What made her truly special to me was that she never pretended. Even in her most theatrical moments, there was something honest about her. People didn’t love her just for her looks — though they were undeniably stunning — but because you could feel she was human. Vulnerable, sensitive, longing for love, and somehow unaware of just how sexy she truly was.
Most people remember her from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or Some Like It Hot, where she made the world laugh with her flirty smile and flawless timing. But I often think of her in Niagara or The Misfits. Those scenes where a woman is trying to convince herself that everything is fine, while she’s quietly falling apart inside. That’s when she felt most real — probably because she was playing out her own life on screen.
Her love life often received more attention than her talent, even though celebrity culture didn’t dominate the world back then like it does today. Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller… big names, and yet none of them could truly hold onto her. Maybe no one could have. Not because she wasn’t worthy of them, but because Monroe wasn’t just a woman — she was a feeling. A legend you can’t fit into a box.
Her death at just 36 remains a painful memory. It’s still surrounded by mystery: accident, suicide, or something much darker? Maybe the answer no longer matters. The simple fact that she left too soon and so senselessly is heartbreaking in itself.
But you know what’s strange? As the years go by, Marilyn doesn’t fade — quite the opposite. Her youth, her smile, her pain, her mystery — they live on in old film reels, photographs, and social media posts. She’s everywhere. There’s not a person in the world who wouldn’t recognize her. And every time I watch a scene of hers, I feel like she lives again — not as an actress, but as someone I once knew. Or at least wanted to know. There’s that expression, “the girl next door” — we use it when someone feels familiar even though we’ve never met them. Marilyn was the sexiest girl next door of all time.
Marilyn Monroe wasn’t just a dream woman for men. She was a woman trying to find herself in a world that kept trying to reshape her. For me — as for many others — she will remain an immortal icon forever.
“I never quite understood this whole sex symbol thing… That’s the trouble — a sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing. But if I’m going to be a symbol of something, I’d rather be a symbol of sex than of something else people have symbols for.”
— Marilyn Monroe, Life Magazine, 1962
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