‘America’s sweetheart’: exhibition explores Marilyn Monroe’s complex relationship to stardom

There’s an unsettling moment in Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon, a new exhibition opening in Los Angeles this weekend, where some of the star’s last recorded words emanate from the gallery walls. Her voice, gentle and unassuming, is taken from a restored audio recording of her final interview, published in Life magazine the day before she died. “With fame, you can read about yourself and somebody else’s ideas about you, but what’s important is how you feel about you, for survival and living day to day with oneself,” Marilyn Monroe said in 1962. “I like people, but the public scares me.” It’s a moment that encapsulates Monroe’s complex relationship to stardom and the tension between her public and private lives.

‘America’s sweetheart’: exhibition explores Marilyn Monroe’s complex relationship to stardom. There’s an unsettling moment in Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon, a new exhibition opening in Los Angeles this weekend, where some of the star’s last recorded words emanate from the gallery walls. Her voice, gentle and unassuming, is taken from a restored audio recording of her final interview, published in Life magazine the day before she died. “With fame, you can read about yourself and somebody else’s ideas about you, but what’s important is how you feel about you, for survival and living day to day with oneself,” Marilyn Monroe said in 1962. “I like people, but the public scares me.” It’s a moment that encapsulates Monroe’s complex relationship to stardom and the tension between her public and private lives. And while the exhibition is packed w...