My personal Pan Am photos are in the above trailer.
When DiMaggio visited the location of The Seven Year Itch and saw his wife standing over a subway grating, with her dress blowing up in front of 5,000 onlookers, he was outraged. Even though Marilyn wore two pairs of underwear for modesty, under the powerful movie lights, the material became quite see-through. Billy Wilder described DiMaggio’s expression as “the look of death”.
DiMaggio immediately returned to their hotel and when Marilyn returned he slapped her around. The noise of his attack was so loud that guests called the manager in fear of someone being attacked and hurt.
The next day, Marilyn’s studio hairdresser, noticed bruises on the star’s shoulders. “But we covered them with make-up,” the hairdresser said.
Three weeks later DiMaggio told a close friend, "Things got out of hand, I admit it. But she got me so angry. She didn't care what I thought about anything, she just wanted to do what she wanted to do.”
Needless to say, nine months after their wedding, Marilyn stood in front of a judge and was granted a divorce. DiMaggio didn’t show up. When asked about the divorce, Marilyn said, "Joe wanted me to be the beautiful ex-actress, just like he was the great former ballplayer. We were to ride into some sunset together. But I wasn’t ready for that kind of journey yet. I wasn’t even 30, for heaven’s sake."
Well, what began as a cute story of The Yankee Clipper flying on The Yankee Clipper, turned out to be a somewhat cautionary tale of baseball versus Hollywood. I could have ended Joe and Marilyn’s story at the point where they flew off to Japan, happily ever after. But because the image of Marilyn, with her dress flying, has become one of the top Hollywood icons that’s known even in Japan, I couldn’t leave the newlywed’s story unfinished.
This story is in my memior, I was a Pan Am Princess of the Sky available on Amazon Kindle, iTunes, & Barnes and Noble. Link below is for Amazon Kindle page. Read 20 pages free, look at the photos.
ITunes: http://goo.gl/dyNR9
Barnes and Noble Nook: http://goo.gl/5k6Tl
