Norma Jean: My Secret Life With Marilyn Monroe

Rating:
Summary: Norma Jean: MySecret Life With Marilyn Monroe
Review: I have read this book when it first came out. As I know Ted Jordan (Eddie Friedman) He was a great guy, his father was the brother of Ted Lewis. Knowing he was acting in Hollywood during the period of time in the book, I do not doubt the verasity of the book. I think it is well written, and my wife and I both enjoyed it. We feel that the wild "goings on" back in those Hollywood days are well documented in Ted's book.

Rating:
Summary: Norma Jean: MySecret Life With Marilyn Monroe
Review: I have read this book when it first came out. As I know Ted Jordan (Eddie Friedman) He was a great guy, his father was the brother of Ted Lewis. Knowing he was acting in Hollywood during the period of time in the book, I do not doubt the verasity of the book. I think it is well written, and my wife and I both enjoyed it. We feel that the wild "goings on" back in those Hollywood days are well documented in Ted's book.

Rating:
Summary: Truth and Love
Review: I was deeply moved by this book and would like to thank the author somehow for 'putting it all out there'. Behind every great man is a great woman. Thanks Ted!

Rating:
Summary: an unkind portrayal
Review: This particular biography of Marilyn Monroe sometimes seems plausible in dialogue and description, but a few of the events seem exaggerated and contrived. Ted Jordan is another person who claims to have been Marilyn's lover, secret boyfriend, and confidant throughout her entire career. I can't help comparing it to Robert Slatzer's _The Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe_ because he claims EXACTLY the same things in his book, portraying himself as the most important person in her life with even less corroboration than Ted provides. In fact, the two books often directly contradict each other. For example, Bob claims that Marilyn had no interest in finding her father because she knew him to be her mother's former husband Ed Mortenson, who died in a motorcycle accident; Ted writes that Marilyn (or Norma Jean, as he calls her all the way through-- without the "e") knew the identity of her father to be her mother's co-worker, C. Stanley Gifford. Both men say they knew her so well... is one or both of them lying? (I think it is more likely to be Bob Slatzer who is lying, as his book reads as one long fantasy that he created in his head. ) And if about that, what else? _My Secret Life_ makes a lot of outrageous claims, including Marilyn having a lesbian affair with his stripper wife, Marilyn aborting their baby, and Marilyn calling him on the night of her death. The uncomfortable thing to me is how Jordan portrays her as a horribly ambitious, mentally ill prostitute, repeating several times that she had no talent and used everyone to get what she wanted. Maybe some of that is true, but in a book such as this one (as well as _The Mysterious Death of_), the reader never knows WHAT to believe.

Rating:
Summary: an unkind portrayal
Review: This particular biography of Marilyn Monroe sometimes seems plausible in dialogue and description, but a few of the events seem exaggerated and contrived. Ted Jordan is another person who claims to have been Marilyn's lover, secret boyfriend, and confidant throughout her entire career. I can't help comparing it to Robert Slatzer's _The Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe_ because he claims EXACTLY the same things in his book, portraying himself as the most important person in her life with even less corroboration than Ted provides. In fact, the two books often directly contradict each other. For example, Bob claims that Marilyn had no interest in finding her father because she knew him to be her mother's former husband Ed Mortenson, who died in a motorcycle accident; Ted writes that Marilyn (or Norma Jean, as he calls her all the way through-- without the "e") knew the identity of her father to be her mother's co-worker, C. Stanley Gifford. Both men say they knew her so well... is one or both of them lying? (I think it is more likely to be Bob Slatzer who is lying, as his book reads as one long fantasy that he created in his head. ) And if about that, what else? _My Secret Life_ makes a lot of outrageous claims, including Marilyn having a lesbian affair with his stripper wife, Marilyn aborting their baby, and Marilyn calling him on the night of her death. The uncomfortable thing to me is how Jordan portrays her as a horribly ambitious, mentally ill prostitute, repeating several times that she had no talent and used everyone to get what she wanted. Maybe some of that is true, but in a book such as this one (as well as _The Mysterious Death of_), the reader never knows WHAT to believe.