Rating: 
Summary: Reckless Disregard for the Truth in Journalism & abusive too
Review: A most abusive writer who filled his bio with blatent lies about persons who knew MM & loved her.In doing so, he filled his book with misinformation and virtual heresay to his own delight and did not include so-called "documents" or any other "proof" of claims he made. Claims made by this biographer do not make it the truth. What you are reading here are only the allegations made by Spoto stated as "fact" and "words" or "heresay" by persons bitter toward MM's memory who did not REALLY know her well OR AT ALL. Info that would have been enlightening & truthful, was PURPOSELY deleted from this book. This was an obvious effort to discredit other authors as well as Robert Slatzer & the tireless efforts he has made to bring the truth of Marilyn's life and death to light. Persons who knew her well know that she was a delightful, creative, loving & generous person who had the unfortunate habit of surrounding herself with a lot of people who only used her to make money or for their own personal reasons. Misinformation Spoto put in his book included, lying about Bebe Goddard (She's misquoted), Doc Goddard (Doc did not molest Norma Jeane), Gladys Baker (hearsay tales do not make a woman a tramp) & others. Spoto also claims MM had appointment with Mama Jean Bellos, Jean Harlow's mom, but alas Donald, she died years before. This information could have easily been verified by Spoto had he even bothered to check Jean Bellos's death certificate, & is also found in libraries & in Bio's on Jean Harlow! According to Pat Newcomb, she in fact, WAS NOT A CLOSE FRIEND OF MM. She WAS an EMPLOYEE/FRIEND who did spend time with MM but WAS NOT A CLOSE 'CONFIDANTE'of Marilyn's. Evelyn Moriarity's relationship with MM is overstated. Spoto Was in fact sued by Tony Summers & others for libel. Why bother with rehashed material, gossip & lies. This author attempted to Put RFK on a pedestal where he does not belong. The discrediting of others including MM makes for poor reading material & a terrible waste of young minds. This tome was about total self-gratification & only serves to glorify the author & his so-called "followers". Read Donald Wolfe's, "The Last Days Of Marilyn Monroe", or "Goddess", if you can't find a copy of the Robert Slatzer effort; "The Life & Curious Death Of Marilyn Monroe", published in 1974. Publisher's were more cautious about what they printed back then & authors wrote about their subjects & did not rely on the trashing of other authors or the loved ones, or relatives of their subject. Spoto included persons as so-called "authorities" on this subject who pacified his own needs and provided him with this concoction of misinformation. Shame on you Donald Spoto for what you did to MM's memory & the memory of her mother, foster sister, real friends and loved ones. Donald Spoto has shown total disrespect for his subject and the memories of those who cared and still care about Norma Jeane Mortenson, aka, The Late Marilyn Monroe. Reckless disregard for the truth in Journalism should never be encouraged.
Rating: 
Summary: It Has Its Points...
Review: A surprisingly well-balanced biography of a woman who's had way too many biographies written, most of them fluff-headed trash. Spoto gives a good, well-researched and not too heavy-breathing look at Monroe's life and career, though he does over-estimate her talents (she was quite good in some roles, but here she can do no wrong). It's towards the end of this book that Spoto loses his grip, giving us his highly unlikely version of Monroe's death (the Fatal Enema, believe it or not). It's no siller than her death at the hands of the Kennedys, the Mafia, the FBI or, for all I know, Elvis, but still. . .All in all, though, it's by no means a bad book and any Monroe fan should give it a look.
Rating:
Summary: A WELL EXECUTED MYTH BY A TYPIST WHO CLAIMS TO BE AN AUTHOR
Review: AFTER HAVING READ THE MAJORITY OF IMPORTANT BIOS ON MM'S LIFE, I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT DONALD SPOTO HAD THE ULTIMATE ADVANTAGE OF STEALING FACTS PREVIOUSLY UNCOVERED BY OTHER BIOGRAPHERS AND TWISTING THE FACTS TO SUIT HIS VERSION OF WHAT HE WANTS THE WORLD THINK HAPPENED TO MM. CASE IN POINT, BEBE GODDARD,A VERY NICE PERSON WAS HEARTBROKEN OVER THE LIES SPOTO TOLD ABOUT HER FATHER AND NORMA JEANE.DOC GODDARD NEVER MOLESTED NORMA JEANE, THAT'S A LOT OF BOLONEY. SPOTO CLAIMED MARILYN HAD AN APPOINTMENT WITH JEAN HARLOW'S MOTHER, KNOWN AS MAMA JEAN, ON MONDAY, AUGUST 6TH. BUT MAMA JEAN DIED BACK IN THE 1950'S. IT'S ON HER DEATH CERTIFICATE. EVELYN MORIARITY HAS CHANGED HER STORY SINCE HER FIRST INTERVIEW JUST AFTER MARILYN'S DEATH. OTHER FABRICATIONS INCLUDE THE LIES SPOTO TELLS ABOUT SLATZER.AT LEAST SLATZER KNEW HIS SUBJECT WELL AND HAS DEDICATED MUCH OF HIS LIFE TO HER MEMORY AND TO SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT HER DEATH. SPOTO'S CLAIMS DEBUNKING SLATZER'S MARRIAGE WERE MADE BY WILL FOWLER & JOE JASGUAR; NEITHER OF WHOM WERE IN ANY POSITION TO KNOW WHAT SLATZER OR MM DID IN 1952 (FOWLER, WHO CLAIMS, BUT DID NOT GHOST-WRITE SLATZER'S BOOK; THE LIFE & CURIOUS DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE,NEVER MET MARILYN. JASGUR, ALLEGES HE SHOT MODELING PHOTOS OF NORMA JEANNE IN THE LATE 1940'S.IN SOME OF THESE PHOTOS WHICH WERE TAKEN AT THE BEACH OF NORMA JEANE & ACTORS FROM A LOCAL PLAYHOUSE,THERE IS A MAN WEARING A SUIT WHO APPEARS TO BE ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPHER. TO MY KNOWLEDGE, THIS MAN HAS NEVER BEEN IDENTIFIED. DOES ANYONE EVER RECALL SEEING ANY OF JASGUR'S PHOTOS OF NORMA JEANE ON ANY MAGAZINE COVERS OR ADS FROM THE 1940'S?). IN SLATZER'S LAWSUIT AGAINST SPOTO, BOTH FOWLER & JASGUR LIED ABOUT KID CHISSELL.JASGUAR COULDN'T EVEN IDENTIFY CHISSEL'S PHOTOGRAPH AND KNEW LITTLE ABOUT HIM. IN SPOTO'S INTERVIEW TAPES OF PAT NEWCOMB, WHITEY SNYDER AND OTHERS,YOU WILL NOT HEAR WHITEY SNYDER OR PAT NEWCOMB SAY ANYTHING DERROGATORY ABOUT SLATZER OR DEBUNK HIS MARRIAGE TO MM. IN THE SPOTO INTERVIEW WITH WHITEY SNYDER,WHEN SNYDER MENTIONED THE NAMES OF SLATZER & BOBBY KENNEDY, THE TAPE GOES BLANK. SPOTO CLAIMED THE TAPE JUST RAN OUT.CONVENIENT. PAT NEWCOMB, WHEN DEPOSED, STATED UNDER OATH SPOTO NEVER ASKED HER ABOUT SLATZER. HOWEVER,ON THE SPOTO/NEWCOMB INTERVIEW TAPES AT THE ACADEMY LIBRARY IN L.A., PAT LISTENS WHILE SPOTO TELLS HER ASSORTED LIES ABOUT SLATZER AND OTHERS.THIS AUTHOR PRESENTED NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE THAT MM AND JOE WERE TO BE REMARRIED.I UNDERSTAND FROM RELIABLE SOURCES, SPOTO DID NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ALL THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF MARILYN MONROE AS HE CLAIMED.HE DID NOT PRESENT LIMOUSINE RECEIPTS OR ANY OTHER RECEIPTS THAT PROVED SLATZER OR ANYONE ELSE WAS LYING.THE MM TELEPHONE BOOKS WERE THE SECRETARIAL PHONE BOOKS, NOT PERSONAL ONES.THE SO-CALLED SMOKING GUN CHECK THAT PROVED SLATZER DIDN'T MARRY MM, WAS A XEROX COPY OF A CHECK THAT HAD OBVIOUSLY BEEN ALTERED.IF SPOTO HAD REAL PROOF OF THESE ALLEGATIONS HE COULD HAVE SHOWN THE ORIGINALS IN HIS BOOK SINCE SLAMMING OTHER AUTHORS WAS SUCH AN INTEGRAL PART OF IT. JEANNE CARMEN WAS NEVER A STRIPPER OR IN ANY PORNO FILMS AS SPOTO ALLEGED IN HIS INTERVIEWS.SPOTO NEVER OFFERED ANY CREDIBLE EVIDENCE JEANNE CARMEN DIDN'T KNOW MARILYN. JEANNE CARMEN IS A NICE LADY WHO RAISED THREE CHILDREN AND DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE LIBELED.MOST PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE ANTHONY SUMMERS SUCCESSFULLY SUED DONALD SPOTO IN A LONDON COURT.IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE WHAT I AM SAYING ABOUT THIS AUTHOR AND THIS BOOK, GO TO THE ACADEMY LIBRARY IN LOS ANGELES AND CHECK OUT THE INTERVIEW TAPES ALLEGEDLY USED TO WRITE THIS BOOK. THEY ARE IN THE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT.IT'S WORTH THE TRIP TO HEAR HOW THIS EGOTISTICAL AUTHOR WILL RANT ON ABOUT OTHERS. ON THE TAPES,YOU WILL HEAR FOR YOURSELF THAT THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN TO SLAM OTHERS WITH LIES AND TO CREATE CONTROVERSY JUST TO SELL BOOKS, AT ANY PRICE. ON THESE TAPES,YOU'LL HEAR HOW SPOTO LIED TO, AND ABOUT OTHERS. IF AN AUTHOR HAS TO LIE ABOUT FACTS IN HIS BOOK JUST TO SELL COPIES, HE'S STOOPING PRETTY LOW...AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT MR. SPOTO DID IN HIS TOME!
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Marilyn Bio...Ever!
Review: An absolute 'must read' for any true Marilyn fan. Desolves much of the myth, mystery and sensationalism regarding Marilyn's untimely death.
Rating:
Summary: Accurate, detailed biography.
Review: Donald Spoto bases this book on the facts...not speculations and unseen sources. This is a very detailed account of Marilyn's Life,from the early years spent as a starlet thru her marriages...relationships with famous photographers and acting coaches thru ordinary people...
Marilyn's last days are realistically brought back to Life with a plausible explanation of what really happened the night she died.
One of the best parts of the book is the last chapter "Aftermath: the great deception", where Donald Spoto adresses all the tabloid biographies that sensationalize marilyn's death...the theories and speculations about her involvement with the Kennedys and the mafia and so called "best friends"....
Such as Robert Slatzer and jeanne carmen, to name the worst offenders among them.
I have read all the mayor Biographies on Marilyn and this one for me comes closest to what the truth might be about what happened to marilyn.
Rating: 
Summary: sensitive, honest approach to a legendary subject
Review: Donald Spoto has done a good job on writing about Marilyn Monroe's life. Better than some other 'out to make money authors'. His approach is both sensitive and honest. He doesn't make her a joke and she would have liked that at least. And he finally stops those stupid conspiracy theories which keep on circulating regarding MM and JFK and RFK....Marilyn from reading Spoto's book, appears as fragile, sweet, intelligent young woman who was simply also battling her own demons and was complex, sensitive and self-destructive. She was her own enemy and nobody else could have killed her.
Rating:
Summary: The truth. Finally.
Review: Donald Spoto must have done a lot of hard work to uncover all this information about Marilyn. In this extensive biography (the best I've read) we learn things that maybe we'd never heard about before.And, by interviewing people close to Marilyn such as Milton H. Greene and Inez Nelson (?), by reading papers from Marilyn to Lee/Paula Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, and others influential in her life, DS gives us further insight into the life of this beautiful but misunderstood immortal screen goddess. We also learn the truth about her death. No, Marilyn was not killed by the Kennedys. (Both Bobby and John had alibis, and the information DS presents show no reason why they would want to assassinate her anyway.) And from what DS says, Marilyn was planning to remarry Joe DiMaggio and to her friends it didn't seem that she was planning to kill herself. His hypothesis is that her suicide may have been accidental, after being fed all those barbituates by different people through all the years, and Dr. Ralph Greenson and her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, may have had a hand in it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned so much from it!
Rating:
Summary: The truth. Finally.
Review: Donald Spoto must have done a lot of hard work to uncover all this information about Marilyn. In this extensive biography (the best I've read) we learn things that maybe we'd never heard about before. And, by interviewing people close to Marilyn such as Milton H. Greene and Inez Nelson (?), by reading papers from Marilyn to Lee/Paula Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, and others influential in her life, DS gives us further insight into the life of this beautiful but misunderstood immortal screen goddess. We also learn the truth about her death. No, Marilyn was not killed by the Kennedys. (Both Bobby and John had alibis, and the information DS presents show no reason why they would want to assassinate her anyway.) And from what DS says, Marilyn was planning to remarry Joe DiMaggio and to her friends it didn't seem that she was planning to kill herself. His hypothesis is that her suicide may have been accidental, after being fed all those barbituates by different people through all the years, and Dr. Ralph Greenson and her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, may have had a hand in it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned so much from it!
Rating:
Summary: Donald Spoto recalls MM with great dignity and respect
Review: Donald Spoto, a graduate of Fordham University gave a dignified, yet credible reflection on the life and death of Marilyn Monroe. He opens the biography with a detailed look at her family's history, which is quite helpful in understanding the pathology of her weaknesses. In addition to this, he addresses the issues that most Americans are dying to learn about, (e.g, Kennedy's, Arthur Miller, Joe DiMaggio) Unlike other biographers on the subject, however, he opts not to sensationalize the misfortunes that she experienced.
Rating:
Summary: A fair take on Marilyn
Review: I became facinated with the life of Marilyn Monroe like many other Americans of my generation. To finally find a book that deals with her life in a fair and balanced way was an unexpected joy to say the least. Through this book by Donald Spoto we learn what was really going on in Marilyn's life near the time of her death. But the real surprise was that she was anything but a dumb blonde joke..... very possibly the real front runner of women's rights. She showed women by example what really hard work and dedication to one's beliefs can do for them. If she had hit her stride even 10 yrs. later who knows what she would have accomplished in the entertainment arena. She was on the cutting edge of what was to come.
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