The Death of Marilyn Monroe and the English Media, c. 1956-1962

Abstract

Despite her consistent presence in popular culture since her 'probable suicide' in August 1962, Marilyn Monroe, in contrast to other figures, has been largely neglected within studies of how the media represent death. No extensive scholarship has examined the coverage of her death and the implications of this to her star image. This thesis engages with four literatures: studies of media (Bingham et. al.); studies of socio-cultural change and permissiveness in the 1950s and 60s (Mort et. al.): studies of celebrity (Dyer et. al.); and studies of death culture (Tercier et. al.). Monroe is positioned as a predecessor to those figures whose deaths have sparked large-scale and protracted media attention in the later- twentieth and early twenty-first-century. Monroe's 'probable suicide' represents a 'pseudo-event', made meaningful by the media who, in the process of making sense the death, initiated a seemingly unending dialogue about her cultural significance. Employing content analysis of English national newspapers, newsreel footage, and television and radio reports, the coverage of Monroe's death is located within a tradition of celebrity journalism about tragic and suicidal stars. Examining what was exceptional and conventional within the coverage, the central assertion of this study is that while Monroe is, and was, widely considered an exceptional figure, the coverage of her death was routine by contemporary standards. Newspapers adopted a conventional visual and written style, framing the death in terms of an antagonism between the public (i.e., star image, career) and the private (i.e., divorce, miscarriages, childhood experience). Narrative linkages were made with other actresses who died in similar circumstances having seemingly also struggled to marry public adulation with personal fulfilment. Yet, a tension existed as Monroe's death was framed as simply 'the usual' celebrity tragedy but also an event with particular resonance in 1962.Chapter one examines the tabloid genre of celebrity journalism, locating reports of Monroe's death within this tradition and examining the visual mechanics of the coverage. Chapter two analyses how, using a combined repertoire of modern and established motifs of suicide, mental illness and doomed stardom, journalists marshalled sympathy around Monroe's death to cast her as a victim of tragedy. Having fatally overdosed on sleeping pills, chapter three examines how the drugs issue was addressed. Conventional within narratives of celebrity death, sleeping pills functioned in the Monroe coverage to reinforce the tragic element at a time when anxieties about addictive and inadequately tested prescription drugs and overprescribing were foremost on the media agenda following a spate of accidental and suicidal overdoses, the thalidomide disaster and the first reported death from the Pill. At this time, commentators were also debating the superficiality and commercialism of the American funeral in contrast to the English way of death. Chapter four examines how this debate underscored coverage of Monroe's last rites and divided journalists as they narrated the funeral spectacle in terms of Monroe's celebrity and her nationality. This thesis has wider implications for the study of celebrity, death, the media, and the 1960s. Exposing how narratives of Monroe's death were shaped by the contemporary concerns of 1962, the thesis re-invigorates discussions of how famous deaths are constructed in media texts. The detailed empirical of a single episode offers an effective lens through which to examine society and culture in this period.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2011
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Max Jones (Supervisor) & Julie-Marie Strange (Supervisor)