Toe-to-Toe with Marilyn Monroe
By Mary Ekorn Jackson
This is a true story. Before I started to record it, I spent some time researching and confirming dates and locations. I had not thought about that summer day in 1960 for quite a while, back in the day when I was
just an awkward pre-teen, but now the details have re-emerged and here’s the whole story.
Background: The movie in question, “The Misfits,” which stars Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, was released in theaters in February of 1961. During that preceding summer, my family vacationed in Reno,
Nevada where most of the movie was filmed.
We often spent summer vacations in the Reno area. My dad liked the ambiance: lots of sunshine to satisfy his sun-worship addiction and lots of slots in nearby casinos to satisfy his occasional “gambler’s itch.” In those days, the area was not overrun with malls and vast housing developments needed for their ever-growing population.
Back then it was wide-open country with panoramic vistas of distant mountains and inexpensive motels with large swimming pools, and the drive from the Bay Area took less than a day. We could pack lunches for the four of us — Jean (mom), dad, little sister Nan, and me — and
stop to eat our sandwiches along the road to Reno, “The Biggest Little City in the World,” as their sign proclaimed.
Main Event: Each day of those vacations in Reno was always slightly predictable, or even boring, but not on this particular afternoon in the summer of 1960.
On this day, according to Jean, she was walking by herself along the sidewalk in downtown Reno on that stifling summer afternoon (window-shopping no doubt) when a big limo, chock full of people, pulls to a stop alongside her.
The limo door opened, out stepped Marilyn Monroe, standing momentarily toe-to-toe with Jean (who was also one of her biggest
fans). I’m not sure if they exchanged smiles, shook hands, or what happened next. I am sure, at that moment, my mom was riveted in place, taking in every detail during those most exciting few minutes of
her brush with fame.
When the family reunited later that day, we heard a vivid description of the event. The story of that happy meeting in Reno was re-told countless times within our family throughout the years.
And the one attribute my mom would emphasize, after she described Marilyn’s dress, which was a kind of a form-fitting, summery organza, perfect as a red-hot scene-stealer; or the pale yellow semi-bouffant trademarked hairstyle, literally sparkling in the Nevada sun; or the retinue of stylists, dressers and make-up artists who accompanied her; along with all the Hollywood trappings within that limo, Jean often said that Marilyn’s most remarkable asset was her almost perfect, translucent skin: not a pesky freckle anywhere!
“The Misfits,” filmed in glorious black and white, stars Marilyn Monroe (story written by then-husband Arthur Miller), Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, along with Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter, and was directed by John Huston. It is not a comedy.
All the glittering stars from “The Misfits” are gone but not forgotten. It would become the last movie to be made by both Clark Gable (once briefly a theater performer here in Astoria) and Marilyn Monroe. It
was never a box office success, but remains a movie classic worth viewing.
Note: The photo of Jean Alice Ekorn was taken in the 1960s in her "mid-century modern" home in Castro Valley, California. She moved to Astoria, a town she loved, in 2007, and lived here until her passing in 2014.
