Random thoughts during quarantine: Marilyn Monroe's last photo shoot, with George Barris, was at my father-in-law's house in the Hollywood Hills. I spent many hours in that house and it was pretty magical but also tense and depressing due to unhappiness of the inhabitants. It was a long way up small, winding roads and was perched on the edge of a hill with a stunning panoramic view all the way to the ocean. The second photo is my father-in-law, Tim Leimert with Marilyn. He was a real playboy in his younger years, and flew his own plane. I only knew him as a curmudgeonly old man, in fact, instead of grandpa, my kids and his other grandkids called him Grumpy, which he took in good stride, or actually seemed to like very much. The Leimert men, I, II and III, had a thing for marrying artistic women. Walter I married a Zeigfield Follies star, Walter II married a rising actress who gave up her career to be a housewife. And then there was me, an artist and writer, married to number III. None of the marriages lasted. In each case it seemed the men liked the idea of having an artist for a wife, but in the end, really wanted someone who would constantly prove their subservience by giving up their own desires. Because in those days women who had their own talent so often were required to lose their identities by acting out the image of how the men perceived them (and still often are?). God forbid the woman should show more talent or intelligence than the man. Sometimes, I look at these photos of Marilyn and imagine how she once stood in the places I stood after her. How my mother-in-law once stood there. And I think of how I understand just a little bit of what she felt. #stayhome #randomthoughts #marilynmonroe #hollywoodlegends #mylife #memoir #quarantineandchill #leimertpark #NightAngelsChronicles
