More Marilyn Monroe files revealed
FBI suspected commies, not diamonds, were her best friend
LOS ANGELES – FBI files on Marilyn Monroe that could not be located earlier this year have been found and reissued, revealing the names of some of the movie star’s acquaintances who were suspected communists, people who drew concern from government officials and her own entourage.
The files had previously been heavily redacted, but more details are now public in a version recently obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act.
The files show the extent the agency was monitoring the actress for ties to communism in the years before her death in August 1962. They reveal that some in Monroe’s inner circle were concerned about her association with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who was disinherited from his wealthy family over his leftist views.
A trip to Mexico in 1962 to shop for furniture brought her in contact with Field, who was living in the country with his wife in self-imposed exile. Informants reported to the FBI that a “mutual infatuation” had developed between Field and Monroe, which caused concern among some in her inner circle, including her therapist, the files say.
“This situation caused considerable dismay among Miss Monroe’s entourage and also among the (American Communist Group in Mexico),” the file says.
Field’s autobiography devotes an entire chapter to Monroe’s Mexico trip. He mentions that he and his wife accompanied Monroe on shopping trips and meals, and he only mentions politics once in a passage on their dinnertime conversations.
“She talked mostly about herself and some of the people who had been or still were important to her,” Field wrote in From Right to Left.
“She told us about her strong feelings for civil rights, for black equality, as well as her admiration for what was being done in China, her anger at red-baiting and McCarthyism and her hatred of (FBI director) J. Edgar Hoover.”
Under Hoover, the FBI kept watch on the political and social lives of many celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin and Monroe’s ex-husband Arthur Miller. For years, the files have intrigued investigators, biographers and those who don’t believe Monroe’s death at her Los Angeles area home was a suicide.