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The story of Mariln Monroe's trip to entertain the troops begins in early 1954 just after her marriage to baseball hero Joe Di Maggio

read on...

The big question from American reporters was whether she (MM) would visit the troops in Korea. War against "the Reds" had ended (at least the shooting had stopped) a few months before. But there were still a million American men, stuck (and as they feared, half-forgotten) in miserably makeshift front-line camps. There was no one they'd rather see than Marilyn Monroe. And the brass had promised, she would be invited.

Marilyn with Joe Di Maggio, Jan. 14, 1954
image : source tba

Marilyn had no snappy answer on that; in fact, she seemed torn and tentative: "I'd love to go to Korea, and have been waiting to go for a long time -- but I don't know if we'll have time on this trip." That was the only topic on which DiMaggio was quoted -- and the wire services promptly shoved him into a face-off with the brave boys who fought for Uncle Sam: " 'How can we go to Korea?' DiMaggio asked newsmen. 'Marilyn doesn't have an act.'

"The response across the Sea of Japan from the troops in Korea was prompt: " 'What does he mean WE? It's Marilyn we want. She doesn't need an act.' "

Lefty O'Doul would say, years later, that trip marked the first time Joe realized what a big star his wife had become -- she put DiMaggio in the shade, and that's when he turned surly. But Joe was well aware of Marilyn's fame. He just didn't like what she was famous for. What he learned on that honeymoon trip was how little influence he would have on the content of her stardom -- and how inessential to it he was.

His mood did not improve the next day, when a U.S. Army officer came to visit at the suite, to press upon Miss Monroe an invitation to Korea, from General John E. Hull, commander of U.S. forces in the Far East. Actually, what made Joe sour was Marilyn's excitement. Joe was going off to coach baseball at the training camps for Japan's Central League. And Marilyn had it all figured: she could go to Korea then -- wouldn't that be perfect?

"Go if you want to," DiMaggio said. "It's your honeymoon."

So it was. And within days, she got her shots and papers (an ID card that missed the point, entirely: "Mrs. Norma Jeane DiMaggio," it read) . . . and she was on her way to Korea, with a piano player and Mrs. Jean O'Doul.

USO Identity Card, Feb. 8, 1954
A modern reproduction

note : Marilyn is listed as an Entertainter!
image : source tba

[ download larger copy ]

By that time, her excitement was almost wild. From Seoul, she was choppered to her first appearance -- a remote and primitive mountainside tent camp, habited by the men of the First Marine Division. As her helicopter swooped in, banking over the steep ground, Marilyn was thrilled by what she saw. Thousands of men had come out to see her. They were standing on an open slope, all looking up, waving and cheering.

She shouted to the pilot to circle low, so she could wave to the boys. Two soldiers in the belly of the chopper slid the main door open. And she shouted to them to hold her feet, as she slid out the door on her belly, to hang in midair over the gimballing ground, waving and blowing kisses while the men below screamed their delight. Four times she circled that mountainside, till the Marines were in a fever for her -- a fever that matched her own.

On the ground, she changed (in ten minutes!) from her flight jacket and combat boots into a plum-purple cocktail dress and stiletto heels. She parted the burlap curtains and fairly sauntered to the front of a plywood stage, to caress the waiting microphone, and breathe in her baby voice a greeting to the boys who were whistling and cheering. Marilyn was unaccustomed to live performance.

On a movie set, the idea of facing the cameras could immobilize her with panic, and she'd break out in hives. But she loved her power to provoke want in men -- and this was the tops -- she was without fear. To the accompaniment of an upright piano, she sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" -- and the boys went crazy.

"In mid performance she stopped singing and walked over to a soldier in the wings who was about to snap her picture...she gently plucked a lens cover from his camera saying "Honey, you forgot to take it off""

Mailer, Norman, Marilyn, 1973

As she recalled for Ben Hecht in her memoir:

"They were all yelling at me at the top of their lungs. I stood smiling at them. It had started snowing, but I felt as warm as if I was standing in a bright sun. Even the snowflakes falling on my bare arms felt warm. "I've always been frightened by an audience -- any audience. . . . My stomach pounds, my head gets dizzy and I'm sure my voice has left me. "But standing in the snowfall facing these seventeen thousand yelling soldiers, I felt for the first time in my life no fear of anything. I felt only happy....I felt at home."

"You fellas are always whistling at sweater girls. Well, take away the sweaters and what have you got?"

Spada, George, Monroe, 1982

Another night, another officers club: the Signal Corps had hooked up a call to Japan -- so Marilyn could talk to her husband -- and both ends of the call would be broadcast over loudspeakers. "Do you still love me, Joe?" Marilyn's voice cooed over the camp. "Do you miss me?" And then the voice of DiMaggio -- rather curt, it was thought. "I do. Yeah." Joe did not appreciate being a prop in her show. But Marilyn was in her glory. She would call it the greatest experience of her life. ("This is what I've always wanted, I guess.") . . . And as she told one crowd of frenzied men: "I'll never forget my honeymoon -- with the 45th Division."

By the time she got back to Joe and Japan, her fever was real. Doctors would call it pneumonia. But Marilyn was still exuberant. She had to tell Joe how wonderful it was. They loved everything she did! They loved her! Thousands of men, screaming her name. . . . "Joe, you never heard such cheering." "Yes I have," he said.

and continued, though often, as with the essay on ESPN (above), edited out..

"Yes I have," he replied. "Don't let it go to your head. Just miss the ball once. You'll see that they can boo as loud as they can cheer"

The tour finished, Marilyn arrives back in Japan and although suffering from laringitis and pneumonia, Marilyn was reported as being elated at the success of the trip.
image : source tba

ellensplace.net
http://www.ellensplace.net/mmbio3.html

[Marilyn] was asked to go on a USO tour of Korea in February to entertain the troops, beginning on the 16th for four days. She entertained over 60,000 soldiers, many who had never seen a Monroe film...having been in the service during her rise to stardom... most had seen still photos of her in many magazines and newspapers. She was a huge success. Joe did not accompany her on this trip...explaining,

"Joe hates crowds and glamour...standing in the snowfall facing these yelling soldiers, I felt for the first time in my life no fear of anything, I felt only happy."

Sometime in late January or early February 1954, Marilyn Monroe came to Korea to entertain the troops. Although she did not come to our Division area she did come to a sector right next to ours and that was close enough for bunch of bored guys in our radio section. On the designated day, a very cold, grey day I might add, several of us piled into the radio truck and went off seeking Marilyn Monroe.... more

Video of Marilyn in Korea
http://www.mpimedia.com

cinematographer unknown 

Marilyn Monroe, Korea, 1954 : The National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.si.edu

photograph by David Geary