WI: Marilyn Monroe never existed?

What if Norma Jeane Mortenson called in sick the day the Army photographer showed up at her munitions factory and was never noticed.

After the war her husband James Dougherty came back from the Merchant Marines and joined the LAPD. Norma did some small time modeling but her career never took off. She lived out her life the quentisential American house wife.
 
What if Norma Jeane Mortenson called in sick the day the Army photographer showed up at her munitions factory and was never noticed.

After the war her husband James Dougherty came back from the Merchant Marines and joined the LAPD. Norma did some small time modeling but her career never took off. She lived out her life the quentisential American house wife.

Lower sales of peroxide in the 1950's. She still kills herself some time in the 1960's because depression is an illness not an event.
 
A little less of the gloss comes off JFK's image?


I don't think so. He'd simply have found some other hot babe to bang on the side.

As to the depression: one has to question how much her Hollywood career fueled that illness. Had she led the run-of-the-mill housewife (albeit a rather attractive one!) life, it's not impossible that depression would never have reached clinical status, and that she might well still be with us today, living in reasonably comfortable relative obscurity.
 
A few more cultural changes:
Works inspired by Marilyn, ranging from "Candle in the Wind" (Elton John has to play a different song at the funerals of Ryan White and Princess Diana...) to at least one of Vonnegut's stories (I forget the one- it's in "Welcome to the Monkey House") get butterflied out.
"Playboy" is less popular with someone besides Marilyn as the first centerfold.
 
Playboy would been a one time magazine,without Marilyn Monroe on the cover.

JFK would just found some other hot babe from the 50s to do on the side.

Norma Jeane Mortenson would have live a normal long life dieing in the late 90s or early 2000s.

The sexual revoult of the 60s may been delay some.
 
Playboy would been a one time magazine,without Marilyn Monroe on the cover.

Nope; just delayed somewhat in developing to the phenomenon we know now (don't forget it didn't go much of anywhere for a while: I believe, although I can't verify, that there was a publishing gap of a few months in the early going).

JFK would just found some other hot babe from the 50s to do on the side.

No argument there.

Norma Jeane Mortenson would have live a normal long life dieing in the late 90s or early 2000s.

Again, no argument.

The sexual revoult of the 60s may been delay some.

Debatable.
 
How does this change Hollywood. A lot of movies would go missing. Is Marilyn replaced by another blonde?

How does this effect JFK/RFK if they don't have that scandal following them? What about DeMaggio and Arthur Miller?
 
It has never been conclusively proven that JFK had an affair with Monroe, though I personally believe they did have intimate encounters on occasion. Or as Dallek puts it, "the telephone logs from Monroe to the White House suggest more than a casual acquaintance." However the idea of RFK being involved in any way with her has been conclusively disproven.
 
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