(Huffington Post said this was too long by 101 words. The subject was "What if Marilyn Monroe hadn't died fifty years ago to the day?")
Yeah, and if Kennedy had had that second term, we might have seen him divorce Jackie and...oh, what's the use? Remember, this was 1962 and she was 36. The cultural tide was turning, and as the Bert Stern photographs show, she had poor muscle tone and boobs like bananas. In the years immediately afterwards, Old Showbiz, with its roster of ex-vaudevillians, Borscht Belt comedians, and lounge crooners was being replaced by people half their age: folk singers, British rockers, actors who didn't change their names, and models who didn't bleach their hair. In that company, Marilyn would have stood out like a drag queen at a Waldorf school pageant. Hollywood Square, hostess of short-lived comedy-variety show, supporting cast in 70's disaster film, guest star in an anthology sitcom like The Love Boat or Fantasy Island...the period had a myriad ways of saying "has-been".
Her best talent was being an enigma (and remains one). Everyone sees exactly the Marilyn that suits them -- Dumb-Blonde, Decorative and Childlike Marilyn, Intellectual Serious Actress Marilyn, Hard-Nosed Business Professional Marilyn, Abused Innocent Martyr Marilyn, Craven Whore and Pill-popper Marilyn, Hedonistic Sexually-Liberated Marilyn, Gay Icon Marilyn, Political Proto-Feminist Marilyn, even Rancher Lesbian Mom Marilyn. Had she lived, she would have had to actually develop a personality, and make good on some of her stunts -- there is more to being "serious" than posing with a book, more to business than negotiating one contract (your own), and certainly more to politics than flirting with the President. Serious Actress Marilyn? Rita Hayworth tried doing that (with Orson Welles, no less) and no one liked it. Losing the hair, the pancake makeup and the Annie Fanny voice would have meant alienating her fan base -- unless she could have done something really radical, like learning French or Italian and starring in art films, I just don't see Williams or Sondheim in her future. Politics? Business? Not very likely. Remember, this was 1962, not 1982, or even 1977. Though women were beginning to make a mark as something other than decorative coffee makers and typists, the Breakthrough Businesswoman of the Sixties was in publishing or advertising, not showbiz; woman politicians of the day were generally quiet older women from rural districts who'd inherited their constituents through (long, happy) marriages to their husbands. Rancher wife and mother? Thirty six. Twelve illegal abortions. Unless she decided to become a professional foster mom, which doesn't quite fit either....
Actually, to be quite blunt, her death may have been quite timely. It froze her in time as the Beautiful Blank Legend, and won her a posthumous fan base she probably never would have had, making a space for Deborah Harry, and later Madonna to fill. And now even Madonna is looking somewhat redundant...