Every Generation has its sweetheart, its dream girl, its Love Goddess, and ours is particularly blessed. What good fortune to be alive in a time when prigs and prudes have met their comeuppance and have been properly put down. The sensual charms of Marilyn, tastefully displayed, have crisped and spiced the air, and reduced unseemly modesty to an absurdity. Our Marilyn is the Compleat Goddess, delightful to behold and fascinating to ponder. Her story is a scenario rich in clichés dear to Hollywood, yet demonstrably true: a tale of a child shunted from home to home in her tender years, seeking affection and love; then bursting forth in the full bloom of womanhood to become our primary Sex Symbol, and on to further glories as the top female box-office attraction and ultimate distinction as an actress and comedienne of highest merit. Even her few critics agree she has earned the right to fits of feminine pique and artistic temper with the startling talent she displays in two current money makers, Some Like It Hot and the more recent Let's Make Love. We have Marilyn to thank, believes comic Lenny Bruce, for the increasingly accepted notion that it's in proper good taste for a girl to pose in the nude for photographs of the Playmate type. Since she appeared as our very first Playmate, Marilyn has achieved truly tremendous success. Her marriage to Joe Di Maggio proved she was acceptable to the All American male, and the merger of these champions of both of America's favorite pastimes was properly celebrated. Marilyn's next marriage to the distinguished author Arthur Miller and a baptism by immersion in the world of letters gave her a new status and appreciation among the literati. Now her name is a household word, bandied about on TV's "family shows," and she suffers the unconscious indignity of a million grotesque imitations, essayed by upstarts who wiggle and sigh, and thus profane a golden one, our Marilyn Monroe.
