JANE RUSSELL on MARILYN MONROE — Diva on Diva

Oh [Music] yes it was a great book greater is a Broadway stage here and even more gorgeous glittering and hilarious on the screen with Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee the world's most fabulous gold-digging blonde I just love finding new places to wear diamond I'm Jane Russell is Dorothy Shaw the world's most talked-about brunette Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are welcomed by George Bowser manager of the Fox West Coast theatres as they arrive to make their imprints in the famous concrete of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood Belden's first blonde and first brunette Marilyn and Jane won their chance to join film Dom's immortals by their work in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes the Technicolor adaptation of the sensational humorous musical comedy staged here [Music] and there you are with Marilyn Monroe there's with the blundell she good to work with yes very good how would you describe her personality Marilyn is very shy she was a very hard worker and bound and determined to get ahead what do you think when you hear these stories not even even tonight's news I was hearing I was I guess it was Entertainment Tonight they're still trying to figure out what happened circumstances around her death do you think it's better left alone er oh when are they going to let the poor girl go you know that your feeling about the about the books written about people who are hoping rosary oh my god if I was dead I'd want to just be just go on I'm working with Marilyn Monroe I know in reading your book you say that all that stuff that the studios or the media people tried to hype a feud between you and Maryland was not true at all and as a matter of fact Jane you must have been a special friend to her were you not some things I I reading between the lines in the book I don't know we didn't get to know each other that well but we were there every day on the set and when I found out that she was a little nervous about going out on the set I stopped by her dressing room and you know say come on gondol it's time to go we're due you know and she said get up and we tried on that together she she worked very hard she always knew her lines and was absolutely determined to get ahead but then running all those stories about interminable delays that she would call I don't know that was way later much later this was her first big starring role in her first big dressing room on the lot and she did look to her coach a lot and she worked with her coach after the full day's shooting when I I couldn't think of anything we go home and ate and crashed you know she'd go and work she was really determined and Kris Howard Hawks would see her look to the coach immediately after a take and he would haven't he wasn't having any of that so he finally had the coach put off the set and she got a little unhappy about that she's very sensitive and much brighter than people thought she was you know I fought so many times Jenny because I've covered films and actors and actresses for a good many years and I've wondered why it is that a person like yourself now you've been able to cope with everything that's come along in your life professionally and personally and then you take somebody like who couldn't cope and it ultimately we can't you know just overcame her do you have any theories on that right now in my own case I was home I didn't have to leave home and then go to Hollywood I lived across the heddle so I was only half an hour away and we saw people from studios all around it was a way of life there and I had my four brothers and my mom and all my old same old you know high school friends and my life was didn't change that radically and I I think that's a very important thing to have that you know that home base and when you have when you're up it's great and when you have a tough time they are there for support and I think that's very important I think that's one of the reasons that I you know I'm so happy upon adoption because I think everybody needs to have a home base and that's what Marilyn did not have yeah and she kind of went from one group to another group to another group you know and she didn't I don't think she had very many really old buddies well you were able to keep up with her through the years no I don't think Marilyn kept up with too many people at all she's kind of whichever whoever was managing or running the show at the time she spent all her time with him and that would contributed to the problem too I think I've been security yeah which is basically I guess what it is then you're totally alone yeah she did call when we made gentlemen marry brunettes after that Jeanne Crain and I were in New York doing publicity and she had her secretary call and see if there was anything that she could do she was there to help and and so it was friendly but we just weren't in touch really she had just a tremendous amount of sympathy and empathy and feeling for people situations and she was always a little unhappy and mad at the rig the big boys you know she did have a chip on her shoulder about it and it's too bad if she could have dropped that it she might not have had to fight so hard she was certainly not your dumb blonde at all he's very bright sensitive girl she would had very a lot of empathy and understanding and she had a face sense of humor which is really very cute and [Music] they all adored her Marilyn worked very hard I would go home after a day's work and I was exhausted and I wanted to go home and spend it with my family and eat dinner and then relax for a few hours he'd go and work with her coach until you know midnight sometimes and then turn around and come back in the next morning I don't know how she did it everybody wanted to help her because she was so it was a very sweet sensitive super sensitive girl in fact she got her feelings hurt a lot of times when she really didn't have to because she was so sensitive to me it was just it was a wonderful combination here was the little helpless blonde who was doing all the you know collecting diamonds and the Dame that didn't care about diamonds at all but would rather have a real love life oh it's a good combination and I knew that Jane was already a show business veteran when you and Marilyn work together and gentlemen prefer blondes but it was one of her first big pictures I think uh what was it like to work with her was this lady on time was she punctual was she a pro I know you are but what was she like well I've been working for a long time and Marilyn didn't even have a dressing room on the 20th century-fox lot she'd already made Niagara but she didn't have her own dressing room which is insane and she got her first dressing room when we did Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and she was very sensitive super sensitive so she got her feelings hurt you know a lot the guys around the studio or not exactly tactful and she would she started being a little bit late and Howard Hawks was the director and Jack Cole was doing the dancing and he really had a problem with the two of us when I first met Marilyn we were rehearsing the dancing and neither one of us were dancers and Jack Cole would be very tough on his own dancers but he was the patience of Job with us he was so dear and so sweet and he would do it over and over until we were doing it you know without even thinking because it's the only way we can do it you would think with high-powered women like that I noticed you got Top Billing oh I've been around a long time did what was your nickname for Marilyn I called her Blundell blonde Vil blonde oh there's something that I say in in the book that's something that Marilyn said about you which I'm sure you'll know but which I really liked which Marilyn one point said well gee she'll that she really look how nice Jane had been to her and she said you know she Jane tried to convert me to religion and I tried to convert her to Freud but you know the strange thing is that one of the things I feel that Marilyn was looking for all her life and that would have helped her was not religious but some kind of spiritual centers well I held on to I think you have to have that in life and she never I certainly wasn't trying to introduce her to religion because I don't like religion or yes it was the Lord and we had a group called the Hollywood Christian group and Connie Haynes and Rhonda Fleming Donald O'Connor a whole gang of us would meet in a home and we had asked different speakers so after Marilyn and I were working for a while I thought well maybe she would be interested so one night she followed me out to Connie's house and we had the to do and it was a very good speaker and after we just sat around half the time on the floor because there were never enough seats in anybody's house for this gang and we did it because everybody that had come to Hollywood might feel peculiar going to church they'd get stared at and that kind of thing actually there's a lot of says he's a Christian meaning it was a Christian meeting very informal and the next day she said I don't think that's for me 19:53 you go to Fox you're a big star you bring your team with you you're teamed up with a sort of unknown blonde girl called Marilyn Monroe you make a film it's understandable and obvious why men loved you in the films because of your beauty but it's also interesting my mom said to me you know your dad loved Jane Russell but I loved her too and women liked you in very much in your films particularly in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes I think and it's something to do this like this the scene of got Patti's yeah that kind of buddy protectiveness and there's a just two little girls a little rough the opening song when Monroe's doing herb it's your there's this look on your face of absolutely like sister Lee yeah sweet and some cherry no she was something else she was adorable but she would get her feelings hurt now this is what we were talking about earlier girls the one that was playing her boyfriend after their first kiss somebody asked him what was it like and he says I felt like I was being swallowed whole you know well she overheard that and she burst into tears and went running into the dressing room and closed the door and it took forever to get her out now that's ridiculous you know I would just say you you're be so lucky honey but that's what I mean about girls but there's two do see Marilyn Marilyn was not raised around boys yeah that's why I showed you the girl on the team to sort of make her feel part of it all there's a big difference if if girls have been raised around boys or if they haven't Marilyn had never had a dressing room before so they gave her her first dressing room and she was afraid to come out on the Sun she would get there much earlier than I did I was I would get completely dressed in an hour and other actresses would come in anywhere from 5:30 on and you had to be on the set at nine o'clock I would come in at 8:00 and they would have my breakfast ready and they would be rolling my hair dry and they would Ben I'd be putting my I was on the set at 9:00 well Marilyn wasn't there and she'd been in since 5:00 or 5:30 so her makeup man told my makeup man shotgun that Marilyn was just nervous about coming out he says she's already but she just you know and Howard Hughes was getting a little irritated folks and hawks I mean and so I would go by her dressing room and I'd say come on Bonnie let's go you know it's almost time and she okay her high kick and she get up and we'd trot on the set and she was never late she didn't know anybody out there and she was working with someone that had made a whole bunch of pictures you know and my crew and I were family heart Hawks the director says that sometimes he would give you direction and then you would sort of translate it for her and then she would say oh right I can do that it's almost as if you were his go between is that true well we were friendly we were very friendly and I was she I felt like she was a little sister you know that you could help along and the thing was she had a coach on the set and instead of looking to the director after a tape to see if it was okay she would look to her coach you don't do that with Howard Hawks honey so he put the coach off the lot we started out Marilyn and I started out learning the dance routines first and Marilyn would have been with her coach the night before and she'd come in to do the dance rehearsals because we'd neither one of us were dancers and then after I'd say Jack I'm not learning you know he'd say go baby go it's fine and then Marilyn would stay for another hour well when I worked with Marilyn it was really only her second starring role and she was shy about going out on those sessions but her makeup man told my makeup man that she was already she'd been in way before I had and so I said Lord just go by and give it and I'd go by and say come on baby it's time you know and she go oh okay and she just get up and trot along she was a you liked her yeah very much Jane how good were she has a talent she was very good and she had you know they said it before she really wanted to be there she would work with her coach the night before she'd come on the set and her first instinct was to look at her coach well you don't do that did she share well with you no no she was like a little sister Jane did you think suicide when you heard she died I I had no idea I was at the beach in in Malibu at our beach house and I had a lot of my girlfriends there and each one had had had a problem bigger than the last one and we were all really laughing about it because it was like oh man nothing could be that bad and the guys came home from playing from hunting and they heard it on the air and I just thought oh god if Marilyn had only been here we could have all we would have been laughing about all the problems everybody had you

Channel: Cliporama

Views: 859,724

Rating: 4.9236941 out of 5

Keywords: marilyn monroe, jane russell, marilyn monroe jane russell, jane russell marilyn monroe, gentlemen prefer blondes, marilyn monroe gentlemen prefer blondes, jane russell interview, marilyn monroe memories, remembers marilyn monroe, diva, divas, diva on diva, norma jean, talks about marilyn monroe, marilyn monroe costars, diamonds are a girl's best friend, grauman's, marilyn monroe diva, marilyn monroe diva on diva, jane russell diva, jane russell diva on diva

Id: iUwbeFka1z0

Length: 19min 32sec (1172 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 27 2018