The woman who will not die
In her famous 1986 essay, "The Woman Who Will Not Die", Gloria Steinem began: "It has been nearly a quarter of a century since the death of a minor American actress named Marilyn Monroe. There is no reason for her to be a part of my consciousness as I walk down a midtown New York street frilled with color and action and life."
Steinem concluded her article: "In the last interview before her death…Patricia Newcomb, her friend and press secretary, remembers that Marilyn pleaded unsuccessfully with the reporter to end his article like this:
"What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe."
Gloria Steinem's tribute to Marilyn Monroe can be found on the website that goes with the PBS American Masters Series documentary on the actress, and in a further tie-in, the Staley-Wise Gallery in downtown Manhattan is presenting a exhibition of Monroe photographs. Each image is iconic and, perhaps, as close as photographs will ever come to being eternal.
