Eric Skipsey’s 1961 photo of Marilyn with her loyal companion Maf graces the latest cover of Austrian magazine Die Ganze Woche (The Whole Week.) Inside, there’s an extract from Anja Rützel’s book, Sleeping Dogs: Famous People and Their Pets.
“There were many love affairs in Marilyn Monroe’s life. The most beautiful were those with dogs. The first close relationship with a four-legged friend was Monroe, then her name was Norma Jeane. She got ‘Tippy’ as a present from her foster father, in whose family she ended up because her mother could not look after her … ‘Tippy’ was a black and white mongrel, a stray who accompanied his girl to school every day. There he waited for her and during the break the two played together. A few years later, the girl wrote a poem for the dog called ‘The dog, man’s best friend (homage to ‘Tippy’).
‘Tippy’ stayed alive in the memory of the most famous blonde in the world … That was probably one of the reasons why the actress kept losing her heart to four-legged friends. Among others to ‘Muggsie’, a collie that she adopted during her first marriage to James Dougherty, then ‘Josefa’, a Chihuahua, received a present for her 24th birthday. With the writer Arthur Miller, whom Monroe married in 1956, ‘Hugo’ entered her life, Miller’s basset hound.
But the dog of her life who mourned her when she left forever was ‘Maf’ … The two seemed alike. In pictures, the dog looked somehow lost. As if looking for his place in the world … ‘I live here all alone with my little white snowball,’ said Monroe … Alone, except for ‘Maf’. He accompanied her through the last year and a half of her life.”
Thanks to Marco at Marilyn Remembered
The Marilyn Report 