In July 1955, Marilyn made the cover of Canada’s Liberty magazine, with a three-page interview inside. After meeting British-born journalist John Wilcock at the Waldorf Towers (she was only ten minutes late), they walked down Lexington Avenue with press agent Frank Goodman, and stopped in a quiet bar, where Marilyn talked candidly about her ongoing studio battle with Twentieth Century Fox; her role in The Seven Year Itch; her plans for Marilyn Monroe Productions, and hopes to play Grushenka in The Brothers Karamazov; and her interest in travel and writing poetry.
Wilcock’s own copy of the magazine is shown above (complete with original paperclip.) As well as being Marilyn’s first year living in New York, 1955 was auspicious for Wilcock, as he had just co-founded – with Norman Mailer, among others – America’s first alternative weekly newspaper, The Village Voice. He would later co-write the autobiography of Andy Warhol. The article is scanned at the Other Scenes Archive, which collects Wilcock’s writings and is curated by Ethan Persoff.
John Wilcock died, aged 91, in 2108. His biography, published this year, takes the form of a graphic novel, and includes a reminiscence of when he heard of Marilyn’s death while browsing in a Paris bookstore (see here.)
The Marilyn Report 