In March 1951, Marilyn Monroe was photographed with Gus Zernial, Hank Majeski, and other luminaries from the Chicago White Sox baseball team, then visiting Los Angeles for an all-star charity game. Posing gamely in a tight sweater, shorts and high heels, it was a routine assignment for the blonde starlet, and the shots were published in newspapers across the US that month. Joe DiMaggio, the legendary Yankee Clipper, teased Zernial: “How come I never get to pose with beautiful girls like that?” A year later, DiMaggio finally scored a date with Monroe – and the rest, as they say, is history.
A colourised image from that photo shoot is featured on the cover of a newly published book, Growing Up With Marilyn, and one might be forgiven for assuming its named author was the late baseball icon, Joe Pepitone. However, this is a different Pepitone entirely, son of Monroe’s former maid – who didn’t begin working for the star until 1957. (Two co-writers, Candice Lee and Audra Bagwell, are credited on the title page.)
As the book blurb reveals, ‘Joey’ is a former US Marine, now working as an assistant baseball coach at Eastern New Mexico University.
“Growing Up With Marilyn offers a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of an American icon—through the eyes of a young boy. Set in 1950s and early 60s New York City, this heartfelt memoir follows Joey Pepitone’s childhood as the son of Marilyn Monroe’s personal seamstress. From spending time in Marilyn’s home to attending glamorous events, Joey and his brother experienced an extraordinary upbringing most could only imagine. This is a touching story of family, fame, and unforgettable moments with a Hollywood legend, all seen through the innocence of youth.”
Joey’s mother, Lena Pepitone, is well-known among Monroe fans, as she published her own memoir in 1979. Marilyn Monroe Confidential depicted the star as a perpetually drunk, self-absorbed exhibitionist of lax hygiene and loose morals, all the while claiming to have been her dearest friend.
“Read as a novel, Marilyn Monroe Confidential might be fun, if defamatory trash … Over the years I have read many things about Ms. Pepitone, most of them centring on the idea that Pepitone could barely speak English while working for Marilyn and as such, all of the dialogue in the book, all of the things Marilyn supposedly confessed to her maid, are likely products of Ms. Pepitone’s imagination. Or, even more likely, her co-author, William Stadiem … For all of her playing confidante to Marilyn, for all her memories of the woman seriously in need of a bath, Pepitone is the true loser here. Rather than finding in her heart a warmth for the troubled woman she knew, she went for the easy buck …”
– David Marshall, via Marilyn Geek
“Nobody wants to read that Marilyn was a great person,” Lena’s nephew Steven Cataneo told the New York Daily News after her death in 2011. “My aunt knew that, because she spent every day and night with her. My aunt truly loved Marilyn.” In 2015, Joe Pepitone and film producer Denis Bieber filed a legal complaint against the team behind Marilee and Baby Lamb, a play staged in Las Cruces, based on interviews with Lena in later life. The Pepitone estate was then developing a separate film project, Marilyn and Lena.
Growing Up With Marilyn starts at a leisurely pace, with the opening chapters recalling how Joey’s parents first met during World War II. Joe Pepitone Sr. was serving in the US Army in 1944, when he was sent to Naples. One day he saw a pretty brunette stomping grapes under an oak tree. The girl left before he could ask her name, so he followed her home and was invited to dinner with the family.
After leaving Italy in 1945, Joe corresponded with Lena for several years. As she knew very little English, their letters were translated by relatives. Joe lived with his Sicilian immigrant parents on Staten Island, and worked as a mechanic. In 1949 he returned to Naples and married Lena, and they set sail for a new life in America. Joey was born in 1950, followed by Johnny in 1952.
A few years later, at Lena’s urging, the family moved to East 76th Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She enrolled the boys in a Catholic school and began looking for work to support them financially. In 1957, an employment agency sent her to meet a mystery client in a luxurious apartment building on East 57th Street. During the interview with secretary May Reis, Lena was introduced to her boss, Marilyn Monroe.
At this point, the narrative switches to the first person with Joe Pepitone Jr. taking up the story. Oddly, he then changes May Reis’ name to ‘Mrs Matrice’ despite her real name being stated previously. Neither Lena or Joe’s book mentions that Marilyn also employed a housekeeper, Hattie Stephenson. While Lena was listed in Marilyn’s address book, her name seldom came up in Monroe’s personal papers (including cheques, receipts, bank statements and so on), but other staff appear regularly in these remnants of her daily routine.
A frankly unbelievable story from Marilyn Monroe Confidential is also repeated here, claiming that Marilyn once removed her panties and signed them in lipstick for Lena’s husband during a visit to their home. Marilyn’s third husband is a remote presence, with Joey recalling that Arthur Miller didn’t like Lena’s children coming to their apartment. Both books imply that the marriage was a sham and Marilyn longed to reunite with ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, which is not true.
Marilyn won the David di Donatello award as Best Foreign Actress for The Prince and the Showgirl. She was unable to attend the ceremony in Rome, but in May 1959, she collected her ‘Golden Plate’ at a special event held at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue. Both Lena and son claim to have accompanied her that day. A rare photograph shows Marilyn surrounded by reporters, and a young boy stands among the crowd – but whether he was Joey (or Johnny) is not confirmed.
Pepitone writes that Marilyn was shooting Some Like It Hot in early 1960, but the film was made in 1958 and released in 1959. He may be thinking of Let’s Make Love. She spent most of 1960 on the West Coast, which means Joey couldn’t have shown her off to his friends on East 76th Street in March, when she was working in California. Perhaps he got the time period wrong, but another aspect of the story – that she hung out with mobsters in a dingy neighbourhood social club – seems highly improbable.
Marilyn returned to New York in October 1960, having separated from Miller. Therefore, Pepitone’s claim that Miller tried to fire Lena in January 1961 – the same month when their divorce was finalised – makes no sense. He then says Marilyn was having problems at MGM, but she was under contract to Twentieth Century-Fox. Berniece Miracle, Marilyn’s half-sister, came to New York in June 1961, while she was recuperating from gallbladder surgery. During the weeks she spent in Marilyn’s apartment, Berniece noted that she was polite but formal with Lena.
Following her recovery, Marilyn rented an apartment in Los Angeles and would buy a home there in early 1962. During the last year of her life, she made only a few brief visits to New York as she focused on her career in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Lena and Joe Sr. had also separated, with Lena living in Queens while Joe and the children moved to Long Island. It is suggested that Joe’s jealousy of Marilyn caused the rift, but this seems unlikely. He soon fell seriously ill, and the boys got into trouble at school.
In May 1962, Marilyn returned to New York for a Democratic fundraiser at Madison Square Garden. Her sensuous rendition of ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ for an audience including John F. Kennedy has become the stuff of legend. Hollywood costumer Jean Louis designed the flesh-coloured, beaded gown she wore that evening, and all fittings were conducted by his assistant in Los Angeles.
Pepitone claims that on the night of the gala, Marilyn was bloated after eating one of Lena’s Italian dishes and had to be sewn into the dress. In fact, she was slightly underweight and no alterations were made. He also states that Lena was with Marilyn in late July, returning to New York just three days before her death. This is, quite simply, untrue. It’s possible that Pepitone has mixed up the dates yet again; but at this point, many readers will have lost all track of time.
Some time after hearing of Marilyn’s fatal overdose from her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, Lena returned her housekeys to the apartment on East 57th Street, where Paula was waiting with May Reis (given yet another pseudonym, ‘Meares.’) Growing Up With Marilyn ends there, still in the shadow of Marilyn Monroe Confidential.
The Marilyn Report 