Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
By all accounts, Marilyn Monroe was an animal lover. During her first marriage, her husband recalled her trying to bring a cow into their house to get it out of the rain.
She was photographed throughout her career as a model and actress, and in her real life, with various animals- dogs, horses, elephants, sheep, and even once with a bear. One can easily see her affinity for animals by the expressions of joy on her face.
One of Marilyn's co-stars on her 1952 movie Monkey Business was a chimpanzee.
Arthur Miller (Marilyn's third husband) reportedly based Marilyn's character “Roslyn" in her final completed film The Misfits (1960) on Marilyn's real-life personality. In the film, Roslyn is violently opposed to animal cruelty (the killing of horses). The climactic scene in The Misfits, showing Marilyn's violent opposition to the cruelty to the horses, is incredibly realistic and is almost chilling to watch.
In her final movie, the never-finished-or-released Something's Got to Give, Marilyn had to do a scene with a dog. Interestingly, it wasn't Marilyn who forgot her part in the scene, the dog flubbed the scene- all he could do was stare!
Here is a list of nine pets Marilyn Monroe owned during her lifetime (1926-1962).
1) Tippy
Tippy was a black and white dog given to little Norma Jeane Mortenson (later Marilyn) by her foster father, Albert Wayne Bolender. Every day, Tippy would go to school with Norma Jeane. He would wait and play with her at recess.
Circa 1932, when Norma Jeane was five or six, Tippy was shot by a neighbor, who claimed the dog was rolling around in his garden. Marilyn was to later claim in her autobiography that the neighbor "cut Tippy in half with a hoe.”
2) Ruffles
Either an English or Brittany spaniel, Ruffles lived with Norma Jeane when she lived with the Godard family. Norma Jeane and her "sister" Beebe shared the spaniel as their pet, around 1940.
3) Muggsie
Muggsie was collie given to Norma Jeane by her first husband, James Dougherty, in the late 1940's. Norma Jeane loved taking care of and playing with Muggsie and the two became best pals.
However, after Norma Jeane began her career as a model/actress and changed her named to "Marilyn Monroe,” she didn't have any time to devote to Muggsie. According to Dougherty, Muggsie died of "a broken heart".
4) Josepha
Josepha was a Chihuahua Marilyn owned at the time she was signed to a movie contract by Columbia pictures in 1948.
5) Mitsou
Marilyn was especially fond of dogs and only owned one cat in her life. Mitsou was a white Persian cat Marilyn owned in New York in the mid-1950's.
6) Hugo
Hugo was a Basset hound who lived with Marilyn and her third husband, Arthur Miller, at their East 57th street apartment in New York in the late '50's. Once, Marilyn and her friend Norman Rosten spoon-fed Hugo straight scotch to cheer him up. When Marilyn and Arthur split up, Arthur retained custody of Hugo.
7) Butch
Butch was a parakeet owned by Marilyn and Arthur. He resided with them in their East 57th Street apartment.
8) Ebony
Ebony was a riding horse the Millers purchased from Frank and Nan Taylor for their Connecticut farm. Marilyn only rode Ebony a few times.
9) Maf
Frank Sinatra gave Marilyn a little white poodle as a gift. Frank had purchased the dog from Natalie Wood's mother. Marilyn named the dog Maf, as a humorous reference to Sinatra's alleged connection with the mafia. Maf sleep on the expensive white beaver coat he had given her as a gift.
When Marilyn moved back to Hollywood after she and Miller divorced, she had Maf flown out to Hollywood to be with her. After her death, Maf was inherited by Frank Sinatra's secretary, Gloria Lovell.