Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen – Marilyn’s Friends or Foes?
Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen, two names that always crop up in the story of Marilyn Monroe, but should they?
Is their association to her a valid one?
Let us first start with Robert Slatzer:
Robert Slatzer was a newspaper reporter from Ohio who relocated to Hollywood in 1946. He was a sometime
screenwriter and director and also wrote books about Bing Crosby and John Wayne. He published two books on
Marilyn “The Life and Curious Death” in 1974 and “The Marilyn Files” in 1992.
However, he will most be remembered for the claim he made that he and Marilyn were secretly married in Mexico in
1952. He maintains that 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck ordered that the marriage be dissolved over
concerns about Marilyn’s image. It is also Slatzer’s assertion that Zanuck ordered that all documents relating to the
marriage be destroyed. Slatzer claims that he remained one of Marilyn’s closest friends and confidants until the end of
her life, speaking to her on the night of her death and taking photographs on the set of her final film, photographs
which it has since been proven were not taken by him.
He states that he met Marilyn in 1946 when she was still a struggling model and they started dating, eventually
resulting in their marriage. There are lots of people, myself included, who believe that Slatzer’s stories are complete
fabrication, the man, according to whom, Marilyn took a moonlight skinny dip with on their very first date.
Slatzer has never been able to prove conclusively that he was married to Marilyn. Conveniently, it is his claim that all
the paperwork relating to their marriage was destroyed. However, there are many points which can disprove the
union.
Bank checks survive written by Marilyn in Los Angeles on the date which Slatzer says they were getting married in
Mexico, October 4th 1952. Slatzer has always maintained that they left LA on October 3rd and arrived back a week
later, so how could she have been in LA at the same time?
Why would Zanuck insist on annulling the marriage? No real reason was provided by Slatzer, other then her image as
a single woman would sell more movie tickets. If that were the case, there would be no objection to Marilyn marrying
Joe Dimaggio only fifteen months later and their much publicised romance beforehand.
Marilyn’s personal life is well documented, the time that Slatzer says she was seeing him, she was involved with other
people. Slatzer goes one step further, saying that he met Joe Dimaggio when Marilyn had double booked them and
they both turned up for a date with her on the same night. I think this is highly improbable, I can’t imagine Marilyn
doing this, or Joe standing for it.
Slatzer did eventually manage to produce a witness to his marriage with Marilyn, but it was later revealed that he had
paid this man to lie and corroborate his story, the man in question ‘Kid’ Chissell, an ex boxer, said he was desperate for
money and so agreed.
But, there is physical evidence that Marilyn and Slatzer did meet on one occasion. Photographs taken on the set of
Niagara in 1952 show Marilyn posing with Slatzer, very much as a movie star would pose with a fan, not an
uncommon thing for Marilyn to do. Slatzer was also in possession of a signed photograph of Marilyn which he claimed
proved their close friendship.
From the Marilyn Encyclopaedia by Adam Victor:
"Slatzer's critics, and they are many, say that Slatzer is simply a world class fantasist, who turned a passing
acquaintance with Marilyn during the shoot on Niagara into a lifetime career. The sole piece of evidence Slatzer offers
in "The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe" is a photograph of him and Marilyn against the backdrop of
Niagara Falls, on which appears the inscription, 'To Bob, Luck & Love, Marilyn.' Donald Spoto, who has provided the
most compelling debunking of Slatzer's claims so far, [in his biography "Marilyn Monroe, A Biography"] notes that
Marilyn wrote far more personal dedications to people who were important to her. It would have been quite possible
for Slatzer to have taken the photographs and then sent them to her, care of the studio, requesting her to autograph
them.”
Did this chance meeting with a movie star start an infatuation with Marilyn, which turned into a lifelong obsession for
Slatzer? Was he delusional enough to convince himself that his tall tales were the truth?
If Slatzer had such a long association with Marilyn, why are there no more photographs of them together in existence?
Why does his name not appear in any of her personal telephone books, letters, or correspondence? Why had no-one in
Marilyn’s inner circle heard of him?
In the 1970s Slatzer became one the of biggest proponents of the Kennedy murder theory in Marilyn’s death, most of
the ‘facts’ now accepted about this originally came from him, and he has done much to muddy the waters into finding
the truth about what did happen to Marilyn on her final night. Whatever that truth may be. I must state now that I
personally do not believe Marilyn was murdered and certainly not by Kennedy hands. The press conference, the red
diary, the Marilyn paranoid that she was bugged and obsessed with being First Lady, they all came from Slatzer. The
only other people to corroborate the red diary story are Ted Jordan, Lionel Grandison and Jeanne Carmen, a plethora
of Marilyn liars. The fact that the account of the red diary comes from Slatzer alone should be reason enough to
discount it from Marilyn myth.
Slatzer also made the wild claim that on 4th August 1973, he had taken part in a ritual with Church of Satan leader
Anton LeVey and LeVey’s wife at Marilyn’s house. According to him, this had actually caused Marilyn to materialise in
spirit form. There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Slatzer ever knew LeVey, he claims they met at the home of a
movie studio publicity man. Slatzer provides a back story by saying that he had been plagued by strange occurrences
and the smell of roses ever since Marilyn had died.
Should we believe a man who took it upon himself to continue the delivery of roses to Marilyn’s crypt after Joe
Dimaggio brought it to an end after 20 years……eventually the florist was forced to cancel after only a short time due
to none payment.
Slatzer has also been a voice in the call for further investigation in Marilyn’s death. In the 1980s he sent a letter to the
County Supervisors arguing that Marilyn was murdered and that a Grand Jury should investigate her death, the
request was rejected. Many will give him credit for that effort at least, my personal opinion is that he has done more
harm than good and we travel further and further away from the truth with each new crazy conspiracy theory and
sensationalist lies.
Slatzer did appear in the press a couple of times connected with Marilyn during her lifetime.
The first mention of the ‘romance’ is in a Dorothy Kilgallen gossip column from August 1952 “A dark horse in the
Marilyn Monroe romance derby is Bob Slatzer, from Columbus, Ohio, literary critic. He’s been wooing her by phone
and mail and improving her mind with gifts of the world’s greatest books”.
At first, this may seem something in the way of evidence as to an association, but Slatzer was a writer, he could have
easily placed this item, gossip columnists depend on gossip, which is unsubstantiated and passed anonymously by its
very nature, so this can hardly be taken as evidence of an affair. The description of him as a ‘literary critic’ suggests
someone was responsible for making him seem more glamorous than he was, or inaccurate information was provided
at the outset, whichever, it was presumably Slatzer himself who was responsible.
The second time was in an article in Confidential Magazine in 1957. Slatzer gave an interview talking about the
intimate details of an affair he had conducted with Marilyn while she was dating Joe Dimaggio, and they were
intimate, it was an extremely trashy article and must have been very upsetting to Marilyn and her new husband at
that time, Arthur Miller. Slatzer claims he slept with Marilyn between dates she had with Joe but surprisingly, he
makes no mention whatsoever of their marriage. He did not make this claim until at least ten years after her death.
From what we know of Marilyn she did not suffer fools gladly, she liked her friends to be true and loyal, if she did
know Slatzer before 1957, he would certainly not have been in her circle of friends after the publication of the
Confidential article. Certainly not her lifelong friend until the night of her death. She would never have spoken to him
again. This is proof at least that if any sort of relationship did ever exist between Marilyn and Slatzer, it would
definitely have been over in 1957. So Slatzer must be stretching the truth with the claims of final phone calls,
clandestine meetings and Kennedy secrets divulged by Marilyn to him.
So, if Marilyn and Robert Slatzer had been married in 1952 why did it only occur to Slatzer to mention it in the early
70s.
In “Reporters – Memoirs of a Young Newspaper Man” by Will Fowler. He explains how the idea of a marriage to
Marilyn may have suggested itself to Slatzer. He says Slatzer came to him in the early in the1970s with an article
concerning Marilyn’s death. Slatzer was hopeful that this could be expanded upon into a book and that he and Fowler
could share co-author credit, as well as any profits. It was at this point that Fowler mentioned it was a shame that
Slatzer did not have some sort of hook, such as the idea that Slatzer and Monroe had been married, stating that it
would surely increase the book’s sales. Fowler writes that he had just started reading the first draft when Slatzer came
to him and informed him that he and Marilyn had been married, but only for a weekend. This, plus questionable facts
in the manuscript made Fowler suspicious of Slatzer. Fowler parted with Slatzer but he was eventually able to publish
the book by other means.
Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen, two names that always crop up in the story of Marilyn Monroe, but should they?
Is their association to her a valid one?
Let us first start with Robert Slatzer:
Robert Slatzer was a newspaper reporter from Ohio who relocated to Hollywood in 1946. He was a sometime
screenwriter and director and also wrote books about Bing Crosby and John Wayne. He published two books on
Marilyn “The Life and Curious Death” in 1974 and “The Marilyn Files” in 1992.
However, he will most be remembered for the claim he made that he and Marilyn were secretly married in Mexico in
1952. He maintains that 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck ordered that the marriage be dissolved over
concerns about Marilyn’s image. It is also Slatzer’s assertion that Zanuck ordered that all documents relating to the
marriage be destroyed. Slatzer claims that he remained one of Marilyn’s closest friends and confidants until the end of
her life, speaking to her on the night of her death and taking photographs on the set of her final film, photographs
which it has since been proven were not taken by him.
He states that he met Marilyn in 1946 when she was still a struggling model and they started dating, eventually
resulting in their marriage. There are lots of people, myself included, who believe that Slatzer’s stories are complete
fabrication, the man, according to whom, Marilyn took a moonlight skinny dip with on their very first date.
Slatzer has never been able to prove conclusively that he was married to Marilyn. Conveniently, it is his claim that all
the paperwork relating to their marriage was destroyed. However, there are many points which can disprove the
union.
Bank checks survive written by Marilyn in Los Angeles on the date which Slatzer says they were getting married in
Mexico, October 4th 1952. Slatzer has always maintained that they left LA on October 3rd and arrived back a week
later, so how could she have been in LA at the same time?
Why would Zanuck insist on annulling the marriage? No real reason was provided by Slatzer, other then her image as
a single woman would sell more movie tickets. If that were the case, there would be no objection to Marilyn marrying
Joe Dimaggio only fifteen months later and their much publicised romance beforehand.
Marilyn’s personal life is well documented, the time that Slatzer says she was seeing him, she was involved with other
people. Slatzer goes one step further, saying that he met Joe Dimaggio when Marilyn had double booked them and
they both turned up for a date with her on the same night. I think this is highly improbable, I can’t imagine Marilyn
doing this, or Joe standing for it.
Slatzer did eventually manage to produce a witness to his marriage with Marilyn, but it was later revealed that he had
paid this man to lie and corroborate his story, the man in question ‘Kid’ Chissell, an ex boxer, said he was desperate for
money and so agreed.
But, there is physical evidence that Marilyn and Slatzer did meet on one occasion. Photographs taken on the set of
Niagara in 1952 show Marilyn posing with Slatzer, very much as a movie star would pose with a fan, not an
uncommon thing for Marilyn to do. Slatzer was also in possession of a signed photograph of Marilyn which he claimed
proved their close friendship.
From the Marilyn Encyclopaedia by Adam Victor:
"Slatzer's critics, and they are many, say that Slatzer is simply a world class fantasist, who turned a passing
acquaintance with Marilyn during the shoot on Niagara into a lifetime career. The sole piece of evidence Slatzer offers
in "The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe" is a photograph of him and Marilyn against the backdrop of
Niagara Falls, on which appears the inscription, 'To Bob, Luck & Love, Marilyn.' Donald Spoto, who has provided the
most compelling debunking of Slatzer's claims so far, [in his biography "Marilyn Monroe, A Biography"] notes that
Marilyn wrote far more personal dedications to people who were important to her. It would have been quite possible
for Slatzer to have taken the photographs and then sent them to her, care of the studio, requesting her to autograph
them.”
Did this chance meeting with a movie star start an infatuation with Marilyn, which turned into a lifelong obsession for
Slatzer? Was he delusional enough to convince himself that his tall tales were the truth?
If Slatzer had such a long association with Marilyn, why are there no more photographs of them together in existence?
Why does his name not appear in any of her personal telephone books, letters, or correspondence? Why had no-one in
Marilyn’s inner circle heard of him?
In the 1970s Slatzer became one the of biggest proponents of the Kennedy murder theory in Marilyn’s death, most of
the ‘facts’ now accepted about this originally came from him, and he has done much to muddy the waters into finding
the truth about what did happen to Marilyn on her final night. Whatever that truth may be. I must state now that I
personally do not believe Marilyn was murdered and certainly not by Kennedy hands. The press conference, the red
diary, the Marilyn paranoid that she was bugged and obsessed with being First Lady, they all came from Slatzer. The
only other people to corroborate the red diary story are Ted Jordan, Lionel Grandison and Jeanne Carmen, a plethora
of Marilyn liars. The fact that the account of the red diary comes from Slatzer alone should be reason enough to
discount it from Marilyn myth.
Slatzer also made the wild claim that on 4th August 1973, he had taken part in a ritual with Church of Satan leader
Anton LeVey and LeVey’s wife at Marilyn’s house. According to him, this had actually caused Marilyn to materialise in
spirit form. There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Slatzer ever knew LeVey, he claims they met at the home of a
movie studio publicity man. Slatzer provides a back story by saying that he had been plagued by strange occurrences
and the smell of roses ever since Marilyn had died.
Should we believe a man who took it upon himself to continue the delivery of roses to Marilyn’s crypt after Joe
Dimaggio brought it to an end after 20 years……eventually the florist was forced to cancel after only a short time due
to none payment.
Slatzer has also been a voice in the call for further investigation in Marilyn’s death. In the 1980s he sent a letter to the
County Supervisors arguing that Marilyn was murdered and that a Grand Jury should investigate her death, the
request was rejected. Many will give him credit for that effort at least, my personal opinion is that he has done more
harm than good and we travel further and further away from the truth with each new crazy conspiracy theory and
sensationalist lies.
Slatzer did appear in the press a couple of times connected with Marilyn during her lifetime.
The first mention of the ‘romance’ is in a Dorothy Kilgallen gossip column from August 1952 “A dark horse in the
Marilyn Monroe romance derby is Bob Slatzer, from Columbus, Ohio, literary critic. He’s been wooing her by phone
and mail and improving her mind with gifts of the world’s greatest books”.
At first, this may seem something in the way of evidence as to an association, but Slatzer was a writer, he could have
easily placed this item, gossip columnists depend on gossip, which is unsubstantiated and passed anonymously by its
very nature, so this can hardly be taken as evidence of an affair. The description of him as a ‘literary critic’ suggests
someone was responsible for making him seem more glamorous than he was, or inaccurate information was provided
at the outset, whichever, it was presumably Slatzer himself who was responsible.
The second time was in an article in Confidential Magazine in 1957. Slatzer gave an interview talking about the
intimate details of an affair he had conducted with Marilyn while she was dating Joe Dimaggio, and they were
intimate, it was an extremely trashy article and must have been very upsetting to Marilyn and her new husband at
that time, Arthur Miller. Slatzer claims he slept with Marilyn between dates she had with Joe but surprisingly, he
makes no mention whatsoever of their marriage. He did not make this claim until at least ten years after her death.
From what we know of Marilyn she did not suffer fools gladly, she liked her friends to be true and loyal, if she did
know Slatzer before 1957, he would certainly not have been in her circle of friends after the publication of the
Confidential article. Certainly not her lifelong friend until the night of her death. She would never have spoken to him
again. This is proof at least that if any sort of relationship did ever exist between Marilyn and Slatzer, it would
definitely have been over in 1957. So Slatzer must be stretching the truth with the claims of final phone calls,
clandestine meetings and Kennedy secrets divulged by Marilyn to him.
So, if Marilyn and Robert Slatzer had been married in 1952 why did it only occur to Slatzer to mention it in the early
70s.
In “Reporters – Memoirs of a Young Newspaper Man” by Will Fowler. He explains how the idea of a marriage to
Marilyn may have suggested itself to Slatzer. He says Slatzer came to him in the early in the1970s with an article
concerning Marilyn’s death. Slatzer was hopeful that this could be expanded upon into a book and that he and Fowler
could share co-author credit, as well as any profits. It was at this point that Fowler mentioned it was a shame that
Slatzer did not have some sort of hook, such as the idea that Slatzer and Monroe had been married, stating that it
would surely increase the book’s sales. Fowler writes that he had just started reading the first draft when Slatzer came
to him and informed him that he and Marilyn had been married, but only for a weekend. This, plus questionable facts
in the manuscript made Fowler suspicious of Slatzer. Fowler parted with Slatzer but he was eventually able to publish
the book by other means.
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| By Rebecca Swift |