Brad Pitt, Joyce Carol Oates and the Road to Blonde

[James DiEugenio]

I belatedly saw the Pitt/Dominik Netflix film Blonde.  Did not know it had been made before for CBS.  So I had to watch that one also.

Then read the Oates novel.  Thought all three were pretty poor and decided to try and find out why.

Mike Griffith is wrong again.  The whole field is one of character assassination, and fiction passing as non fiction. Of late there has been some attempt to get things straight in that case by some admirable people. Since for too long the  Slatzerians were allowed to run wild.

Poor Marilyn Monroe, I decided to give her the last word.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/brad-pitt-joyce-carol-oates-and-the-road-to-blonde-part-1

[Robert Morrow]

10 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

I belatedly saw the Pitt/Dominik Netflix film Blonde.  Did not know it had been made before for CBS.  So I had to watch that one also.

Then read the Oates novel.  Thought all three were pretty poor and decided to try and find out why.

Mike Griffith is wrong again.  The whole field is one of character assassination, and fiction passing as non fiction. Of late there has been some attempt to get things straight in that case by some admirable people. Since for too long the  Slatzerians were allowed to run wild.

Poor Marilyn Monroe, I decided to give her the last word.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/brad-pitt-joyce-carol-oates-and-the-road-to-blonde-part-1

Joe DiMaggio, who probably loved Marilyn Monroe more than anyone else, went to his grave thinking the Kennedys murdered Marilyn Monroe. Joe DiMaggio died convinced JFK had Monroe killed (scotsman.com) 

I personally do not think the Kennedys killed Monroe but I think at the very least Robert Kennedy read Monroe the riot act and psychologically pushed the poor woman over the edge to a point where she committed suicide by pills or, more likely, died of an accidental overdose. DiMaggio for 20 years had fresh white roses delivered to Monroe's grave TWICE A WEEK so he was heavily invested in the memory of her.

I do know this: Robert Kennedy pulled Monroe off the set of her movie so that she could sing "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. That was a birthday celebration that Jackie Kennedy made a choice NOT TO ATTEND. Marlyn had literally been stitched into her evening gown for that occasion. Monroe abandoning her movie set to sing for JFK caused her great difficulties with her studio bosses who were extremely displeased by this.

QUOTE

DiMaggio shed no tears when the Kennedys were assassinated. According to the book, which contains a foreword by Henry Kissinger, DiMaggio believed "they got what they deserved".

DiMaggio, who was 84 when he died after a long battle with cancer, refused to shake Robert Kennedy’s hand when they met at New York’s Yankee Stadium. Just a few years before he died he agreed to go to the Kennedy Centre only if no member of the extended political family was there.

When Engelberg asked him why, DiMaggio responded: "What they did to me will never be forgotten."

DiMaggio was considered to be one of the greatest baseball players, but he hated the limelight and sports fans were stunned when he suddenly married Monroe in 1954. He was 39 and already retired, she was 27 and at the height of her fame.

UNQUOTE

Date of Monroe singing Happy Birthday to JFK: May 19, 1962.

Date of Marilyn Monroe's death: August 4, 1962, less than 3 months later.

 

 

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

7 minutes ago, Robert Morrow said:

Joe DiMaggio, who probably loved Marilyn Monroe more than anyone else, went to his grave thinking the Kennedys murdered Marilyn Monroe. Joe DiMaggio died convinced JFK had Monroe killed (scotsman.com) 

I personally do not think the Kennedys killed Monroe but I think at the very least Robert Kennedy read Monroe the riot act and psychologically pushed the poor woman over the edge to a point where she committed suicide by pills or, more likely, died of an accidental overdose. DiMaggio for 20 years had fresh white roses delivered to Monroe's grave TWICE A WEEK so he was heavily invested in the memory of her.

I do know this: Robert Kennedy pulled Monroe off the set of her movie so that she could sing "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. That was a birthday celebration that Jackie Kennedy made a choice NOT TO ATTEND. Marlyn had literally been stitched into her evening gown for that occasion. Monroe abandoning her movie set to sing for JFK caused her great difficulties with her studio bosses who were extremely displeased by this.

QUOTE

DiMaggio shed no tears when the Kennedys were assassinated. According to the book, which contains a foreword by Henry Kissinger, DiMaggio believed "they got what they deserved".

DiMaggio, who was 84 when he died after a long battle with cancer, refused to shake Robert Kennedy’s hand when they met at New York’s Yankee Stadium. Just a few years before he died he agreed to go to the Kennedy Centre only if no member of the extended political family was there.

When Engelberg asked him why, DiMaggio responded: "What they did to me will never be forgotten."

DiMaggio was considered to be one of the greatest baseball players, but he hated the limelight and sports fans were stunned when he suddenly married Monroe in 1954. He was 39 and already retired, she was 27 and at the height of her fame.

UNQUOTE

Date of Monroe singing Happy Birthday to JFK: May 19, 1962.

Date of Marilyn Monroe's death: August 4, 1962, less than 3 months later.

 

 

 

 

She was taking a lot of the pills for a long time before she OD'd .  With alcohol.

[Robert Morrow]

That is right, Ron. And I wonder if any epic conflict with the Kennedys induced her to take a few more pills and she died because of it.

Joe DiMaggio put the death of Monroe at the feet of the Kennedys. I happen to agree with him.

[Ron Bulman]

IDK.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Bob:

I did a lot of research for that article. No credible author gives any credence to what you attributed to DiMaggio about JFK and RFK.  And there are some credible ones today, there were none before.

DiMaggio closed her funeral services because he really did not like the movie colony at all. Period.  And this is what led to the split in their marriage. He despised her famous scene in The Seven Year Itch which became iconic in movie history. In fact he stomped off the set and reportedly slapped her when he saw her next.

As I stated for the record in that essay, there was no romantic or sexual association between RFK and Monroe.  None.  As Vitacco Robles showed, she wanted his help for her dispute with the studio, since Bobby knew someone on the board. 

She and RFK met all of four times in two years. And someone else was always there. The evidence indicates that Monroe was hoarding pills and she was getting them from at least one other source besides her doctors, probably more than that.  The 45 minute delay in the call to LAPD by her doctors was because Greenson was figuring out just what Engleberg had done as he was going through all the bottles in her room.  He was both stunned and puzzled.  And btw, as with Ebbins, Greenson said that there was no relationship  between MM and the Kennedys and they had nothing to do with her death. And he saw her nearly every day.

But there is more than one report that Greenson was so worried about the abuse of pills he discovered that night that he summoned Rudin there, who was a lawyer. Clearly, he was trying to figure out his liability for her overdose. The only question being if it was deliberate or accidental.  One can make an argument for both, the latter since she was such a pill addict she had built up an immunity.

As I said, Greenson thought she was a lost soul.  And her last two psychoanalysts, Kris and Greenson, learned of her last two attempts to take her own life.   When Kris had her entered into a hospital, that is when she called DiMaggio.  Which was several years after they divorced.  And after her marriage to Miller. 

 

Edited February 28 by James DiEugenio

[Sandy Larsen]

@James DiEugenio

Jim, do you know if there is any truth to what Robert said about Bobby pulling Marilyn off the set of her movie so she could sing "Happy Birthday" for JFK, and that this caused her problems with the studio bosses?

 

[Sandy Larsen]

3 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

IDK.

 

 

I agree with Elton.

 

[Robert Morrow]

1 hour ago, Sandy Larsen said:

@James DiEugenio

Jim, do you know if there is any truth to what Robert said about Bobby pulling Marilyn off the set of her movie so she could sing "Happy Birthday" for JFK, and that this caused her problems with the studio bosses?

 

I don't know if RFK had an affair with Marilyn Monroe but I guess the odds are 99% JFK did. 

I am pretty sure it was Robert Kennedy who roped Marilyn into singing for JFK. And it caused her HUGE problems with her bosses as 20th Century Fox. Maybe someone else can document if it was RFK who did this. One thing is for sure Jackie Kennedy made a point to NOT be at her husband's birthday party. The after party was at the apartment of Democratic bundler Arthur Krim and his wife Mathilde. Arthur and Mathilde Krim, both ardent Zionists, later became Lyndon Johnson's BEST FRIENDS in the White House, spending huge amounts of personal time with LBJ. Krim even bought a home near the LBJ Ranch to be close to LBJ.

When Marilyn Monroe Sang ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’ to JFK | HISTORY

QUOTE

Monroe traveled to New York against the wishes of her bosses at 20th Century Fox, who later fired her from the project. “Marilyn had already missed quite a bit of time on the set because of her illnesses,” explained Scott Fortner, a historian of the actress who has one of the world’s largest collections of Marilyn Monroe-owned memorabilia. Though she was eventually re-hired, her untimely death on August 5, 1962, prevented the movie from ever being completed.

UNQUOTE

Here is a picture of Arthur Schlesinger grinning at Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys. The photo was taken at the after party at the Krim's apartment in New York:

The Story Behind the Only Photo of JFK and Marilyn Monroe | TIME

Irish Central article on the alleged JFK-Marilyn Monroe affair - John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe affair (irishcentral.com)

 

 

Edited February 28 by Robert Morrow

[Sandy Larsen]

17 minutes ago, Robert Morrow said:

I don't know if RFK had an affair with Marilyn Monroe but I guess the odds are 99% JFK did. 

 

There's no evidence of either Kennedy having an affair with Marilyn Monroe. Just gossip. And I think a claim by one or two of Monroe's friends.

 

[Robert Morrow]

9 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

There's no evidence of either Kennedy having an affair with Marilyn Monroe. Just gossip. And I think a claim by one or two of Monroe's friends.

 

First of all, if there is anything the moderators think I need to remove from the post, please let me know. Whenever I post on JFK's illicit sex life the JFK groupies tend to go completely berserk. If I mention Kennedy's adultery, they either deny it happened or say it is irrelevant. Then if I provide proof, they say I am disgustingly too graphic. So, is there anything I need to remove from this post? The question at hand is: did JFK have an affair with Marilyn Monroe (I am not so sure about Robert Kennedy; JFK - absolutely).

I would say pay close attention to what Air Force Steward Doyle Whitehead says below: Marilyn Monroe flew twice on Air Force One and was disguised as a secretary on the flight manifests.

Well, here is some evidence:

John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe affair (irishcentral.com)

QUOTE

While Marilyn's masseuse and close friend Ralph Roberts claims to have been on the phone with Monroe while she was in Palm Springs and that she put Kennedy on the phone soon after to talk about his bad back, the secret service detail at the house that weekend claimed it was on lockdown.

"Marilyn told me that this night in March was the only time of her 'affair' with JFK.... A great many people thought, after that weekend, that there was more to it. But Marilyn gave me the impression that it was not a major event for either of them: it happened once, that weekend, and that was that," Roberts told Monroe biographer Donald Spoto.    

UNQUOTE

If JFK could not keep his hands off homely Fiddle and Faddle in the White House, or college student MiMi Beardsley (now MiMi Alford), I doubt he would have hesitated to hop in the bed with Marilyn Monroe, who went out her way, at great cost to herself, to sing him Happy Birthday at Madison Square Garden in May, 1962.

And according to Air Force Steward Marilyn Monroe flew on Air Force One twice, while being listed as a secretary.

“Doyle Whitehead: Memories of serving three U.S. presidents on Air Force One” by Ruth Laney for Country Roads on October 24, 2016

https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/doyle-whitehead/

QUOTE

Whitehead recalled the president’s teasing him about the name of his high school. “He would tell people, ‘Did you know I have a steward on my plane who went to Oxford?’”

JFK was rumored to have had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, and Whitehead said the actress flew on AF1 twice. “She was listed as a secretary, not by name. She was a beautiful person to look at as long as she kept her mouth shut. She talked off the wall a lot, especially if she’d had a drink.”

Whitehead recalled slipping forbidden candy to young Caroline Kennedy, whose stern British nanny Maude Shaw wouldn’t allow the children to indulge their sweet tooth. “Caroline called me Whitey,” he said.

Whitehead flew with LBJ only through mid-1966. “A lot of things went into that decision. I was never home on holidays or special days, and LBJ was a terrible person to work for.”

UNQUOTE

Here is some more evidence:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/JFK%3A+The+President+who+made+Clinton+look+like+a+choirboy.-a0101900316

"JFK: The President who made Clinton look like a Choir boy" 
Byline: BARBARA DAVIES

QUOTE

His most explosive relationship was with Marilyn Monroe, whom he began seeing regularly not long after winning the Democratic nomination. On a tape made at the suggestion of her psychiatrist, Marilyn described herself as "a soldier whose commander-in-chief is the greatest and most powerful man in the world.

"The first duty of a soldier is to obey. He says, 'Do this', and you do it."

But she later revealed to Hollywood reporter James Bacon that his bedroom performances were less than average.

"She complained because it was over too quickly," said Bacon. "It was slam, bam, thank you, Ma'am."

UNQUOTE

Here is some evidence from Langdon Marvin [David Heymann, RFK, pp. 473-474]:

QUOTE

In January 1964, not long after Jack’s death, RFK asked me out to Hickory Hill. There, he handed me a packet of letters – maybe a dozen or so- and told me to ‘get rid of them.’ I should have saved them but I didn’t. I didn’t even read them. He admitted to me later that they were long missives both he and Jack had received from Marilyn Monroe.

UNQUOTE

Marilyn Monroe told a columnist that JFK would not indulge in foreplay because he lacked the time [X] [Reeves, pp. 10, 319-20, 322-27, 473 footnote].

Here is some more evidence:

Author Ronald Kessler 

https://web.archive.org/web/20210510190913/https://nypost.com/2009/08/02/racy-new-tell-all-uncovers-prezes-secret-servicing/

 [“Racy New Tell-All Uncovers Prezes’ Secret Servicing,” NY Post, August 2, 2009]

QUOTE

According to Secret Service agents, Kennedy had sex with Marilyn Monroe at New York hotels and in a loft above the Justice Department office of then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother.

“He had liaisons with Marilyn Monroe there,” a Secret Service agent says. “The Secret Service knew about it.”

Former Secret Service agent Robert Lutz remembers a gorgeous Swedish Pan Am flight attendant who was on the press plane that was following Kennedy on Air Force One. She seemed to take a liking to Lutz, and he planned to ask her out to dinner. The detail leader noticed that they were getting chummy and told the agent to stay away.

“She’s part of the president’s private stock,” he warned Lutz.

Besides one-night stands, Kennedy had several consorts within the White House. One was Pamela Turnure, who had been his secretary when he was a senator, then Jackie’s press secretary in the White House. Two others, Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowen, were secretaries who were known as Fiddle and Faddle, respectively.

“Neither did much work,” says former agent Larry Newman, who was on the Kennedy detail.

They would have threesomes with Kennedy.

UNQUOTE

Here is some more evidence: Marilyn Monroe's phone call to Jackie Kennedy at Hyannis Port to JFK's private phone.

Marilyn Monroe 'made disturbing phone call asking Jackie Kennedy if she could speak to JFK' | Daily Mail Online

Daily Mail, 7/18/2023

QUOTE

According to Taraborrelli, after speaking to multiple sources, Jackie told family members that there was a 'haunting quality to Marilyn's voice that really stuck with her.'

In April 1962, Monroe called and asked, 'Is Jack home?' to which Kennedy said he wasn't, and then asked who was calling. 

The caller said: 'Marilyn Monroe. Is this Jackie?' 

When Kennedy said it was, Monroe asked if she'd tell the president that she called. Kennedy asked what it was regarding, and Monroe said it was 'nothing in particular,' the book said.

Monroe 'just wanted to say hello.' 

Jackie Kennedy said she would pass on the message and hung up.

Taraborrelli's book, seen by Fox News, claims that Jackie Kennedy told her mother the call was 'off-putting,' and Monroe's voice was 'sad,' which she found 'disturbing.'

The call was made on a private number, and went straight to the phone in the Kennedys' bedroom.

This was the only line that was not wired or monitored by Secret Service agents.  

Jackie Kennedy was said to be confused by how Monroe managed to get through the private line. 

Taraborrelli wrote in his book: 'Jackie would never be the type to tell Marilyn, "How dare you called here." She was not that kind of personality. She was more the type to be polite and hang up, which is exactly what she did.

'Had it been Elizabeth Taylor or any other movie star, there wouldn't have been much intrigue to it. Even if it was one of the other women JFK was having an affair with, there still wouldn't have been much intrigue. 

'Anything that Marilyn touched has always created a point of interest.

'Jackie felt Marilyn was too vulnerable, too weak to be played with by JFK or by anybody else for that matter.' 

UNQUOTE

And let me close with this, Robert Dallek: Lyndon Johnson “would bang the table and declare that he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on purpose.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/04/three-new-revelations-about-lbj/377094/

QUOTE

Johnson had "an unfillable hole in his ego," Moyers says. Feelings of emptiness spurred him to eat, drink, and smoke to excess. Sexual conquests also helped to fill the void. He was a competitive womanizer. When people mentioned Kennedy's many affairs, Johnson would bang the table and declare that he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on purpose.

UNQUOTE

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28 by Robert Morrow

[Sandy Larsen]

1 hour ago, Robert Morrow said:

First of all, if there is anything the moderators think I need to remove from the post, please let me know. Whenever I post on JFK's illicit sex life the JFK groupies tend to go completely berserk. If I mention Kennedy's adultery, they either deny it happened or say it is irrelevant. Then if I provide proof, they say I am disgustingly too graphic. So, is there anything I need to remove from this post? The question at hand is: did JFK have an affair with Marilyn Monroe (I am not so sure about Robert Kennedy, JFK - absolutely).

I would say pay close attention to what Air Force Steward Doyle Whitehead says below: Marilyn Monroe flew twice on Air Force One and was disguised as a secretary on the flight manifests.

Well, here is some evidence:

John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe affair (irishcentral.com)

QUOTE

While Marilyn's masseuse and close friend Ralph Roberts claims to have been on the phone with Monroe while she was in Palm Springs and that she put Kennedy on the phone soon after to talk about his bad back, the secret service detail at the house that weekend claimed it was on lockdown.

"Marilyn told me that this night in March was the only time of her 'affair' with JFK.... A great many people thought, after that weekend, that there was more to it. But Marilyn gave me the impression that it was not a major event for either of them: it happened once, that weekend, and that was that," Roberts told Monroe biographer Donald Spoto.    

UNQUOTE

If JFK could not keep his hands off homely Fiddle and Faddle in the White House, or college student MiMi Beardsley (now MiMi Alford), I doubt he would have hesitated to hop in the bed with Marilyn Monroe, who went out her way, at great cost to herself, to sing him Happy Birthday at Madison Square Garden in May, 1962.

And according to Air Force Steward Marilyn Monroe flew on Air Force One twice, while being listed as a secretary.

“Doyle Whitehead: Memories of serving three U.S. presidents on Air Force One” by Ruth Laney for Country Roads on October 24, 2016

https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/doyle-whitehead/

QUOTE

Whitehead recalled the president’s teasing him about the name of his high school. “He would tell people, ‘Did you know I have a steward on my plane who went to Oxford?’”

JFK was rumored to have had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, and Whitehead said the actress flew on AF1 twice. “She was listed as a secretary, not by name. She was a beautiful person to look at as long as she kept her mouth shut. She talked off the wall a lot, especially if she’d had a drink.”

Whitehead recalled slipping forbidden candy to young Caroline Kennedy, whose stern British nanny Maude Shaw wouldn’t allow the children to indulge their sweet tooth. “Caroline called me Whitey,” he said.

Whitehead flew with LBJ only through mid-1966. “A lot of things went into that decision. I was never home on holidays or special days, and LBJ was a terrible person to work for.”

UNQUOTE

Here is some more evidence:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/JFK%3A+The+President+who+made+Clinton+look+like+a+choirboy.-a0101900316

"JFK: The President who made Clinton look like a Choir boy" 
Byline: BARBARA DAVIES

QUOTE

His most explosive relationship was with Marilyn Monroe, whom he began seeing regularly not long after winning the Democratic nomination. On a tape made at the suggestion of her psychiatrist, Marilyn described herself as "a soldier whose commander-in-chief is the greatest and most powerful man in the world.

"The first duty of a soldier is to obey. He says, 'Do this', and you do it."

But she later revealed to Hollywood reporter James Bacon that his bedroom performances were less than average.

"She complained because it was over too quickly," said Bacon. "It was slam, bam, thank you, Ma'am."

UNQUOTE

Here is some evidence from Langdon Marvin [David Heymann, RFK, pp. 473-474]:

QUOTE

In January 1964, not long after Jack’s death, RFK asked me out to Hickory Hill. There, he handed me a packet of letters – maybe a dozen or so- and told me to ‘get rid of them.’ I should have saved them but I didn’t. I didn’t even read them. He admitted to me later that they were long missives both he and Jack had received from Marilyn Monroe.

UNQUOTE

Marilyn Monroe told a columnist that JFK would not indulge in foreplay because he lacked the time [X] [Reeves, pp. 10, 319-20, 322-27, 473 footnote].

Here is some more evidence:

Author Ronald Kessler 

https://web.archive.org/web/20210510190913/https://nypost.com/2009/08/02/racy-new-tell-all-uncovers-prezes-secret-servicing/

 [“Racy New Tell-All Uncovers Prezes’ Secret Servicing,” NY Post, August 2, 2009]

QUOTE

According to Secret Service agents, Kennedy had sex with Marilyn Monroe at New York hotels and in a loft above the Justice Department office of then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother.

“He had liaisons with Marilyn Monroe there,” a Secret Service agent says. “The Secret Service knew about it.”

Former Secret Service agent Robert Lutz remembers a gorgeous Swedish Pan Am flight attendant who was on the press plane that was following Kennedy on Air Force One. She seemed to take a liking to Lutz, and he planned to ask her out to dinner. The detail leader noticed that they were getting chummy and told the agent to stay away.

“She’s part of the president’s private stock,” he warned Lutz.

Besides one-night stands, Kennedy had several consorts within the White House. One was Pamela Turnure, who had been his secretary when he was a senator, then Jackie’s press secretary in the White House. Two others, Priscilla Wear and Jill Cowen, were secretaries who were known as Fiddle and Faddle, respectively.

“Neither did much work,” says former agent Larry Newman, who was on the Kennedy detail.

They would have threesomes with Kennedy.

QUOTE

Here is some more evidence: Marilyn Monroe's phone call to Jackie Kennedy at Hyannis Port to JFK's private phone.

Marilyn Monroe 'made disturbing phone call asking Jackie Kennedy if she could speak to JFK' | Daily Mail Online

Daily Mail, 7/18/2023

QUOTE

According to Taraborrelli, after speaking to multiple sources, Jackie told family members that there was a 'haunting quality to Marilyn's voice that really stuck with her.'

In April 1962, Monroe called and asked, 'Is Jack home?' to which Kennedy said he wasn't, and then asked who was calling. 

The caller said: 'Marilyn Monroe. Is this Jackie?' 

When Kennedy said it was, Monroe asked if she'd tell the president that she called. Kennedy asked what it was regarding, and Monroe said it was 'nothing in particular,' the book said.

Monroe 'just wanted to say hello.' 

Jackie Kennedy said she would pass on the message and hung up.

Taraborrelli's book, seen by Fox News, claims that Jackie Kennedy told her mother the call was 'off-putting,' and Monroe's voice was 'sad,' which she found 'disturbing.'

The call was made on a private number, and went straight to the phone in the Kennedys' bedroom.

This was the only line that was not wired or monitored by Secret Service agents.  

Jackie Kennedy was said to be confused by how Monroe managed to get through the private line. 

Taraborrelli wrote in his book: 'Jackie would never be the type to tell Marilyn, "How dare you called here." She was not that kind of personality. She was more the type to be polite and hang up, which is exactly what she did.

'Had it been Elizabeth Taylor or any other movie star, there wouldn't have been much intrigue to it. Even if it was one of the other women JFK was having an affair with, there still wouldn't have been much intrigue. 

'Anything that Marilyn touched has always created a point of interest.

'Jackie felt Marilyn was too vulnerable, too weak to be played with by JFK or by anybody else for that matter.' 

UNQUOTE

And let me close with this, Robert Dallek: Lyndon Johnson “would bang the table and declare that he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on purpose.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/04/three-new-revelations-about-lbj/377094/

QUOTE

Johnson had "an unfillable hole in his ego," Moyers says. Feelings of emptiness spurred him to eat, drink, and smoke to excess. Sexual conquests also helped to fill the void. He was a competitive womanizer. When people mentioned Kennedy's many affairs, Johnson would bang the table and declare that he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on purpose.

UNQUOTE

 

A bunch of websites merely repeating gossip.

 

[Robert Morrow]

5 minutes ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

A bunch of websites merely repeating gossip.

 

Air Force Steward Doyle Whitehead was on Air Force One twice with Marilyn Monroe! So JFK was dragging her along for political consulting?

https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/doyle-whitehead/

[Sandy Larsen]

20 minutes ago, Robert Morrow said:

Air Force Steward Doyle Whitehead was on Air Force One twice with Marilyn Monroe! So JFK was dragging her along for political consulting?

https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/history/doyle-whitehead/

 

Well it must be true if it's in Country Road Magazine!

 

[Robert Morrow]

This is for Jim DiEugenio who believes that JFK did not have an affair with Marilyn Monroe. Had you ever heard of Air Force Steward (20 year veteran) Doyle Gene Whithead before today 2/28/2024? He is the Air Force steward who says that TWICE he saw Marilyn Monroe fly on Air Force One with President Kennedy and she was disguised as a secretary on the Air Force flight manifest. Whitehead also said Monroe had a foul mouth.

Doyle Gene Whitehead, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/243253048/doyle-gene-whitehead ,  never said that he actually saw JFK and Marilyn Monroe in bed having sex. But if JFK was twice traveling with Monroe disguised (or listed) as a secretary on Air Force One, what are the odds that randy JFK was not having sex with Monroe? What does the common sense test say about this? Do we need bedroom activity videotapes and signed confessions from both JFK and Marilyn Monroe to before we conclude they were very PROBABLY having a sexual affair?

Here are some obituaries for Doyle Gene Whitehead who died at age 86 on Sept. 4, 2022.

Doyle Whitehead, Air Force One Steward For Three Presidents, Dies At 86

(6-22-1936 to 9-4-2022)

Doyle Whitehead of Gloster served as a steward aboard Air Force One for three former presidents. He died Sunday at his daughter’s house in Louisiana. He was 86.

[“Doyle Whitehead, Air Force One Steward For Three Presidents, Dies at 86," Enterprise-Journal, 9-06-2022.]

https://www.enterprise-journal.com/doyle-whitehead-air-force-one-steward-three-presidents-dies-86

Tue, 09/06/22-12:00PM, 

Doyle Whitehead, whose humble roots growing up on an Amite County farm and attending a one-room schoolhouse led him to a globetrotting life as a steward aboard Air Force One for three presidents, has died. He was 86. 

Funeral director John Brown of Brown Funeral Home in Gloster said Whitehead died Sunday at his daughter’s house in Denham Springs, La. 

Whitehead had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

Visitation is 10 a.m. Friday at New Hope Methodist Church, Gloster, until services there at 1 p.m. Burial will be in the church cemetery, Brown said.  

Whitehead was aboard Air Force One in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In previous interviews with the Enterprise-Journal, he recalled consoling Jackie Kennedy — still wearing a blood-spattered pink dress in the back of the plane — on the flight back to Washington. 

“There was a table with four chairs across from where the casket was, and that’s where Jackie Kennedy sat,” he said in 2016.

Whitehead said also served aboard Air Force One during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson. 

He said Kennedy was his favorite president to work for. 

One day Kennedy asked Whitehead where he went to school.

“I told him Oxford, and he laughed. I said, ‘Not the Oxford you’re thinking of,’ ” which would have been the university in England, as opposed to the one-room schoolhouse in Amite County’s Oxford community.

“He made a joke out of that later on: ‘I’ve got a steward that went to Oxford,’ and of course I did,” Whitehead said. 

His least favorite was Johnson, who he described as crass and demanding. Whitehead said those character traits were pronounced on Day 1 of the Johnson presidency, when Air Force One was returning Kennedy’s body to Washington with his widow aboard and the nation was in shock and mourning. 

Johnson had been sworn in on the plane before takeoff.  

 “While she sat in the back by the body, Johnson and his boys had a party celebrating his presidency. It got so loud, we had to close off where she and the body were from the party,” Whitehead said.

During his time in the Air Force, Whitehead played host to dignitaries including the Rev. Billy Graham, Henry Kissinger and Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. 

He witnessed presidential womanizing and excess and said Marilyn Monroe was a frequent flier during the Kennedy administration, but Johnson also had plenty of private time with his masseuses, even when the First Lady was aboard. 

Of Monroe, Whitehead said, “She was beautiful until she opened her mouth. She was a drinker, and you know how drunks are they just go on and on. That’s what she did. Some of the filthiest things came out of her mouth; it was disgusting.”

Whitehead’s Air Force One career began when Eisenhower visited the base where he was stationed and one of his stewards had a heart attack, leaving the plane in need of a quick replacement. 

“They were running around looking for somebody to take his place and I was standing right there,” Whitehead said. “I said, ‘I’ll go,’ so they stuck me on the airplane.”

Whitehead left Air Force One in 1966, telling his boss, “I’ve got to go. I’ve had all I can take.”

His next assignment was in Vietnam during the war, where one of his jobs was to escort the Rev. Billy Graham. 

After that he flew with other dignitaries before retiring from the military in 1974. 

While Whitehead’s career made him a familiar face with the most powerful men in the world and took him to more places than most people get to see in their lifetimes, he never forgot his home and returned to live out his retirement in Amite County. 

“It was an honor for me,” Whitehead said of his job. “I felt like I’d come a long way in a short-term career. All my life, if I did a job, I tried to do it the best I could.”

 Doyle Gene Whitehead obituary – Sept. 4, 2022

https://www.brownms.com/obituary/doyle-whitehead

Doyle Gene Whitehead of GLOSTER, Mississippi

September 4, 2022

Doyle Gene Whitehead , 86, long time resident of the Oxford Community, passed away on September 4, 2022, surrounded by his wife and children.  He was the son of Elbert N. Whitehead and Ruby Dillon Whitehead.

He was a retired Chief Master Sergeant with the United States Air Force with 20 plus years of service. After his military retirement, he was the former owner of Gloster Feed and Seed and went on to work for Kramertown Feed and Seed.  He was a longtime member of New Hope Methodist Protestant Church.

He is survived by his wife; Barbara Whittington Whitehead;  two sons Michael Whitehead and Marlene, and Ronald Whitehead and Jeanne;  two daughters  Denise Singleton and Mark, and Celeste Letchworth; one stepdaughter Wendy Aaron, and one stepson Glen Sterling; numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren, and a Paw Paw to many.

He is preceded in death by his parents Elbert N. Whitehead and Ruby Dillon Whitehead; one granddaughter Rebecca Whitehead; one son in-law Lance Letchworth; an infant brother Nathaniel Whitehead; three brothers Walter Whitehead, Johnny Lee Whitehead, and Thomas Whitehead; two sisters Gladys Hollingsworth and Jenny Livingston.

Visitation will be Friday, September 9, 2022 , 10:00AM at New Hope Methodist Protestant Church until time of funeral services at 1:00PM at New Hope Methodist Protestant Church , near Gloster, Ms.  Brother David Whitehead and Brother Carl Grice will be officiating.

Pallbearers will be Travis Horner, Joshua Horner, Steven Whitehead, Brian Whitehead, Sterling Aaron, Brian Anders, Derrick Whitehead, and Roy Wilson, JR.

Honorary Pallbearers will be Roy Gene Wilson, SR., Sammy Whittington, Willie Bailey, and Brother Wayne Killingsworth, and Wes Fields.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the New Hope Cemetery Fund, 5721 New Hope Rd. Gloster, Ms. 39638.

Special thanks to Dr. Ronald Delrie and staff at The Mississippi Cancer Institute and The Hospice of Baton Rouge.

 Doyle Gene Whitehead – Find-a-Grave entry:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/243253048/doyle-gene-whitehead

 

Edited February 28 by Robert Morrow