isn't real, and maybe most importantly, that instead of learning from the indigenous people of this land, the united states attempted to wipe them and their knowledge out. this type of thinking is not just a california problem. it isn't just a fire problem. these problems stretch from california to the new york island. and if we don't figure it out, this land will burn with you and me. nbc news on the hour. >> in california, screen actress marilyn monroe is dead. she was found dead in her bed. >> the successful lonely actress led a speck tarly life. >> the story of marilyn monroe is an authentic tragedy. it began in tragedy and ended in tragedy and in between always a tr

tragic. that simply wasn't true. >> can we start again? >> she had an agency, she was hungry for more creative chall challenges. >> she had a lot of strength with her vulnerability. >> she stood up to the old hollywood guard and said i'm mad as hell and won't take it anymore. >> up until the day she died, she was a fighter. >> of course her early death is a tragedy but that doesn't over right everything she achieved up until that point. she became the biggest movie store in the world. and she is one of the famous and most recognizable women in

history. ♪ ♪ excited fans gather on a san diego beach to watch marilyn monroe shoot her first film in two years. >> arguably her greatest role. it's incredible what she does in that. >> on paper, the role of sugarcane is very much a type of a dumb blonde. >> i can't believe this musical family. my mother is a piano teacher and my father a conductor. >> this woman is so dumb she doesn't even realize her two best friends are men in drag. >> what's the matter with you anyway? >> i'm not that bright i guess.

>> but marilyn transforms this character into a three-dimensional woman. >> they are borrowing money from me and betting on horses. >> she was able to make her character so relatable, even though they were sort of apped, you could identify with them. >> by this time in her career, marilyn was always making suggestions and it's sad she suggested there be a blast of steam as she came out on the train station. >> the fact she asks wilder to shoot steam at her is interesting. >> do you feel that? >> it shows marilyn has a real self-awareness of her image and how to play with it. >> the last thing you will hear is the idea marilyn contributed to the genius of billy wilder.

she's never given credit for being deliberately funny. >> billy wilder wasn't the easiest of directors. he wanted the actors to do what he wanted them to do but marilyn was a perfectionist and wanted many takes and she would ruin a take if she didn't like what had been done. >> her style of acting didn't go well with the highly efficient time driven, money driven studio system and billy wilder said it was hell. he said it was hell. >> this is not cheap even in those days. they are shooting like $20,000 which is blown to bits. you just say my god, my god, who is going to have a nervous breakdown? me or the money man? >> i cannot help but think about the ways men are allowed to have

a lot of leeway onset and women aren't. >> it's the way in which we talk about this male actor is passionate. he's a method actor and this actress is just a crazy bitch who is difficult onset and i've heard that time and time again. that's been the language used and that is gendered. >> as ever, the story is more camp complicated than the versions we get and when she was happy with the way the scene was being interpreted and felt she was being listened to, she was delivering scenes of perfect comic timing. >> look, if you're interested in whether i'm married or not -- >> i'm not interested at all. >> i'm not. >> that's very interesting. >> i knew i had the final shot, there was a moment of never again. all i can tell you is if marlin was around today, i would be on my knees, please, let's do it

again. ♪ ♪ >> despite the problems on set "some like it hot" is a huge hit for the studio. >> people are really responding to it and some people think it's the greatest comedy of all time and if ever she was full of life in a film and seemed completely at ease in her skin, it's this one. >> for marilyn, the film's success comes at a time of personal tragedy. ♪ i want to be loved by you just you ♪ >> it turned out afterwards marilyn was pregnant during filming, which the people onset did not know. she miscarried after the film wrapped. ♪ i want to be kissed by you, just oyou ♪ >> a few years earlier she suffered an atopic pregnancy and

again, her dreams of motherhood were dashed. so when she sold herself on screen, thinking back to finding out that she was pregnant and all of those things, it must have been extremely hurtful for her. ♪ i want to be loved by you ♪ >> marilyn had to suffer the pain in the public eye. she had newspapers and journalists all gas -- gossiping about it. to have everyone reading about her miscarryings and difficulties must have been very, very trying for her. >> it is absolutely astounding. there was a sense that she was a failure because she couldn't have children. this is a story too ma fafamili to women everywhere. familiar to women everywhere. familiar to women everywhere.familiar to

women everywhere. >> but marilyn forges ahead. she's set to star in a mayor hollywood film written by her husband, author miller. >> "the misfits" had been conceived as arthur's valentine to marilyn, this gift of love from her genius play write husband and finally, she thought, somebody is going to write her the role she had been waiting for. there's a monster problem and our hero needs solutions. so she starts a miro to brainstorm. “shoot it?” suggests the scientists.

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marilyn and author arrive in reno to begin filming "the misfits." ♪ ♪ >> "the misfits" is written by marilyn's husband arthur miller. it's supposed to really show off how far she's come. >> i came to work on "the misfits" i was delighted to meet author miller. i was in admire of his work and the cast were a starry cast and sweet, friendly, all the rest of the cast. >> i'd like you to meet a friend of mine. >> part gable. he was one of her idles when she w -- idols when she was a child. she didn't know who her father

was so why not clark gable? >> what do you do with yourself? >> just live. >> the story of lose l roslyn t gone to reno for a divorce. >> never had much. here i am. >> the film was inspired when arthur miller was in reno getting his divorce so he could marry marilyn. >> he even called the character roslyn to make clear this is marilyn, he sees marilyn in this way. >> too rough for you? >> but the charts had changed their relationship. >> he's doing rewrites on the set and she hugely v ly resente way he characterized the roslyn char tkt ter. >> it seemed to be everything he loved about marilyn to a parody showing the contempt he started

to form for his wife. >> we're all dying, aren't we? >> roslyn is not very bright and just kind of this body that runs around hugging trees and hugging men. >> it's more than a professional disappointment for marilyn, it's also a personal one because she does not feel seen or understood by her husband, the person that's supposed to know her best. >> i want to show you the rest. i've changed a few things. >> there is a scene where there is a locker room door open and it has pictures from early in her career and what the script makes marilyn do is shut the door on those pictures. >> and how do you like it? don't look at those. nothing. they were hung up for a joke. >> her husband say her saying that she is a joke. >> let's have lots of drinks. >> when everything she had been fighting for was specifically to be taken seriously. >> marilyn becomes frustrated

with this role. her addiction to bar bpills and alcohol is a problem on the set. >> she was alwayspills and alcohol is a problem on the set. >> she was always on the sleeping pills at night. i don't know what pills she took to wake up and it was getting worse and worse. >> everyone making the movie falls into two camps, one around marilyn, one around arthur, eventually he moves out of her suite to another suite. >> the first time i think i knew the relationship between them was difficult is arthur said to me one day, oh, can i come in the car with you and john and going home, can i come back in the car? i thought well, you know, they come at different times true, but it was every day then.

>> miller seems to have been mining their lives together for a lot of his material and some of the characters are speaking for him. >> she's crazy. they're all crazy. try not to believe it because you need them. >> he starts talking about women as them and men as you. >> struggle, you build, you try, you turn yourself inside out for them but it's never enough. >> and she said to think author did this to me and at that point the marriage became irretrievably over. >> i hated you! >> she'd experienced miscarriages during her march ri -- marriage to author and now her third marriage ended in divorce and very bleak period. >> after the divorce she has a very bad nervous breakdown and

her spsychiatrist felt she needd to be put in the hospital to be revitalized and taken off drugs. >> so marilyn voluntarily went to a hospital thinking she was getting therapy and care. >> imagine being in the early '60s, you're a woman and one of the most recognizable faces on the planet. i think her decision to ask for help shows a tremendous strength in self-awareness within her. the problem is sometimes the help you get is not the help you need. >> she checks into pain whitney and basically locked in to a violent psychiatric ward. and she was constrained against her will for three days, treated as a violent patient. >> she is locked into a room and she yells and screams. >> it was such a harrowing

experience for her. she was so isolated, so alone. >> all of that was compounded by her very real fear that her mother's mental illness was inheritable and she might have it, as well. >> this made it seem like her worst nightmare was coming true and she would do anything to get o out. >> early in her career she played a spsychotic babysitter and it took her back to that performance. she said she actually put on a show for them. >> you don't want to do that. >> how do you know my name? >> she thought of this scene in "don't bother to knock." she got a piece of glass and threatened to harm herself.

>> give it to me. >> they expected her to be crazy so she acted crazy so she could actually get they are attention and get them to listen to her. >> you're going to a hospital now. >> back there? >> here in new york. we're going to help you. >> eventually she gets into colombia presbyterian, which was a hospital that had a drug withdrawal clinic. >> after three weeks there, marilyn leaves. >> marilyn was a fighter. she fell and got up again and she kept dusting herself off and starting over again. with 37 , you get a smile on your plate. only from ihop. download the app and join the rewards program today.

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marilyn really wanted to settle down and plant roots. she set out and found this home in brentwood. this was like a new beginning for her. it was a fresh start. it was a modest home for a movie star, and it had an inscription

on the floor of the entrance that said "this is my journey's end". >> it was very unusual at that point for a woman herself to buy a home alone so marilyn is really showing a good deal of independence by buying that home. ♪ ♪ >> it's been over a year since marilyn wrapped her last film when fox calls her back to set. >> contractually marilyn owed fox a move sie so she signed up be the lead in a movie called "something's got to give". >> this is her first mature role and marilyn is playing someone who has responsibility for someone else. she's a mother. >> come here. >> why? >> i want to hug you. >> me, too. >> in "something's got to give" you see a maternal aspect, which

is completely unexpected. >> 911? >> it naturally brings a certain softness. you can't help but wonder what could have been and i'm sure i'm not the only person to have thought that while watching those scenes. >> i start like -- >> going into the movie, she wasn't in the best of health at all. >> really? >> she had colds and sinusitis and depen tdent on medication. >> marilyn was at an intriguing turning point. she's hungry for more creative fulfillment and also struggling with mental health issues to make it difficult for her to show up on time. >> the production would be

delayed a little bit but 20th century fox is going through big problems. they want it over and done with. >> during the 1960s, the film studios were really competing with the rise in popularity of television and one way to get people into the movie theaters was to produce these huge big budget epics with incredible costumes and so much luxury to see on the biggest screen poss possible. >> by the time "something's got to give" was made they were working on one of the biggest productions ever ""colleopatra" >> elizabeth taylor was getting paid ten times what marilyn monroe was being paid. >> it's a disastrous shoot.

liz dtaylor is sick. they have to tear down expensive sets and rebuild them in rome. >> good to see you, ms. taylor, how are you? >> i feel weak. >> they had to shut down all productions except "collie"coll pa -- "colleopatra". >> she had a date with the president. he was having a big birthday party at madison square garden. >> the president is winding up his new york day here at a sort of prebirthday celebration. >> a lot of very famous performers were singing and dan dancing.

>> she asked permission from the studio to go off but because of the production delays, the studio said she could not go. >> she was furious because in her view a star of her statute could say she was going to go do this for a couple days and they would have to deal with it. >> marilyn spent weeks rehearsing for the event. >> it was a really big deal and she prepared so much for that brief performance. >> marilyn had an association with president kennedy and links together politics and hollywood and john f. kennedy's presidency was very much a hollywood presidency. >> mr. president, on this occasion of your birthday, this lovely lady is pungcutuial.

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it was late at night. marilyn was just coming on to the stage. it was always a great concern as to whether she was going to make it on the stage. >> there has been no one female that meant so much. >> but she was well worth waiting for. [ applause ] >> i remember her hair was very exaggerated. she's almost like a cartoon of herself. >> mr. president, the late marilyn monroe. >> and then there is this body inside this sheathe and it's just like oh my god. oh my god. >> i was honored when they asked

me to appear at madison square guardian, you know, i was a little worried about my voice, but it came out but i didn't know, i can't forget the words happy birthday has always been happy birthday. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday, mr. president, happy birthday to you ♪ >> it's very erotic and the incredibly powerful over sexuality in the early 1960s would be seen by many, many people as being utterly inappropriate, just truly inappropriate. ♪ mr. president for all the

things you've done ♪ >> that song is very deliberately a performance. marilyn performing marilyn. ♪ so much, everybody, happy birthday ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i definitely think marilyn was trying to send a message to the powers that be at 20th century fox. her performance was a way of high lighting her own power in a way that says i don't need you, you guys need me. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> when she sang happy birthday, i do remember watching that and being very amused by it. i think she was playing with him but it was certainly brave. >> i can now retire from politics after having had happy

birthday sung to me in such a sweet -- [ laughter ] >> the standard take on the aftermath is that j.f.k. was publicly embarrassed and that he dumped her. the story continues. she was heartbroken, calling him every five seconds and falling apart but her friends at the time said that she absolutely wasn't. that she wasn't in love with him but we insist on seeing marilyn as a passive victim of the men around her. nobody can seem to imagine a different version of the story. that she was a 36-year-old woman who clearly had a very pragmatic attitude to sex and that she could be getting a kick out of sleeping with the most powerful man in the world. >> but marilyn's trip spells disaster for her relationship with fox. the studio files a breach of

contract against her. >> i think there is a sense that going to madison square garden was her resting too much control from the studios instead of sitting back and doing what she was told. >> what happens after is just a sign of the industry's inability to handle a good thing when they have it. >> back in l.a., marilyn has devised a plan to remind the studio of who they are dealing with. she enlists the help of photographer lawrence shiller. >> i went out to her home in brentwood and we started to go through the script and there is this scene where she's in a swimming pool and dean martin is looking at her from a balcony. and marilyn said, you know, splish splash this would make interesting pictures. i said there is no question

about it. she says but larry, what would happen if i jumped in the swimming pool with my bathing suit on nude color but came out with nothing on? she wanted those pictures as publicity to show 20th century fox that she was as popular as liz taylor on the cover of every magazine in the world. [ laughter ] >> i have two cameras around my neck, maybe three and marilyn said look, in between each of the takes, i'll do the posing because marilyn would look at where my camera was, look at the light and turn her body. she knew exactly what to do. >> as a super star, being on a film set and just stripping down and being absolutely naked at that stature, at that level highly unusual. it's beyond titillation. it really pushing the envelope.

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than most photographers that ever photographed her and just as i'm driving in, she's about ready to drive out in a t-bird convertible and said hop in and hands me a bottle. i popped the cork and she takes it. full bottle like that. let me see the pictures. she takes the pictures and she's holding them up to the streetlights. and then she takes out a pair of painting sheers and goes zip and my heart drops and she goes zip, cuts right through the image. all the pieces she's cutting are going on the floor of the car and i'm grabbing them putting them back and i'm looking over and saying, you know, she's pretty good editing but that's how marilyn monroe edited my color pictures so you might see 30 transparencies that survived marilyn monroe in the t bird looking at a streetlight.

>> i was afraid you'd misunderstood about that. >> what's to misunderstand -- >> on the set of "something's got to give" marilyn's relationship with the studio goes from bad to worse. >> can we start again? >> they say that she's uncorporative and caused costly delays and tried to dismiss her as a temper mental star who over played her hand. >> all you can think about is the way i behaved with this poor little -- okay. >> with this poor little fly. >> the studio was looking at what is happening on the set. >> sorry, george, we can do it -- >> good, good. >> they're saying you know what? we're not going to make it here. >> one more. that was good though, huh? >> and we are going to lose money and they pulled the plug. they just pulled the plug. ♪ ♪ >> the studio fired her.

they made marilyn take the fall. instead of saying we can't afford to keep this going because "co "cothe other movie costing a fortune. >> marilyn is the biggest star at the time even if they didn't want to admit that. ♪ ♪ >> two weeks after she is fired, shiller's sensational photos of marilyn hit the news stands. >> the public reaction was overwhelming. i called her on the phone and said perry match is running a cover in six pages. their stern in germany is going to run a cover in three pages and every time i get on the phone her voice would go up because she was achieving what she wanted to achieve and that was worldwide notoriety. her weapon was her body.

her weapon was this incredible face. her weapon was to knock liz taylor everybody else off the cover. >> it's absolutely stunning that she pulled off what she did really being smarter than the managers she had. she really knew what she needed to do better than other people did. >> would you like a drink? >> no. >> come on, have a little. >> that summer, marilyn invites "life magazine" journalists richard marryman and alan grant to her home for an exclusive interview. >> i think that richard marryman interview is her chance to control the narrative and appeal to her fans who had been loyal to her. >> disillusion the way the industry treats its stars. i mean, the things they sent out

about me, i never lost sight. they are not disciplined or to be disciplined. >> she talks about herself being really undermined by hollywood and badly treated by hollywood. >> if you have a code, the executives can get calold. how dare you get a cold? >> there is an extraordinary moment he says how do you crank yourself up for a performance? and it really clearly strikes a nerve. >> i don't crank anything. you know, i'm not a model t. yeah, i don't crank. i don't know but i think that's kind of disrespectful to refer to it that way. we're not machines no matter how much they want to say we are. we are not. >> she was so bold. she was so honest. i mean, that was really an act

of bravery to say i'm a human being with integrity and ar artistry and i must insist that. >> as the interview draws to a close, marilyn makes a final request of maryman. >> i hope we got something here. but please don't make me look like a joke. >> it's just so sad that after all those years of being this leading lady, this major force in american cinema that she has to beg a journalist not to make her look like a joke. >> a few days later, marilyn is calleded ed to a meeting at 20t century fox. >> films always cost more than i ex expect. >> darrell is returning as the studio's president. >> zanik takes one look and says you guys are crazy. marilyn will make you money so he reinstates marilyn.

>> it's ironic that someone who is so opposed to her career at the very beginning now really saw what kind of a gold mine he had in marilyn monroe. >> when fox rehired marilyn, she showed them who was in charge. she had finally forced them to accept her value. they rehired her at a million dollar contract and that contract has to have meant more to her professionally than any other victory she achieved. she had been vindicated and made them eat their words. >> she was at the top of her game. she was at the height of her success and all of a sudden, a curtain came down. it's like wait a minute, the movie is not over. the movie is not over. they only cover select cities with 5g. and with coverage of over 96% of interstate highway miles, they've got us covered.

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i had a dream about marilyn. and she was in terrible pain. and i woke up, and i said to milton, you better go to beverly hills. he says, what are you, crazy? i'm packing up to go to paris. but she was a good friend. i said, listen to me. i dream about something, and it happens. always my whole life.

she needs you. she doesn't have anybody. he said, okay, i'll call. he called. he said to her, amy had a dream, she laughed, ha-ha. and they spoke on the phone for three hours. he was going to fly to beverly hills. fine. and she died. >> about 5:30 in the morning, i get a phone call, and marilyn monroe died last night. i said don't give me that. hung up the phone. had seen marilyn just hours earlier. >> she was found dead early this morning a empty bottle o and bedside table. >> and i turned on the tv and there it was on the news, and i went to the house. there were a couple police officers there, just a few

reporters. only one or two photographers. the word hadn't gotten out yet. ly a camera with me, but i didn't know what to photograph. you photograph somebody alive, and now they're dead. >> appears to be one of nature's strange turns that beautiful women with the world at their feet often feel unloved, inadequate. >> i can remember the headlines. this was massive. marilyn is dead. and i remember they showed the bed they found her in. >> after she died, there was this kind of glamorizing of her dead body and the sexualization of her corpse to a really extreme degree. >> she was face down, her head covered only by a sheet, her hand on the phone.

>> it's like it person couldn't be a human being. she had to be an object of desire for everyone even in death. >> the chapel saw only 23 of marilyn monroe's closest friends and acquaintances inside. >> there's sort of this performative memorial that happens in which everyone is so sad, and how could it have happened? and yet no one in our culture is able to look inward and say oh, i was part of the problem. >> the official cause of death is barbiturate overdose. >> we thought she was murdered. everybody thought she was murdered. everybody. all kinds of conspiracy theory came out. this is the '60s. we don't believe it, because we don't believe what they tell us. >> it was a mistake. nobody, i mean, don't go there. nobody, the cubans weren't

there. the kennedys weren't there. everybody that is supposed to have killed her, never happened. it was a mistake. she took the damn sleeping pills. then she forgot she took them, so she took more. that's how it happens. >> a month before her death, marilyn met her friend, photographer george barris, for a photo shoot. >> you're very beautiful. i love these. these pictures reflect the old marilyn, someone you could talk

to. someone who is accessible. >> it's like you're seeing her soul in a way. she's just looking right at the camera. and, you know, it as like she's looking at you. >> marilyn monroe the person is gone. the image is not gone, and it will never be gone. her legacy is defined more by the images we see of her, by her career than anything else, despite the tragedies of her life. she's up there as fresh and new and wonderful as she ever was. >> marilyn monroe is a mirror for people's ideas about women's sexuality and women's power, about whether beautiful women can be intelligent, about

whether women have agency in their own careers. how are they supposed to be treated as equals? how are they supposed to be respected? those are questions that most women, if not all women, are still struggling with. and marilyn monroe is the symbol of all of that. >> if she were alive today, i think she would have been on the front lines with a lot of activists and organizers, and she would have become a very big voice in the #metoo movement. >> she was really limited in the public space of who he was and what she was capable of. she broke all these barriers. she became the biggest actress in the world and the biggest cultural icon of the 20th century. i mean, she really was truly extraordinary. >> with the sun setting and one shot of film left in the camera,

marilyn turns to george. >> this is for you. you do miss sometimes just being able to be completely yourself and someplace and people just know you as another human being. come on, everybody. let's give the little girl a great big welcome! ♪ ♪ >> by the time marilyn was shooting "there's no business like show business", she was a huge star. >> she is this beautiful, larger-than-life icon. ♪ after you get what you want ♪ ♪ you don't