Marilyn Monroe (1926 – 1962)   
    
    
   

Norma Jeane Mortenson—who would later become better
known around the world as the glamorous actress and sex
symbol Marilyn Monroe—was born on June 1, 1926, in Los
Angeles, California. She was later given her mother’s name,
and baptized Norma Jeane Baker.

After a tumultuous childhood—both maternal grandparents
and her mother were committed to mental institutions, and
she lived with a string of foster families. Norma Jeane married
one of her neighbors, James Dougherty, when she was 16. He
later joined the Merchant Marines and was sent to the South
Pacific during World War II. A photographer “discovered” the
naturally photogenic Norma Jeane while she was working in
a California munitions factory, and she was soon launched
into a successful modeling career. She divorced Dougherty
in June 1946 and soon after signed a film contract with 20th
Century Fox.

1961

The Seven Year Itch, a 1955 romantic comedy film
directed by Billy Wilder.

On May 25, 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an
intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas’ blockbuster
Star Wars movies hit  American theaters.

The incredible success of Star Wars–it received seven Oscars,
and earned $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of
close to $800 million worldwide–began with an extensive,
coordinated marketing push by Lucas and his studio, 20th
Century Fox, months before the movie’s release date. “It
wasn’t like a movie opening,” actress Carrie Fisher, who
played rebel leader Princess Leia, later told Time magazine.
“It was like an earthquake.” Beginning with–in Fisher’s words–
“a new order of geeks, enthusiastic young people with sleeping
bags,” the anticipation of a revolutionary movie-watching
experience spread like wildfire, causing long lines in front of
movie theaters across the country and around the world.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Peter (Pete) Dennis Blandford Townshend is 78 years
old today.

Pete Townshend is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead
vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most
influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s.

Due to his aggressive playing style and innovative songwriting
techniques, Townshend’s works with the Who and in other
projects have earned him critical acclaim.

Townshend has written more than 100 songs for 12 of the
Who’s studio albums.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993)

On May 4, 1929, Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston—who will
one day be better known to legions of film fans as Audrey
Hepburn—was born near Brussels, Belgium.

The daughter of an English banker and a Dutch baroness, Hepburn
was attending school in London when World War II erupted in
Europe. During the war, the Nazis occupied Holland, where the
young Audrey and her mother were staying, and the family
suffered many hardships. Hepburn continued to pursue her
ballet studies, and at war’s end, she returned to London, where
she modeled and began acting in small parts on stage and screen.

In 1951, Hepburn was “discovered” by the French writer Colette
while in Monaco shooting a film. Colette insisted Hepburn be cast
in the title role of the Broadway version of her novel Gigi, and the
young actress made her Broadway debut that same year.