3 Old Hollywood Myths — Debunked!
No, Marilyn Monroe wasn’t a size 16.
Hollywood has always been the land of smoke and mirrors. The fact that its major export has, for the last century, been selling make-believe to the public should make it no surprise that its proclivity for fudging the facts is every bit as awe-inspiring as the city’s sun kissed sloping hillsides and stretching curves of blue coast.
Here’s this writer’s theory: Hollywood started as a conservative little farm town that was boosted into a booming metropolis. The incoming thronging masses from the world over– from Iowa to Istanbul– fabricated their own realities in a city that suffered from a serious identity crisis. When you’re dealing with a place like that… well … it’s inevitable that sometimes fact and fiction get a bit, shall we say, confused.
Here are 3 of the biggest Old Hollywood myths that you probably still think are true:
Myth #1: Elizabeth Taylor had Purple Eyes
Fact: Taylor’s eyes were dark blue.
I know, I know, I know. I want to believe it too. But we have to bow to science here, which is quite clear on the issue: violet eyes normally only occur with albinos. Since Taylor was obviously not…what’s the deal here? Because in a number movies and photo stills (like the gif above) there is no doubt whatsoever that Taylor’s eyes look violet. Strikingly so. Thing is, you’ll also find photos and films where Taylor’s eyes look blue. What gives?
A bit of background: Taylor was without doubt one of the most extraordinarily beautiful creatures to ever grace our planet. She also had a genetic mutation that contributed to her unearthly beauty. Taylor was born with a condition called “FOXC2,” which gave her two rows of eyelashes instead of one. Think of it as natural mascara. (In fact, as a child actor on the film Lassie, the studio though she was wearing too much eye makeup — she was actually wasn’t wearing any.)
This served to her advantage, giving her eyes a deep, hypnotic quality. The eyes were also very dark blue. Taylor applied strategic eye makeup (often violent and blue eyeshadow) to accentuate her natural eye color. And if she were to wear a lavender or purple color (like in the gif above), well, you can bet those colors would reflect off her eyes giving them that extraordinary color.
Watch Elizabeth Taylor her at Warner Archive in A Date with Judy, Little Women, The V.I.P.s, The Sandpiper, The Comedians, and Reflections in a Golden Eye.
Myth: Jean Harlow died from bleaching her hair.
Fact: Harlow died from uremic poisoning (acute kidney failure).
There are many lingering rumors about the causes of Jean Harlow’s premature death in 1937. Her mother was a Christian Scientist who refused medical attention, it was because of alcoholism, it was from a botched abortion, on and on. One of the biggest is that she died as a result of the toxic chemicals used to get her famous platinum blonde hair. Harlow was a natural towhead as a young girl, but as an adult she had to use a special concoction to achieve the bright, shimmery platinum color that made her famous: peroxide, ammonia, clorox and lux flakes. Yikes. It’s no surprise that eventually, Harlow’s hair began to fall out. She had to wear a wig and, finally, her scalp was nursed back to health when her image was made over: instead of a being a sexpot platinum blonde, she became a more down-to-earth “brownette.”
All of this has nothing to do with the fact that Harlow died from kidney failure. As a teenager, Harlow contracted both meningitis and scarlet fever which permanently weakened her system. For the rest of her life, she was susceptible to infections (like strep throat) that damaged both her heart and kidneys.
Early in 1937, both her and actor Robert Taylor fell ill while on a press tour, sending her system into a downward spiral from which she would not recover. True, she was misdiagnosed by doctors at the very end when her situation became critical (co-star and friend Clark Gable said that when he visited her in the hospital, her breath smelled like urine), but even if she had been properly diagnosed, in the 1930s there was no such thing as dialysis for kidney failure. Even penicillin, which would have most assuredly helped her recover much better from her bouts of influenza, wasn’t in use until the early 1940s.
In 1937, the Jean Harlow was doomed.
Watch Jean Harlow here at Warner Archive in the screwball comedy, Bombshell.
Myth: Marilyn Monroe wore a size 16 dress (U.S.).
Fact: She was mostly a size 6 or 8 (U.S).
There is something irresistible about the idea that the world’s greatest sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, would be “fat” by today’s standards. It was sometime during the ’90s that the rumor began to circulate that Monroe wore a size 16 dress. The truth is, that in modern day measurements, she wore what would be a U.S. size 6, or maybe an 8.
The fact is: fashion changes, and so does the sizing. (Anyone who has ever shopped at a vintage clothing shop knows this.) In the 1950s, the commercial standard for off-the-rack clothing ranged from size 8 to 38. Meaning there was no such thing as a size 0–6. That happened in the 1980s, when a little something called “vanity sizing” became the norm in the states, and it remains so.
What’s interesting, is that vintage sizing is much closer to modern day U.K. dress sizing. The difference between U.K. dress sizes and the U.S. is by multiples of 4. Someone wearing a 6 in the U.S. wears a 10 in the U.K.
This is very much in line with the way it was in the states during the 1950s, when what we now consider to be a size 6 or 8 would have been a 10 0r 12.
So even though Marilyn Monroe’s image as a healthy, curvy bombshell is accurate — don’t listen to people who try and sell you the idea that she was a modern day size 16. Just isn’t true.
Watch Marilyn Monroe here at Warner Archive in The Prince and the Showgirl.
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