Club Silencio

With the information provided here (and on IMDb) I compiled a list of connections between Marilyn and Betty/Diane.

http://mulholland-drive.net/studies/rl_ ... htm#monroe

Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood's most famous sex symbol, has become a notable object of fascination for David Lynch. He even dedicated a song to her on Blue Bob, his cowritten album which has two tracks featured in MD ("Mountains Falling" and "Go Get Some"). Here's a list of possible real life connections between Marilyn and Betty/Diane:

• Marilyn was raised in foster care and knew her mother only as "that woman with red hair" who came to visit.
• Marilyn was asked to refer to her foster mother as her aunt.
• Marilyn was sexually abused as a child most extensively by a male boarder in her foster home. When she tried to tell her foster mother, she was basically told to shut up about it because it couldn't have happened plus they needed the money. »see this article
• Marilyn’s demeanor, voice, and many other characteristics emulated a sexualized little girl. Her screen persona was childlike and innocent, but she gained attention and affection through a sexual persona. Now think of the audition scene. 
• Marilyn's untimely death at the age of 35 led to years of speculation, presumably she committed suicide.
• Twin Peaks: Originally Lynch and Mark Frost were working on some sort of project (documentary?) about Monroe. Eventually it became Twin Peaks and many things about her life filtered through into the series. Things such as Marilyn's public facade hiding her inner turmoil. Laura, (like Marilyn) became trapped by people's image of her and lost her identity. Laura's relationship with Dr. Jacoby is similar to Monroe and her therapist etc.

If you have anything to add or correct (wording, content), here's the place to post it. Let's get this thing going.

Woah! Great work Bob.

This seems to completely explain Aunt Ruth. So that's quite big, for me. (And she IS Diane's mother).

You say, "Laura [Palmer], like Marilyn, became trapped by people's image of her and lost her identity".

That reminds me of Rita, who has also lost her identity. Maybe people's image of Rita isn't so accurate. She's always seemed like a pretty sympathetic character to me.

Actually, it was her foster mother who wanted to be called aunt. I rephrased that sentence for clarity.

Also check out this clip

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Was Marilyn ever pregnant? I was just thinking, remember how in the couch break-up scene Camilla seems in pain? Some people thought it was because Camilla is supposed to be a transsexual or something, but could it be showing that she's pregnant and no longer able to secretly be with Diane? Camilla doesn't seem like a girl who would stop her affairs with other women just because she's getting married. I remember watching "Some Like It Hot" with my friend a year ago, and she said that Marilyn was pregnant during the filming. Anyone know anything about that?

first of all, here is my favorite picture of Marilyn Monroe.



i wanted to add that, although I know it's not very relevant. There was just more to Miss Monroe than the tragic stories and bombshell stuff.

ok, that over with....

From Twin Peaks 2.013

TREMAYNE
A peace officer's work is never done. Lucky for us my
efforts bore more palatable fruit.
(proudly imparts a great secret)
I paid the Happy Helping Hand adoption agency a visit
where several blue-haired ladies were only too happy to
sup from my open palm. Unfortunately, all of Little
Nicky's records had been sealed and returned to the
Orphanage.


If you guys are gonna cite the Marilyn Monroe connection to MD, then here is my answer for BHL.

The BHL is simply one of women at the foster care home that Diane stayed in.

i don't like to get roped into fan fiction, but i figured that had a nice fit to it.

In Lynch's oeuvre blue haired lady is associated with foster care.

Good work kmkmiller. That's the first concrete reference I've seen from Lynch to BHL's. Nice pic too.

Thanks everyone, I'm not familiar with Monroe's life, and find this fascinating. I continue to be amazed by how richly intertextual MD is, even after all these years!

Just reading the wiki thread Bob linked to about Monroe's death. Apparently the organist played Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the close of the service!

Oh, one more small connection: Monroe also took a new name, changed her hair colour from brunette to blonde and had cosmetic surgery to transform her appearance and help her career.

I caught that blue-haired ladies reference in Twin Peaks on my last watch through, but wasn't sure how best to interpret it. Tremayne is an English character, and "blue-haired lady" or "blue-rinse brigade" or similar is generally used as a catch-all term to describe old ladies in the UK.

Read on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_rinse

Whoever scripted that episode must have had some kind of experience of the terms, I assume.

To suggest a direct connection between the BHL and foster care etc is interesting. That might make her a caring guardian figure rather than someone who sits on and watches in silence ...

I have to congratulate you on your outstanding digging, Bob.

The connections with Marilyn are indeed obvious. I didn't even know Lynch had a "thing" for her, but to me it is now obvious that Lynch based Diane partly on MM. The abuse and alleged suicide are pretty obvious, but the connections with her stepmom and the red hair go deeper than just references. In my opinion they actually tell us something specific about Diane.

First of all, the fact that MM knew here mother only as "that woman with red hair" suggests, that Aunt Ruth realy is (partly) Diane's mother. I say partly, because I believe Aunt Ruth is a fictitious character as a whole and that she's partly based on Diane's deceased mother and partly on Rita Hayworth (who had also -dyed- red hair).

The fact that MM called her step mom aunt, seems to lead into the same direction, namely that Aunt Ruth is Diane's mother. But we have to keep in mind that it was her STEPmom that MM called aunt. So, could this suggest, that Diane was indeed raised by stepparents, that is her grandparents?

I'm familiair with the footage of Something's Got To Give and you're right; there is a striking resemblence between the arrival of Marilyn Monroe at her home and that of Betty at Havenhurst. I don't think that's a coincidence, do you?

Furthermore, I started thinking about the name of MM. Siku mentioned that Lynch probably got the name of Betty from the actress and singer Betty Jane Rhodes. Notice the resemblence between the middlename of that lady with that of MM: Norma Jean Baker. You might say, that the midddle name of Marilyn is a French version of Jane and...in the movie the French language serves as a transition between Spanish and English, that is between fantasy and reality.

Isn't that amazing?