Marilyn Monroe's First Husband James Dougherty interviewed on talk show 1992

This is Jim Doherty, who on June 19, 1942, married a 16-year-old beauty named Norma Jean Baker. Jim was 21 at the time, and they were married for four years. I understand, Jim, that your first date with Norma Jean was arranged. You lived in the same neighborhood, and her mother asked you— They had a Christmas party for the factory where Doc Goddard and Grace Goddard, which were the foster parents of Norma Jean, that factory had a Christmas party. And there was B.B., who was Norma's foster sister, and Norma Jean needed dates. So I got a date for B.B., and I took Norma Jean. And things kind of progressed after that. We don't hear— Was this a full sister, Susan? No, this was, as he said, this was her foster family. Okay. Has whatever happened to that sister? There was, I think, a half-sister. Half-sister. I don't know. She's in Florida. Yeah, she's in Florida, and toward the end of her life, Marilyn felt this need to reconnect with family and called her and went to see her. Norma Jean's mother went there. That's where she lived when she died. But Mother really asked you to marry her, right? No. What happened was Grace came to my mother and said to my mother, We are moving to Virginia. Grace is speaking to my mother now. That's the way it goes. Grace was the foster mother. Grace Goddard is the foster mother. She said, We're moving to Virginia. We can't take Norma Jean with us. Why doesn't Jimmy marry Norma Jean? So I didn't know about this. I was going with a girl in Santa Barbara named Doris Brennan, who had been the queen of the Santa Barbara Festival, and I was going out with Norma Jean at the same time. So my mother asked me, she says, Why don't you marry her? Why would you like to marry her? And I said, Sure. I'm going to go in the service. She won't have to go into an orphanage, and we'll get married. So then we started dating seriously for about six months. Was she a good cook? Oh, yeah. She only had one problem. That was the time that my brother took all the labels off of the canned goods. But she was a real good person, and she just laughed. And we never knew what we were having for dinner. Every dinner was a surprise. Now, you say that she didn't smoke or drink, and she worked hard around the house. She was a good housekeeper. That's true. And she was a devoted housekeeper. Sometimes she'd get a little careless. She had a short and some wiring on the floor. We had some water come out of the door. And to put the fire out, she'd get a little careless. She had a short and some wiring on the floor. We had some water come out of the door. And to put the fire out, she threw water on it, and that didn't work too well. But she was a neat, a very neat person, and a very loving person. She wanted to have a baby. Yes, she asked me for a baby when I was going into the service. She said, I want a baby. I want a piece of you. I have a letter. Is it all right if I read it? I would always ask. Go ahead. We already have one mascara running, so let's see if I can do this. He's not wearing any. He can cry. This is a letter from Marilyn to her foster mother about her marriage to Jim. Dated June 15, 1944. Dearest Grace, I've never really written and told you of Jimmy and my married life together. Of course, I know that if it hadn't been for you, we might not have been married, and I know I owe you a lot for that fact alone. I love Jimmy just more than anyone, and I know I shall never be happy with anyone else as long as I live. And I know he feels the same towards me. So you see, we're really very happy together. That is, when we can be together. We both miss each other terribly. We will be married two years, June 19, and we really have had quite a happy life together. When the time came to get divorced, it was her decision. How did she explain this to you? What could she say that would make sense? Well, really to her, it wasn't like we were separating or anything. We just weren't going to be married anymore because we were going to live together anyhow. But why would she want a divorce if you're going to live together anyhow? Well, she had to be single to get a contract with whoever was offering a contract at the studio, and she wanted this contract. What do you make out of what happened from that time on, in your own mind? I think she went through something that she wasn't equipped to go through. She was a very kind, gentle person. And this is the toughest business in the world, in the acting business. And you hear so many people that have a tabloid mind, so to speak, saying things about her as to how she died. I call it a tabloid mentality. And they never knew her. They knew nothing about her. Some of them have written books. Thank goodness Susan knew her when she wrote her book. But I get so upset with some of these things that are said about her because she was a good person. Yeah. What happened in the end, do you think, Jim? To her? Mm-hmm. Couldn't cope? No. This goes on. You know, I was a policeman for 25 years in Los Angeles, and I got to answer a lot of calls around the Universal Studios where things would occur where people have to get some sleep. So they take a sleeping pill. They've got to be up to go to work, so they take an upper. Then they take two downers, and then they take three uppers. Pretty soon they lose count of the downers. I walked into this house one day and I heard this lady saying to her son, bring me another pill. I've got to get some sleep. And the little kid was sharp. He was emptying them and giving her the empty capsules. But I came back the next day to talk to her to see if she was trying to commit suicide. She says no. I just wanted to get some sleep because I had to work the next day and I was so tired. But Sal, you know, when Jim said something about, well, you know, the business, and it's true that it's the hardest business in the world, but I feel Marilyn felt, at least when I knew her, that she had something. She wanted to do something for the world. She felt she wanted that the reason God had put her here was that she was meant to give something, to share something with a lot of people. And I think that if she hadn't gone into the business, her life might have been worse because if you look at Clara Bow, when Clara Bow quit the business, she wound up with two beautiful children, a lovely husband, and totally schizophrenic with a nurse for the rest of her life. No, because for Marilyn it was a chance to express all that hidden stuff that when she was growing up she had to hide, her, you know, the sorrow, the passion, the freedom, you know, her sexuality. She was different. She wasn't normal. She once said to me, they keep trying to put me in this box called normal, Susan, and you open the box and nobody lives in there anyway. Why are they doing that to me? And they expect me to be the anything-goes girl, you know, the happy-go-lucky girl. And I just, I need to find out who I am so that I think that although the business is a killer and it's a hard business, I somehow think, though, that it also gave Marilyn something that she wanted desperately. I can tell that Jane wants to say something. She wanted it desperately. You have to. When we come back, we'll talk about the mysteries surrounding her, maybe talk about her death. Our guests today have different opinions of what really happened. I'll ask you. Take a break.