A rare 1960 Marilyn Monroe audio interview during making of "Let's Make Love" Photos and footage P/4

I always tried to go around as if I were one of the other kids, you know, and we all were ashamed, you know, to have been from New York and so on. Well, I was very tall and thin. I was taller than all the... I was as tall as I am now, and very, very thin. At 11, things changed. And I never grew any taller, but they always said, oh, she's going to be a very tall girl. Oh, in fact, when I was first going, when I first went to the orphanage, and they pulled me in, you know, they took one arm here and pulled me in. And I kept crying, screaming, I'm not an orphan. And then there was a dining room straight ahead, and there were these 100, you know, 100 kids sitting there eating at 5 o'clock. And then, as a child, you know, you're ashamed to cry in front of other children. So I stopped right away, and then the children filed out and went to their... They were sitting on the porch after dinner. They usually did that on the girls' side. And they all thought I was at least 14, because I was so tall. They thought I was going to be an ad girl, whoever they were. Well, anything tasted good to me. I always, when I was a child, I ate everything because the families that I lived with, they said they never saw a child who would eat everything. I'd eat anything, everything. Oh, there was one other family I stayed with for a short time, but it was only for about three weeks. I forgot to mention. I liked singing, athletics, English. I hated arithmetic. I never had my mind on it. You know, I was always dreaming out the window. And then, too, another thing people would remark, not only that I would eat everything, but I never complained when I went to bed. I would even say, I think I'll go to bed now. They'd say, well, that's very unusual, because children, they say, no, I don't want to go to bed. But what I would do would be to go in my room, except that the orphanage home was different. But otherwise, I would go in my room, and if I had seen a movie, I would act out every part. Only I would act out before that happened or after, and I would act out all the parts, the men as well as the women. That's what I'd be doing, you know, standing up on my bed, being taller and even. Just the feeling, what he said and what she said and what he felt and she felt, and usually be sad. How old were you, Karen? Five, six? Five, six, exactly. First time was at the orphanage, and then later in my teens, I stuttered. And I was, they elected me secretary of the English class. No, secretary of the minutes of the English class, whatever you call it. And then I'd say, minutes of the last meeting. I'd make a moo, moo, moo. Oh, it was terrible. When? I don't know. Let's say I had the orphanage, and after I left, I guess, and then when I was about 13, I took it up again. I don't know how it happened. I just stuttered. Sometimes if I'm very nervous or excited or something, I stutter. In fact, one time they were doing, I had a small part in a movie, and the assistant director came in and yelled at me. Oh, he talked awful. And so I, when I got into the scene, instead of my lines, I woo, woo, woo, woo, and the director came up, he was furious. He says, you don't stutter. I said, that's what you think. Oh, it's painful. Oh, God. Well, when I went to live with a woman, her name is Mrs. E., period, Anna Lauer, and they used to do the dishes in the evening, and whistling, and she said, I never heard a child sing so much. So I did it during that period. I liked being with her, staying with her. I always kept in touch with her. I loved her very dearly. My aunt Anna, I adored her. Well, they used to call me the mouse because I never said anything, and I was quiet most of the time, except with other children. I had imagination. Other children liked to play with me because I could think of things. You know, I'd say, now we're going to have a murder, then a divorce, and then they'd say, how do you think I did? I don't know. So other children, you know, I could be myself with other children, but with grown-ups I was always very quiet.