Photo: Yale Joel/Life Magazine/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Heading into 1962, Marilyn Monroe was trying to revive her sputtering personal and professional lives. She was still very much a movie star, but her previous year's feature, The Misfits , was a disappointment. She was also coming off a divorce to Arthur Miller , gallbladder surgery and a stay at a Manhattan psychiatric hospital, all of which combined to leave her in a fragile state.

By the spring, things were looking up – Monroe was settling into a new home in the quiet Brentwood section of Los Angeles, and she had been offered a leading role in Something's Got to Give , a remake of the 1940 screwball comedy My Favorite Wife . Furthermore, she was looking forward to performing at a major Democratic fundrais

See Full Page