WHO knew Marilyn Monroe was Jewish?
The blond goddess converted when she married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 – and that gets her into the sprawling, silly and sobering historical exhibit “Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting,” which opened yesterday.
Among shrines to Barbra Streisand, film clips of the Marx Brothers and a stark section on the Holocaust, you can find Marilyn’s mezuzah, a replica of her conversion certificate and a menorah she once owned that plays “Hatikvah,” the anthem of Israel.
“We thought it would be amazing to get Marilyn Monroe’s Judaica,” says exhibit co-creator Jeffrey Shandler.
That monumental task fell to Fred Wasserman, the project director and associate curator of the exhibit.
He started by contacting Christie’s, which auctioned off her estate in 1999, to find out who had bought the items – only to find that the auction house wouldn’t tell him.
So he sent out “blind letters” the auction house promised to forward to the mystery owners, pleading to borrow the articles.
Only about a month ago, Wasserman got a call.
“This is Vernon Harris,” said the voice at the other end, in a strong Southern drawl. “I got a letter from you. I own this pendant from Marilyn Monroe.”
After an “endless telephone tag,” he duly recovered the musical menorah, which staffers were almost too awed to play.
“It was extremely moving,” Wasserman admits, adding that he cried “Oh, my God, Marilyn heard this!” when the menorah tinkled its theme. (Visitors can hear it on tape.)
The exhibition examines why so many Jews flocked to the entertainment industry, partially answering that early immigrants used pop culture as a way to enter the American mainstream.
The show begins with snippets from the early nickelodeon theaters – by 1910 there were more than 30 theaters on the immigrant-filled Lower East Side, playing titles like “The Yiddisher Boy.”
And a large area is given over the “The Jazz Singer,” the 1927 Al Jolson starrer which was Hollywood’s first feature-length talkie.
And there’s the rise of Jewish movie moguls like the Warners, Louis B. Mayer, David Selznick and others – and the anti-Semitic reactions of the likes of Henry Ford, through articles in a paper he owned.
In addition to Marilyn, there are displays on the likes of Theda Bara and John Garfield and Sammy Davis Jr.
From TV comes clips from “Your Show of Shows,” whose writers included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen.
“Seinfeld,” whose Jewish identity was never explicitly referred to on the long-running show, is here as well.
Even the Holocaust, and its representation in popular culture, is on display (there’s is a “viewer discretion” warning there), with a 9-minute, 39-second selection from newsreels, documentaries, feature films, and even episodes of “Star Trek,” “The Twilight Zone” and “All in the Family,” which touch on the topic.
“We wanted to examine the relationship between American Jews and American pop culture,” explains co-curator J. Hoberman. “It’s something that’s been discussed for 100 years.”
This exhibit makes sure the discussion will continue.
“Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting” at the Jewish Museum, Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street; (212) 423-3200. Through Sept. 14.