The Marilyn Monroe Movie Is a Flashback
19 May 2022
BUCK: I did enjoy the My Week with Marilyn movie. I thought that was good for what it was. It was a pretty entertaining movie. Did you see that movie, My Week with Marilyn?
CLAY: I have not seen it, no.
BUCK: Oh, itโs very good. Very well done, actually. I would recommend that. It was better than I thought it would be. Good date movie, that kind of thing. .
CLAY: Yeah.
BUCK: But youโre Marilyn Monroe history buff I guess?
CLAY: Well, I saw this circulating. I thought it was interesting so Iโm a history nerd and one of the most iconic moments of John F. Kennedyโs presidency is when Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday to him. It has now beenโฆ Itโs the 60th anniversary, this happened 60 years ago today, and we actually had a debate about whether we could play this or not.
BUCK: (laughing)
CLAY: Kind of put my lawyer hat on. This is a historically relevant moment in American history. To those of you who remember, I wanted to give you a little bit of a taste. Hereโs what it sounds like. Marilyn Monroe, by the way, we were talking about how tone-deaf I was, Marilyn Monroe not tone-deaf. Hereโs her birthday singing to the president.
CLAY: Let me just say this: As a married man, I donโt know how JFK didnโt get killed by Jackie Kennedy as soon as that happened. I donโt know how that didnโt happen. โCause thereโs a lot of married men out there. I donโt even know who the equivalent today of Marilyn Monroe is. Can you think who the equivalent is of fame?
BUCK: No, thereโs nobody has that level of iconic female, beauty and sensuality, at that level. No. Sheโs kind of the first, sheโs kind of like the Beatles of females.
CLAY: By herself? So yes. That had to be an awkward return home to the White House for John F. Kennedy, JFK, I would think. As a married man I donโt think that probably went very well.
BUCK: Just for the record, the media was a very different world back then. They covered up for so much โ
CLAY: A lot, yes.
BUCK: โ about JFKโs personal life, his problems, the use of different substances, dalliances to use the euphemism.
CLAY: Totally different era. All that was true. They covered up. Yeah.
BUCK: They covered it all up. They knew about stuff and like, โOh, weโre not gonna talk about that,โ โcause we want people to believe in Camelot.
CLAY: They covered up that FDR couldnโt walk!
BUCK: Yeah.
CLAY: This was a totally different era.
BUCK: The whole self-serving narrative of journalism as truth-tellers who stand athwart power, the history of American journalism is actually the opposite of that for the most part. It is usually cozying up to and doing the bidding of power, particularly when it comes to political journalism and people with access to the White House because there was a time when if you werenโt with a major news organization, didnโt have access, you couldnโt even get your thoughts out there anyway. So everyone was playing the game, man, and they covered up. JFK, a lot of problems. A lot of problems.
CLAY: No doubt. By the way, 79% approval rating โcause the media covered up a lot of things.
BUCK: And they want us to go back to that. If the media had their way, America would be 79% approving of Joe Biden as we canโt find baby formula and we have the worst economic crisis happening right now since 2008. Anyway, you could see it. Clay took us to the happy place, โcause I canโt speak today.
CLAY: I was trying to bring a little bit of historical relevancy.
BUCK: I know. Clay wanted to make it, like, a light historical ending, and Iโm salty over here โcause I need to gargle saltwater, and I can barely speak.
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