Monday, March 24, 2014
"Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret" - The Audio Book
Lee Ann Howlett is currently recording "Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret" as an audio book. Lee Ann is a retired university medical librarian who has always had a love for books. She began working as a narrator for Iambik Audiobooks in 2011, and also records for Auidble/ACX. Besides her work for Iambik and ACX, Lee is a volunteer narrator for LibriVox. Lee Ann's unique voice is perfect for "My Little Secret," in that she knows how to draw the reader in on a personal level. The audio book of "My Little Secret" will be released on June 1st, 2014, which would've been Marilyn's 88th birthday.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Happy Birthday, Jane Lawrence
It’s hard to believe that 11 years have flown by
since I first met Jane Lawrence. I still remember the evening of July 4th,
2001, when my neighbor said: “My friend is looking for someone to help sell
some stuff on Ebay. Some memorabilia. Probably some Marilyn stuff. I mean she
really knew her, and Robert Mitchum and Ethel Merman and Lucy, too. She’s got
tons of stuff to sell.”
My
ears perked up. “Tons of stuff to sell” was Wagner to my ears. I didn’t even
care what the stuff was, but in this case it might be Hollywood stuff which
probably beat the crap out of rubbers advertising auto repair shops, which, at
the time, I had been peddling over the phone.
The following day, I met with Jane,
visualizing her to be a woman in her early 60s who was artfully nipped and
tucked, glazed with perfect but slightly too troweled-on make-up, strutting in
stilettos, and unable to let go of her platinum bombshell image that had served
her so well 40 years earlier. I realize now I had been thinking of Marilyn’s
best friend, Jeanne Carmen, the stylishly aging B movie actress who had ridden
Marilyn’s coattails for so many years after her death. But my idealization
could not have been more inaccurate. I was romantically anticipating a time
traveler from Hollywood’s Golden Age, a vintage beauty ready to tell me the
secrets of the stars.
I
was half right.
Jane
did have an encyclopedic memory of Hollywood’s Golden age, but she was no
Jeanne Carmen. Jane was, as the snarksters might say, “short for her weight.” And
I could see by her body language, and stress in the corner of her eyes, she was
in pain. Barely the thickness of a Daily Variety over five feet, my eyes
immediately scanned down her attire, from the fresh (egg, I believe) stained
pocket t-shirt, to the worn, baggy jeans, to the unlaced tennis shoes. On top
of the shock of snow white short hair was a ball cap adorned in a Rainbow Flag
and ACT UP pins. And when she spoke, her little voice seemed to belie the woman
I was seeing, someone with attitude, openly gay and a kind of salty old broad.
I
liked her instantly.
Two
months later, Jane and I formed a bond, as she took me down the ‘Marilyn Monroe
rabbit hole.’ And on September 4th (Jane’s birthday), I decided to
throw her a surprise party. Not an easy task, considering many of Jane’s friends
had either moved out of L.A., or simply ‘moved on.’ So, I gathered together a
few of my friends, surprising Jane with a small spread of food, drinks and a
homemade cake that I whipped up. On it, I placed a large car-shaped candle, in
which I put Jane and Marilyn’s pictures in, reminiscent of the car that Marilyn
had given Jane on her 16th Birthday. Well, you’d think that I had
given Jane the world. With tears in her eyes, she told me no one had thrown her
a surprise party since the 70s, and how this
party was the best gift ever.
Looking
back, Jane was one of the best gifts ever that the universe had given me. I met
her at a time when I was fairly new to Hollywood; the bluffer’s paradise, where
– to quote Woody Allen – “They shoot too many movies, and not enough actors who
star in them.” Jane wasn’t an actress, so there was no hidden agenda. What you
saw was what you got, and because of Jane, I got to experience various life
lessons, beginning with trust. Jane
trusted me to tell her story, and I trusted that she was telling me the truth.
It’s
been 11 years now since I first met Jane, and my trust in her story has never wavered.
Granted, there have been the naysayers and skeptics since my book’s release who’ve
been less than kind in their verbal attacks on my credibility, but I’ve learned
to let that roll off my back thanks to Jane who also taught me to believe in
myself.
Now,
as I was writing this post, I stopped to google a list of life lessons that we
should all live by— When to my surprise, the first posting that came up was a
quote by Marilyn Monroe. She said: “I've never fooled anyone. I've let people
fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead
they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were
obviously loving somebody I wasn't.”
Talk
about a sign, I truly believe that Jane, on what would’ve been her 73rd
Birthday, is letting me know that we
never fooled anyone, and those who think we have obviously didn’t bother to
read my book to find out what Jane and I had: a true friendship.
Happy
Birthday, Jane…
Friday, August 24, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Relationship Expert Dr. Ava Cadell Talks about "My Little Secret"
Monday, August 6, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
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