Yesterday would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 74th...

Yesterday would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 74th birthday. It’s hard to imagine Monroe as a septuagenarian. Because of her premature death and the magic of film, she remains frozen in our memories as the vital young star of such movies as “The Seven Year Itch,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Some Like It Hot.”

* She was born Norma Jeane Mortensen on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles. After her mother was institutionalized following a nervous breakdown in 1935, Norma Jeane eventually came to live with her mother’s friend, Grace Goddard, on Odessa Street in Van Nuys. Norma Jeane attended Van Nuys High School and met Jim Dougherty, the son of a neighbor who lived on Archwood Street.

* Norma Jeane and Dougherty were married in 1942, 18 days after her 16th birthday. They lived in a small house on Bessemer Street in Van Nuys for nearly a year while Dougherty worked at the Lockheed factory in Burbank.

When World War II took Dougherty to the Pacific, Norma Jeane moved in with her in-laws on Hermitage Street in North Hollywood. With her mother-in-law’s help, Norma Jeane got a job in a defense plant, where a visiting Army photographer snapped her photo that caught the attention of a modeling agent. A star was born.

* Marilyn Monroe performed in just 30 films. Many can still be seen regularly on TV, including “Let’s Make Love” (1960), screening today on Fox Movie Channel; “The Seven Year Itch” (1955), also today on American Movie Classics; “How to Marry a Millionaire” (1953), June 26-27 on American Movie Classics; and “Some Like It Hot” (1959), June 21 on Turner Classic Movies.

* The Web site, https://www.MarilynMonroeFanClub.com, is sponsoring monthly dinners prepared with Monroe’s own pots and pans recently auctioned off by Christie’s, around the world--in London, Florence, Hong Kong and other cities--and culminating in Los Angeles on June 1, 2001 (Marilyn’s 75th birthday). Proceeds will benefit various children’s charities.