Despite Monroe’s ascendance in the film industry, the final years of her life were marked with professional difficulties. Her last movie, The Misfits, was written by her third husband, Miller, as an allegory of their declining relationship. Playing a thinly veiled stand-in of herself was a particularly taxing experience for Monroe, and the movie turned out to be a commercial failure. Marilyn’s death is] the gift that keeps on giving,” says Cohan, “because there’s no smoking gun. The autopsy continues to be raised, but it never answers any questions. … And the fact that she died in her [mid-30s] meant that she never grew old. … It’s another reason that she remains forever, forever young” in the public imagination.

As with all kinds of collectibles – the rarer, the better. The same goes for Barbie dolls. Over the years, there have been a couple of Barbie dolls that have been sold in limited numbers. The limited editions are often made to highlight a special celebration or an anniversary. Here are some of the more memorable dolls: Barbie and the Diamond Castle: Released in 2008 to highlight the Barbie movie of the same name. This doll showcases Barbie and her friend as they are set on a magical adventure.Monroe’s career soared as her romantic life foundered, with two successive husbands failing to understand the woman she wanted to be. Baseball hero Joe DiMaggio balked at the sexuality of his wife’s public image. Playwright Arthur Miller was disgusted by her cult of celebrity. “Marilyn Monroe desperately wanted to be loved,” said film historian Karina Longworth in a 2017 episode of the “ You Must Remember This” podcast. “But she never had the courage to figure out that she could choose who to love.” Speaking with Meryman in the summer of 1962, Monroe had just one request. “Please don’t make me a joke,” she said. “End the interview with what I believe. I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one. I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.” That same question—who was the real Monroe?—has sparked debate among cinema scholars, cultural critics, historians, novelists, filmmakers and the general public for decades. Was “Marilyn,” the personality and persona brought to life by the star’s younger self, Norma Jeane Mortenson, a real person? Or was she simply a manufactured image? According to Vogel, “It’s as if we feel robbed of what could have been had Marilyn lived longer, so we cling on to everything she gave us, and repeatedly watch it, over and over and over again. … Maybe we’ll see or hear something new this time, or maybe it will be a comfortable reminiscence of memories that makes us feel nostalgic joy in knowing that no matter how much time has passed, she is still there, and will be for as long as we can turn on a television.” Cultural historian Sarah Churchwell, meanwhile, contends in The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe that “Monroe is not best understood as only an image, or as an ‘artificial creation of a woman.’ … Something that is not natural can still be real: It has been made. One of the questions the stories about Marilyn’s life beg, therefore, is how much any of us is natural, whether any identity is not made.”

Barbie undeniably changed the modern toy industry and influenced the upbringing of many young girls, who could role-play with a doll and was given over 180 career choices. Moreover, over the years launched a number of collectible limited edition Barbies, that are highly sought after by collectors and individuals all over the world. Once the above factors are assessed, the next quintessential step is determining the doll's year and model. While older dolls tend to be rarer and thus more expensive, plenty of younger collectible models could be worth much more than you might expect. For example, some rare collectible Barbies are the 2014 Karl Lagerfeld Barbie, the 2001 Aqua Queen of the Prom Barbie, the 2003 City Smart Silkstone Barbie, and many more. Here’s what you need to know about the true history behind Blonde—and the woman, actress and image that was Monroe—ahead of the film’s release on Netflix on September 28. Is Blonde based on a true story?

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Still, Monroe prevailed. Her natural beauty helped her get through the door, but it was her hard work that cemented her rise to superstardom. “She had a drive to better herself by reading books on psychology, philosophy, poetry, art, drama, you name it,” says Vogel. “She studied at the prestigious Actors Studio in New York, with Lee Strasberg, because she had the desire to be a drama student, even after she was already a famous Hollywood actress. She was a trailblazer, and in many ways a feminist before the term was really known or understood.” Narratives of Monroe’s life, whether they’re based in fact or fiction, tend to focus on her trauma at the expense of her hard work and dedication. The myths surrounding her life have obscured what originally helped make her famous: her craft as an actress.

For Blonde’s lead actress, de Armas of Knives Out fame, the role was an emotional and spiritual revelation. “I truly believe that [Marilyn] was very close to us, she was with us,” de Armas tells Deadline . “… She was all I thought about, she was all I dreamed about, she was all I could talk about.” The actress adds, “I knew I had to let myself open and go to places that I knew were going to be uncomfortable, dark and vulnerable. That’s where I found the connection with this person.” Barbie Loves Elvis: Released in 1998 to celebrate the great legacy of Elvis Presley. The doll is featured in a 1950s-inspired outfit and is accompanied by a miniature record player that plays Elvis Presley songs. Take your time describing your doll. Remind yourself when and how did you get it, and write if it was ever taken out of the original box. The more information our specialist will have, the more precise your appraisal will be. It wasn’t easy to make it big as an actress in 1950s Hollywood. At the time, the film industry was dominated by the “ studio system,” an arrangement through which the “ Big Five” studios—Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO—monopolized movie production, distribution and exhibition. These male-dominated companies quashed the independent studios where women actors, directors and producers had previously found success.Marilyn Monroe’s final interview is a heartbreaker. Published in Life magazine on August 3, 1962—just a day before the actress died of a barbiturate overdose at age 36—it found Monroe reflecting on her celebrity status, alternatively thoughtful, frank and witty. Barbies fame began with the launch of the first doll, named Barbie Millicent Roberts, which was introduced in 1959. Since then, with every new edition of the doll, new accessories and outfits were added, reflecting the times the Barbies were produced. In 1953, when Playboy magazine published nude photos of Monroe without her consent, she kept her career intact by turning the images into free advertising. (Monroe hadn’t posed for Playboy; the photos dated to 1949, when the aspiring actress took part in a nude shoot with a pin-up photographer.) A May 1952 interview with the Chicago Tribune reveals how Monroe cannily responded to the situation: “When an interviewer recently asked her why she posed in the nude for calendars, she replied, ‘I was hungry.’ That’s a stopper if I ever heard one.”

Despite the liberties taken by Blonde, Dominik sees his film as an attempt to portray what he deems the “real” Monroe. “I’m trying to relate to someone else’s life experiences in an authentic way,” Dominik tells Vanity Fair . “I wanted to detail her childhood trauma and then show her adult life through the lens of that trauma. If you look closely at Marilyn Monroe, she’s the most visible woman in the world, but she’s completely unseen.” Born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, the future Monroe grew up far from the trappings of luxury and fame she’d one day enjoy. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, was a film cutter who struggled to make ends meet. Her father was nowhere to be found.I wouldn’t settle for second best,” Monroe later said. “I would take home photographs of myself to study how I looked and if I could improve myself posing in front of a mirror.” Just as importantly, she learned how to charm others. “She made everyone she talked to feel as if he were the only one in the world,” recounted modeling agent Emmeline Snively.