The Other Side of Marilyn Monroe
Greg Schreiner takes SMC on a journey through time.
On Thursday, March 9, Greg Schreiner chose to spend his birthday taking Santa Monica College (SMC) students on a trek through the life and legacy of Marilyn Monroe. As the founder of the Marilyn Remembered Fan Club he presented his impressive knowledge of Monroe's personal life and career, highlighting her drive for female empowerment and her activism against racial injustice to the handful of SMC attendees at his lecture.
“I think I really fell in love with Marilyn as a kid,” Schreiner says, “I fell in love with her and I’ve been in love with her ever since.” Being Monroe's lifelong admirer, Schreiner started his fan club in 1982. “At the very beginning, it was very small,” he says recalling the days before the internet, “Word just started getting out about how this club existed, and little by little it started growing.” Today, the club includes over ten thousand members. “It’s grown into this very big thing,” he says, “And I love it.”
While he’s “always up for talking about Marilyn”, he really hopes that through his work people will see that Monroe was much more than “this dumb blonde” on a screen. “There was so much more behind her,” Schreiner says. He hopes people will “see how far ahead of her time Marilyn was. That she was so progressive. She was such a feminist.”
During his presentation, Schreiner emphasized the power Monroe held within the movie production industry which was unheard of for a woman during her time.
When she grew irritated by being typecasted and undervalued by studios, Monroe established her own production company in 1954. Within her own movie productions, she was able to break out of the mold that was put on a woman like her and play more substantial roles.
Another story Schreiner recalled during his presentation was Monroe using her status to battle racial prejudice and boost Ella Fitzgerald’s career. Ella was a black woman who was continuously turned down by prominent jazz clubs and was unable to sing due to the color of her skin.
Monroe arranged a deal with the owner of Mocambo, a famous Los Angeles nightclub in the 1950s. She promised to sit in the front of the house every night that Ella was set to perform, naturally garnering a substantial amount of publicity for the club. The owners agreed and Fitzgerald's career took off after that.
In addition to stories about Monroe's life, career, and character, Schreiner brought various items that were once originally owned by Monroe for SMC students to see. Those items encompassed a movie set chair covered in Monroe's full printed name, as well as a check that included her original signature dated from the day that she passed. Over the years, Schreiner has acquired a sizable collection of Monroe memorabilia. His collection spans from Monroe's gowns to her furniture to various assorted everyday items that were once in her possession.
In addition to his collection and fan club, Schreiner, who is also a piano professor at SMC, played some memorable movie scores from her career, from the films “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “River Of No Return.”
Schreiner delivered a complete and passionate presentation about the remarkable Marilyn Monroe, kicking off Women's History Month at SMC with an event celebrating and highlighting the accomplishments of one of the biggest female stars from the past century.
Every year on Aug. 5, the fan club hosts a memorial service held at Westwood Village Memorial Park. The details for future services are available on the fan club's website.
