She said, "I was full of a strange feeling, as if I were two people. One of them was Norma Jeane from the orphanage who belonged to nobody. The other was someone whose name I didn't know" (Monroe 25). However, it would be several years, and one marriage later, before Norma Jeane discovered who that other person was. Her first marriage was too her neighbor and ended in divorce in 1946, when he returned from military service. That same year, she signed a contract with Fox studios and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, taking the last name from her grandmother. After changing her name, Norma Jeane truly became a different person. No longer would she allow anyone, even her closest friends, to call her by her birth name. She started to walk taller, smile more frequently, and gave off an air of assurance and confidence that people could truly feel. In May of 1949, in desperate need for some cash, Marilyn posed nude for a calendar. However, she was not ashamed of the incident. It "was accepted by the public for what it was, a ghost out of poverty rather than sin risen to haunt me" (Monroe 122). Marilyn felt that as long as the public understood her motives, then there was nothing to worry about. Even though these pictures were taken before Marilyn was famous, they mark the beginning of her career as a sex symbol. She would continue her rise to the top, through her raw talent and her striking beauty. "To the dumb blonde stereotype, Marilyn added a sense of innocence, naturalism, and overt sexuality" ("Marilyn Monroe" n pag.). During this rise to fame, Marilyn dated many men. She was married to famous baseball player Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller. Both of these marriages ended in divorce. Marilyn wanted more than love; she wanted to be famous.
Spyros Skouras was one of the many men who developed a crush on Marilyn and, lucky for her, he was also the president of 20th Century Fox.
