From the New York Times bestselling author of Bobby and Jackie comes the riveting, true story of the passionate, volatile relationship between baseball great Joe DiMaggio and Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. When Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe eloped in January of 1954, they became an international sensation. Joe and Marilyn reveals the true inside story of these two iconic figures whose marital troubles were Hollywood legend. Though their marriage only lasted nine months, they remained close until Monroe’s mysterious death in 1962 at the age of thirty-six. He had a half-dozen red roses delivered three times a week to her crypt for twenty years. According to Heymann, DiMaggio remained devoted to her until his own death in 1999. An intimate, sensitive, shocking, and richly detailed look at two of America’s biggest stars, Heymann delivers the expertise and passion for his subjects that his many fans so love. Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews with family and friends, Joe and Marilyn offers great insight into this famously tragic romance. Sixteen pages of striking photos accompany this unforgettable love. “Celebrity gossip aficionados will thoroughly enjoy Heymann’s well-researched yet approachable style…impressively intimate…as entertaining as it is informative.” ( Publishers Weekly, Starred review ) “The author’s approach is frank but fair to all parties…recommended for movie and popular biography buffs.” ( Library Journal ) “Maestro C. David Heymann…succeeds in providing a richly intimate portrait of the couple…extensively researched but never dry in its retelling, this book is every celebrity aficionado’s dream. There’s no doubt it should grace the top of your beach bag as you hit the sands this July.” ( Hampton Sheet Magazine ) “In the beginning chapters, DiMaggio is described as petty, mean and inconsistent. But later, and contrary to more contemporary bios, Heymann refers to him as a kinder, gentler soul, heartbroken to realize he did not enjoy her favors exclusively, which led to the verbal and occasionally physical abuse. Despite these conflicts,DiMaggio was always there for Marilyn, which is what makes this love story so compelling, even 50 years after her death.” ( BookReporter ) "An excellently-heartbreaking love story, a juicy gossip piece, a slice of culture, and sports – all rolled into one. And if you’re a fan of those, of DiMaggio, Monroe,or Hollywood of yore, then “Joe and Marilyn” is a book you really can’t be without." (Terri Schlichenmeyer The Bookworm Sez ) C. David Heymann (1945-2012) is the author of several New York Times bestselling biographies, including Bobby and Jackie , American Legacy , The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club , and RFK: A Candid Biography of Robert F. Kennedy . He lived in Manhattan. Joe and Marilyn Chapter 1 JOE DIMAGGIO HAD BEEN THINKING about Marilyn Monroe since the early spring of 1951, when he first saw her picture in the gossip column of a local San Francisco newspaper. Later, having retired after a thirteen-year baseball career as the star center fielder for the New York Yankees, he spotted her picture again, this time on the sports page of the same paper. Several major-league ball clubs had set up spring training camps in California, and to publicize their arrival, they asked a number of film studios to send over their most attractive young starlets to pose for press shots with the ballplayers. Twentieth Century–Fox dispatched Marilyn Monroe, whose recent ascent of the proverbial Hollywood success ladder had been characterized as nothing short of meteoric. Wearing high heels, tight white shorts, and a form-fitting blouse, she was handed a bat and told to assume her approximation of a batting stance, while Joe Dobson, the power-hitting left fielder, wrapped a muscular arm around her from behind in a feigned effort to improve her swing. Rounding out the photo, off to the side, was pitcher Gus Zernial, a bemused smile spread across his face. The newspaper shot of Marilyn Monroe gripping a baseball bat evidently served to reignite Joe DiMaggio’s imagination. Hoping to meet the actress, he telephoned Zernial, an acquaintance, who replied that he had no idea how to contact Monroe. He could tell DiMaggio only that she’d been “warm and giggly”—and, “yes, of course,” beautiful as “all hell,” a “real looker.” Following up on his Zernial inquiry, DiMaggio now called George Solotaire, a well-connected New York City ticket broker and one of Joe’s most trusted cronies. During DiMaggio’s final years with the Yankees, he and “Gentleman George” had shared a suite at the Elysée, 60 East Fifty-Fourth Street, known to insiders as the “Easy Lay Hotel.” About to join Joe in San Francisco for a long-planned two-week trip to Hawaii, Solotaire suggested that the person most likely to know Marilyn well enough to effect an introduction would be a chap named David March. A high-strung, fast-talking Hollywood publicist (and someti