Leadership in Marilyn Monroe

Leadership in Marilyn Monroe

Written by: Jessica C. Northey

December 8, 2011

Maria Spitale

Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Marilyn Monroe was born in 1926 and she has a vulnerability and sweetness in her eyes. She starter her career as a model and later became an actress when television was still broadcasting in black and white. When artists attach themselves to a cause, they become a person people can buy into. Generations of women continue to model themselves after Monroe. “She helped transition America from the monochromatic, black and white of the 50’s to the techno-colors of the 60’s”  (“Marilyn monroe”).

 During her career, Monroe's films grossed more than $200 million. In 1946, Monroe started out with a successful career as a model. She dreamed of becoming an actress like Jean Harlow and Lana Turner. The same year, she signed her first movie contract and it was also the same year of her first marriage ending in divorce.

Her acting career took off in 1950 when she was noticed in her small part in John Huston’s crime drama The Asphalt Jungle. She also impressed audiences and critics acting in a moved called All About Eve, starring Bette Davis. Three years later, Monroe stared as a young married woman who wants to kill her husband with help from her lover scenario. In a movie paired with Jane Russell for a musical comedy called Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The film was a success and Monroe found success in rolls that were comedic, How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, There's No Business like Show Business with Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor, and The Seven Year Itch. With her breathy voice and hourglass figure, Monroe became a much-admired international star.

Several years later, Monroe grew tired of dumb blonde rolls and decided to move to New York city to study acting with lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio. Afterwards, her next move was a dramatic comedy called Bus Stop in 1956. Monroe successfully made two more movies but then her career took a turn. She had been showing up late or not at all to film sets due to illness (“Marilyn Monroe”, 2011).

Her leadership style was referent Power because she was well liked and very popular. Her soft voice, blonde hair, and red lips stood out more and more with each movie she made.

“As the ultimate symbol of old Hollywood glamour, there is no actress who has been more imitated than Marilyn Monroe. Since her death, countless young celebrities have tried to emulate the legendary starlet, with her signature short blond hair, red lips, and effortless sex appeal. Some pull it off well, some might not, but what is certain is that stars will keep trying to mimic Marilyn” (“Marilyn mimics,” ).

Marilyn Monroe was an iconic symbol frequently reproduced as an image. This created an ‘endless looping effect’ from her natural state to the object, therefore, attaching all that she represents into that object. Things like t-shirts or a pair of Marilyn earrings to special occasion items like birthday cards. This action creates value, presence, and historical force into the objects. By appearing as a legendary face on a variety of plain things, her icon secures the immortality insured by the mass-mediated memory. Marilyn has been “saved” by mass media and saved from technological aspects that she originated from. Her image and name continues to inspire women beyond her generations (Baty, 1995).

Her fans only wish that she used the law of victory. Her biggest failure was her death, which was tragic and she will always be love in the hearts of many starlet fans. At the age of 36 she died of a drug overdose on August 5, 1962 (“Marilyn Monroe”, 2011). She quit life.

Her charismatic leadership style was energizing. She demonstrates personal excitement and expresses confidence. She seeks, finds, and uses success for her own success and builds upon it. She knew that people enjoyed her beauty from modeling and took that success to build on it by seeking and finding how to elevate her career beyond modeling into acting. She was successful at being able to live forever in our memories even though her real life was cut short.

Reference

Marilyn mimics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/groups/marilyn-mimics

Baty, P. (1995). American monroe: the making of a body politic. (pp. 64-66). University of California Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=8xGyMAIpWksC&lpg=PA64&ots=HvjSfcdjAV&dq=marilynmonroe referent&pg=PA64

Marilyn Monroe. (2011). Biography.com. Retrieved 09:32, Dec 05, 2011 from http://www.biography.com/people/marilyn-monroe-9412123

Marilyn monroe - mini bio [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/marilyn-monroe-9412123/videos/marilyn-monroe-mini-bio-2078946296