MARILYN MONROE and JOHNNY HYDE : BOOK EXCERPTS from C. DAVID HEYMANN

From the book "JOE (DiMaggio) AND MARILYN - LEGENDS IN LOVE" by C. DAVID HEYMANN

... "It can be said that without Johnny Hyde, whom she'd met at the Racquet Club in Palm Springs in 1949, there would have been no Marilyn Monroe.  More than twice her age, he fell passionately in love with her, fled his family (including a wife of long standing) and set up a household with Marilyn on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills. Repeatedly, persistently, he asked her to marry him, but just as persistently she declined insisting she loved him but wasn't in love with him.  He never the less wooed her by being kind, talking to her about openly about his intimate life, and listening to her stories about hers...  Above all, she stayed with him because she felt he really needed her.  Then in December 1950, Hyde suffered a massive heart attack and died.  Once again a father figure had vanished into thin air.
(page 50)

"The mere mention of Johnny Hyde's name by Solotaire (Joe DiMaggio's possibly best friend), brought tears to Marilyn's eyes and concomitantly caused DiMaggio to explode in a fit of anger of the sort that was fast becoming all too familiar to Monroe.

"Do we need to discuss all of her fucking ex-lovers?" he yelled.

"This Hyde jerk sounds like just another Hollywood vulture out to get laid."

Marilyn had heard enough.  Now it was her turn to vent.  "Johnny Hyde was a lovely, warm, caring man," she said.  "He gave me more than his kindness and love.  He was the first man I'd ever known who tried to understand me.  How dare you question his integrity."

Then, with neither malice or regret, Marilyn embarked on a lengthy account of the men in her life that had played instrumental roles in her personal and professional development.  The list, from Joseph Schenk, co-founder and chairman of the board of Twentieth Century Fox, to Fred Karger, her former vocal coach and lover - seemed endless to DiMaggio, but having been properly and thoroughly chastised by Marilyn for his outburst, he sat there and listened.  "He took it like a man," George Solotaire later told his son.  "Then again," he added, "What choice did he have."  (page 51)