Valley Village Tutors

About Valley Village

Valley Village was once home to Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. She lived at 5258 Hermitage Avenue in 1944 to 1945. The house was still standing up until June 2015 and under review as a potential historic landmark, when it was demolished to make way for a condominium project.

Valley Village tutors note that the time in which Monroe lived in Valley Village was before her career rocketed to superstar status. In fact while she resided in the area she was using her ‘real’ name Norma Jean. She was just seventeen and living with her husbands in laws and working at the nearby “radioplane” factory while her then husband James Dougherty was away in the Navy. It was during this time that she was asked to pose for her first pin-up photograph. The photographer was David Conover from the “First Motion Picture Unit”, the primary film production unit of the US Army Air Forces, made up entirely of professionals from the film industry. The purpose of his assignment was to shoot morale-boosting pictures of female workers. None of the pictures actually got used, but Conover worked with Monroe on various shoots and she often modeled for him and his friends. Against her husbands wishes she signed a contract with Blue book Model Agency and died and straightened her curly brown hair to the bright blonde we know and love. She was known for being very ambitious and despite initially being turned down by the producers at Paramount Pictures, the experience led her into the movie studios and she picked up two short-term contracts with Twentieth Century Fox and then Columbia Pictures. It was under Fox a few years later that her career took hold and she became the leading lady and one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s.

Despite some might say being partially responsible for the era’s attitudes towards sexuality, Marilyn Monroe was unhappy with being paid less than her male counterparts. After many talks with Twentieth Century Fox they still refused her requests for a more competitive rate. She reacted by refusing a film project and in a valuable lesson frequently referred to by Valley Village tutors, she went out on her own and started MMP (Marilyn Monroe Productions.)

It was after this time that she made her greatest accomplishments, no doubt empowered by her decision. She began studying at the Actors Studio and immersed herself in her craft. She emerged commanding more control and a larger salary and she got it. Shortly after she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the film Some Like It Hot (1959).