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that Marilyn Monroe was very impressed with me because I was a publisher. She had enormous leanings toward the intellectual. That's why she ended up marrying Arthur Miller. She wanted to be educated. She had no education at all. She grew up in an orphan asylum and had absolutely no education. So she made a date with me for the next afternoon-- tea for two! Phyllis took a dim view of the whole thing.

We were staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The next morning at about a quarter to nine, the telephone rang. Phyllis answered it. She said, “It's your girl friend.” I said, “Oh, damn, she's breaking her date.” She was notoriously unreliable. Sure enough, it was Marilyn, saying, “I've got a terrible cold. I won't be able to see you this afternoon.” I said, “Oh, damn, we're going to the desert tomorrow morning. There goes the whole interview. I won't be able to do the story.” She said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I'm at the same hotel that you are. I'm upstairs. If you're not afraid of catching my cold, come on up.”

Well, with my arm twisted that way, I was half way out of the room before I hung up the phone. Phyllis said, “I'll give you fifteen minutes.” A friend named Charles Lederer, a very successful writer, was coming over to have breakfast with the two of us. She said, “Charlie and I will be up in fifteen minutes. You've got fifteen minutes to be alone with your dream girl!”

Up I went; and there was Marilyn in bed wearing a little, baby blue bed jacket. I thought that she looked