#hal schaefer

[thecinamonroe]

Marilyn Monroe and Hal Schaefer during a singing rehearsal for There’s No Business Like Showbusiness on April 15, 1954. Photo by John Florea. 

[infinitemarilynmonroe]

Marilyn Monroe at vocal lessons with Hal Schaefer, 1954.

[perfectlymarilynmonroe]

Marilyn Monroe during a singing rehearsal with vocalist Hal Shaefer for There’s No Business Like Show Business on April 15th, 1954. Photos by John Florea.

The two first met in 1952, during lessons for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and she worked with him for River of No Return, as well. During the production of Business, the two grew very close. Marilyn’s marriage to Joe DiMaggio was turbulent and she turned to Shaefer with her frustrations. At the same time, Shaefer was going through his own battles, and he was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. She rushed to be by his side and visited him a few times. A typical angry and jealous Joe eventually warned Shaefer to stay away from his wife.

In October, following the divorce announcement between Marilyn and Joe, she turned to Schaefer for support and they began seeing each other and were intimate on several occasions. He later said, “Joe had got physical with her, and all though she did not have a great deal of self-esteem, she did finally have enough, and picked up and left... Marilyn was a super sensitive woman and had a real artistic thirst to grow; she loved the arts, but Joe was not into any of these things. Marilyn didn’t want any part of him– She was hurt and emotionally fragile, and turned to me.” He also made accusations the two were going to marry, but there has yet to be evidence found to support this.

Joe had hired a private investigator to tail Marilyn, and was made aware she was spotted going into an apartment building with Schafer. Joe, who was dining with Sinatra that evening, drove over. He and his P.I busted into the apartment, only to find they had wrecked the apartment of Florence Kotz who was woken by these men breaking in. She later described it as “a night of terror.”

Both Joe and Sinatra maintained the story that Sinatra stayed in the car that evening, but Schafer said he saw him and Joe “scurry away.” Schaefer later said, “We were very close to making love; I don’t remember the stage we were at, but I would say half-dressed, and all of a sudden for some reason, Marilyn got these vibrations, and we went over to the window and saw this group standing across the street, one of whom was Joe DiMaggio and another was Frank Sinatra. They all came en masse and broke this door in, demolished it. We scrambled to get out the back way, and we made it, luckily.”

Their relationship ended when she left for Connecticut in December, “She phoned me and said she didn’t know how long she’d be there, but I never saw her again,” he said. Shaefer died in 2012 at the age of 87.

[infinitemarilynmonroe]

“She had very little self-esteem. But at the same time she was a quite complicated woman with a sure grasp of what she wanted to accomplish. By this time, despite her insecurities, she was no longer hiding behind the music. I was with her all the time in the recording studio, and there was very little inter-cutting, editing or overdubbing. She trusted me, and we became quite close. I had been warned to stay away from her, not to socialize. I was gentle and considerate with her, which seemed to mean everything, and she warmed to this.“ - Hal Schaefer

[infinitemarilynmonroe]

Marilyn Monroe and Hal Schaefer, 1954.

[onlynormajeane]

Marilyn Monroe in a voice lesson with Hal Schaefer, captured by John Florea (1954).

[mostlymarilynmonroe]

I always felt she never really achieved her potential as a singer- I felt she could have been a really good singer. I gave her Ella Fitzgerald albums to listen to for homework, and she fell in love with Ella. She had great potential and never realized it.- Hal Schaefer