"Live from the Los Angeles county morgue,

The Late Marilyn Monroe"
Sid, my oldest son, was staying with my mom one weekend. And
she was turning her calender over to August, it is one of the
Marilyn Monroe the ones that are sold at Wal-Mart every year.
Well Sid stops to look at it after he noticed that it had a new
photo.

NaNa asks "What?"

"Is that Amanda" he repeated.

"Your Mom?" NaNa said.

"Yes" said Sid, "Is that her?"

"No, that is Marilyn."

"Who is that?"

"Well, your mom looks like her sometimes"

Sid turns back to the photo. "I've seen her with her hair like
that. Are you sure that is not her?"

"Well," NaNa started, "Have you ever seen your mom with
clothes like that on before?"

Sid looks very closely and replies:

"Well, I know she has never had any shoes like that!"
I love him so much.

And she replied: "Dear, you do know thats a bad thing?"

The one comment I remember getting about my "looks" the
most growing up  was my "Beauty Mark". As long as I could
remember someone has notice  that I have the same signature
mark. I got so upset about the regular comparison, that I scratch
it off one day when I was about six! My mother was so afraid that
I had "disfigured" my face! But to her joy, and my aggravation, it
come back just the same as it was before. But few people ever
notice is that it is on the opposite side of the face!

When I was 8 years old, I woke up in the middle of the night to
find my mom sitting in the living room watching a old "Marilyn"
documentary. So I climb into her lap and saw the most beautiful
woman I had even seen. The next day I gave my first
performance as "Marilyn Monroe"! In a pink 70's prom dress
and with neon blue plastic 80's "pumps", I danced around the
kitchen while singing "Diamond Are A Girls Best Friend"!

By the time I was 10, I had seen all her hit movies and could sing
her most known songs. And I didn't stop with her movies. My
mom would tape any documentary or movie based on her life. I
knew all about the men in her life.  Jim Baker, "Uncle" Joe,
Johnny Hyde, Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller, John F. Kennedy,
Bobby Kennedy... But most of all I knew that the one man she
wanted in her life was her father, as did I.

So many things in my life was so similar to things that haunted
her in her life. And this is what made me fall in love with her.

Down in Galveston, right off of the "Strand" is The Peanut Butter
Warehouse. And on her lunch breaks, my mother would go and
buy me Marilyn prints, lovely glossy photos of her to hang in my
room. Once she got me the Marilyn paper doll book. It had a
outfit from every movie she had ever done. I begged her to cut
them out for me to play with. But she said that it wasn't really to
play with, just to look at. But I begged her so much that she did.
And I still have them put away some where.

I would spend hours playing with my paper dolls, or laying in my
bed looking at the beautiful glossy black and whites.

One day my mom found a dress that looked just like Marilyn's in
"7 Year Itch". And she spent the next few months trying to talk
me into dress up as her for Halloween. But after seeing "Finding
Graceland", I saw how Bridget Fonda looked nothing like her,
but made a very convincing "Marilyn Monroe". So at the last
minute I got up my nerve and went out with my mom. As she
dragged me from contest to contest, I won one after another.
And started a new "job" as a "Low Rent Marilyn"!

I would dress up for birthday parties to sing "Happy Birthday".
And waited tables at less then respectable night clubs. (Usually
in my bare feet!) But I was a young mother with a little one to
feed, and this was a fun way to pay the bills.

I had a lot of fun being her for the night. I loved to come back
into the club after I performed in my "every day" clothes, and no
one know it was the same girl. I never did think I looked a lot like
her. But I had always dream of being her, and knew how she
moved, talked, and sang. And all of that together gave a real nice
effect. Even with that terrible wig! But more so I think it was just
the aura of "Marilyn" that people found so convincing. Just
representing who she was and what she still means to people was
all I really need to fill her dress.

(Note about the wig: I joke that the more you look at the photos,
the worst the wig gets over the years! This is mostly because
the first time I dressed up of Marilyn it was so last minute that
we had no time to find a good wig. I couldn't use my own hair
because when my first child was a baby, I kept my hair shaved
or very short. With a new baby and working, it was much
easier that way! And at the last minute all we could find was
one that was no longer in it's package and looked like it had
been kick around the floor! I finally left that wig on the floor of
the The Fabulous Satellite Lounge.)

But I always felt like I was "nude" in her skin. I would spend the
night trying to very nicely tell men to keep their hands to them
self. Having to keep them from putting their hands where they
shouldn't, stop them from looking up my dress or trying to kiss
me.

So, I became sick of it. And at the same time I thought how
f*cked up it was that her image was remember in this way. As if,
by becoming her it was okay to act in this manner! This is how
she is thought of? Just some dumb sex pot? Was this how she
was treated? I knew she was much more than this.

It always amazed me that someone so beautiful and talented
could think so little of her self. And maybe this had a little to do
with why.

In 2001 I met Kali Verra and Johnny Ace. I signed on to the "1st
Annual Kreepy Kustom & Kasket Kuties Show". Kali
asked me if I would ever think of doing a "Dead" Marilyn... And I
had for some time! But had never found the right "place" to do it.
So, she was born! The love child of His Ruin, Wip Kitten
Amanda and the Mad Doctors at Johnny Ace Studios! With the
help of SeveredThreads "Dead Marilyn" sang "My Heart
Belongs To My Deaddy" with a bloody hole in her chest and
a bleeding heart in her hands.

All proceeds of the show went to help abandon and abused
animals.

This Marilyn isn't to make fun of the late Ms. Monroe. I "killed"
her to put the end to the "dumb sex pot". To "killed" the image
that has been used to exploit her over and over again. I wanted
to kill the "Hollywood" Marilyn. Thats what really killed her in
life... Dead Marilyn is a one woman show, (With the help of a few
friends!) And the can be booked for any undead event!

*Wip Kitten Amanda works in and around the Houston, Texas
area
Wip Kitten Amanda can be found on these sites:
Tromette Of The Month September 2002
Retro Kitten - His Ruin
MySpace - His Ruin
ZombiePinups.com - Wip Kitten Amanda
Ghost Droppings April 10, 2006
Model Mayhem ID=97673
Horror Drunkette of The Month September 2006
ScreamTV.net - Gallery - 3-23-07 Manda Malice
Screams-of-Terror November 2006
deviantART - Wip Kitten Amanda
Zombie Friends • SomeLikeItDead
YouTube - Wip Kitten Amanda
Atomic Pin Up - WipKittenAmanda
Punk Rockers.com - Slick & His Ruin
Pin-Up Post.com December 22, 2007  Wip Kitten
MySpace - SomeLikeItDead