This is Part 1 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe — marking her centennial on June 1, 2026, what would have been her 100th birthday.

On September 15, 1954, on the corner of New York's Lexington and 52nd, a wind machine lifted a white pleated dress — and Marilyn Monroe, already the most famous woman in America, became something more. An icon.

Before she became Marilyn Monroe, she was Norma Jeane Mortenson — born in the charity ward of Los Angeles County Hospital to a mother who would be committed before her daughter turned eight. A childhood divided between foster homes and an orphanage. A sixteenth-birthday marriage to escape the system. And a wartime factory job that would change everything.

Part 1 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe traces her invention, her rise, and her fight to be known as more than a blonde bombshell — from Norma Jeane to Marilyn, from Radioplane assembly line to Twentieth Century Fox marquee, from a nude calendar shoot to her hand-prints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It follows her through a childhood of impermanence, an early marriage destined for failure, and a modeling career that opened the door to Hollywood. It traces her early years at Fox, the breakthroughs in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, and the year that made her a household name — Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and How to Marry a Millionaire. And the fight for legitimacy that took her out of Hollywood entirely — Marilyn Monroe in dark glasses and a headscarf, slipping into New York to build her own production company, study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg, and earn the review she'd spent a decade fighting for: "Marilyn acts."

It also follows the personal life she fought to hold onto. The agent who loved her, made her a star, and died before he could see what she'd become. Her relationship with baseball great Joe DiMaggio — the honeymoon that turned, and the marriage that broke. Her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller — and the brief, hopeful moment when it seemed like she might actually be able to have it all.

And beneath it all, the quiet unraveling that had already begun — the pills, the depression, the loneliness behind the brightest smile in America.

This is a story of strength, ambition, and self-invention: how a girl who shouldn't have had a chance made herself into the most famous woman in the world — and the price she would pay for becoming her.

WTWMI is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Rankin. Original artwork by Simone Beech and original music by Lionel Ziblat. 

Part 2 drops June 2, 2026 — the day after her centennial. Part 3 releases Tuesday, June 9. 

New episodes of WTWMI drop every Tuesday. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

The stars you think you know. The films that became legends. The people the world almost forgot.

When They Were Making It — a narrative documentary podcast about classic Hollywood's greatest icons, from the silent era to the early 1960s.

Not the myths. Not the takedowns. The whole human story of the glamour, the ambition, the machinery, and the damage behind the icons.

WTWMI premiered May 26, 2026 with Marilyn Monroe (Part 1). Part 2 dropped June 2 — the day after what would have been her 100th birthday.

Hosted, written, and produced by Patrick Rankin. Artwork by Simone Beech and original music by Lionel Ziblat.

New episodes of WTWMI drop every Tuesday. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Part 2 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe — marking her centennial on June 1, 2026, what would have been her 100th birthday.

By 1956, Marilyn Monroe had everything she'd fought for. Her own production company. The most unprecedented studio contract any actress had ever signed. The most respected playwright in America at her side. And the chance, for the first time, to be happy.

It would take less than two years for it all to begin falling apart.

Part 2 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe traces what came after she'd arrived — the films that proved every critic wrong, the marriage that broke her open, and the long slow collapse that no amount of success could outpace. It follows her through The Prince and the Showgirl opposite Laurence Olivier, the grueling production of Some Like It Hot, the script of Breakfast at Tiffany's before it went to Audrey Hepburn, and The Misfits — Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, John Huston, and the screenplay her husband wrote as a valentine and finished as a goodbye. And her tumultuous relationship with Fox — and with an industry that could never quite decide what she was allowed to be.

It also follows the personal collapses — the ones the public saw and the ones it didn't. The children she wanted more than anything, and the pregnancies that ended in heartbreak. The marriage to Arthur Miller, the man she believed finally saw her for who she really was — and the quiet, devastating realization that he didn't. And the pills that, year by year, took more and more of her.

This is the story of what fame takes from the women it makes — and of an actress who, even as everything fell apart around her, was still fighting to be seen for who she actually was.

WTWMI is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Rankin. Original artwork by Simone Beech and original music by Lionel Ziblat. 

Part 3 releases Tuesday, June 9. Part 1 is available now. 

New episodes of WTWMI drop every Tuesday. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

This season on When They Were Making It — Marilyn is just the beginning.

The stars. The classics. The faces history almost forgot. 

Elizabeth Taylor. Rudolph Valentino. Marlon Brando. Anna May Wong. Alfred Hitchcock. Audrey Hepburn. The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy Dandridge. Charlie Chaplin. Casablanca. Grace Kelly. Bette Davis. Lana Turner. Gone with the Wind. Clara Bow. Citizen Kane. Mary Pickford. James Dean. Greta Garbo. Judy Garland.

And so many more.

The lives underneath the legends. Each one a story all its own.

When They Were Making It is written, hosted, and produced by Patrick Rankin. Original cover art by Simone Beech. Original music by Lionel Ziblat. 

New episodes every Tuesday. Follow now wherever you get your podcasts.