According to her autobiography, Marilyn Monroe did not want to meet DiMaggio, fearing he was a stereotypical jock. Both were at different points in their lives: the just-retired Joe wanted to settle down; Marilyn's career was taking off. Their elopement at San Francisco City Hall on January 14, 1954 was the culmination of a courtship that had captivated the nation.

The relationship was loving yet complex, marred by his jealousy and her ambition. DiMaggio biographer Richard Ben Cramer asserts it was also violent. One incident allegedly happened after the skirt-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch was filmed on September 14, 1954 in front of New York's Trans-Lux Theater. Then-20th Century Fox's East Coast correspondent Bill Kobrin told the Palm Springs Desert Sun that it was Billy Wilder's idea to turn the shoot into a circus: "... every time her dress came up and the crowd started to get excited, DiMaggio just blew up." The couple then had a "yelling battle" in the theater lobby. When she filed for divorce 274 days after the wedding, Oscar Levant quipped it proved that no man could be a success in two pastimes.

An August 1, 1956 International News wire photo of DiMaggio with Lee Meriwether announced their engagement, but Cramer wrote that it was a rumor started by Walter Winchell. He was later linked to 1957 Miss America Marian McKnight, who won the crown with a Marilyn act. Marilyn biographer Donald Spoto claimed they were "very close to marrying" but she denies it.^[3] Biographers and news reports also linked him to Liz Renay, Cleo Moore, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria DeHaven, and Elizabeth Ray, but he never publicly confirmed any involvement.

DiMaggio re-entered Marilyn's life as her marriage to Arthur Miller was ending. On February 10, 1961, he secured her release from Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. She joined him in Florida where he was a batting coach for the Yankees. Their "just friends" claim did not stop remarriage rumors from flying. Reporters staked out her apartment building. Bob Hope "dedicated" Best Song nominee "The Second Time Around" to them at the 33rd Academy Awards.

According to biographer Maury Allen, Joe was so alarmed at how Marilyn had returned to her self-destructive ways, falling in with people he felt detrimental to her (including Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack"), he quit his job with a military post-exchange supplier on August 1, 1962 to ask her to remarry him. But before he could, she was found dead on August 5. Her death was deemed a probable suicide but is subject to endless conspiracy theories. Devastated, he claimed her body and arranged her funeral, barring Hollywood's elite. He had a half-dozen red roses delivered 3 times a week to her crypt for the next 20 years. Unlike her other two husbands or other men who knew her intimately (or claimed to) he refused to talk about her publicly or write a tell-all. He never remarried.

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Death

DiMaggio's grave

Following lung cancer surgery on October 14, 1998, DiMaggio fell ill again December 11. The attack forced his lawyer, Morris Engelberg, to admit that the positive reports he had been feeding to the press were greatly exaggerated. He claimed Joe made him promise not to tell even his family about his condition.

DiMaggio died on March 8, 1999. On January 24, NBC broadcast a premature obituary; Engelberg claimed he and DiMaggio were watching TV and saw it. His last words, according to Engelberg, were "I'll finally get to see Marilyn." However, the day after DiMaggio's death, a hospice worker who cared for him gave a radically different account to The New York Post.^{[citation needed]}

DiMaggio is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California. In his eulogy, Dom DiMaggio declared that his brother had everything "except the right woman to share his life with", a remark seeming to confirm the family's disapproval of Monroe. Richard Ben Cramer told the New York Times that Dom cooperated with him on his controversial biography, and got other family members to do likewise. In an eerie coincidence, Joe DiMaggio's estranged son, Joe, Jr., died later that same year.

The equally controversial Engelberg offered dozens of signed bats on Shop At Home, for $3,000 each, weeks before DiMaggio died. In April 1999, he sued the City of San Francisco to stop its plan to name the North Beach park, where Joe learned to play baseball, after him. That June, he sold hundreds of items to a collectibles dealer, including baseballs DiMaggio signed on his deathbed, and offered Joe's personal effects at a Sotheby's auction.

In 2003, Engelberg broke attorney-client privilege, and published his own book on DiMaggio as a rebuttal to Cramer's.

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Legacy

DiMaggio was used by artists as a touchstone in popular culture not only during his career, but decades after he retired. In the South Pacific song, "Bloody Mary" has "skin tender as DiMaggio's glove". Joltin' Joe DiMaggio was recorded during his hitting streak by Les Brown.

In Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, Philip Marlowe follows the streak, which Chandler uses as a metaphor for good. A generation later, Simon and Garfunkel used him in that same vein in "Mrs. Robinson". The literal-minded DiMaggio was reportedly not fond of the lyric "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" as he was very much alive, and had not gone anywhere.^[4] However, he changed his mind when he gained a whole new generation of fans from that song.^{[citation needed]} When he died The Times of London observed in its obituary that the lines from "Mrs Robinson" were what DiMaggio would be most remembered for. In their eulogical report on DiMaggio, ESPN SportsCenter quoted the last line of the song: "What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson? Joltin' Joe has left and gone away?" A tributory newspaper comic strip shows DiMaggio standing in front of the Pearly Gates in his Yankees uniform, holding his bat on his shoulder. St. Peter, in foreground, writes in his book: "Memo to Mr. Simon & Mr. Garfunkel: he's here."

Stephen Jay Gould often wrote of DiMaggio's hit streak as the only sports record that was an unpredictable anomaly based on statistical analysis, and therefore the greatest feat in all of sports.

Woody Guthrie wrote "DiMaggio Done It Again" about his performance in a crucial series against the Red Sox in June 1949 when surgery for bone spurs in his right heel kept him out of the Yankees' first 65 games and threatened his career. It is during this period Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is set, Santiago drawing courage from his hero's ordeal. (Guthrie's song was later covered by Wilco for the 2000 album Mermaid Avenue Vol. II.)

DiMaggio is referenced in the Seinfeld episode "The Note", when Kramer claims to see him in a donut shop (and insists that he dips his donuts in coffee, to the disbelief of his friends). In The Simpsons episode "'Tis The Fifteenth Season", Montgomery Burns gives Homer Simpson a DiMaggio rookie card (Burns refers to him as "That promising young rookie from the New York Nine"). In Boobs in the Woods, Daffy Duck gets a befuddled Porky Pig to "Steal home, DiMaggio! It means the game!"

He is mentioned in John Fogerty's "Center Field." He and Monroe are mentioned in Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Gonna Be Alright", Madonna's "Vogue", Tori Amos's "Father Lucifer", Sleeper's "Romeo Me", Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", and Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson".

In 1971, Italian industrial design firm Poltronova released the "Joe" chair, shaped like a gigantic baseball glove. The original brown leather versions are considered collectors' items.

In 1974, he became spokesman for Mr. Coffee. Harvey Korman spoofed DiMaggio's commercials in a Carol Burnett Show episode.

He appeared in the original Angels in the Outfield and The First of May (released 1999). The First of May was DiMaggio's last and most involved motion picture cameo, requiring that he memorize lines for an entire scene. According to director Paul Sirmons, DiMaggio refused payment because the movie's subject, foster children, was dear to him, but Screen Actors Guild rules mandated he take the minimum $250 per day fee. (See The First of May - Official Web Site.)

His hitting streak has been used as a gold standard to compare similar feats in other sports. Johnny Unitas throwing at least 1 TD in 47 consecutive games is often cited as football's version. Martina Navratilova referred to her 74 straight match wins as "my DiMaggio streak." Wayne Gretzky's 51-game point-scoring run also was compared with the streak. DiMaggio was less than impressed, quoted as saying that Gretzky (who scored an empty-net goal in the final moments of a game to keep the streak alive) "never had to worry about a mid-game washout in the middle of the second period."

His consecutive game hitting streak was also a point of reference in the Star Trek universe. In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a passing reference is made of an unnamed baseball player breaking DiMaggio's streak. That player later is revealed to be Harmon "Buck" Bokai of the London Kings, a favorite player of Commander Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

On September 17, 1992, the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital opened, for which he raised over $4,000,000. Elián González was taken there after he was rescued off the coast of Miami.

Yankee Stadium's fifth monument was dedicated to DiMaggio on April 25, 1999. It replaced a plaque that previously hung at Monument Park: "A baseball legend and an American icon, the greatest player to play the game of baseball." Also on that date the West Side Highway was officially renamed in his honor. The Yankees wore DiMaggio's number 5 on the left sleeves of their uniforms for the 1999 season. He is ranked #11 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected by fans to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

An auction of DiMaggio's personal items was held on May 19-20, 2006 by his son's adopted daughters. Highlights included: the ball hit to break Wee Willie Keeler's hitting-streak record ($63,250); 2,000th career hit ball ($29,900); 1947 Most Valuable Player Award ($281,750); uniform worn in the 1951 World Series ($195,500); Hall of Fame ring ($69,000); photograph Marilyn autographed "I love you Joe" ($80,500); her passport ($115,000); their marriage certificate ($23,000). The event netted a total of $4.1 million.

In an article in 1976 in Esquire magazine, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter," consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Joe DiMaggio was the center fielder on Stein's Italian team.

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe's relationship is cited in a number of songs, for example: Diesel Boy Song, "She's My Queen". "She is my queen, she's my Marilyn, and I'm her Joe DiMaggio." Man From Delmonte song "Beautiful People." "I can be your Miss Monroe and you can be my Joe DiMaggio and we can do the things beautiful people like to do."

DiMaggio was named the greatest athlete to wear the #5 by Sports Illustrated.[1]. He was pictured, along with his son Joe, Jr. on the cover of the inaugural issue of SPORT magazine in September, 1946.

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Stats

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References

• SPORT magazine, September 1946

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Joe DiMaggio

• joedimaggio.com Official Joe DiMaggio Website
• YouTube Video of The Joe DiMaggio Story
• Joe DiMaggio's Restaurant
• baseballhalloffame.org – Hall of Fame biography page
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• baseballlibrary.com career statistics and information
• Joe DiMaggio at the Internet Movie Database
• The SPORT Gallery - 1950 photo from SPORT magazine: Joe DiMaggio, Dom DiMaggio & Ted Williams
• pbs.org documentary on DiMaggio
• washingtonpost.com obituary
• Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
• Most of Joe DiMaggio's items sold from his estate
• Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and the 1954 "Wrong Door Raid."
• Joe DiMaggio baseball card checklist.