Steel Notes Magazine | 23
MARLOWE B . WEST PREZENTZ HOLLYWOOD REVIVAL
Q : Describe happiness for me , Mamie ... Please ...
MVD : I wake every morning to a lovely white German Shepherd licking my face . Lilly Mae is the love of my life . She shares my breakfast ( along with my other four dogs ), and is my companion when I make my nightly pilgrimage to the beach . I truly love the ocean . It revitalizes me . And Lilly loves to dig in the sand .
Q : What is your greatest love ?
MVD : My greatest love , I think , is life itself . Like all things we love , it is finite . The spice of the love is the knowing it will eventually end . My Lutheran upbringing tells me that if you ’ re good--very good--your reward will be eternity in that Kingdom in the Sky . However , my recent exposure to Buddhism says that if you pay attention to your karma , your reward will be rebirth and , eventually , enlightenment . I kind of like it that Buddhism is very open ended . We accept that there is suffering in this life , face up to it , and move on . If you experience suffering , that ’ s okay . That ’ s just suffering Buddha . If you experience goodness , that ’ s okay too . That ’ s joyful Buddha . What really counts is that you search for , cultivate , and experience the Buddha within you .
Q : I bet Mamie was super impressed with Marilyn Monroe when she was a little girl . I would love to ask her about that .” How about it Mamie Van Doren . What do you have to say on the subject ???
MVD : I always admired Marilyn , but I found her vulnerability frightening in a way . As we became acquainted , you could almost see that she was bound for great success--and an inevitable fall . That it would be the tragic
death she had , no one could have guessed , but she lacked the coping mechanisms that might have kept her on the straight and narrow .
Q : ... What ... in your opinion and from your point of view ... from the inside looking out ... really happened to Marilyn ???
MVD : I don ’ t have any special insight into her death . I don ’ t believe she was murdered . The most likely answer is that she drank too much and forgot how many sleeping pills she took .
Q : We would really enjoy your sharing the thrill of it all ... The victory ... The glory ... & ... The elation of being Mamie Van Doren .”
MVD : I don ’ t have a direct answer for this one . Alan J . Watts , the Buddhist philosopher and writer was once asked what being enlightened was like . He replied that it was just like everyday life--only about a foot off the ground .
Q : Can you put into words the kind of mindset you must have to achieve and maintain a place so high as Queen Bee Of Golden Hollywood ???
MVD : No . Achieving any sort of success in Hollywood is 90 % luck and I ’ ve been lucky to have an angel on my shoulder . It helps to be in the right place at the right time . And it helps to be unafraid of hard work . I
Steel Notes Magazine | 23