The Nuptial Trip to Tijuana

Slatzer claimed that the 1952 weekend nuptial festivities actually began on Friday, October the 3rd. On the night of Friday the 3rd, they decided it was time to stop talking. During the three years since champagne intoxication thwarted their 1949 marital plans, he and Marilyn had grown even closer: it was time for them to marry. So shortly after midnight, after spending most of that Friday with the world’s most famous blonde, Slatzer drove home, packed and fed his dog; but before he could return to Marilyn’s place and collect his soon to be bride, she telephoned. They talked about marriage well into the small hours of October the 4th. As a result, the impending newlyweds decided to delay the beginning of their marital adventure until after sunrise.

Early that Saturday morning, Slatzer returned to Marilyn’s place where he enjoyed a breakfast of toast and coffee which Marilyn prepared. Shortly thereafter, they embarked for Tijuana in Slatzer’s 1948 Packard convertible, an oil-burner. Soon, that automotive malady compelled them to stop for a 30¢ quart of oil. During the ensuing drive, they talked, joked and laughed about the Burma Shave signs that once lined the highway stretching south. At 11:30 AM on that Saturday, the soon to be connubially stitched together couple drove across the southern border separating the United States and Tijuana. Marilyn suggested going to the beach before they walked the center aisle; so Slatzer suggested visiting a familiar stretch of Mexican coastline for a brief swim. As they headed to Rosarita Beach, a resort area they had visited before, during one of their many trips south, Marilyn switched on the car’s radio hoping to hear some music during the thirty minute drive to Rosarita, southwest of Tijuana. Instead of music, Joe DiMaggio’s unmistakable voice, as if by some cruel and dark magic, reached Marilyn from Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York: DiMaggio was providing the color commentary for the 1952 World Series. Since the dulcet sound of DiMaggio’s voice disgruntled the soon to be Mrs. Robert F. Slatzer, she silenced the radio. Besides, she was not the least bit interested in the World Series game between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Once at the beach, they quickly disrobed; but Marilyn forgot to pack a swimsuit. No problem; since Rosarita Beach was deserted on that Saturday at that time of day, around noon, slightly later perhaps, Marilyn simply swam nude. Cold water drove them from the surf and they returned to Slatzer’s Packard. After allowing the sun to dry them as they reclined side by side on a beach towel, he in his shorts and she in her birthday suit, the couple dressed and then headed for the Rosarita Beach Hotel.

After checking into the hotel, where the clerk recognized and acknowledged them as Mr. and Mrs. Slatzer, they undressed and then showered together. They napped, awoke, showered again, dressed and then headed to the lobby bar where they began to consume margaritas. Soon they were on the beach again, walking along the Pacific Ocean, talking as the Sun began to set. They returned to the bar; and after another round of margaritas, they headed to the Foreign Club for dinner. There they met a torero friend of Slatzer’s, Carlos Arruza. After more drinks and conversation about how the bullfighter got gored occasionally, Marilyn asked to see one of Arruza’s scars. With that odd request, Carlos laughed, excused himself and departed. Then the marriage ideations resurfaced.

The time by then was 8:30 PM. Slatzer hailed a cab, told the driver what he and Marilyn wanted and the cabbie delivered them to the office of an abogado. Before entering the office, Marilyn stepped out of her shoes; she left them outside. The Mexican attorney worked in a very cluttered office, Slatzer noticed; but the attorney confirmed that he was, in fact, empowered to marry Robert Slatzer and Norma Jeane Dougherty for $5 American, that is, if the couple only had an additional witness. The attorney’s wife could stand as one witness but they needed two. Since the attorney had an important but brief meeting to attend, he asked Robert F and his betrothed to return in one hour with another witness or one could be provided for a nominal but necessary additional fee.

In their haste, they had overlooked wedding rings to exchange; so the delay caused by the attorney’s engagement gave them time to find a nearby jewelry shop where the impending husband purchased two gold bands for $15 American each. As they were leaving the shop, they fortuitously encountered their friend, former boxer and actor, Nobel “Kid” Chissell, who just happened to be in Tijuana visiting some Navy buddies. He agreed to be the couple’s second witness. Before returning to the attorney’s office, the trio visited a church where a shoeless Marilyn lit candles and asked to be forgiven, for what she never revealed to Slatzer, only commenting: I just thought it would be the right thing to do. Upon returning to the attorney’s office, Marilyn discovered that someone had absconded with her shoes.

The marriage ceremony, Slatzer recalled, was over quickly. In fact, completing the forms required for the Mexican Government took longer than the ceremony. In the space designated, Marilyn inscribed her maiden name, Mortenson, but to Slatzer’s consternation, she then added the last name of her first husband, Dougherty; but an understanding Slatzer did not complain about that truthful transgression of his soon to be new bride. So, on October the 4th in 1952, the former Norma Jeane Mortenson Dougherty married her best friend and lover in her bare feet.

You are now legally man and wife, the attorney announced to all present. Everyone signed the forms, including Kid Chissell and the attorney. After generously paying the abogado $15 American, Robert Slatzer and his new wife, the fastest rising cinema star in all of America, perhaps even the world by then, returned to the Foreign Club where they again encountered Carlos Arruza, who briefly joined their wedding celebration, more drinking and some dancing before Slatzer and his new barefoot bride retired to their wedding bed. That night, Slatzer reminisced in his memoir, he and Marilyn went to bed together for the first time as man and wife.

On the 5th of October in 1952, a Sunday, Robert Slatzer awoke to find his new bride, Norma Jeane Mortenson Dougherty Slatzer, sitting on the bedside with tears in her eyes. In answer to his concerned query, she told him nothing was troubling her; but he knew she was not telling the truth. Marilyn was having second thoughts for reasons involving Joe DiMaggio: Joe, you see, also wanted Marilyn for his bride. Slatzer and his now vacillating wife returned to Los Angeles on that day; and on the way home, the dulcet voice of Joe DiMaggio once again fatefully wafted through the car radio as he provided the color commentary for another game of the Fall Classic in New York City. This time, Marilyn did not seem to be disgruntled; the dulcet voice of Joe DiMaggio did not irritate her. As soon as they arrived at Marilyn’s house, the telephone rang. On the other end was DiMaggio.

Slatzer recounted the conversation and the lies Marilyn told to her current boyfriend as her current husband eavesdropped. The situation was odd; the situation was tense; and Slatzer immediately concluded that their marriage had to be terminated. Marilyn was not happy, and her happiness was of paramount importance to her soon to be ex-husband.

The newlyweds spent one more night together. Then the following Monday night, October the 6th, while sitting in Marilyn’s living room, they decided to return to Mexico and have the marriage annulled. It is unclear what time they actually embarked for Tijuana to find the attorney who married them but find him they did; and he produced the original marriage document from a pile of other marriage documents stacked on his desk, only to announce that he was not permitted to and could not annul the Slatzer’s marriage; but after some wrangling negotiations, and $50 American, the attorney lifted the original, endorsed marriage document off its pile. Then he lit a wooden match, recalled Slatzer, touched the flame to the certificate, and dropped it on the floor. The former newlyweds watched it burn. There goes our marriage, the former Mrs. Robert F. Slatzer allegedly commented, up in smoke (Slatzer 163).

Taciturn and upset, Marilyn cried during most of the return trip to Los Angeles after the document burning ceremony. Slatzer drove immediately to her house. Once there, Marilyn invited her former husband in for a nightcap. Suddenly talkative, Marilyn asked Slatzer if he regretted ending their marriage. Not if you’re happy, he replied. He was, after all, only concerned about Marilyn’s happiness. The former Mrs. Slatzer thanked her former husband for his understanding attitude and told him she would never reveal their now dissolved marriage. How convenient and fortuitous for Robert F that his now ex-wife, the one and only, Marilyn Monroe, promised to keep their now dissolved marriage a secret. Always; and she did.

Usually, I will afford any person the benefit of a doubt; but Slatzer’s account of his elopement with Marilyn Monroe is simply too implausible for me to accept, rendered so by the details he provided and also by the details he omitted in his written 1974 account of the weekend he allegedly married Norma Jeane. According to Slatzer’s account of the clandestine marriage, their decision to wed the first weekend in October was not an impetuous one: they often discussed getting married. Despite those frequent discussions, however, on that October Friday, their plans were vague, sketchy at best. Still, they were determined to drive somewhere, Slatzer recounted, determined not to return until they were man and wife (Slatzer 148). A determined marital commitment, we are told and expected to accept; but one that suffers serious problems.