It took me years to tolerate Marilyn's voice. I truly love her as well but that affected baby voice....ugh! I don't know how she maintained that for so long. Even when it wasn't babyish or truly breathy, it seems like she enunciated too hard. A lot of actors and upper class people had affected voices back then so much so that it's actually funny to hear them today. I remember reading something about Jacqueline Kennedy's friends and family being surprised when they heard her "public" voice when she filmed the tour of the White House that was televised. Evidently the voice she used when she was First Lady wasn't her real voice.
Anyhow, Marilyn did use her real voice in a few of her early films before the Marilyn persona was fully cultivated. She sounds "normal" in Ladies of the Chorus and Clash By Night for the most part. Her voice isn't too bad in Don't Bother to Knock or Niagara either. It was still babyish in Niagara but you could tell she tried to sound less affected and dropped it a register. She did have a soft feminine voice but I don't think any real person has that kind of breathy baby voice. I think towards the end of her life/career she began using her natural voice as films were leaning more towards natural acting.
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