1935

In Norma Jeane Baker (Marilyn Monroe)’s recollection, 1935 is the year she was nine, lived on Highland Avenue in Hollywood, and took piano lessons from Clive Pearce. The date anchors a remembered childhood relationship that Pearce later fails to recognize, turning a specific year into a point of conflict between her memory and his.

Date and Childhood Setting

Norma Jeane places herself at age nine in 1935, when she and her mother, Gladys Mortensen, lived at 828 Highland Avenue. She identifies the residence as being in Hollywood, five minutes from the Hollywood Bowl. These details connect the date to a particular home and neighborhood rather than leaving it as an isolated year.

Piano Lessons and Recognition

In the later encounter, Norma Jeane tells Pearce that he was her piano teacher and that he taught her to play Für Elise. She struggles not to cry as people gather nearby, while Pearce doubts that she could have been a child playing the piece and appears to think she is joking. His disbelief makes the remembered lessons—and the year she gives for them—evidence of a childhood he cannot or will not recall.

Pearce’s Partial Memory

Pearce does remember the Highland Avenue residence, though only vaguely. He describes it as an unpleasant place, full of cockroaches, where he stayed for a short time. His recollection confirms the setting while failing to affirm the relationship Norma Jeane is trying to restore: 1935 holds a precise personal history for her, but only a fragment of a residence for him.