PETER LAWFORD and HEY MARILYN
In the 1980's the late PETER LAWFORD and CLIFF JONES developed a unique friendship and spent many hours together at Lawford's home just outside of Beverly Hills, California. Often, Lawford's future wife Patti (the second Patti in his life, the first being President John F. Kennedy's sister Patricia) and Jones's wife Eve would join the two men. But mostly, Jones and Lawford sat chatting well into the wee hours, about Peter's past, especially about his great friendship with Marilyn Monroe.
One evening Peter was sitting in his living room in West Hollywood home with author/lyricist/composer CLIFF JONES. Lawford was listening in absolute silence to the tapes of the original CBC Radio Network's production of Jones's HEY MARILYN.
When the two-hour audio production came to an end, Jones was very nervous about Lawford's reaction because Peter had known Marilyn extremely well. Indeed, he was probably the last person she talked to on the phone, the night of her death.
Finally, Peter turned to Cliff and said "I do not know how someone (Jones) who never met Marilyn, could have written something like this (HEY MARILYN) with such incredible insight and understanding about who she really and truly was!" He wiped a few tears from his eyes and continued. "What you've accomplished is absolutely amazing. I love it!"
Jones, of course, was thrilled at Lawford's reaction. What Jones was not so thrilled about was that right then and there, at two o'clock in the morning, Peter insisted on listening to the whole thing again. Immediately!
It was after that HEY MARILYN night, that the relationship between the two men became a true friendship. From that point on, Lawford began pouring out a wealth of further information, anecdotes, insights and stories about Marilyn, to Jones.
Many of the revisions that Cliff has incorporated into his Stage Adaptation of HEY MARILYN are as a result of his long, well-into-the-night conversations with Peter Lawford.
