Marilyn Monroe in Memorium

Silkscreen, 29 15/16 x 20 1/16 inches. Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics

Although Hollywood promoted Marilyn Monroe as sexy and naïve—the stereotypical dumb blonde—she was quite the opposite. She was highly intelligent, had left politics, and supported the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s, when the popular Hollywood nightclub Mocambo wouldn’t book Ella Fitzgerald because she was black, Monroe called the owner and said if they hired Fitzgerald, she would take a front row table every night. Fitzgerald never had to play a small jazz club again. Monroe’s support for the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and the Hollywood writers and actors who were blacklisted because they were members of the Communist Party made her popular in Cuba. The Cuban documentary, "Marilyn Monroe in Memoriam" was produced in 1967, five years after her death.