Spare a Thought for Marilyn Monroe.

She had no peers. The Telegraph finds 50 things you didn’t know about the one-time Redding, Connecticut voter. More than most politicians, she was interested in the ideas that ought to propel politics.

Read number 28 from The Telegraph piece. Marilyn at her best, using the power of her celebrity for good.

Marilyn’s intervention got Ella Fitzgerald her first major engagement at a Los Angeles nightclub. In 1955 the colour bar was still in force, but Marilyn convinced the management to let Fitzgerald play by promising to sit in the front row for a week.

Ella was her favorite singer, and Marilyn herself could put over a song. Here she is one of Hollywood’s finest comedies.