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The following is a transcript from Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, broadcast on PBS in "The American Experience" series.

NARRATOR: At the time, 1952, it did seem perfect -- Joe and Marilyn Monroe, Mr. and Mrs. America -- how could they go wrong? We fell in love with the idea. As did Joe, that very first night, when her publicist arranged a blind date dinner.

In his silence at the table Marilyn saw solid strength. He was so different from all the Hollywood chatterers. She offered him a ride home, and asked in the car why he'd come out to meet her -- surely he'd met so many famous people. Said Joe: "But you're prettier than Douglas McArthur." Joe never did get home that night.

DARIO LODIGIANI: They were great. They were laughing, you know, a lot of times, telling stories. Joe was telling stories about when we were kids, you know, what we did and all that. And she would get a big bang out of it. And I think Joe and Marilyn were, in a roundabout way, well-meant for each other.

NARRATOR: They had one big thing in common: each was an enormous figure created by the hero machine -- and inside that vast personage lived a small person fearful to be seen. In their loneliness, they might have been brother and sister. Joe insisted they be husband and wife.

When they got married in January of 1954, Marilyn told reporters she was going to be a perfect wife. She'd iron his shirts and make dinner. They were going to make a room in their house for Joe Jr. And a nursery! Marilyn said she wanted six kids. Of course, she also said she wasn't giving up the movie business?

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: When a well-known honeymoon couple arrives at Tokyo airport, a throng of 4,000 baseball and movie fans surge out of control, break through police lines. Joe DiMaggio and his bride smile bravely at their greeters. But they don't dare move.

But their troubles aren't over. Next day comes a press conference, where the public is barred but the photographers and reporters more than made up for that. Their questions were rough, ranging from the risque to the ridiculous. And Joe, he's the forgotten man, which is something in Japan, where baseball is so popular. Ah,me, never underestimate the power of you-know-who. But enough's enough. His patience is exhausted, Joe says, "Go."

MAURY ALLEN: While they were in Japan, the United States government, the Army asked Marilyn to come to Korea to entertain the troops and sing a few songs for them. And she did that. She left DiMaggio. It was their honeymoon. And he wasn't too happy about that.

NARRATOR: Marilyn had never worked a live audience. But when those soldiers started going nuts, for the first time in her career, she said, she felt at home. And she said: "I'll always remember my honeymoon in Korea, with the 45th Division."

MAURY ALLEN: When she came back to Japan, she said to Joe she was so thrilled by the crowd and she said to Joe, there were 100,000 soldiers out there. You never heard such cheering. And Joe said, 'Yes I have.' I think Joe DiMaggio never really understood Marilyn's insecurity and what she needed in her own life.

NARRATOR: Neither could Marilyn understand Joe's fears. It wasn't long before she was back at work -- long hours at the studio. Joe was home, staring at his TV, sure he was losing her. He couldn't let that happen.

BRAD DEXTER: She told me -- She says, "Joe is absolutely obsessed with jealousy about me. He thinks that I've had affairs with every man that I've ever known in the industry. He doesn't trust me. He doesn't want me out of his sight. He wants me to give up my career altogether. I don't know what to do."

NARRATOR: For The Seven Year Itch she flew cross-country to film exteriors in New York. All Joe could do was follow. Then he watched in horror as his wife made a spectacle of herself.

Photographers were lying on the tar of Lexington Avenue, with their lenses pointed right up at her crotch! Marilyn and Joe had a screaming fight. And he left town.

When she got back to California they fought again. This time it was physical. Next day the studio sent its minions to stage-manage her exit.

NEWSREEL: Miss Monroe will have nothing to say this morning . . .

NARRATOR: She told friends Joe had beaten her, but she added: "Not without cause." She told a California court that Joe had tortured her with "mental cruelty." She wanted divorce. Joe thought he could stop her, if he could just make her see how sorry he was.

BRAD DEXTER: I meet Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Van Heusen for dinner at the Villa Capri restaurant In walks Joe DiMaggio. Frank got me over there because he knew that Marilyn and I were good friends and perhaps I could get to Marilyn and maybe get Joe to talk to her. I called the studio. She said to me, "Brad, I don't want to talk to him. I've had it -- and this is it."

He was... He had tears in his eyes. He was crestfallen. He had tears. And he was miserably unhappy.

NARRATOR: The marriage had lasted two hundred seventy four days. Joe went back to San Francisco with his two suitcases, his golf clubs and his shame. And it would only get worse.

REPORTER: Mr. Miller and Miss Monroe yesterday you didn't know when you were going to get married. Do you know today?

NARRATOR: In 1956, the New York playwright, Arthur Miller, announced that he would marry Marilyn. And she said Miller was the only man she'd ever truly loved.

© 2000 PBS/WGBH

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