Joe DiMaggio was born on November 25, 1914, to Giuseppe and Rosalia DiMaggio, Sicilian immigrants who lived in Martinez California. He was the eighth of nine children and one of five sons. The family moved to San Francisco when Joe was one year old. DiMaggio’s father was a fisherman and wanted his sons to follow in his footsteps training them in the work, which Joe hated. Only when Joe became the toast of the Pacific Coast League did his father become proud of his son.
While playing for the San Francisco Seals, Joe’s brother, Vince, persuaded the manager to let Joe play at shortstop but Joe was not a natural at the position and found his forte as a hitter. After a ligament injury in 1934 his career was all but considered over by the Seals and the Chicago Cubs turned down a "no-risk" try out until finally a scout for the Yankees managed to persuade the team to buy him for the princely sum of $25,000 and five players, which in the days of prohibition was an unprecedented amount. He was compared by sportswriters to Babe Ruth and in his career, when the only team he ever played for was the Yankees, he led the team to nine titles in thirteen years.
In 1937 Joe married actress Dorothy Arnold, with whom he had a son, Joseph III. The marriage soon became troubled and the couple parted in 1943 not long after Joe went to Hawaii to serve in the Second World War. Joe was devastated by the separation.
With the involvement of the U.S. in World War II DiMaggio was stationed at Santa Ana, California, Hawaii, and Atlantic City in order to keep him out of harms way as his death would have caused a drop in troop morale at that time. After the attack on Pearl Harbor his parents where regarded as "enemy aliens" and had to carry photo ID with them at all times until they became U.S. citizens in 1944 and 1945.
When he came back from Hawaii he finally got his first wife out of his system and began dating Marilyn Monroe. Her career was on the up, and Joe just wanted to settle down, which was later to cause the marriage to fail. Together they eloped and married on January 14, 1954 in San Francisco.
The marriage only lasted 274 days when Marilyn filed for divorce in the same year after reporting Joe’s jealousy and abuse.
After their divorce DiMaggio was linked to many women including, Lee Meriwether, Marlene Dietrich, and Morgan Fairchild.
DiMaggio came back into Marilyn’s life when he helped secure her release from a psychiatric clinic. In 1961 Bob Hope dedicated the song "the second time around" to the couple at the Academy Awards amid rumors that they were to re-marry.
After Marilyn became a part of the a circle of friends, which DiMaggio described as "detrimental" to her, including Frank Sinatra, he returned home to ask her to re-marry him. Before he could ask her Marilyn was found dead on August 5, 1962. It is rumored that for the next twenty years, three times a week Joe had six red roses left at her grave. He had intense respect for her and he vowed never to talk about her to the press or publicly. He never married after her death.
After Marilyn’s death several books were written, which in Joe’s opinion contained inaccuracies and salacious gossip about her life and her death, which Joe always maintained was due to her involvement with John F Kennedy and his family.
Joe DiMaggio’s demise came in 1999 when he fell into a coma after surgery for lung cancer. On March 9, 1999 his death was reported after he had made his lawyer promise not to tell his family or the press of his illness. Apparently his final words were, "I’ll finally get to see Marilyn."
At his funeral his brother Dom stated that Joe had everything in his life except the right woman to share it with. This was thought to be a slur on Marilyn Monroe, of whom the family disapproved.
Along with being mentioned in Simon and Garfunkel’s song he has been sung about in the lyrics of several singers including, Madonna, Billy Joel, Jennifer Lopez, and Tori Amos.
On April 25, 1999 the West Side Highway in Manhattan was officially renamed "Joe DiMaggio Highway."
YUDDY
