Monday, May 08, 2006

Joltin' Joe and Marilyn

Thinking of Lefty O'Doul a few weeks ago started me reflecting on Joe DiMaggio, another Bay Area ball player of greater renown. A question nagged at me, a half forgotten bit of trivia: was O'Doul one of the few witnesses to joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe's wedding i1954 at San Francisco city hall? The answer is yes, and in researching this I came across Art Hoppe's description of the event.

Art Hoppe was one of the most insightful and incisive satirical columnists of the late 20th century, and even his straight news reporting of one of pop culture's greatest mythic moments bears his unmistakable style, evident from the lead sentence: "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio wedded the girl of his and many other men's dreams yesterday afternoon in the San Francisco City Hall."

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