Prince, the Showgirl and Me

In 1956, fresh from Eton, Oxford University and the RAF, the 23-yerar-old Colin Clark - with the help of his father, Kenneth - got his first job working as a humble "gofer" on the film of "The Prince and the Showgirl". From his lowly, but in some ways privileged position, Colin Clark was to see it all first hand. Monroe's self-confidence was continually undermined by her chronic inability to learn even the simplest lines (one scene had to be shot 29 times), and Olivier's increasing exasperation with his co-star's waywardness and indiscipline was to result in his giving perhaps the least satisfactory performance of his own career. Additional complications were Monroe's total reliance on her American acting coach, who would painstakingly explain her "motivation" for each scene; the presence of her new husband, Arthur Miller; and the offstage activities of Olivier's wife, Vivien Leigh, who had created Monroe's role on stage but had been passed over for the film. Every night, after a physically and emotionally draining 12 hours or more on the set at Pinewood, Colin Clark would retire to his digs and record the days events in his diary.