The Press: Un-100% American

"Your article on Marilyn Monroe," read the letter to Columnist Al Ricketts of the Pacific Stars and Stripes in Tokyo, "was just plain lousy, unfair, unjust, un-100% red-blooded American, and nuts to you." The reader's gorge had risen over an unchivalrous evaluation of the film actress in Ricketts' column "On the Town": "There are gals in Hollywood who have more sex appeal in their eyelashes than Marilyn can cram into a gownless evening strap. They can also deliver dialogue without sounding like their mouths are full of Purina."

The gorge of Al Ricketts' readers is forever rising. Of the Pacific Stars and...