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Adele Morales Mailer

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Artist

The Resume

    (June 12, 1925-November 22, 2015)
    Born in Brooklyn, New York
    Birth name was Adele Carolyn Morales
    Hispanic-American painter, actress, dancer, and writer
    Best known as the second wife of author-playwright, Norman Mailer (m. 1954 - 1962)
    Painted abstract expressionist style pieces
    Later made box assemblages reminiscent of Joseph Cornell's works
    Acted in the off-Broadway production of Mailer’s 'The Deer Park' (1967), and the film, 'Maidstone' (1970)
    Penned her personal memoir of their marriage, 'The Last Party' (1997)

Why she might be annoying:

    She was a Frederick's of Hollywood junkie.
    She moved in with Norman Mailer, and then cheated on him.
    Their relationship (and later marriage) was marred by heavy drinking on both sides.
    She regularly called Mailer 'a monster,' after his death.
    Feminists identify her as the source of the often misogynistic content in her husband's books.
    She initially turned Mailer down when he asked her out over the phone, but was convinced to change her mind after he recited an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote.
    She was obsessed with Bizet's Carmen opera, often making appearances in extravagant 'gypsy-like' outfits.
    She was known for taunting her husband at parties, in some cases taking shots at his manhood and previous mistresses.
    Their most infamous (and violent) confrontation precipitated after she flippantly remarked that he was 'not as good as Dostoevsky,' which evidently touched a nerve; he tried to kill her with a penknife (1960).
    She wrote, 'I decided I was going to be that beautiful temptress who ate men alive, flossed her teeth and spit out the bones.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was of Spanish-Peruvian descent.
    She was a native of Bensonhurst (better known as 'Little Italy').
    She had an affair with Jack Kerouac.
    She studied painting with abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann.
    Her father was a semipro lightweight boxer who sparked her husband's interest in the sport.
    James Baldwin was entranced by her small walk-on role in 'Pirates of Provincetown.'
    Her husband cheated on her as much as, if not more than, she did him.
    She had to put up with Norman Mailer's drunken antics and wild partying; bailing him out of jail at least once.
    The penknife her husband stabbed her with cut through her breast, nearly puncturing her heart. He proceeded to stab her in the back.
    A party attendee who saw the stabbing attempted to come to her aid as she lay on the floor, but Mailer allegedly said 'get away from her. Let the bitch die!'
    She initially covered for him to the police, claiming to have tripped and fallen on a shard of glass. She chose not to press charges when he was involuntarily committed, enabling him to attain a suspended sentence.
    She died in virtual poverty, living out of a ratty and ill-furnished Manhattan tenement (her ex-husband had slowed in paying alimony years prior to 2007).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 76.92% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying