Marilynn’s parents were involved in music and film in Hollywood, Ca., as early as 1925, shortly after Marilynn’s birth in Chicago. In 1930, the family of three is found at an apartment complex on West 49th St. in Manhattan, NY. But a later Census record from that year places Marilynn with her mother at the Bard’s Commodore Apartments on Cherokee Avenue in Los Angeles. Her mother Addie was acting in several low budget comedy films under contract with the Stern Brothers, distributed by Universal. In that same year, her mother met the famous silent movie era comedian, Fatty Arbuckle, who was directing her in a a film, Up the Tree. Addie and Fatty married in 1932.

By 1940, when she was 16, Marilynn was back in Chicago, as a boarder with the Harry and Viola Pote family.

Robert and Marilynn lived in Canoga Park and settled in Winnetka, Ca.