MARILYN MONROE AND THE CAMERA

Marilyn Monroe And The Camera
1. MARILYN MONROE AND THE CAMERA Even before Norma Jeane Baker changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, she began her passionate and enduring love affair with the camera. In the summer of 1945, while employed in an aircraft factory, she was selected to model for photographs to promote the war effort. The rest, as they say, is history. Her unparalleled relationship with the camera was one in which each partner was equally enamored with the other, and it lasted nearly twenty years. The full dimensions of that affair are superbly captured here for the first time. An unsurpassed photographic chronicle, Marilyn Monroe and the Camera brings together the most beautiful and unusual Marilyn Monroe photographs available – the early assignments for advertising and pinups, the film and publicity stills, the classic portraits by such notable photographers as Richard Avedon, Philippe Halsman, Cecil Beaton, and Bert Stern, the papa ra zz i shots from the hordes of photo- graphers who followed her every move. These entrancing images provide a lavish and extraordinary tribute to the life of America’s legendary movie star. In addition, an interview with Marilyn, conducted in 1960 by the French writer Georges Belmont and never before published in English, provides a fascinating view of the real woman behind the glamorous facade. She describes her lonely childhood, her climb to the top, and the daily workings of her everyday life in a charming, natural, and unguarded manner. Jane Russell, who costarred with her in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, enhances the portrait with an affectionate foreword offering a revealing glimpse of what it was like working on a set with Marilyn. A biography and filmography are included to make this one of the most complete illustrated books available. 48 color,104 duotone illus t rat ions
2. Marilyn Monroe at Malibu Beach photographed by André de Dienes, 1945.
3. Marilyn Monroe and the Camera With a Foreword by Jane Russell and an Interview by Georges Belmont Schirmer Art Books
4. Schirmer Art Books is an imprint of Schirmer/Mosel Verlag GmbH, Munich For trade information please contact: Schirmer Art Books, 112 Sydney Road, Muswell Hill, London Nl0 2RN, England or Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, P.O. Box 401723, 80717 Munchen, Germany Fax 089/33 86 95 Copyright 0 1989 by Schirmer/Mosel GmbH Interview copyright 0 1960 by Georges Belmont Foreword copyright 0 1989 by J & J Peoples This work is protected by copyright. All manners of reproduction or of communication of this work or of parts thereof – like in particular reprinting of text or pictures, recitation, performance, and demonstration – are only admissible within the scope of the legal regulations. This applies as well to all other forms of usage, like for example translation, withdrawal of diagrams, cinematographic adaptation or radio or television broadcasting. Contraventions will be prosecuted. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The Georges Belmont interview was originally published in French in the magazine Marie Claire, 1960 Conception by Lothar Schirmer Translations by Paul Kremmel ISBN 3-88814-481-7 A Schirmer/Mosel Production
5. Acnowledgments This book is d edicated to the me mory of Ma ril yn Monroe. Many people a nd fr iends have contr ibu ted to making this project possible. I e spec ial ly wish to thank Maria Hönigschmied, Carol Jud y Lesl ie, Susanne Por sche, Hanna Schygulla, Cind y Sherman, a nd Bert Ster n, who have all helped in the ir own ways to br ing the idea behind this book to fulfillment. For help in the acquisition of the pictures as well as for contributions, hints and helpful support, I wish to thank Sid Avery, Susann Babst, Kather ine Bang, Geo rges Belmont, Susan Bernard, Chr istiane Bötzl, Dieter Bold t, Jean-Pierre Boscq, Leo Calo ia, Debra Cohen, Simon Crocker, Lydia Cullen, Nancy D’Antonio, Henri Dauman, Nancy M. Davis, Shirley de Dienes, Nora and Ale x Ester, Jack ie Fixot, John Florea, Ale xander Haas, Yvonne Halsman, François Hébel, El isabeth Heid t, Stevie Holland, Ken Johnston, Tom Kell ey, Jr., David Kent, Margot Kl ingspor n, Jo hn Kobal, H il a neh von Ko r ies, Ned Le avitt, Re nate Lust, Anne de Margerie, Michael Ochs, Onur Olgun, Randall Riese, Nicole Rudschinat, Uschi Sandvoss, Peter Schnug, Ina Seibold, David Seidner, Marcia Terrones, Johanna Thorman, Peter Tomlinson, Annemarie Weber, Ray Whelam, Bob Willoughby, Sue Wookey. Finally I should like to warmly thank all the contributing photographers and Miss Jane Russell for generously contr ibuting a l ively fore word to the book. Munich, Autumn 1989 Lothar Schirmer
6. Contents Foreword by Jane Russell 9 The Photographers 11 Marilyn’s Interview with Georges Belmont 13 Plates 23 Biography 237 Filmography 243 Selected Bibliography 245 Photography Credits 247
7. Foreword The first time I met Marilyn she was dancing with her first husband, Jim Dougherty, a past schoolmate of mine. He was in uniform and called out to me,”Hey, outlaw ! I want you to see my wife, Norma Jeane.” I looked up from the table and saw a little thing with ash-brown hair and a very sweet smile. We waved hi. She was curled literally over his arm. A year or so later I was riding with the director Nick Ray on the RKO lot when we passed a girl wearing very “stressed” blue jeans and a man’s shirt tied under her bosom and showing quite a lot of midriff. Nick stopped the car and said,”I’dlike you to meet this kid.... She’s having a tough time on her picture with the lady star, who is being very sarcastic to her.” As she walked alongside, he called,”Marilyn, I want you two to meet. Jane, this is Marilyn Monroe.” Her hair was blonder now – tousled, but definitely blonder. Nick was very concerned, caring, protective. I believe that the outstanding quality that made Marilyn different from other so-called sex symbols was her ... vulnerability. Everyone wanted to take care of her, to help. She brought out protective ness in all but the insensitive, or those who, of course, simply wanted a more sophisticated adult world whe re everyone was responsible to himself, a world of caustic humor, a take-as-much-as-you-give world. I was acc ustomed to that world, but Ma rilyn could get ter ribly hurt. She simply could not understand peo ple being mean. She was super sensitive – and with good reason, considering her rudderless past and unsure future. Marilyn had a neve r-ending thirst for knowledge and self-improvement. She lo ved poetry and music and was instinctively drawn to culture, to all the arts, but mo ney and power were not to be gained by coercion; especially not when applied to Marilyn. She would flit off like a butterfly. I reme mber her saying, “If they aren’t going to be fair and nice, I can always leave. I can get by on very little. Af ter all, I’ve done it be- fore.”When we started making Gentlemen Prefer Blondes she was in her ve ry first “s tar” dressing room, even though she had already starred in a picture. She was determined that her bosses at Fox were going to take her seriously. She worked night and day rehearsing the dance numbers, or she’d shoot the film all day and then go over the script with her coach at night. I’d go home exhausted and ready to relax, but Marilyn worked on into the night. The next day she would arrive a good ho ur before I did. She was always ready but could not make he rself ge t out on the set. She puttered, see mingly frozen there. It got a little tense on the set for a couple of days – you just didn’t keep Howard Hawks waiting without getting the steely blue eye ! Whitey, her makeup man, confided to us in my dressing room that he felt that she was afraid to go out on the set– to face the “tiger,” as it were. So, from then on, I would stop by her dressing room and say, “Come on, Blondel, it’s five of. Let’s go get ‘em !” Marilyn would look up and in her little-girl whisper say, “Oh ... O.K.,” and we’d trot out together. We all found her very cooperative, sweet, and humorous, and when the camera rolled she glowed. Physi- cally, she seemed to have no bones ... she curved every which way ... undulating flesh ... and yet, the inno- cence of a child was ever present. If you raised your voice at her or were too harsh, she’d cry– you knew that.Still photographers are the gentlest of creatures. They coax the very best out of their subjects. They have to, or they’d lose you ... and our girl Marilyn responded to them like a flower opening to the sun – as you can see in the following pages. –Jane Russell
8. The Photographers Eve Arnold Richard Avedon Baron Cecil Beaton Bruno Bernard Leo Caloia Carone William Carroll Henri Cartier-Bresson Ed Clark Henri Dauman André de Dienes Alfred Eisenstaedt John Engstead Elliott Erwitt jack Esten J. R. Eyerman Ed Feingersh John Florey Milton H. Greene Ernst Haas Philippe Halsman Bob Henriques Tom Kelley Gene Kornman Madison Lacy Frank Maestro Leonard McCombe Richard C. Miller Earl Moran Frank Powolny Bert Reisfeld Willy Rizzo Slade Steinberg Bert Stern Weegee Bob Willoughby
9. Marilyn‘s Interview with Georges Belmont Rupert Allan, who took care of Marilyn Monroe ‘s insisted. So I briefly explained the situation: “I publicity, arranged the famous 1960 interview Marilyn never lived with them.” That was the truth, and gave Georges Belmont, who was then the editor of the I still don’t see what was so unusual about it. French magazine Marie Claire. The interview took place while Let’s Make Love was being shot, a film But then he called Louella Parsons and told her which of course received everybody’s attention in France the whole story, and it all appeared in Louella’s because of costar Yves Montand. Georges Belmont soon column. That’s the way it all began. Since then managed to gain Marilyn’s confidence by promising to so many lies have been spread around.... My give her a transcript of the interview and to keep strictly goodness, why shouldn’t I simply tell the truth to her actual words when using the text. All those who heard the interview later realized to their surprise that now? they had never heard Marilyn talk about herself so naturally. Georges Belmont describes the atmosphere: “I GB: What are your earliest childhood memories? just let her go ahead and speak. The only pressure I exerted was silence. When she was silent, I didn’t say MM: [long silence] My earliest memories? ... It’s anything either, and when she couldn’t stand it any longer the memory of a struggle for survival. I was still and then continued talking she usually said something very important, something very moving.” In view of the very small – a baby in a little bed, yes, and I photographs in this book, which record Marilyn’s career was struggling for life. But I’d rather not talk in all its glamour and glory virtually from the very first to about it, if it’s all the same to you. It’s a cruel the very last photo, we think it necessary and right that story, and it’s no one’s business but my own, Marilyn herself has a chance to speak in this book. as I said. Anyway, as far back as I can remember, I can see myself in a baby carriage, in a long white MM: I’d much rather answer questions. I dress, on the sidewalk of a house where I lived simply can’t tell the whole story, that’s with a family that wasn’t my own. terrible.... Where to begin? How? There are so It’s true that I was illegitimate. But many twists and turns. everything that’s been said about my father – or my fathers – is wrong. My mother’s first GB: Still, it began somewhere. Your childhood? husband was named Baker. Her second was Mortensen. But she’d been divorced from both MM: Well, that ... no one knew anything about of them by the time I was born. Some people it, except through pure coincidence. For a long say my father was Norwegian, probably time my past, my life, remained completely because of the name Mortensen, and that he unknown. I never spoke about it. No particular was killed in a motorcycle accident right after reason, but simply because I felt it was my my birth. I don’t know if that’s true, because affair and not something for other people. Then he wasn’t related to me. As far as my real one day a Mr. Lester Cowan wanted to put me father is concerned, I wish you wouldn’t ask ... in a film with Groucho Marx, called Love Happy. but there are a couple of things that could At that time I was under contract to Fox and clear up some of the confusion. When I was very young, I was always told that my father Columbia, although they wanted to drop me.... was killed in a car crash in New York before I He offered me a small part, this Mr. Cowan; was born. Strangely enough, on my birth but he was interested in putting me under certificate under father’s profession there’s the contract. So he called. I was still very young, word “baker,” which was the name of my and he said he wanted to speak to my father mother’s first husband. When I and mother. I told him, “Impossible.”“Why?” he
10. was born – illegitimate, as I said – my mother they never should have – with a leather strap. had to give me a name. She was just trying to That finally came out, and so I was taken away think quickly, I guess, and said “Baker.” Pure and given to an English couple in Hollywood. coincidence, and They were actors, or I guess I should say extras, then the official’s confusion.... At least, I with a twenty-year-old daughter who was the think that’s the way it was. spitting image of Madeleine Carroll. Life with them was pretty casual and tumultuous. That Anyway, my name was Norma Jeane Baker. It was quite a change from the first family, where was in all my school records. Everything else we weren’t allowed to talk about movies and that’s been said is crazy. actors or dance or sing, except maybe for psalms. GB: Your mother . I read somewhere that to you she was just “the woman with the red hair”? My new “parents” worked hard, when they worked, and they enjoyed life the rest of the time. They liked to dance and sing, they drank MM: I never lived with my mother. That’s the and played cards, and they had a lot of truth, no matter what some people have said. As friends. Because of that religious upbringing far back as I can remember I always lived with I’d had, I was kind of shocked – I thought they other people. were all going to hell. I spent hours praying for My mother was mentally ill. She’s dead now. them. And both of her parents died in mental I remember something ... after a few months institutions. My mother was also committed. my mother bought a small house where we Sometimes she got out, but she always had to were supposed to live. Not for very long – go back. maybe three months. Then my mother had to Well, you know how it is.... When I was real be committed again. And that was a big little, I’d say to every woman I’d see,”Oh, change. After she left, we moved back to there’s a mommy !” And if I saw a man, I’d say, Hollywood. “Oh, there’s a daddy.” But one morning – I was The English family kept me as long as there only about three –I was taking a bath and I was money – my mother’s money from her said,”Mommy” to the woman who was taking savings and from an insurance policy she had. care of me. And she said, “I’m not your Through them I learned a lot about the mommy. Call me ‘Aunt.’“” But he’s my daddy !” movies. I wasn’t even eight. They used to take I said and I pointed to her husband. “No,” she me to one of the big movie theaters in said, “we’re not your parents. The one who Hollywood, the Egyptian or Grauman’s comes here with the red hair, she’s your Chinese. I used to watch the monkeys in the mother.” It was quite a shock to hear that. But cages outside the Egyptian, all alone, and I since she didn’t come very much, it’s true that tried to fit my feet into the footprints in front of to me she was always “the woman with the red Grau-man’s, and I could never get my feet in hair.” because my shoes were too big.... It’s funny to Anyway, I knew that she existed. Then later think that my footprints are there now, and on, when I was in an orphanage, I had another that other little girls are trying to do the same shock. I could read then, and when I saw the thing I did. word “orphanage” in gold letters on a black They took me there every Saturday and background, they had to drag me in. I Sunday. That was a break for them, I think; screamed, “I’m not an orphan! I have a they worked very hard and they didn’t want to mother!” But then I thought, “I’d better believe be bothered with this child around the house she’s dead.” And later people said,”It is better all the time. It was probably better for me, too. that you forget about your mother.” “But where I’d wait till the movie opened and then for is she?” I asked. “Don’t think about it,” they ten cents I’d get in and sit in the front row. I said. “She’s dead.” watched all kinds of movies there – like And then a little bit later I suddenly heard Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert; I remember from her.... And that’s the way it went for that so well. years. I thought she was dead, and I said so, I’d sit there and watch the movie over and too. But she was alive. So some people accused over. I had to be home before it got dark, hut me of making it up that she was dead because how was I supposed to know when it was I didn’t want to admit where she was. It’s crazy. dark? The folks were good to me: even if I Anyway, I had – let’s see – ten, no, eleven didn’t get anything to eat when I was hungry I families. knew they’d save something for me at home. The first one lived in a small town near Los So I stayed at the movies. Angeles – I was born in Los Angeles. Along with I had favorite stars. Jean Harlow ! I had me they had a little boy they later adopted. I platinum blonde hair and people used to call stayed with them until I was around seven. me “tow-head.” I hated that and I dreamed of They were terribly strict. They didn’t mean any having golden hair .. • until I saw her, so harm – it was their religion. They brought me beautiful and with platinum blonde hair like up harshly, and correctedme in a way I think mine.
11. And Clark Gable. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I say along very well with the matrons. But the it, because in a Freudian sense it’s supposed to be superintendent was very nice. I remember one day very good ... I used to think of him as my father. I’d she called me into her office and said, “You have pretend he was my father – I never pretended anyone very fine skin, but it’s always so shiny. Let me put a was my mother, I don’t know why– but I always little powder on to see if it helps.” I felt honored. pretended he was my father.... Where was I? She had a little dog, a Pekinese, who wasn’t allowed to be around the children because he would bite GB: The English couple. And when the money ran out.. . them. But the dog was very friendly to me and I really loved dogs.... I was really very honored; I MM: Oh, yes. They put me in an orphanage. No, wait mean, I was walking on air. a minute. When the English couple couldn’t keep me Later, I tried to run away with some of the other anymore, I went to stay with some people in North girls. But where to? We couldn’t decide, we hadn’t Hollywood, people from New Orleans. I remember that because they always called it “New Orleeens.” I the slightest idea. We only got as far as the bump in didn’t stay there long, two or three months. I only the front lawn when we were caught. The only thing remember that he was a cameraman and that one I said was, “Please don’t tell the superintendent!”– day he suddenly took me to the orphanage. because she’d made me smile and put powder on I know a lot of people say that the orphanage my nose and let me pet her dog. wasn’t so bad. But I do know that it’s changed in the In the orphanage I began to stutter. The day they meantime. Perhaps it’s not as gloomy.... But of brought me there, after they pulled me in, crying course even the most modern orphanage is still an and screaming, suddenly there I was in the large orphanage – if you know what I mean. dining room with a hundred kids sitting there At night, when the others were sleeping, I’d sit up in eating, at five o’clock, and they were all staring at the window and cry because I’d look over and see the me. So I stopped crying right away. Maybe that’s a RKO studio sign above the roofs in the distance, where reason along with the rest: my mother and the idea my mother had worked as a cutter. When I of being an orphan. Anyway, I stuttered. That was went there to work, years later, in 1951, doing the first time. Later on, in my teens, when I was at Clash by Night, I went up to see if I could see the Van Knight High School, they elected me secretary orphanage. But there were too many tall buildings in of the English class, and every time I had to read the way. the minutes I’d say, “Minutes of the last m-m-m- I once read, I don’t know where, that there were meeting.” It was terrible. That went on for two years, only three or four of us in a room in the orphanage. I guess, until I was fifteen. That’s not true. I slept in a room with twenty-seven Sometimes it even happens to me today if I’m very beds, where you could work your way to the “honor” nervous or excited. Once when I had a small part in bed, if you behaved. And then you could work your- a movie, in a scene whère I was supposed to go up self into the other dormitory, which had only a few the stairs, I forgot what was happening and the beds. I got to the honor bed once. But one morning I assistant director came and yelled at me, and I was was late and was putting on my shoes when the so confused that when I got into the scene I matron said, “Come downstairs!” I tried to tell her I stuttered. Then the director himself came up to me was tying my shoes, but she said,“Back to the and said, “You don’t stutter.” And I said, “That’s twenty-seventh bed.” what you think.” It was painful. And it still is if We’d get up at six in the morning, and we did our work before we went to the public school. We each I speak very fast or have to make a speech. had a bed, a chair, and a locker. Everything had to Terrible ... [ silence ]. be very clean, perfect, because of inspection. For a I stayed about a year and a half in the while I cleaned the dormitory where I slept. Every orphanage. We went to the public school. It’s day you moved the beds and you swept and then you very had to have children from an institution dusted. The bathrooms were easier; there was less like that go to a public school because the dust because of the cement floors. And I worked in other kids point their fingers: “Oh, they’re from the kitchen, washing dishes. There were a hundred the home, they’re from the home.” We were all of us, so I washed a hundred plates and all those ashamed to be from the orphans’ home. spoons and forks.... We didn’t have knives or glasses and we drank out of mugs. But in the kitchen you In school I liked singing and English. I hated could earn money. We made five cents a month. arithmetic. I never had my mind on it, you They took apenny out for Sunday school, so that you know? I was always dreaming in a window. had one penny left at the end of the month if there But I was good at sports. were four Sundays. We’d save that to buy a friend a I was pretty tall. At the orphanage, the first little thing for Christmas. day, I can’t say I was very happy there. I didn’t get
12. they didn’t believe me when I said I was nine anything. years old. They thought I was fourteen. I was I also know that I was very quiet, at least in almost as tall as I am now – five feet six front of adults. They used to call me “the inches. But I was very, very thin until I was mouse.” I didn’t say very much except to other eleven. Then things changed. children, and I had a lot of imagination. The Suddenly, I wasn’t in the orphanage other kids liked to play with me because I anymore. I complained so bitterly to my could think of things. I’d say, “Now we’re going guardian that she got me out. My guardian – to play murder ... or divorce.” And they’d say, Grace McKee. She’d been my mother’s best “How do you think of things like that?” friend. She died eleven years ago. While she I was probably a lot different than the others. was my legal guardian she worked as a film Kids usually refuse to go to bed, but I never editor at Columbia. But she was fired, and she did. Instead, I’d say,”I think I’ll go to bed now.” married a man ten years younger than herself I loved the privacy of my room, my bed. I and he had three children. They were very especially loved to act out every part of the last poor, so they couldn’t care for me. And I think movie I’d seen. You know, standing on my bed, she felt that her responsibility was to her being even taller, I’d act out all the parts, the husband, naturally, and to his kids. men as well as the women, and I’d work out But she was always wonderful to me. what happened before or after. It was Without her, who knows where I would have wonderful.... So was acting in school plays. landed! I could have been put in a state Once I played the part of a king and once the orphanage and kept there till I was eighteen. part of a prince– that’s because I was so tall. My orphanage was private, and Grace used to I had a real happy time while I was growing visit me and take me out. Not as often as they up when I went to live with a woman I called say, but she used to come and take me out “Aunt Anna.” She was Grace McKee’s mother. sometimes and I could put on her lipstick. I She was a lot older, she was sixty, I guess, or was only nine then. She’d take me someplace somewhere around there, but she always to get my hair curled, which was unheard of talked about when she was a girl of twenty. because it wasn’t allowed and because I had There was real contact between us because she straight hair. Things like that meant a great understood me somehow. She knew what it deal to me. was like to be young. And I loved her dearly. I Besides, she was the one who got me out of used to do the dishes in the evening and I’d that orphanage after I complained so much, as always be singing and whistling, and she’d say, I said. Of course that meant a new “family.” I “I never heard a child sing so much.” So I did it remember one where I stayed for just three or during that time. Aunt Anna ... I adored her. four weeks. I remember them because the When I was fifteen, turning sixteen, Grace woman delivered things her husband made. McKee arranged a marriage for me. There’s not She’d take me along and I’d get so carsick! I much to say about it. She and her husband don’t know if they were paid for taking me in. I wanted to move to West Virginia. In Los only know that after them I kept changing Angeles the county paid them twenty dollars a families. Some took me at the end of the school month for me. If I’d gone with them to West year and then they had enough after the Virginia, they wouldn’t have gotten that money, vacation. But maybe that’s what had been and since they couldn’t support me they had to arranged. work out something. In the state of California a Then Los Angeles County took over my girl can marry at sixteen. So I had the choice: support. It was awful. I hated it. Even in the go to a home till I was eighteen or get married. orphanage when I went to school, I tried not to And so I got married. look like an orphan. But now this woman His name was Dougherty. He was twenty-one would come around and say,”Now let’s see, I at that time and worked in a factory. Then the think you need some shoes.” And she would war came and he was going to be drafted, but write it down: one pair of shoes. Then,”And he went into the Merchant Marine, and I stayed does she have a sweater?” Or, “I think the poor with him for a while at Catalina, where he was girl needs two dresses, one for school and one a physical training instructor. Around the end for Sunday.” of the war I went to Las Vegas to divorce him. I Well, the sweaters were ugly, they were made was twenty. He’s a policeman now. of cotton, and the clothes all looked like they During the war I worked in a factory. I was in were made of flour sacks ... terrible. And the what they called the “dope room”– I had to shoes! I’d say,”I don’t want them.” I always paint “dope” on the fabric used in making tried to get clothes from grown-ups that would target planes. The work was very boring and be altered for me. And I wore tennis shoes a life was pretty awful there. The other girls lot. You could get them for ninety-eight cents. would talk about what they’d done the night I must have looked pretty funny then – I was before and what they were going to do the next so tall, as I said, and I ate everything. I know weekend. I worked near where the paint because the families I lived with said they’d sprayers never seen a child who ate everything. I’d eat
13. were – nothing but men. They used to stop Saturday and the place was deserted. I should their work to write me notes. have been suspicious, but I was still awfully The work was so boring I worked very fast just naive. Well, the man led me into an office. We to get it over with. They thought I was doing were alone. He held up a script and said there something wonderful. There was an assembly was a part in it, but he’d have to see. Then he for the whole plant and the president of the told me to read the part and to pull up my plant called my name and gave me a gold dress. It was summer and I was wearing a medal and a twenty-five-dollar war bond bathing suit under my dress. But when he said, for”exemplary willingness,” as he put it. The “Higher,” I got scared and turned red and other girls were furious when I got it and they’d blurted out, “Only if I can keep my hat on!” bump into me and make me spill my can of That was stupid, of course, but I was really dope when I’d go for a refill. Oh my goodness, scared and desperate. I must have looked they made life miserable. ridiculous, standing there holding on to my hat. Finally he got very mad. I was terribly And then one day the Air Force wanted to frightened and ran away. I told the agency take pictures of our factory. I’d just come back about this and they called the studio and other from my vacation when the office called me in. places to try to find this guy, but they didn’t. “Where have you been?” I nearly died and I He must have had a friend or somebody who let said, “But I had permission for a vacation !”– him use his office. which was true. They said, “It’s not that. Do you want to pose for some pictures?” This incident frightened me so much that for a long time I was determined never to become Well, the photographers came and took the an actress, after all. It was a difficult time in my pictures. They wanted to take more, outside the life. I was living in rooms here and there – not factory, but I didn’t want to get in trouble – in hotels, because they cost too much. because I would have missed work – so I said, “You’ll have to get permission.” Which they got, And then, as luck would have it, I was on the so I worked as a model here and there for covers of five magazines in one month, and Fox several days, holding things in my hand, called me up. And so I was waiting on those pushing things around, pulling them ... hard benches with lots of other people, all ages and sizes and everything. There was a long wait The pictures were developed at Eastman until Ben Lyon, the head of casting, came out Kodak and the people there asked who the of his office. He was hardly out when he model was and one of the photographers – pointed at me and said,”Who’s this girl?” I was David Conover – came back and said to wearing a white cotton dress that Aunt Anna–I me,”You should become a model. You’d easily was living with her then for a little while – had earn five dollars an hour.” Five dollars an hour washed and ironed for me. ! I was earning twenty dollars a week for ten hours a day and I had to stand all day on a Everything had come up so suddenly that I concrete floor. Reason enough to give it a try. couldn’t do both – iron the dress and get myself ready– so she said,”I’ll do the dress, you just I started off slowly. The war was over, so I left put on your makeup.” After that long wait, I felt the factory and went to an agency. They took beat, but Lyon was so nice. He said I looked so me on, for ads and calenders – not the one that fresh and young and I don’t know what all. He caused so much trouble; we’ll come to that – even said, “I’ve only discovered one other but others, where I was a brunette, then a person – and that was Jean Harlow.” Imagine redhead, then a blonde. And I really did earn that, my favorite actress! five dollars an hour! They made a Technicolor test the next day, And I was able to pursue one of my dreams. which was unusual because they should have From time to time I took drama lessons, when had the director’s permission. And then Fox I had enough money. They were expensive; I put me under contract – a stock contract for a paid ten dollars an hour. year. I got to know a lot of people, people different But nothing came of it, and I never from those I’d known, both good and bad. understood why. They hired a lot of girls and Sometimes when I was waiting for a bus a car some boys, but they dropped them without ever would stop and the man at the wheel would giving them any chances. After they dropped roll down the window and say, “What are you me, I tried to see Mr. Zanuck, but that was doing here? You should be in pictures.”Then impossible. They always told me he was in Sun he’d ask me to drive home with him. I’d always Valley. I’d come back a week later and they’d say, “No, thank you. I’d rather take the bus.” say, “He’s in Sun Valley, we’re very sorry, he’s But all the same, the idea of the movies kept very busy.” After a while you just give up. And going through my mind. then, when I was hired back, after Asphalt Once, I remember, I did accept an offer from a Jungle, he said to me, “I understand you used man I met like that – an offer to audition in a to be here?” I said,”That’s right.” Well, things moviestudio. He must have been pretty are a lot different now. And he said I had persuasive. Anyhow, I went. It was on a
14. a three-dimensional quality, reminiscent of got even madder. Harlow, which was interesting since Ben Lyon Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t lie. had been saying that. Sometimes I leave things out or I don’t I owe a lot to Ben Lyon. He was the first to believe elaborate, to protect myself or other people – in me. He even gave me my name. One day we who probably don’t even want to be protected – were looking for a stage name for me. I couldn’t but I can never tell a lie. very well take my father’s name, but I wanted at I was very hungry, four weeks behind in my least some- rent, and needed money desperately. I thing that was related, so I said,”I want the name remembered that I’d done some beer ads for `Monroe,”‘ which was my mother’s maiden name. Tom Kelley and his wife, Natalie, and that they And so, since he always said I reminded him of had asked me to pose nude. They told me there Jean Harlow and Marilyn Miller, the great was nothing to it and that I would earn a lot – Broadway musical star, he said, “Well, Marilyn fifty dollars, the amount I needed. Because they goes better with Monroe, so – Marilyn Monroe.” were both very nice to me I called them up and And now I end up being Marilyn Monroe even on asked Tom,”Are you sure they won’t recognize my marriage license! me?” He said, “I promise.” Then I said, “Well, if But to get back to where I was ... I was pretty it’s at night and you don’t have any helpers ... desperate. Fox dropped me and the same thing you know how to put up the lights ... I don’t happened later at Columbia, even though it was want to expose myself to all the people you a little different. They at least put me in a movie have.” He said, “All right, just Natalie and me.” called Ladies of the Chorus. It was really So we did it. I felt shy about it, but they were dreadful. I was supposed to be the daughter of a real delicate, you know, about the whole burlesque dancer some guy from Boston falls in situation. They just spread out some red velvet love with. It was a terrible story and terribly and had me lie down on it. And it was all very badly photographed – everything was awful simple – and drafty! – and I was able to pay the about it. So they dropped me. But you learn from rent and buy myself something to eat. everything. People are funny. They ask you a question saw no way out. It was the worst time for me. I and when you’re honest, they’re shocked. lived in the Hollywood Studio Club and I Someone once asked me, “What do you wear in couldn’t stand it there. It reminded me of the bed? Pajama tops? Bottoms? Or a nightgown?” orphanage. So I said, “Chanel Number Five.” Because it’s I was broke and behind in the rent. In the the truth. You know, I don’t want to say”nude,” Studio Club they’d let you get about a week but ... it’s the truth. behind in the rent and then they’d write you, There came the time when I began to – let’s “You’re the only one who doesn’t support this say, be known, and nobody could imagine what wonderful institution.” When you lived there, I did when I wasn’t shooting, because they you’d get two meals a day–breakfast and dinner– didn’t see me at previews or premieres or and you had a roof over your head. Where else parties. It’s simple. I was going to school. I’d could I have gone? I had no family and I was never finished high school, so I started going to really hungry. UCLA at night, because during the day I had Of course, a lot of people said, “Why don’t you small parts in pictures. I took courses in the go and get a job in a dimestore?” But I don’t history of literature and the history of this know; once I tried to get a job at Thrifty’s and country, and I started to read a lot, stories by because I didn’t have a high school education wonderful writers. they wouldn’t hire me. And it was different, really– being a model, trying to become an It was hard to get to the classes on time actress, and I should go into a dimestore? because I worked in the studio till six-thirty. And since I had to get up early to be ready for There are a lot of stories told about those shooting at nine o’clock, I was tired in the calendar pictures. When the story came out, I’d evening and sometimes I would fall asleep in already done Asphalt Jungle and was rehired at the classroom. But I forced myself to sit up and Fox with a seven-year contract. I still remember listen. And I was really lucky to sit next to a the publicity department calling me on the set Negro boy who was absolutely brilliant. He and asking,”Did you pose for a calendar?” And I worked for the post office – now he’s head of said, “Yes, anything wrong?” Well, they were real the Los Angeles Post Office. anxious and they said, “Don’t say you did, say you didn’t.” I said, “But I did, and I signed the The professor, Mrs. Seay, didn’t know who I release, so I feel I should say so.” They were very was and found it odd that the boys from other unhappy about that. And then the cameraman classes often looked through the window during who was working on the film then got hold of one our class and whispered to one another. One of the calendars and asked me if I’d sign it, and day she asked about me and they said,”She’s a so I said yes, I would. I signed it and wrote “ To movie actress.” And she said, “Well, I’m very ...”and then his name, and I said, “This isn’t my surprised. I thought she was a best angle, you know.” And of course the studio
15. young girl just out of a convent.” That was sometimes feel you’re on the verge of some one of the nicest compliments I ever got. kind of craziness. But it isn’t really craziness. But the people I just talked about– you know, You’re just trying to get the truest part of your- they liked to see me as a starlet: sexy, frivolous, self out, and it’s very hard, you know. There and dumb. are times when you think, “All I have to be is I have a reputation of always being late. Well, true.” But sometimes it doesn’t come so easily. I don’t think I’m late all the time. People just re- And sometimes it’s very easy. member the times I come too late. Besides, I re- I always have this secret feeling that I’m re- ally don’t think I can go as fast as other people. ally a fake or something, a phony. Everyone They get in their cars, they run into each other, feels that way now and then, I guess. My they never stop. I don’t think mankind was in- teacher, Lee Strasberg, at the Actors Studio, tended to be like machines. Besides, it’s a great often asks me, “Why do you feel that way waste of time – you get more done doing it more about yourself? You’re a human being.” I an- sensibly, more leisurely. If I have to get to the swer,”Yes, I am, but I feel like I have to be studio to rush through the hairdo and the more.” “No,” he says, “you have to start with makeup and the clothes, I’m all worn out by yourself. What are you doing?” I said, “Well, I the time I have to do a scene. When we did have to get into the part.” He says, “No, you’re Let’s Make Love, George Cukor thought it would a human being so you start with yourself.” be better to let me come in an hour late, so I’d “With me?” I shouted the first time he said be fresher at the end of the day. I think actors that. “Yes, with you!” in movies work too long hours anyway. I think Lee probably changed my life more I like to have time for the things I do. I think than any other human being. That’s why I love that we’re rushing too much nowadays. That’s to go to the Actors Studio whenever I’m in New why people are nervous and unhappy– with York. their lives and with themselves. How can you My one desire is to do my best, the best that I do anything perfect under such conditions? can from the moment the camera starts until it Perfection takes time. stops. That moment I want to be perfect, as I’d like very much to be a fine actress, a true perfect as I can make it. actress. And I’d like to be happy, but who’s happy? I think trying to be happy is almost as When I worked at the factory, I used to go to difficult as trying to be a good actress. You have the movies on Saturday nights. That was the to work at both of them. only time I could really enjoy myself, really relax, laugh, be myself. If the movie was bad, what a disappoiment ! The whole week I GB: I suppose the portrait of Eleonora Duse on waited to go to the movies and I worked hard the wall is there for some reason. for the money it cost. If I thought that the peo- ple in the movie didn’t do their best or were MM: Yes. I feel a lot for her because of her life sloppy, I was really angry when I left because I and also because of her work. How shall I put it? She never settled for less, in either. didn’t have much money to go on for the next week. So I always feel that I work for those Personally, if I can realize certain things in people who work hard, who go to the box office my work, I come the closest to being happy. and put down their money and want to be en- But it only happens in moments. I’m not just tertained. I always feel I do it for them. I don’t generally happy. If I’m generally anything, I care so much about what the director thinks. I guess I’m generally miserable. I don’t separate used to try to explain this to Mr. Zanuck... . my personal life from my professional one. I find that in working, the more personally I Love and work are the only things that really work the better I am professionally. happen to us. Everything else doesn’t really matter. I think that one without the other isn’t My problem is that I drive myself, but I do so good – you need both. In the factory, though want to be wonderful, you know? I know some I worked so fast because it was boring, I used people may laugh about that, but it’s true. to take pride in doing my work really perfectly, Once in New York my lawyer was telling me as perfectly as I could. about my tax deductions and stuff and having And when I dreamed of love, then that was the patience of an angel with me. I said to him, also something that had to be as perfect as “I don’t want to know about all this. I only possible. want to be wonderful.” But if you say that sort of thing to a lawyer, he thinks you’re crazy. When I married Joe DiMaggio in 1954, he had already retired from baseball, but he was There’s a book by Rainer Maria Rilke that’s a wonderful athlete and had a very sensitive helped me a lot: Letters to a Young Poet. With- nature in many respects. His family were im- out it I’d probably think I was crazy some- migrants and he’d had a very difficult time times. I think that when an artist – forgive me, when he was young. So he understood some- but I do think I’m becoming an artist, even thing about me, and I understood something though some people willlaugh; that’s why I about him, and we based our marriage on this. apologize – when an artist tries to be true, you
16. But just”something” isn’t enough. Our like to soak in the tub, read the New York marriage wasn’t very happy, and it ended Times, and listen to music. Then I’ll get in nine months. dressed in a skirt and a shirt and flat shoes My feelings are as important to me as my and apolo coat and go to the Actors Studio – work. on Tuesdays and Fridays at eleven o’clock. On Probably that’s why I’m so impetuous and other days I go to Lee Strasberg’s private exclusive. classes. I like people, but when it comes to Sometimes I come home for lunch, and I’m friends, I only like a few. And when I love, always free just before and during dinner for I’m so exclusive that I really have only one my husband. There’s always music during idea in my mind. dinner. We both like classical music. Or jazz, if Above all, I want to be treated as a it’s good, but mostly we put it on when we human being. have a party in the evening, and we dance. When I met Arthur Miller the first time, it Arthur often goes back to work after his nap, was on a set, and I was crying. I was playing in and I always find things to do. He has two a picture called As Young As You Feel, and he children from his first marriage, and I try to be and Elia Kazan came over to me. I was crying a good stepmother. And there’s a lot to do in because a friend of mine had died. I was the apartment. I like to cook – not in the city, introduced to Arthur. where it’s too busy, but in the country. I can That was in 1951. Everything was pretty make bread and noodles – you know, roll them bleary for me at that time. Then I didn’t see up and dry them, and prepare a sauce. Those him for about four years. We would are my specialties. Sometimes I invent recipes. correspond, and he sent me a list of books to I love lots of seasonings. I love garlic, but read. I used to think that maybe he might sometimes it’s too much for other people. see me in a movie – there often used to be Now and then the actors from the studio will two pictures playing at a time, and I thought I come over and I’ll give them breakfast or tea, might be in the other movie and he’d see me. and we’ll study while we eat. So my days are So I wanted to do my best. pretty full. But the evenings are always free for I don’t know how to say it, but I was in love my husband. with him from the first moment. After dinner we often go to the theater or to a I’ll never forget that one day he said I should movie, or we have friends in, or we visit friends. act on the stage and how the people standing Often we just stay home, listen to music, talk, around laughed. But he said, “No, I’m very read. Or we go for a walk after dinner in serious.” And the way he said that, I could see Central Park, sometimes; we love to walk. We he was a sensitive human being and treated don’t have a set way of doing things. There are me as a sensitive person, too. It’s difficult to times when I would like to be more organized describe, but it’s the most important thing. than I am, to do certain things at certain times. Since we’ve been married we lead – when I’m But my husband says at least it never gets dull. not in Hollywood – a quiet and happy life in So it’s all right. I’m not bored by things; I’m just New York, and even more so on the weekends bored by people who are bored. in our country house in Connecticut. My I like people, but sometimes I wonder how husband likes to start work very early in the sociable I am. I can easily be alone and it morning. Usually he gets up at six o’clock. doesn’t bother me. I don’t mind it – it’s like a Then he stops and takes a nap later on in the rest, it kind of refreshes my self. I think there day. Our apartment isn’t very large, so I had are two things about human beings – at least, I his study soundproofed. He has to have think there are about me: they want to be alone complete quiet when he works. and they also want to be together. I have a gay I get up about eight-thirty or so, and side to me and also a sad side. That’s a real sometimes when I’m waiting for our breakfast problem. I’m very sensitive to that. That’s why I to be ready– we have an excellent cook – I take love my work. When I’m happy with it, I feel my dog, Hugo, for a walk. But when the cook more sociable. If not, I like to be alone. And in is out, I get up early and fix Arthur’s breakfast my private life, it’s the same way. because I think a man should never have to GB: If I asked you what does it feel like being fix his own meals. I’m very old-fashioned that Marilyn Monroe, at this stage in your life, what way. I also don’t think a man should carry a would you answer? woman’s belongings, like her high-heeled shoes or her purse or whatever. I might hide MM: Well, how does it feel being yourself? something in his pocket, like a comb, but I don’t think anything should be visible. GB: Sometimes I’m content with myself, at After breakfast, I’ll take a bath, to make my other times I’m dissatisfied. days off different from my working days, when I get up at five or six in the morning and take MM: That’s exactly how I feel. And are you a cold shower to wake me up. In New York I happy?
17. GB: I think so. personal life. That’s my one ambition. Maybe I’ll need a long time, because I’m slow. I don’t want to say that MM: Well, I am too, and since I’m only thirty-four and it’s the best method, but it’s the only one I know and have a few years to go yet, I hope to have time to be- it gives me the feeling that in spite of everything life is come better and happier, professionally and in my not without hope. Plates Marilyn Monroe made her media debut as Norma Jeane Mortensen, chosen and discovered by David Conover, photographer for the U. S. Army’s First Film Unit. Conover was assigned by his commanding officer, Ronald Reagan (later president of the United States), to photograph beautiful young women working at jobs vital to the war effort for publicity purposes. On June 26, 1945, in the Radio Plane Corporation, a company owned by Reagan’s friend Reginald Denny that produced radio-controlled target planes, Conover met Norma Jeane, who was working there for twenty dollars a week. He recognized her talent, photographed her, and recommended that she become a profes- sional model. In addition, he introduced her to his photographer friend William Carroll, who took this picture of Norma Jeane in a red sweater and white shorts with suspenders against the background of the blue sky and the Pacific Ocean. Carroll took the photo for an advertising brochure that was meant to demonstrate the quality of a color-processing photo lab.
18. The man who discovered Norma Jeane’s artistic talent was the Hungarian-born photographer André de Dienes. He was looking for a model who would also be willing to pose nude for him. The girl sent to him by the Blue Book Modelling Agency was Norma Jeane. De Dienes was immediately taken by her charm and hired her for $100 a week, plus expenses and props. The first pictures by André de Dienes show Norma Jeane as a little devil in a schoolgirl skirt on the beach, 1945.
19. A picture full of symbolism, also by André de Dienes, on his first extended photo expedition with Norma Jeane in the summer of 1945. With the words: “Sit on the highway, it represents life. You have a long way to go,” André de Dienes inspired this pose by Norma Jeane.
20. The photographer Leo Caloia made this movie still in 1946 at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood. Radio KFI in Los Angeles was hosting a talk show on photo-artistic techniques. On the stage were seven models, including Norma Jeane. In the picture, Norma Jeane’s extraordinarily photogenic qualities can be detected. It is evident how effectively light enhances the features of her face.
21. André de Dienes’s portrait of Norma Jeane with her hair up and wearing a mohair jacket recalls the style of family photos in the forties, and also gives a hint of the feelings the photographer was soon to feel for his model.
22. For this advertisement photographed by Richard C. Miller in 1946, Norma Jeane posed in her own wedding dress from her first marriage to Jim Dougherty and with the prayer book of the photographer’s wife.
23. Another photographer who could lay claim to having discovered Norma Jeane was the German-born Hollywood photographer Bruno Bernard, who was famous in the forties and fifties as “Bernard of Hollywood.” He met Norma Jeane one late September day in 1945 on the street and arranged a sitting with her. This picture from 1946 already shows all the qualities of a classic pinup. One photo from the series soon appeared on the cover of the magazine Laff and helped Norma Jeane to get her first screen test at 20th Century-Fox, where she was given her first film contract.
24. A sitting with Bruno Bernard in 1949 at the Racquet Club in Palm Springs had far-reaching consequences for Norma Jeane, who now called herself Marilyn and who already had a limited 20th Century-Fox film contract. On this occasion she met Johnny Hyde, who ran the office of the famous William Morris Agency on the West Coast, and who was to become her friend and mentor. The picture shows Marilyn in a two-piece bathing suit and sandals with high cork heels, so typical for the time, on the diving board at the club.
25. Fashion photograph by John Engstead, about 1947.
26. Ladies of the Chorus (1948) was the first film in which Marilyn was allowed to talk, sing, and dance. On this occasion she met Natasha Lytess, who would personally manage her until the completion of The Seven Year Itch in 1955. These two publicity shots from the film show Marilyn as the chorus girl Peggy Martin. Her appearance already hints at her star quality, and she sang two songs in the film about which Tibor Krekes commented in Motion Picture Herald: “One of the bright spots is Miss Monroe’s singing. She is pretty and, with her pleasing voice and style, she shows promise.”
27. Publicity shot in 1948 for United Artists, which signed her up for the film Love Happy.
28. Still photo from Love Happy with Groucho Marx, the first famous film personality with whom Marilyn appeared on the screen. He was looking for a “young lady who can walk by me in such a manner as to arouse my elderly libido and cause smoke to issue from my ears.” Marilyn got the role.
29. Still photo from Love Happy. While the detective Grunion (Groucho Marx) is trying to track down some missing diamonds, he is asked for help by a voluptuous blonde (Marilyn Monroe) because men keep following her. To which Groucho replies: “Really? I can’t understand why.”
30. Marilyn posing for Life in a costume from Love Happy. Photograph by J. R. Eyerman, 1948.
31. During the time of the shooting for Love Happy, these pictures were taken by the artist and illustrator Earl Moran. Marilyn posed regularly for him for several years, starting in 1946. The photos served as the basis for his pinup drawings.
32. In May 1949 this famous photograph was taken by the Hollywood photographer Tom Kelley in his studio. It was to cause a scandal when it was revealed almost three years later in March 1952, that Marilyn Monroe, the young star of the future, had posed in the nude for this photograph, which had since been published in a pinup calender. The scandal reached Marilyn while Don’t Bother to Knock was being shot. When Marilyn stood uo to the situation and admitted to the photograph, the public was immediately on her side.On April 7, 1952, probably as a direct effect of the calendar scandal, she appeared for the first time on the front cover of Life magazine.
33. In 1949 Marilyn was asked to take part in a promotion tour for Love Happy. The tour took her through several cities, including New York, where she stayed at the Sherry Netherlands Hotel. There she arranged a sitting with André de Dienes, who was also staying on the East Coast. That resulted in some of the most beautiful pictures ever taken of Marilyn. These and the following picture were shot at Tobey Beach, Long Island. The pink and the white swimsuits, as well as the dotted and colored umbrellas, were purchased for Marilyn by André de Dienes.
34. A beaming Marilyn, sitting cross-legged on Tobey Beach.
35. When this photo by Philippe Halsman appeared in Life on October 10, 1949, in which Marilyn looks as if she were a queen surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, it carried the caption: “Seven Hollywood starlets and an ex-model sit for a tranquil group portrait before turning on their emotions full blast for an acting test.” The picture-story by Philippe Halsman documented the talent of the up-and-coming actress. In the picture, from left to right are (top row) Lois Maxwell, Suzanne Dalbert, Ricky Soma; (middle) Laurette Luez, Jane Nigh, Dolores Gardner; (front row) Marilyn Monroe and Cathy Downs. Philippe Halsman on Marilyn: “She stood out in my memory because she wasted more time in front of the mirror than the others. She could spend hours adding a little lipstick, removing a little mascara, and exasperating the people waiting for her.”
36. Publicity still for The Asphalt Jungle, 1950, probably photographed by Frank Powolny. The Asphalt Jungle, directed by John Huston, piqued the curiosity of a broad public about Marilyn Monroe. Her role as the young lover of an aging gangster gave rise to a question that spread like wildfire: “Who’s the blonde?”
37. Publicity shot by Frank Powolny, 1950. in a dress for All About Eve. In this Oscar-winning film, starring Bette I )avis, Anne Baxter, and George Sanders, Johnny Hyde had managed to get Marilyn a small role. The critics were very impressed with her performance. Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century-Fox, and certainly no great fan of Marilyn’s, gave her another contract as a result.
38. Photograph by Ed Clark for Life. After her small roles in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Etc. the press begins to celebrate Marilyn’s erotic aura.
39. Publicity still in a costume from The Asphalt Jungle.
40. Publicity still for the film Hometown Story, 1951.
41. Besides her films, an almost endless number of pinup photographs for publicity purposes were taken of Marilyn. They built on her image as a glamour girl.
42. The accessories were always the same: high-heeled shoes, T-shirts or bathing suits, and, in this case, even a potato sack. These are two publicity stills from about 1952.
43. Marilyn’s hairstyle in 1952 is youthful and modern. She plays with Barbara Stanwyck in Fritz Lang’s Clash by Night. Irene Thirer writes in the New York Post: “That gorgeous example of bathing beauty art, Marilyn Monroe, is a real acting threat to the season’s screen blondes.”
44. In the film We’re Not Married Marilyn appears as Annabel Norris, the winner of a beauty contest for Mrs. Mississippi. When the truth comes out that she is not legally married to her husband, Jeff (David Wayne), she then takes part in the Miss Mississippi contest and wins it. The comedy concludes with a second, this time legal, marriage.
45. Publicity still from 1952. This shows Marilyn at the provisional end of the bikini era in a luxurious nightgown.
46. Publicity still for Don’t Bother to Knock, Marilyn’s sixteenth film. In this film she had her first dramatic leading role, that of a psychotic baby-sitter, costarring with Richard Widmark. The role was particularly difficult for her, having up to that time played only sexy blondes. The reaction of the critics was mixed.
47. Marilyn as a vamp. Publicity still by Frank Powolny, 1953.
48. Marilyn arriving at a film premiere in Hollywood. Unknown photographer, about 1952.
49. Color portrait as a vamp in a fluffy fur stole, about 1952.
50. Publicity shot by Frank Powolny, 1952.
51. Of all the Marilyn photographs, it was this portrait by Frank Powolny that immortalized her. Andy Warhol chose this picture as the basis for his famous silk-screen series. One version of this print on a red back- ground (in a relatively small format, 101 x 101 cm, on canvas) was recently sold at a New York auction for the astronomical sum of $3.8 million.
52. Through Philippe Halsman’s famous series of 1952, Marilyn Monroe made it to the cover of Life for the first time. Photographing the twenty-six-year-old Marilyn with half-closed eyes and slightly parted lips, Halsman made her into a sex goddess. He described the situation: “Finally I asked her to stand in the corner of the room. I was facing her with my camera, the Life reporter and assistant at my side. Marilyn was cornered and she flirted with all three of us, and the photograph eventually made the cover of Life. The cover gave her the status of a star....” The pictures on the left are contact prints of the series.
53. Glamour photo in a lace negligee by Bernard of Hollywood, 1952. Marilyn in a negligee, eyes closed, in her apartment in a suburb of Los Angeles, 1952. Philippe Halsman, traveling for Life at the time, remarked on the furnishings: “What impressed me in its shabby living room was the obvious striving for self-improvement of the alleged dumb blonde. I saw a photograph of Eleonora Duse and a multitude of books which I did not expect there either, such as the works of Dostoyevski, Freud, The History of Fabian Socialism, etc.”
54. Philippe Halsman continued: “On the floor were two barbells.`Are you using them?’ I asked. `Yes,’ she replied. `I’m fighting gravity.”‘ Photograph by Philippe Halsman, 1952.
55. Photograph by Philippe Halsman, 1952, on the same occasion. Halsman: “Later, between two interminable dress changes, she appeared in a semitransparent negligee and I complimented her for not needing a bra. `But, Philippe,’ she explained, `I told you that I was fighting gravity.”‘
56. This photo was also taken in 1952, also for Life, by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
57. Marilyn reading James Joyce’s Ulysses. Photograph by Eve Arnold, about 1952.
58. In 1952 bandleader Ray Anthony composed and arranged a song entitled “Marilyn.” For the presentation of the song at a press conference in Hollywood, Marilyn was flown in by helicopter. Photographs by Bob Willoughby.
59. Marilyn in an ice-cream parlor in Beverly Hills, 1953. Photograph by André de Dienes.
60. The color portrait is from Bernard of Hollywood.
61. Two publicity stills for Niagara, 1953. Rarely in any film has an actress been so beautifully directed and photographed as Marilyn was by director Henry Hathaway and cameramanJoe MacDonald.
62. Marilyn Monroe during the shooting of Niagara; on the left is the actor Dale Robertson. Publicity still for Niagara. The movie, filmed in Technicolor, received glowing reviews. The New York Times wrote: “Obviously ignoring the idea that there are seven wonders of the world, 20th Century-Fox has discovered two more and enhanced them with Technicolor in Niagara, which descended on the Roxy yesterday. For the producers are making full use of both the grandeur of the Falls and its adjacent areas as well as the grandeur that is Marilyn Monroe.”
63. Publicity stills for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the film most people associate Marilyn Monroe with. Although she was paid the mini-stipend of $1500 a week, whereas costar Jane Russell received several times that amount, Marilyn remained self-assured: “It is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and I am the blonde.”
64. Ronald Reagan, who as an army officer unwittingly had advanced Marilyn’s career with his commission to David Conover in 1945, meets the star at a Hollywood banquet. Photograph by Bernard of Hollywood, about 1953.
65. The photographer John Florea took this picture of Marilyn Monroe during the shooting of How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953. It is in the 20th Century-Fox Portrait Gallery.
66. Publicity still for How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953. Photograph by Bert Reisfeld.
67. Marilyn in a particularly seductive pose, taken by John Florea, 1953.
68. During the shooting of How to Marry a Millionaire, 1953.
69. At the premiere of How to Marry a Millionaire, with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, 1953. The film, which followed immediately on the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, considerably advanced Marilyn’s fame as a star. In the ads for the film, Marilynwas listed before Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall.
70. Publicity still for How to Marry a Millionaire.
71. In the spring of 1953 Marilyn Monroe received Photoplay magazine’s plaque for “the fastest rising star of 1952 ” . For the award ceremony she borrowed this spectacular gold lamé gown that designer Bill Trevilla had created for Gentlemen Trefer Blondes and that literally became Marilyn’s own . After the ceremony, for whitch she appared two hours later, her hip-swinging departure was so provocative that pandomonium broke out in the audience.
72. The bride was on time. On January 14, 1954, at one o’clock, Marilyn Monroe, twenty-seven years old, married Joe DiMaggio, thirty-nine, in the San Francisco City Hall. The ceremony, which lasted all of three minutes, was performed by Municipal Court Judge Charles Peery. The Los Angeles Herald Express commented sarcastically on the marriage that shook the nation: “It could only happen here in America, this story-book romance.... Both of them ... had to fight their way to fame and fortune and to each other. One in a birthday suit, as a foundling and later as a calendar girl, the other in a ... baseball suit.” Photographs from UPI.
73. The honeymoon brought Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn to Japan. The crowd of fans greeting her on their arrival at the Tokyo international airport was so huge that the couple had to leave the airplane through the cargo hatch. At this time Marilyn was the most popular foreign film star in Japan. Then, interrupting her visit to Japan, Marilyn flew to Korea, where she performed for the American troops stationed there. For the soldiers she sang songs like “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Somebody Loves Me,” and “Do It Again.” Within four days, she gave ten shows to more than a hundred thousand soldiers who came from all parts of the Korean peninsula. The enthusiasm was mutual. Marilyn said: “This was the best thing that ever happened to me,” and, “I never felt like a star before in my heart.”
74. Snapshot taken during the shooting of River of No Return, 1954. Publicity still for River of No Return. Under the direction of Otto Preminger, Marilyn played the bar singer Kay, who starts a new life after many adventures with the widowed Matt Calder (Robert Mitchum) and his ten-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig). It was Marilyn’s first western.
75. Publicity stills for River of No Return, in which Marilyn sang “River of No Return,” “I’m Gonna File My Claim,” “One Silver Dollar,” and “Down in the Meadow.” She herself was very unhappy with the film and blamed it on 20th Century-Fox: “I think I deserve a better deal than a `Z’ cowboy movie in which the acting finishes third to the scenery and cinemascope.”
76. In a limousine during the shooting of River of No Return. Photograph by John Florea, 1954.
77. A happy Marilyn Monroe posed for the British photographer Baron in the summer of 1954.
78. Publicity still from There’s No Business Like Show Business, in homage to the great Irving Berlin. Marilyn accepted the rather weak script on the promise of being able to star in the filming of the Broadway comedy The Seven Year Itch. The film turned out to be somewhat of a flop and Marilyn became determined to accept only artistically demanding material.
79. Marilyn Monroe “getting good and ready” for her performance in There’s No Business Like Show Business (above). In this film Marilyn sang three songs, “After You Get What You Want, You Don’t Want It,” “Heat Wave,” and “Lazy.”
80. Film still from How to Marry a Millionaire.
81. Arrival at Idlewild (later John F. Kennedy) Airport, for the shooting of The Seven Year Itch. The puckered lips were for the photographer Weegee, the craftiest of all New York’s fleet-footed reporters. Photograph by Weegee, 1955.
82. The shooting of The Seven Year Itch took place in New York. The location was a brownstone on East Sixty-first Street in Manhattan. During the breaks, Marilyn laughed and waved to her numerous fans assembled in front of the house.
83. An ever-increasing number of photographers followed the shooting of The Seven Year Itch. These two shots of Marilyn Monroe, taken during a break, are by Elliott Erwitt (right) and Bob Henriques (left), two photographers from the famous picture agency Magnum.
84. Surely the most famous scenes from The Seven Year Itch, photographs of which went around the world like wildfire, show Marilyn on a subway grate with her skirt flying up. More than four thousand fans, including many reporters, arrived on location (Lexington Avenue and Fifty-second Street), in the early-morning hours of September 15, 1954, to witness the spectacle. Billy Wilder repeated the scene, which gave the film international publicity, more than fifteen times before he was satisfied. Bruno Bernard was among the photographers and is responsible for these two extraordinary classics of all the Marilyn photos.
85. During the shooting of The Seven Year Itch, rumors about a marriage crisis began to intensify. On October 6, 1954, Marilyn, accompanied by her lawyer, Jerry Geisler, appeared before the reporters who had gathered in front of Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio’s house in Beverly Hills. Geisler announced that a suit for divorce had been filed. Marilyn herself was silent, but she sobbed and burst into tears before they all drove away. Geisler remarked: “She had nothing to say except that her application for a divorce is based on a matter of conflicting careers.” A witness described the scene and Marilyn’s appearance as “worthy of an Oscar.” Again, it is Bruno Bernard (right) who captured the climax of the scene in a memorable photo. Picture above is from UPI. One day later Marilyn was back on location for The Seven Year Itch, in pink pajamas, shooting one of the funniest scenes in the movie. This movie was the biggest box-office hit of 1955.
86. After the divorce Marilyn left Hollywood and moved back to New York accompanied by the photographer Milton H. Greene, who now looked after her personally and professionally. Commissioned by Greene, the photographer Ed Feingersh took several pictures of Marilyn in the summer of 1954. This photograph shows a pensive Marilyn on the balcony of her hotel room.
87. Marilyn in a pose that could illustrate one of her oldest bons mots: when asked by a journalist what she wore in bed, she answered, “Chanel Number Five.” Photograph by Ed Feingersh, 1955.
88. On March 9, 1955, Marilyn Monroe took the part of an usherette at the Astor Theater, New York, for the charity premiere of the film East of Eden, directed by Elia Kazan for Warner Bros. James Dean, the star of the film, died six months later.
89. The proceeds of the benefit went to the Actors Studio. Marilyn devotedly posed for the crowd of photographers. Picture left is by Frank Maestro of UPI.
90. On March 31, 1955, Marilyn rode a Barnum & Bailey elephant, painted pink, as part of the great Mike Todd Memorial, a benefit performance for victims of arthritis. She was accompanied by the enthusiastic applause of the more than 25,000 spectators. Photographs by Carone for Paris Match.
91. On March 31, 1955, Marilyn rode a Barnum & Bailey elephant, painted pink, as part of the great Mike Todd Memorial, a benefit performance for victims of arthritis. She was accompanied by the enthusiastic applause of the more than 25,000 spectators. Photographs by Carone for Paris Match.
92. This picture shows a beaming Marilyn surrounded by circus performers on March 31, 1955, in Madison Square Garden, New York. Photograph UPI.
93. Marilyn with friends at Sardi’s restaurant in New York. Photograph by Leonard McCombe for Life, about 1956.
94. The writer Truman Capote dancing with Marilyn Monroe at El Morocco, 1955. Whereas Capote’s expression is somewhat strained, Marilyn’s pose appears perfectly relaxed. Photograph UPI.
95. One of the many publicity events that Milton H. Greene arranged for Marilyn during her self-imposed exile from Hollywood was her big appearance on Edward R. Murrow’s television show “Person to Person,” broadcast in April 1955 to more than fifty million viewers in the United States.
96. Marilyn getting into a taxi in New York City. No opportunity seems too trivial for the photo- graphers, and no photographer that Marilyn is not willing to grace with a beaming smile. Photograph about 1955.
97. Marilyn’s move from Hollywood to New York, the phenomenal success of The Seven Year Itch, and the founding of her own production firm, the first project of which was to be a film with Laurence Olivier, all carefully managed by Milton H. Greene, strengthened her position vis-à-vis 20th Century- Fox to such an extent that she was given a contract granting her extensive rights in selecting future film projects. In February 1956 shooting began for the 20th Century-Fox production Bus Stop. Marilyn chose the story herself, as well as the director for it. The publicity stills were taken by Greene. During the shooting a cover story in Time appeared, which spoke of Marilyn’s wish “to be a real actress” and added: “In Bus Stop she has the chance to show what she can do with the first part she has ever played that is any deeper than her makeup.” For many critics, Marilyn’s portrayal of Cherie in Bus Stop was her most significant accomplishment as an actress.
98. Publicity stills for Bus Stop by Milton H. Greene.
99. After the filming of Bus Stop was completed, and one day after her thirtieth birthday, Marilyn and Milton Greene returned to New York from the West Coast.
100. Both the photo at Idlewild Airport and the portrait in the backseat of her limousine show a confident young woman at the pinnacle of her artistic, personal, and financial success. Photographs by UPI.
101. On June 20, 1956, the New York Post ran the story of the imminent marriage between Marilyn and Arthur Miller. The civil ceremony was on June 29, followed by the wedding according to Jewish ritual on July 1, for which Marilyn had converted to Judaism. The marriage of America’s most famous contemporary playwright to the film star was an eruptive publicity event and made headlines around the world. The picture shows Marilyn and Arthur Miller at the turbulent press conference in front of their house in New York, where they officially announced their wedding plans.
102. After the marriage ceremony at the court house in White Plains, New York, Marilyn and Arthur Miller withdraw to Miller’s summer house in Roxbury, Connecticut. Here, too, they pose for the pursuing reporters.
103. On February 22, 1956, Marilyn sat for the photographer Cecil Beaton. The sitting, which Beaton had tried to arrange for three months, took place in the New York Ambassador Hotel. As usual, Marilyn arrived an hour and a quarter late. This photo, which shows Marilyn lying on a bed with a red carnation, was one of her favorites.
104. This picture was also taken at the portrait sitting by Cecil Beaton. Later, in his memoirs, he gave this description of the event: “She romps, she squeals with delight, she leaps on to the sofa. She puts a flower stem in her mouth, puffing on a daisy as though it was a cigarette. It is an artless, impromptu, high-spirited, infectiously gay performance. It will probably end in tears.”
105. In July 1956 Marilyn and Arthur Miller arrived in London for the shooting of The Prince and the Showgirl, a movie already being advertised. The pictures show Marilyn with Laurence Olivier at their joint press conference at the London Savoy Hotel on July 16, 1956. The conference lasted about an hour, in a room crammed with two hundred and fifty journalists. Marilyn easily managed to beguile the most disdainful reporter. Winifred Carr of the Daily Telegraph reported: “I’ve had my eyes well and truly opened about men, after watching a roomful of the most critical, cynical and sophisticated males in town, hard-bitten journalists, act like adolescents. Even those who had come to sneer were hanging on her words like impressionable schoolboys and laughing at her wit before she had completed a sentence.”
106. Stills from The Prince and the Showgirl, taken by Milton H. Greene. Laurence Olivier later described his work with Marilyn: “It can be no news to anyone to say that she was difficult to work with. The work frightened her, and although she had undoubted talent, I think she had a subconscious resistance to the exercise of being an actress. But she was intrigued by the mystique and happy as a child when being photographed; she managed the business of stardom with uncanny, clever, apparent ease.”
107. The Queen and the showgirl. At a Royal Command film performance on October 29, 1956, Marilyn Monroe and other actors were presented to Queen Elizabeth II.
108. A final press conference at which the Millers, Laurence Olivier, and his wife, Vivien Leigh, appeared, was held before the Millers left London. At the time of Marilyn’s death six years later, Sir Laurence commented: “She was the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation. Popular opinion and all that goes to promote it is a horrible, unsteady conveyance for life, and she was exploited beyond anyone’s means.”
109. A farewell kiss for English reporters before boarding the plane on November 20, 1956.
110. Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe leaving Idlewild Airport on their arrival from London. To the very last moment Marilyn gave her attention to the photographers who had come to greet her.
111. Publicity stills for The Prince and the Showgirl, taken by Richard Avedon.
112. For the 1958 Christmas edition of Life, Richard Avedon photographed Marilyn in the typical poses of five famous stars in motion-picture history: Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Lillian Russell, and Jean Harlow. But during this sitting she also posed for him — unmistakably as the picture opposite shows — as Marilyn Monroe.
113. One of photographer Philippe Halsman’s special gags was to ask famous personalities to let him take pictures of them jumping in the air. As some of these photos were about to be published in Life, the editors wanted Marilyn’s jump on the cover.
114. She was therefore asked, this time officially, to appear in the studio. She was, of course, as the photographer noted, exactly three days too late and ten minutes too early, but the sitting produced numerous photos from which the picture from page 191 appeared on the cover of Life. Photographs are from 1959.
115. After a break of two years, Marilyn appeared before the camera as Sugar Kane in the film Some Like It Hot in the summer of 1958. Her partners were Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis; the director, Billy Wilder. This picture, which was taken during the filming, shows Marilyn in an unusual pose as a diva with wind-touseled hair.
116. A still from Some Like It Hot by Richard C. Miller, for whom Marilyn had already posed for photo ads in 1946. During the filming, which had to be interrupted several times, Marilyn was so difficult that Miller asked director Billy Wilder why he put up with Marilyn if she only caused trouble. Wilder’s reply: “It’s like somebody who can play one note on an instrument. They play it perfectly, though they cannot play anything else.” Wilder’s inexhaustible patience paid off; Some Like It Hot was his most successful film. A still from Some Like It Hot.
117. Publicity stills for Bus Stop by Milton H. Greene.
118. Henri Dauman photographed a beaming Marilyn Monroe on her arrival for the premiere of Some Like It Hot in New York on March 29, 1959.
119. A publicity still with Yves Montand for the film Let’s Make Love, 1960. Yves Montand was given the part at the last minute after both Gregory Peck and Rock Hudson had declined. Montand and his wife, Simone Signoret, had already appeared in plays by Arthur Miller. The love affair that obviously unfolded between the two leading actors during the course of the filming evoked this reaction from Simone Signoret: “If Marilyn is in love with my husband, it proves she has good taste.”
120. Publicity stills for Let’s Make Love. The choreographer Jack Cole was responsible for the numerous dance numbers in the film.
121. This impressive portrait of Marilyn lost in herself was taken on the set for Let’s Make Love. Photograph by Bob Willoughby.
122. The filming of The Misfits, with a script by Arthur Miller, began in Nevada in July 1960. Under the direction of John Huston, Marilyn appeared with Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach. The photo agency Magnum bought the exclusive rights for still photos and picture stories on the filming. Every two weeks the agency sent two new photographers to the location to relieve the previous two. The reason was to ensure sufficient variety in reporting and at the same time to reduce the photographers’ disturbance of the filming as much as possible.
123. Film still from The Misfits, with Clark Gable.
124. With Nevada’s magnificent scenery in the background, Marilyn in a flesh-colored bikini emerges like Botticelli’s Venus from the waters of Pyramid Lake. A passionate love scene with Clark Gable follows. Photographs by Eve Arnold.

MARILYN MONROE AND THE CAMERA

O Púbis da Rosa