Some Notes on Marilyn Monroe
Do you remember Marilyn’s white dress? In the film, The Seven Year Itch, the white dress appears in the sequence in which Marilyn Monroe and co-star Tom Ewell exit the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater, then located at 586 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, having just watched the 1954 horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon.When they hear a subway train passing below the grate in the sidewalk, Monroe’s character steps onto the grate saying “Ooo, do you feel the breeze from the subway?”, as the wind blows the dress up exposing her legs. Originally the scene had been scheduled to shoot on the street outside the Trans-Lux at 1:00 am on 15 September 1954. However, the presence of the actress and the movie cameras caught the curiosity of hundreds of fans, so the director Billy Wilder was forced to re-shoot the moment on a set at 20th Century Fox. The depiction of Monroe over the grate has been described as one of the iconic images of the entire 20th century.
It has been conjectured that Playboy was a pioneer in starting an American “breast fetish” which has exaggerated the importance of large breasts, in which both Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe, featured in the early issues of the magazine, played significant roles. Playboy’ pictorials of Mansfield and Monroe were part of the emerging trend that gave birth to the large-breasted feminine ideal and men’s magazines like Rogue, Nugget and Dude.
In 1956, Marilyn started her own motion picture company, Marilyn Monroe Productions. The company produced Bus Stop and The Prince and the Showgirl (co-starring Sir Laurence Olivier). These two films allowed her to demonstrate her talent and versatility as an actress. She received further recognition in 1959 when she scored the biggest hit of her career starring alongside Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder’s comedy Some Like It Hot. After shooting finished, Wilder publicly blasted Monroe for her difficult on-set behavior. Soon, however, Wilder’s attitude softened, and he hailed her as a great comedienne. Some Like It Hot is consistently rated as one of the best films ever made. Monroe’s performance earned her a Golden Globe for best actress in musical or comedy.
After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with Twentieth Century-Fox. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950), drew attention. By 1952, she had her first leading role in Don’t Bother to Knock and 1953 brought a lead in Niagara, a melodramatic film noir that dwelt on her seductiveness. Her “dumb blonde” persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1954) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). |
