Marilyn in front of the cameras: How failed filming led to the creation of the famous photo

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Sometimes in history, as in human life, whole years and decades fly by without leaving a deep trace. But some seemingly insignificant moments are engraved in memory very vividly. So, the dress of a beautiful woman, which rose from the warm air of the subway, unexpectedly became one of the most famous shots in the history of world cinema and was reflected in the worldview of an entire generation. True, for the personal life of the film star herself, this moment became fatal, as it led to a divorce from her husband.

Lover dress

The famous costume designer William Travilla became the author of the famous white dress, which was subsequently sold at auction for a record $ 4, 6 million. Even before he started working with Marilyn, he had already earned a name for himself and his first Oscar for Best Costume Design. He worked with the famous movie star for many years and dressed her in eight films. In his memoirs, he claimed that he was her lover during this period. The lines written by the actress have survived:.

Walk-through comedy

The film "The Itch of the Seven Years" by the 20th Century Fox, on the set of which the famous photographs were taken, apart from the photographs of Marilyn Monroe with a swelling dress, did not stand out in the history of cinema. It was a fairly common comedy, an adaptation of George Axelrod's hit Broadway play. The film received a Golden Globe, but for the male role (Marilyn's partner was actor Tom Ewell).

Monroe plays in this film a frivolous actress and model who tries to seduce her neighbor, a book publisher, who has been married for seven years. Surprisingly, according to the script, she does not succeed, and the faithful husband goes to his family. In the famous scene, the main characters walk around New York at night. At the corner of 52nd Street and Lexington Avenue, a girl, hearing an approaching underground train, stands on the bars and speaks. The train passes, the warm wind lifts the dress, exposing the legs.

Unsuccessful shooting or advertising campaign?

Despite the gorgeous photographs, the shooting of the episode itself was so unsuccessful that later the material was even completely re-shot. The fact is that at first they decided to hold them on the street, in the very place of Manhattan, along which the heroes walk according to the script. And at the same time - after twelve. However, it turned out to be a bad idea - despite the late hour, movie cameras and famous actors attracted many onlookers. According to various sources, there were from two to five thousand of them then. The huge crowd whistled and shouted, interfering with the filming.

Marilyn, who at that time was depressed due to an unsuccessful marriage with baseball player Joe DiMaggio, began to get confused and forget the words of her line. Each new take was met with laughter and whistles. As a result of the shooting, it was decided to move to the pavilion, however, there, too, the scene was successful for the actors only on the 40th attempt.

According to film historians, these street shots were part of the film's advertising campaign. A huge crowd, among which there were many representatives of the press, raised the popularity of the tape that had not yet been removed to an unattainable height. The event the next day was described in detail in all media.

Photos from a friend

The author of the famous photographs was a close friend and practically personal photographer of Marilyn Sam Shaw. The actress loved to spend time with his family - his wife Annie and their three children. Sam considered Marilyn a brilliant fashion model and worked with her with great pleasure.

It was Sam Shaw who came up with the "flare" dress for this episode. The idea came to him several years before filming. At an amusement park on Coney Island, he saw women getting out of their cars at the subway grate holding their dresses, which the wind was trying to blow away from the train below.

After the disruption of filming, Sam insisted on having a photo shoot. Many photographers rushed to shoot the actress, but it was Shaw who made those very famous shots, which then entered the golden fund of world photography.

End of family life

For the puritanical (compared to ours) cinema of those times, the scene in which the heroine's underwear peeps out from under the dress was considered quite frank. The photographs circulated by newspapers and magazines gained immense popularity, and Marilyn's fragile second marriage did not stand the test.

Her husband gave her another scandal, and in October the actress told reporters about the upcoming divorce. The wedding took place in January of the same year, so the newlyweds did not even make it to the first anniversary. This marriage, despite the fact that it was preceded by a long-term romance, was not successful from the very beginning. Joe DiMaggio was terribly jealous of Marilyn, and they constantly quarreled. Friends of the actress even claimed that it came to assault.

The Seven Year Itch was released in 1955 and grossed more than $ 4.5 million, which was an excellent result at the time. It was called "one of the biggest commercial successes of the year." It is possible that an unusual PR campaign really worked. Marilyn, on the other hand, spent several years seizing the bonus promised to her for the film from “20 Century Fox”.

What really was the famous film star, who became a symbol of an entire era, you can only learn from herself. The publication of the actress's diaries revealed many aspects of her life. Read on Unexpected revelations from Marilyn Monroe's diaries: "One person cannot truly love another."