marilynbeyondthemyth

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Marilyn Monroe photographed by Ed Feingersh in March 1955 ✨

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

“I’d met and known lots of stars. Marilyn was different. She seemed to flicker like a flame giving off a nimbus of light. I thought it was trick lighting until I stood next to her. She still glowed, managing to radiate sex and innocence together. I wondered how she did it.” - Susan Strasberg, Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends

📷 #Marilyn photographed at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on 26 June 1953.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Up until 2018, the consensus was that the 1953 poolside photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken by cinema icon Harold Lloyd at his expansive Beverly Hills estate held no real significance. These photographs were seldom seen by the public outside of a few exhibitions and a publication by Lloyd's granddaughter.

Harold Lloyd and Marilyn’s acquaintance began through Philippe Halsman during a cover shoot for Life magazine featuring Marilyn. Later Marilyn was invited to pose at Harold Llly’s home. This photo session concealed the production of a highly confidential propaganda film aimed at urging U.S. servicemen to maintain secrecy around nuclear bomb activities. Kevin Hamilton and Ned O’Gorman's book, “Lookout America!: The Secret Hollywood Studio at the Heart of the Cold War”, published in December 2018, was the first to shed light on the covert studio involved in the film's creation.

Lookout Mountain Laboratory, operational from 1947 to 1969, played a pivotal role during the 1960s as the 1532nd Photographic Group of the United States Air Force. The studio was instrumental in producing numerous films and archiving extensive Cold War imagery, while also facilitating gatherings of atomic scientists, military leaders, and Hollywood figures. Despite its involvement in war bond drives and public service initiatives, the studio's propaganda films remained undisclosed to the public. Harold Lloyd's son, Harold Jr., known as “Dukie”, worked in the photo lab at Lookout Mountain, making Lloyd Sr., with his history of political engagement, a suitable collaborator for the project. The studio's connections enabled the participation of stars like Marilyn Monroe and Harold Lloyd.

During the photoshoot at Lloyd’s Greenacres Estate, privacy was paramount as the production crew prepared for filming. Monroe, donning a red swimsuit, lounged on a lawn chair to deliver the line “I hate a careless man.” This footage became part of ten propaganda films, each emphasizing the importance of confidentiality regarding nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #Harold Lloyd

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Marilyn Monroe at Brady Airbase in Japan, 1954 🇯🇵

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

On 15 March 1955, Ella Fitzgerald was the main attraction at the star studded Mocambo nightclub in Los Angeles. A popular anecdote, fuelled by Ella’s own inconsistent recollections, suggests that Marilyn Monroe played a pivotal role in securing this gig for her. Reflecting on this, Ella remarked, “‘I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt... She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night.”

Ella maintained that Marilyn kept her promise, though the truth diverges from the real events. Indeed, Marilyn had contacted Charlie Morrison about his rejection of Ella. She had also floated the idea of throwing a party for Ella should she ever headline at Mocambo. However, during Ella’s two-week stint in LA, Marilyn was in New York. This discrepancy is highlighted in a typed memo from 15 February 1955, bearing the letterhead of Inez Melson, Marilyn’s business manager, titled “Memo of conversation with Jo Brooks.” Brooks, married to Julies Fox who managed publicity for Ella Fitzgerald, recounted a past incident. “A few months back, Miss Monroe visited the Tiffany Club on West 8th Street where Ella Fitzgerald was playing. Miss Fitzgerald talked of a possible future date at the Mocambo, and Miss Monroe expressed interest in hosting a party for Miss Fitzgerald,” the memo reads. It clarifies that Marilyn’s intentions were genuine, though her involvement in Ella’s Mocambo booking was overstated by Fitzgerald to the press.

Photographs capturing Marilyn and Ella together date back to 1954, taken at the Tiffany Club, with no documented instances of Marilyn attending Ella’s Mocambo performances.

Furthermore, the assumption that Ella’s initial rejection from Mocambo was racially motivated is false. Historical records show that Mocambo welcomed several black artists before Fitzgerald, including Herb Jeffries, Dorothy Dandridge, and Eartha Kitt, debunking the myth of racial exclusion as the reason for any initial reluctance to book Fitzgerald.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #ella fitzgerald

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Marilyn Monroe at the Actors Studio Benefit on 13 March, 1961.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

"One morning l awoke early. The sun was just coming up and filling my room with golden and blue light. I could hear the full cries just beyond the dunes that sloped from our house down on the beach. Marilyn's bed was empty. I thought she wasn't in the room. Then I saw her standing in front of the window-pane, a melancholy figure. She had been so still, I thought she was a part of the shadows. She was lost in some private reverie. Rather than speak and break her moment, I stared. In the morning light her body was lovely and her pale curves emphasized. There was something lush about her. I'd never looked at another woman's body before. I wondered why men thought when they saw her, what they felt when they touched her. Her flesh looked resilient, like a child's, smooth and soft."-Susan Strasberg, Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends

📷Marilyn and Susan Strasberg photographed by Leonard McCombe on 5 October 1955

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn #susan strasberg

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

"You can't call her a victim, period. It isn't simple with Marilyn. Nothing is." - Sam Shaw to Norman Rosten, Marilyn Among Friends

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #marilyn #vintage #Sam shaw

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Rest in Peace to Gladys Pearl Monroe who died on this day, 11 March 1984 🕊️

Gladys had been a popular and lively young woman, who lived through many hardships. This included but was not limited to abusive relationships, her son’s premature death after he and his sister had been kidnapped and wrongly prescribed medications causing multiple mental breakdowns. Gladys struggled in order to provide for Norma Jeane which resulted in further depression and mental strains.

Although they weren’t close during Marilyn’s adult life, Marilyn did attempt to care for her financially. In 1959, Marilyn set up a trust fund for her mother.

After Marilyn’s death in 1962, her estate was taken n a state of lockdown, meaning Rockhaven was not receiving the finances to care for Gladys. They generously kept her in their care anyway. In the 1970s, Gladys left Rockhaven to live with her only living child, Berniece before living in a retirement home in Florida where she passed away at the age of eighty-one.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #Gladys Pearl Monroe

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Marilyn Monroe at the Photoplay Awards on 8 March, 1954.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Marilyn Monroe has never been able to take her sex for granted. It was the miracle that finally brought her the thing she had been seeking all her life. She studied it. She perfected it. She delved into its subtleties as scientifically as a researcher in a laboratory seeking the cure for a disease. She had a disease, too loneliness. - Maurice Zolotow, October 1955

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #ed feingersh

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Marilyn Monroe performing to American troops in Korea, February 1954.

Despite the freezing temperatures Marilyn still opted to wear a spaghetti strap dress and heels whilst performing for four days of entertainment, resulting in her catching pneumonia.

#classic hollywood #marilyn monroe #old hollywood #vintage #marilyn

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

Buy here

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[marilynbeyondthemyth]

In 1955, Marilyn Monroe left Hollywood and moved to NYC, motivated by a desire to secure more dramatic roles and refine her acting skills under the guidance of Lee and Paula Strasberg. Whilst in New York she and Milton Greene set up Marilyn Monroe Productions. Unfortunately, only one film was ever made under MMP (The Prince and the Showgirl, released in 1957).

Despite this, Marilyn’s contract with Fox meant she had to return to Hollywood to fulfil her obligations to the studio. This return forced her into accepting roles in films that weren’t much to her liking.

After being fired from Something’s Got To Give in June 1962, a negotiation was to be made. Either be paid the $100,000 without any creative control, no acting coaches on set and a strict schedule… or face being sued.

The $1million contract so many believe was offered to Marilyn the day she died has never been seen or made public. Based on the contract negotiations beforehand, it’s unlikely she was offered such a sum.

🎥 Something’s Got To Give (unfinished)

🎵 Rose’s Turn (Glee Version)

#marilyn monroe #classic hollywood #vintage #old hollywood

[marilynbeyondthemyth]

“one’s own truth is just that really — one’s own truth.”

#marilyn monroe #classic hollywood #vintage #old hollywood #eve arnold