I
wasn't looking for this, at all - but strangely enough, it relates to
what I WAS looking for: pictures from a photo shoot Marilyn Monroe did
with Harold Lloyd in 1953. As a matter of fact, this video was taken
during one of those sessions, as I was to find out on another site:
"It
has been a puzzle to Marilyn fans for many years: the brief video clip
where a swimsuit-clad MM, reclining on a poolside lounger, purrs, ‘I
hate a careless man.’ It was shot at the home of Harold Lloyd, the
silent movie comedian turned cheesecake photographer, in 1953. But
little more was known about it. Now Immortal Marilyn‘s April VeVea has
found the source of the mystery footage… “Recently
I was going through Marilyn Monroe’s IMDB page under the ‘Archive
Footage’ tab. I was surprised to see her listed under a 1995
documentary, narrated by William Shatner, called Trinity and Beyond –
The Atomic Bomb Movie. In it, a short 1953 PSA [Public Service
Announcement], that was only shown to members of the United States Air
Force, called Security is Common Sense is shown at the 47:35 mark. The
PSA talks about using common sense measures when dealing with government
secrets such as ‘avoiding loose talk, safeguarding top secret
information, reporting security violations at once, and avoiding writing
about top secret information when writing home.’ At 48:39 who pops up
but Marilyn herself to end the PSA!”
I
am actually not a big Marilyn fan, but I need to keep feeding my Harold
Lloyd Facebook page (for some reason - it has not resulted in a single
book sale), so I decided to explore the Marilyn photo shoot a little
further. What's surprising about these poses is the modesty of her
strapless coral bathing suit, which she fills out with juicy peach-flesh
sexiness - just Harold's kind of woman, busty and generous of thigh.
But the really spectacular thing is - the shoes. The SHOES! I'm not even
a shoe maven, but those towering Lucite platforms are enough to convert
me. Tied on with Grecian crossed ribbons, they are truly the footwear
of a goddess. I am sure in the above pose Harold was instructing her,
"Now hold that foot out so they can see the shoe!" Whether Harold slept
with her is a matter for conjecture, but apparently he "did" a lot of
his models - or they did him, in some fashion, of which I have some
idea. To be honest, Marilyn gave the best blow jobs in Hollywood, was
not at all shy about performing them, and it took her very far.
The dull PURR of a COMBINATION LOCK is HEARD, a DOOR opens, and a triangle of LIGHT falls on a PHOTOGRAPH of MARILYN MONROE and JOE DIMAGGIO on their wedding day.
GRADY and James Leer stand in the doorway. Just below the photograph of Marilyn and Joe--hanging next to a PIN- STRIPED JERSEY bearing the number 5--is a SHORT BLACK SATIN JACKET trimmed with an ERMINE COLLAR.
JAMES LEER Is that really it?
GRADY That's really it.
JAMES LEER The one she wore on her wedding day?
GRADY So I'm told.
James, in the presence of the holy grail of suicide garments, stands speechless.
GRADY Go ahead.
JAMES LEER Really?
GRADY Really.
James swallows, then goes to the jacket. Carefully, he reaches out his fingers and touches the yellowed collar, barely making contact, as though it might crumble to dust.
JAMES LEER They're glass. The buttons.
GRADY Like the lady herself.
GRADY says this airily, ironically, riding his buzz a bit, but James nods solemnly, eyes transfixed on the jacket, as if Marilyn herself were inside it.
JAMES LEER She was small. Most people don't know that. The shoulders are small. (touching the satin) It looks so perfect. I bet it's the only time she wore it. That day. She must've felt so ...happy.
GRADY studies James as he takes the fringe of the jacket, lifts it lightly.
JAMES LEER It's feels unreal, like butterfly wings or... something. It must've cost Dr. Gaskell a lot.
GRADY I guess. Walter never tells Sara the truth about how much he pays for these things.
JAMES LEER You're really good friends with the Chancellor, aren't you?
Grady's eyes slide, paranoid, but James' face remains unchanged, consumed with the jacket.
GRADY (carefully) Pretty good. I'm friends with Dr. Gaskell, too.
JAMES LEER I guess you must be, if you know the combination to his closet and he doesn't mind your being here in their bedroom like this.
GRADY Right.
A DOOR SLAMS downstairs and GRADY and James jump. The CLICK of a woman's HIGH HEELS sends GRADY to the bedroom window, where he watches Sara slide into a WHITE CITROEN DS23, turn on the ignition, and motor away.
GRADY We, better skedaddle. Close that closet-- James? You all right?
James is slumped on the Gaskell's white linen bed, knapsack between his knees, head in hands.
JAMES LEER I'm sorry. Professor Tripp. Maybe it's seeing that jacket that belonged to her. It just looks...really lonely. Hanging there. In a closet. Maybe I'm just a little sad.
GRADY Maybe. I'm feeling a little sad myself tonight.
JAMES LEER You mean, with your wife leaving you and ail? Hannah mentioned something about it. About a note.
GRADY Yes. Well. It's complicated, James. I think we should go now.
Without thinking, GRADY flicks out the bedroom light, leaving James Leer in the dark for the second time today.
James just sits there, a shadow in a room of shadows.
The story behind this: I saw the movie Wonder Boys way back in 2000 (though it cannot be possible it was
17 years ago!). Most of it was convoluted and a bit of a mess, but I do
remember the “Marilyn Monroe scene”. It was an important subplot of the movie.
probably representing something-or-other, some deep symbolism about identity,
dishonesty, etc. etc.
Michael Douglas plays a washed-up university professor/blocked
writer with a young protégé, a very strange, fey, even creepy student played by
(the strange, fey, even creepy) Toby Maguire.
The Marilyn scene involves Michael Douglas sneaking into the Chancellor’s bedroom to show his protégé a valuable collection of Marilyn Monroe
memorabilia. Needless to say it doesn’t stop there, as Toby Maguire steals Marilyn’s
wedding jacket which ends up in a stolen car, then on someone else’s back.
Interestingly enough, we see one of the minor characters wearing it at the end. It looks like an exact
replica of the black, fur-collared Monroe
jacket with the small shoulders and the chic ¾ sleeves.
But the part I couldn’t get out of my mind were the Marilyn-obsessed Maguire's lines: “She
was small. Most people don’t know that.” They stuck like a burr,
though I couldn’t find them in any of the YouTube clips. I had to hunt it down in
a transcript of the screenplay, but it was (surprisingly) not hard to find.
And it’s true. People weren’t talking about it then – they were
still saying things like, “Marilyn Monroe was a size 16”, mostly to make
themselves feel better about being fat. Though her weight fluctuated, in most
of her photo shoots she looks to be around a size 6, though perhaps on the
buxom side. Based on her surviving vintage dresses, couturiers have estimated her
statistics as 35-22-35, though I have also heard 34-22-34 (which, during
thinner periods, she may well have been).
The point is, these are not “fat” proportions. At all. Most women would envy them, particularly their symmetry (which is really more important than being thick or thin). Like the
immortal Elizabeth Taylor, she had a very small natural waist, giving her a voluptuous shape which androgynes might call "fat" (but which isn't). Liz famously
didn’t need much corseting for her Southern Gothic roles (such as in Raintree County, one of my all-time favourite movies).
I’m not a man or anything, or at least I don't think so, and
not particularly a Monroe fan (though I crush on Liz in some of her movies,
big-time, and believe she was nothing short of brilliant as an actress). But I can see that Marilyn had just about the best breasts ever seen on
a woman, breasts that would be ruined by a bra.
I also remember a movie – God,
my mind is a junk drawer – called Soldier in the Rain, and I think it had Steve
McQueen and Jackie Gleason in it. The two of them were fantasizing about women –
Polynesian women, or something – and one of them referred to their breasts as “tilting up”. That’s what I’m talking about, a
magnificent natural structure with no visible means of support.
