L'Hôtel del Coronado
La péninsule et la Baie de San Diego 

Article en ligne sur america-dreamz.com

Chacun connaît "Certains l'aiment chaud", tourné en 1959 par Billy Wilder : déguisés en femmes, Tony Curtis et Jack Lemmon se joignent à une troupe de musiciennes où Marilyn Monroe chante et joue du ukulélé. Des frimas de Chicago, un train les emmène vers le soleil de Floride, où ils animeront les soirées d'un hôtel de luxe.

Le soleil, les cocotiers, la mer... Pourquoi aller chercher tout cela sur l'autre rive du continent, lorsqu'on a des studios à Hollywood ? Billy Wilder n'eut que 200 kilomètres à faire : il tourna le film sur la Coronado Peninsula. Tous les éléments du décor étaient réunis dans cette banlieue de San Diego : plage blonde, vue sur le large, palmiers... et l'un des plus beaux hôtels des USA, "The Del" !

Une architecture unique (02/03)

L'Hotel del Coronado offre à ses clients près de 700 chambres, trois bars, deux salons de thé, six restaurants, plus de vingt boutiques et cinq salles de conférence, dont la plus grande couvre 1100 m². Romantique et luxueux, séparé du Pacifique par une simple plage de sable, c'est l'une des plus grandes structures de bois des Etats-Unis et l'élégance de son architecture vaut à elle seule de traverser la baie.

Ouvert en 1888, il acceuillit des personnages aussi connus que Charlie Chaplin, Charles Lindbergh, Théodore Roosevelt, une dizaine d'autres présidents américains et nombre d'acteurs et chanteurs célèbres. On dit même que serait née ici une passion aux conséquences durables pour la monarchie anglaise : Edouard, prince de Galles, y aurait fait la connaissance de Wallis Simpson. Devenu Edouard VIII, il dut abdiquer moins d'un an après son accession au trône, sous la pression de la famille royale et des politiciens : sa liaison avec une divorcée choquait. On inventa pour lui le titre de Duc de Widsor et son frère, père d'Elizabeth II, monta sur le trône sous le nom de Georges VI. Edouard et Wallis se marièrent, furent heureux, mais n'eurent aucun enfant.

 La voiture des lifeguards (02/03)

Le rêve américain est-il seulement de s'enrichir ? N'entreprend-on que pour l'argent ? Elisha Babcock en avait suffisamment pour ne rien faire et s'occuper de sa santé, qu'il était venu soigner ici. Pourtant, à peine rétabli, il s'était remis aux affaires. Assis en compagnie de son ami Hampton Story, il eut la vision d'un hôtel de luxe, sur la lande où, le matin même, ils avaient chassé le lapin. Cette longue bande de sable délimite la Baie de San Diego : elle servait de pâture, où les bestiaux erraient en liberté, enfermés par les eaux.

"Continuons de bâtir un lieu où les gens viendront bien après notre mort", dit-il quelques années plus tard.

Il dut laisser place à un autre, mais son rêve fut réalisé au-delà de toute espérance.

Babcock et Story partaient de zéro : ils trouvèrent des associés, fondèrent une société. Celle-ci acheta la péninsule et l'île qui la prolonge, North Island. Pour 1695 hectares de lande inutile, 110 000 dollars pouvaient sembler beaucoup : c'était peu en rapport du prix des terrains en ville ! La première ligne de chemin de fer venait d'arriver de Los Angeles : en deux ans, la population de San Diego passa de 5 000 à 35 000 personnes ! Le prix de l'immobilier s'envola.

Sur la presqu'île, il n'y avait rien. La Coronado Beach Company fit amener l'eau, par des tubes immergés, débroussailler, lotir, poser les rails d'un chemin de fer urbain et mit les terrains en vente : dès la première journée, les 110 000 dollars étaient remboursés. Restaient à financer les travaux d'aménagement, la compagnie de ferries créée pour traverser la baie, et la construction de l'hôtel, commencée le 19 mars 1887. Onze mois après le début des travaux, "The Del" ouvrait ses portes : il avait coûté un million de dollars.

L'été précédent, un yacht était venu. Son propriétaire, John Spreckels, fils d'un magnat du sucre et beau-frère d'Alma de Bretteville, lui-même propriétaire d'une grosse société de transports, se prit d'affection pour la petite villle. Les hommes d'affaires locaux, Bacock comme les autres, ne s'étaient pas privés d'en faire l'éloge à cet investisseur potentiel : son climat très doux, l'arrivée soudaine de cette population nouvelle, son port naturel offraient d'énormes possibilités de développement ! Spreckels acheta et modernisa le réseau de transports urbains, la compagnie des eaux, celle des ferry-boats et deux compagnies de chemin de fer, mais ne vint s'y installer avec sa famille qu'après le grand tremblement de terre de San Francisco. En 1889, il acheta les parts de Story, un tiers du capital de la compagnie puis, lorsque Babcock, à court de trésorerie, ne put lui rembourser un prêt, il devint propriétaire de la presqu'île et tout ce qu'elle contenait. Il la dota d'une piscine, de courts de tennis, d'un terrain de golf, de salles de danse...

On est en pays anglo-saxon : trois ans après l'ouverture, l'hôtel avait son spectre, celui d'une jeune femme trouvée morte sur les escaliers descendant à la plage. Elle avait occupé la chambre 3312 : devenu directeur, Babcock, ne la louait que lorsque tout était complet. Aujourd'hui, les chasseurs de fantômes viennent y passer une nuit, dans l'espoir d'obtenir une image de l'ectoplasme.

Les riches venaient passer quelques jours au "Del", ou quelques semaines. La classe moyenne avait pu s'offrir un bout de terrain sur la presqu'île. Jamais à court d'idées, Spreckels compléta le dispositif par un village de tentes, à louer pour un week-end, une semaine, un mois ou l'année. Principal moyen de transport de l'époque, le train construit par Elisha Babcock et ses associés passait dans la rue principale, avec ses coups de sifflet et ses jets de vapeur. Au fil des ans, les occupants permanents, en quête de confort, aménagèrent leur résidence et l'on vit naître, ici ou là, des maisons de planches plus personnelles, mieux adaptées à la vie quotidienne. Mais aucun occupant n'était propriétaire de son terrain : Tent City disparut en 1939, bientôt remplacée par les appartements de luxe des Coronado Shore Towers.

Les condominiums ont remplacé Tent City (02/03)

La destruction de San Francisco avait été marquante : pour résister le mieux possible aux séismes et aux incendies, Spreckels fit construire sa maison de San Diego en béton armé. Initialement constituée de six chambres, trois salles de bain, un séjour, une salle à manger et une bibliothèque, elle possédait, luxe suprême, un ascenseur ! Organiste amateur, son propriétaire ajouta une salle de musique de 75 m², puis un solarium. John Spreckels mourut en 1926 : considérablement agrandie par ses propriétaires successifs, sa demeure est devenue Glorietta Bay Inn, hôtel moins huppé que son voisin mais tout de même assez cher. Tous deux furent promus monument historique en 1977. Quelques centaines de mètres au nord, les visiteurs les plus curieux peuvent voir en photo les étapes de la colonisation de la presqu'île au Coronado Beach Historical Museum.

Ni le prix des chambres, ni le fantôme de Kate Morgan ne rebutent la clientèle : on vient au "Del" ! Et si vous voulez vous mettre pour quelques heures dans la peau de Marilyn Monroe, l'établissement propose une panoplie de mariage avec répétition, maître de cérémonie, grands salons, restaurants, chambres de luxe et plage devant la pelouse. Mais les formalités sont plus compliquées en Californie qu'au Nevada, et ce rêve de mariage américain plus difficile à accomplir qu'à Las Vegas...

Dès le XIXme siècle, l'armée avait choisi ce port comme base pour le Sud-Ouest. L'aéronavale occupa "North Island" en 1917 et bâtit un pont pour relier l'île à la péninsule. Après de longues réticences, John Spreckels accepta de vendre une partie de ses terrains à la Navy. La Seconde Guerre Mondiale ne fit qu'amplifier cette présence militaire : depuis, une base amphibie s'est établie quelques kilomètres au sud de l'aéronavale. Ces quelques dizaines de milliers de militaires contribuèrent au développement de la petite commune et, malgré les restructurations drastiques de la fin de la Guerre Froide, demeurent un apport conséquent pour l'économie de la région.

L'un des deux porte-avions stationnés dans la baie (02/03)

Malgré cette population nombreuse et ses allées-venues quotidiennes entre la presqu'île et le continent, les ferry-boats restèrent longtemps le seul moyen pratique de traverser la baie : le détour par la route, au ras de la frontière mexicaine, demande beaucoup de temps. L'été 1969, pour le bicentenaire de la fondation de San Diego,, Ronald Regan, alors gouverneur de Californie, inaugura le premier pont à enjamber la baie. Long de plus de deux kilomètres, très élégant, il s'achève par un virage à 90° : cette surlongueur était le seul moyen de l'élever suffisamment pour laisser passer les porte-avions sous sa travée centrale. Le macadam repose directement sur le tablier d'acier, dont la portée principale, sur plus de 200 mètres, s'élève 59 mètres au-dessus de l'eau. Parasismique, il peut absorber des mouvements de près d'un mètre. Contrairement à ce qu'on fait en France, une fois l'ouvrage amorti, le péage fut supprimé, une trentaine d'années après sa mise en service.

"The Del", Bay Bridge et Shore Towers (02/03)

Le tourisme est un moteur puissant : la ligne de ferries, rendue inutile par la mise en service du pont, rouvrit après 18 ans d'inactivité ! Le débarcadère offre une des meilleures vues sur les immeubles de Downtown San Diego, et retient les visiteurs grâce à son complexe de restaurants et de magasins. On peut même y louer une bicyclette, pour visiter la péninsule sans souci du stationnement.

Quant au nom de Coronado, il ne doit rien à l'explorateur dont les soldats furent les premiers Européens à voir le Grand Canyon : il ne vinrent jamais ici. Sebastian Vizcaïno, croisant au large le 8 novembre 1602, crut voir quatre îles. Conforme à la tradition espagnole, il leur donna le nom du saint du jour. Ils étaient quatre ! Tailleurs de pierre chrétiens du IIIme siècle, ils avaient été martyrisés par les Romains pour avoir refusé de fabriquer des idoles.

Some Like it Hot filmed at the Hotel Del Coronado

Article en ligne sur hoteldel.com

SOME LIKE IT HOT FILMED AT THE HOTEL DEL CORONADO
Named #1 Comedy by the American Film Institute

Regarded by critics as one of the finest American movies ever made, Some Like It Hot continues to delight audiences 50 years after it debuted in 1959; in fact, the American Film Institute named it No. 1 on their list of the 100 best comedies of all time.

Filmed in 1958, the United Artists movie was shot on location at the Hotel del Coronado, Southern California’s landmark Pacific resort. The Del’s iconic Victorian architecture made it the perfect backdrop for the film’s 1929 setting, along with acting icons Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

Says author and scholar Laurence Maslon, who will release The Some Like It Hot Companion in September (published by Collins Design, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers in the US and Anova Books in the UK), “There have been a lot of movies shot on a lot of locations, but only a few marriages of celluloid and place can be considered truly legendary. Chief among those magical moments is the sight of Marilyn Monroe cavorting on the beautiful beach at the footsteps of the Hotel del Coronado.”

Plot
The Prohibition-era story follows the exploits of Lemmon and Curtis, out-of-work Chicago musicians who accidentally witness a gangland slaying. Making a run for their lives, the men disguise themselves as women and join an all-girl band traveling by train to Florida. Here, a ukulele-strumming singer, played by Monroe, catches the eyes of both men, but it is Curtis’ character who assumes still another identity – an unlucky-in-love millionaire – to successfully woo and win Monroe.

Lemmon’s cross-dressed character, meanwhile, is vigorously pursued by a bona fide millionaire, played by Joe E. Brown. The hilarious gender-shifting romantic romp is played out at California’s famed Hotel del Coronado, which director Billy Wilder found to be the perfect substitute for Florida in the Roaring Twenties.

Sunshine … California-Style
At least one Floridian was less than happy about Wilder’s decision to shoot the movie in San Diego. Miami Mayor Robert King High reportedly said it was “a sacrilege” to let Southern California play the role of Florida’s “Sunshine State.” This sour criticism was ably met by Coronado’s mayor, who wired back, “Some like it hot, but not as hot as Miami in September.” The mayor’s rebuttal also referenced Florida’s gnats, mosquitoes and hurricanes, none of which plagued the temperate island of Coronado.

An “Uproariously Improbable Set”
Like all American resorts, the Hotel del Coronado had endured some tough years during the Depression and World War II, but it was this period of benign neglect that helped preserve the resort, making it the perfect setting for Wilder’s 1929 story, which he co-wrote with I.A. Diamond. Said Wilder, “We looked far and wide, but this was the only place we could find that hadn’t changed in thirty years. People who have never see this beautiful hotel will never believe we didn’t make these scenes on a movie lot. It’s like the past come to life.”

Although at least one critic didn’t believe the hotel was real, describing The Del as “an uproariously improbable set.” The hotel’s 1888 Queen Anne Revival-style architecture does tend toward the fanciful, with rambling white clapboard, lazy verandas and red-turreted roofs, which an earlier writer had characterized as a cross between an ornate wedding cake and a well-trimmed ship.

Although only exterior scenes were filmed at hotel, the interior scenes do look very Del-like (right down to the placement of the lobby elevator and stairs). This probably explains why so many Some Like It Hot devotees – even after seeing the Hotel del Coronado for themselves – absolutely refuse to believe that the movie’s interior scenes were not filmed at The Del.

Only at The Del: The Stars Align
During filming, Marilyn Monroe was accompanied by her husband, esteemed playwright Arthur Miller (he made two special trips from the East Coast to join her at The Del). Also in Monroe’s entourage was acting coach Paula Strasberg, along with Monroe’s secretary and press agent. Coronado police officers were assigned to guard Monroe throughout her stay.

Meanwhile, Tony Curtis’ wife, Janet Leigh, was also on hand (Leigh was pregnant with their second child, Jamie Lee Curtis, at the time). Jack Lemmon’s future wife, Felicia Farr, also joined the troupe.

By almost everyone’s account, Monroe was very difficult to work with throughout the film’s production – her tardiness and inability to remember lines have become legendary. Interestingly, however, quite a few reports confirm that Monroe was “on her mettle” during the entire Coronado portion of filming.

In fact, in his book Conversations with Wilder (1999), writer/director Cameron Crowe addressed Billy Wilder about this aspect of the film, saying, “I grew up in San Diego [and] the legend is that the hotel was the most magical part of the filming … that Marilyn felt relaxed there.”

To which, Wilder replied, “Yeah, that was fun. We had a good time there. Marilyn remembered her lines … everything was going according to schedule.” Added Crowe: “Marilyn seems fully engaged in those scenes.”

According to another source, Wilder speculated that Monroe was inspired at The Del, where adoring spectators were plentiful because she preferred a live audience. Wilder later told Crowe that the Coronado fans were “screaming and yelling,” and then added that when he wanted the crowd to quiet down, he had her say, “‘Shhh’ … they listened to her.” In the end, Wilder probably characterized Monroe the best, calling her “a calendar girl with warmth, with charm.”

And a last bit of Del trivia: During her stay, a hotel chef reported that Marilyn fancied his cold soufflé vanilla pudding with egg-white decoration, which she requested daily.

Favored by the Fans, Overlooked by the Oscars
The movie was a box office success, grossing over $8 million initially and earning several million more over the next few years – somewhere between $10 and $15 million.

Monroe’s financial deal – she received between $100,000 and $300,000, as well as 10 percent of the film’s gross profits – was a very lucrative arrangement in its day, and Some Like It Hot turned out to be her most profitable venture.

The movie was also a critical success. Variety called it the biggest hit of 1959; Monroe received a Golden Globe for her performance, as did Jack Lemmon. The film itself also won a Golden Globe for “best comedy.”

In spite of its financial success and public accolades, the film received only one minor Academy Award for “Best Black and White Costume Design.” Today it is thought that Some Like It Hot was just too risqué for 1959, when the big winner that year was Ben-Hur (also in the running for various Academy Awards were the likes of Diary of Anne Frank, Room at the Top, Pillow Talk and Porgy and Bess).

The Some Like It Hot story line is racy, and Monroe’s costumes are incredibly revealing, even by today’s standards (though, according to Wilder, Marilyn was not interested in fashion … as long as the costumes revealed “something,” she was satisfied). Ahead of its time perhaps, present-day reviewers marvel that the movie still comes across as such a wholesome film; this was Monroe’s forte: she was sexy, but childlike.

Although this is the Monroe film most shown on television today, the actress reportedly never liked her performance.

Fun Film Facts
Writers Wilder and co-author I.A Diamond were inspired by another cross-dressing comedy, the 1932 German musical Fanfare of Love, and they deliberately set the story in the past because, as Diamond put it, “When all the costumes look peculiar to us, a guy in drag looks no more peculiar than anybody else.”

Much like The Del itself – which was designed as it was being built – the last 15 minutes of Some Like It Hot was being written and rewritten as it was being filmed.

The film was shot in black and white because Wilder thought that male actors in female make-up would look too ridiculous in color. The black-and-white format – which also suited the period style of the film – did not appeal at all to Monroe, who contractually insisted that all her films be shot in color. Wilder was able to convince her that the 1920s setting would look more authentic in black-and-white. Interestingly, Wilder (who chose to make many of his movies in black and white) later said that Some Like It Hot was the one movie that would have benefited from color.

Although Wilder hired one of the world’s most famous female impersonators to teach Lemmon and Curtis how to walk in high heels, Lemmon refused the help – he didn’t want his character to be that adept as a woman.

Monroe’s character, “Sugar Kane,” is supposed to be 25 years old, although Monroe was 32 when the movie was made.

After Some Like It Hot, Monroe and Curtis never worked with Billy Wilder again, but Jack Lemmon remained one of the director’s favorite actors, and they made six more films together.

What to Look For
At one of the previews, the first shot of Lemmon and Curtis dressed as women was such a crowd-pleaser that Wilder added in every other shot he had for that scene (and, if you look carefully, you’ll be able to see them walking by the same railroad car again and again). In addition, Wilder deliberately didn’t show the characters as they transformed themselves from men to women because he knew the comic impact would be greater if audiences were introduced to “the ladies” all at once.

Monroe was displeased at her initial entrance – also at the train station – and Wilder and Diamond concurred. They rewrote the scene so that Monroe's entrance was punctuated by steam blasts from the train.

The film clearly shows The Del’s two original front entrances. When the resort opened in 1888, the hotel offered a combined men’s and women’s entrance and a separate “unaccompanied” women’s entrance, which afforded lone women travelers a discreet way to check in. Though the two entrances survived past the 1958 filming of Some Like It Hot, only one remains today.

In the scene where Curtis and Monroe run out to the yacht, it is supposed to be night, but it’s obviously not dark; Monroe’s frequent tardiness made it impossible to shoot the scene at night.

In the role of gangster Spats Colombo, George Raft parodies the gangster role he played in the 1932 film Scarface, in which his character repeatedly flipped a coin. In Some Like It Hot, Spats Colombo is very irritated when he sees someone else flipping a coin, demanding, “Where did you pick up that cheap trick?” Raft – who didn’t accompany the cast to Coronado – was at The Del in 1936, during the filming of Yours for the Asking.

When Lemmon’s female character is telling Curtis’ male character about his engagement to a real millionaire, he punctuates ever line with a flourish of maracas. Wilder anticipated the scene being so successfully funny that he wanted to allow “space” for the audience laughter, and the maracas were added to provide the appropriate pauses.

There were two scenes that supposedly gave Monroe the most trouble: The scene where she knocks on the door and says, “It’s me, Sugar” required 47 takes; another scene, where Monroe had to rummage through a dresser drawer for a bottle of bourbon, proved even more challenging, requiring 59 takes. In fact, Wilder claimed that after he put the cue inside one of the dresser drawers, Monroe couldn’t remember which drawer it was in.

The last line – uttered by Joe E. Brown when he says to Jack Lemmon, “Nobody’s perfect” – was never intended to remain the last line, but Wilder and Diamond couldn’t come up with anything they liked better, so it stayed. Ironically, it has become a classic last line.

In some publicity photos, including the film’s poster, Monroe just doesn’t look like herself. That’s because a body double was used for several publicity shots; it was Sandra Warren, an actress who appeared as one of Sweet Sue’s Society Syncopators. Her body was uncannily like Monroe’s, although Monroe face was ultimately superimposed.

###

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Hotel del Coronado (San Diego, CA)
Beach Village at The Del (San Diego, CA)
La Costa Resort and Spa (Carlsbad, CA)
Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa (Rancho Mirage, CA)
Vail Mountain Lodge & Spa (Vail, CO)
Barton Creek Resort & Spa (Austin, TX)
The Homestead (Hot Springs, VA)

For more information, call 1-866-KSL-7727 or visit KSLResorts.com.

The Hotel Del Coronado — Victorian Elegance

Article publié le 18/05/2011
en ligne sur looplane.com

The Hotel del Coronado is a luxury hotel with a glamorous history.  Set on the beach sands of Coronado Island, across the San Diego Bay in California, it has become an icon. It is sometimes called The Del and boasts one of the earliest Victorian wooden buildings of early California. The history of this hotel goes deep and it has been named a National Historic Landmark since 1977.

Built in 1888, the Hotel del Coronado has been named one of the top ten hotels in the world by USA Today. It was the backdrop of the movie, “Some Like it Hot,” with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon.

Marilyn and Tony Curtis, 1958.

  
 Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe on the steps of the Del, 1958.

 
Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Some Like It Hot at the Hotel del Coronado. With make-up man Whitey Snyder and security guard – 1958

  
 Marilyn Monroe and Joe E. Brown on the deck at the Del, 1958.

In the mid-1880′s grand hotels were being built to lure visitors to new areas of California. Coronado Island and North island were  purchased for $110,000 with the intent to build a grand hotel that would draw attention to an otherwise stark landscape. With construction beginning in 1887, they had to tackle the problem of bringing in lumber from Oregon and labor from Chinese Immigrants in San Francisco.

This was one of the first hotels with electric lighting and the wiring was inspected by Thomas Edison. As they neared the completion of the hotel they ran out of money and investors. They turned to John Spreckles, the sugar manufacturer, who loaned them $100,000 to finish the hotel. He later bought the original owners out and owned the hotel until 1948.

During World War II, the hotel was used to house Navy pilots being trained and families of officers going off to war.

After the war the hotel was sold and by 1960 it had fallen into disrepair. It was then purchased by John Alessio who began renovating it for $2 million. He then sold it in 1963 to a man named Lawrence. More money was poured into the hotel refurbishing it and adding rooms totaling $150 million dollars. In 1996, the hotel was sold to the Travelers Group. They upgraded the hotel again, keeping the original Victorian architecture and decor. In 2005 they added additional cottages and villas to the grounds to be used for more guest rooms. The hotel has been sold and currently is owned by Blackstone Group and KSL Resorts and Strategic Hotels.

Many notable travelers have been guests of the hotel. Presidents, British Royalty, movie stars and other famed guests have spent many a night on the shores of the Coronado. L. Frank Baum, the author of the book and movie, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, stayed at The Del while  working on his book.  Stories abound that he based the Emerald City after the Hotel.  

Top 10 Beach Icons, USA Today
#1 Best Beach in the Southern California, Travel Channel
#2 Best Beach in the United States, Travel Channel
America’s Best Beaches, Wall Street Journal
America’s Top 10 Beaches,”Dr. Beach,” 2008 & 2009

The Hotel del Coronado has been rated:

Top 10 Resorts In The World, USA Today
Top 20 Hotel Spas in the World, Travel + Leisure
Reader’s Choice for the Best Place To Get Married, Ranch & Coast
Top 50 Resorts For Parents & Kids, Travel +Leisure Family Magazine
500 Greatest Hotels in the World, Travel + Leisure Magazine
Top 100 U.S. Resorts, Travel + Leisure Magazine Readers Poll
#2 Best Place in the World to Get Married, Travel Channel
Best Resort Getaway, Los Angeles Magazine
Best Resort in San Diego, Orange County Register Readers Poll
Best San Diego Resort, Travel + Leisure en Espanol
Top 15 Family Resorts, Travel + Leisure Family Magazine

Marilyn Monroe and The Hotel del Coronado
The Del Beach Village
The Hotel Del Coronado

Suite de la chronique de Daniel, canadien et fan de Marilyn. (lire son premier article: Conseils de Daniel si vous allez à Los Angeles )

50 ans d'amour pour la légende Marilyn (2)

Le Del Coronado Hotel se trouve à San Diego en Californie. C'est à cet endroit qu'a eu lieu le tournage du film Some Like it Hot (Certains l'aiment chaud) en 1958.

Photographies: copyright Daniel.

Marilyn Monroe et le réalisateur Allen Lloyd - vers 1953

Marilyn Monroe and the director Allen Lloyd - circa 1953

Portraits de Norma Jeane pris dans un photomaton - vers 1940

Portraits of Norma Jeane taken in a photo booth - circa 1940

© All images are copyright and protected by their respective owners, assignees or others.
copyright text by GinieLand.

En décembre 1945, le magazine Movieland publie la première photographie professionnelle de Norma Jeane en tant que mannequin, à la page 62, pour illustrer un encart publicitaire "Hollywood Star Suit". Elle était sous contrat avec l'agence Blue Book depuis août 1945. 

In December 1945, the Movieland magazine publishes the first professionnal picture of Norma Jeane as a model, on page 62, to illustrate a publicity of "Hollywood Star Suit". She signed with Blue Book in August of 1945.

- Livre d'école "University Highschool Year Book" - édition janvier 1942
 Norma Jeane Baker est en page 48

School Book "University Highschool Year Book" - editing January 1942
Norma Jeane is on page 48

© All images are copyright and protected by their respective owners, assignees or others.
copyright text by GinieLand. 

On the set New York -
How to Marry a Millionaire Film Locations
en ligne sur onthesetofnewyork.com

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Three New York models, Shatze (Lauren Bacall), Pola (Marilyn Monroe) and Loco (Betty Grable) set-up in an exclusive appartment with a plan: tired of cheap men and a lack of money they intend to use all their talents to trap and marry three millionaires. The trouble is that's it's not so easy to tell the rich men from the huxters and even when they can, is the money really worth it?

LOCATION: Pola Debevoise's Apartment, 36 Sutton Place South and East 55th Street, Manhattan.

Sutton Place

Sutton Place is the name given to an affluent street and surrounding enclave of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. In the narrowest sense, Sutton Place is the wide (north/south) avenue located on the cusp of the Midtown and Upper East Side neighborhoods, running from 57th Street to 59th Street, along the East River, south of the Queensboro Bridge; and the stretch that continues below 57th Street down to 53rd Street is called Sutton Place South. North of 59th Street, the road continues as York Avenue. Sutton Square is the cul-de-sac at the end of East 58th Street, just off of Sutton Place; and Riverview Terrace is a row of townhouses on a short private driveway that runs north from Sutton Square. The greater "Sutton Place area" is bounded on the east by the East River and on the west by Second Avenue, and is coextensive with Sutton Place and Sutton Place South. Sutton Place is a small neighborhood where some of Manhattan's wealthiest people live.

Former residents include Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Bill Blass, C. Z. Guest, Bobby Short, Irene Hayes, Elsie de Wolfe, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe and her then husband Arthur Miller. One Sutton Place (North), an imposing townhouse at the northeast corner of Sutton Place and East 57th Street, was built as a residence for Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, widow of William K. Vanderbilt. 

LOCATION:George Washington Bridge.

George Washington Bridge

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The Prince, the Showgirl, and the Stray Strap
by Pat Ryan
Publié le 11/11/2011,
en ligne sur nytimes.com

Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne in “My Week With Marilyn.” 

IT all turned on a pin.
The scene was a news conference on Feb. 9, 1956, and about 150 “photographers, newsmen and news-hens in Manhattan’s sedate Plaza Hotel were scrambling to worm nearer to their common goal,” in Time magazine’s words.

Then Marilyn Monroe’s dress strap broke.

 
1/ Marilyn Monroe holding the actual strap in 1956.
2/ The telltale strap in scenes from “The Prince and the Showgirl,” starring Monroe and Laurence Olivier.

One news-hen, Judith Crist, The New York Herald Tribune’s film critic, remembers it well. “I was directly behind her, pushed against her by the largely male crush of reporters,” she said via e-mail. “ ‘There’s a ladies’ room to the right,’ I said, ‘I have a safety pin.’ ”

The news conference confirmed that Monroe and Laurence Olivier would star in a film version of “The Sleeping Prince,” Terence Rattigan’s play, which Olivier and Vivien Leigh, his wife, had originated onstage in London. Olivier would be the director; the title would become “The Prince and the Showgirl” to spotlight the twin star power.

The story of that difficult production is the subject of a Simon Curtis film, “My Week With Marilyn,” due later this month with Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh as Monroe and Olivier. It’s based on the memoirs of the filmmaker Colin Clark, who at 23 was third assistant director. But while “The Prince and the Showgirl” might have been filmed in Britain and might be concerned with coronations, curtsies and even Westminster Abbey, the story really begins in New York, site of that all-American wardrobe malfunction.

The Plaza news conference was Monroe’s first major appearance since she left Hollywood to study theater in New York and find more challenging roles. By 1956 she was seriously immersed in Method acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and making plans to wed the playwright Arthur Miller. She was also serious about business. She negotiated a new contract with 20th Century Fox and started Marilyn Monroe Productions to engage in all forms of theatrical enterprise. “The Prince and the Showgirl” was the first (and only) independent film for the new company, of which she was president, and the vice president was the photographer Milton H. Greene. Her Fox contract had given her the freedom to develop her own projects. For “The Prince and the Showgirl” she negotiated a deal with the Warner Brothers chief Jack Warner and Olivier. Greene became the executive producer, Olivier the director and producer, Warner Brothers put up the money and served as distributor. “Last week there was persuasive evidence that Marilyn Monroe is a shrewd businesswoman,” Time reported in January, “apparent when Marilyn Monroe Productions bought a property to serve as a starring vehicle for its president, M. Monroe.”

She had pursued the deal by sidetracking the playwright Rattigan on his way to meet the director William Wyler in Hollywood. In a New York airport lounge on his stopover from London, Rattigan received a message from Monroe inviting him to join her for a cocktail. They met in a downtown bar where he could barely hear her whispery conversation, but he got her message: If Wyler wasn’t interested in the rights to his play, she was. According to Rattigan’s biographer, Michael Darlow, “She was prepared to write out a contract on the bar table there and then.” In Hollywood, Wyler made no definite offer; on the way back through New York, Rattigan accepted Monroe’s bid.

That February, two days before the Plaza conference, Rattigan, Olivier and Cecil Tennant, Olivier’s agent, met in Monroe’s Sutton Place apartment to drink Greene’s generous cocktails. They waited hours (reports vary on the exact length) for Monroe to appear, but when she did, they were in her thrall.

She was adorable, witty and incredible fun, Olivier wrote in “Confessions of an Actor.” Clearly, “I was going to fall most shatteringly in love with Marilyn.” (Once filming got under way, his feelings about Monroe’s desirability atrophied.) As they were about to leave, Monroe said in her “small voice”: “Just a minute. Shouldn’t somebody say something about an agreement?” By George, Olivier noted, “the girl was right.” And they arranged for a purely business meeting the next morning, then lunch at the “21” Club.

Marilyn Monroe was soon a daily news story. Rumors of her engagement to Miller brought phalanxes of photographers to her apartment. Then Miller was subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. On June 20 Monroe — keeping her mink coat closely held against her cheek so she wouldn’t be recognized — accompanied him to Penn Station, where he boarded the train to Washington. Once he was there, as Miller wrote in his autobiography, “Timebends,” his lawyer told him that the hearing could be canceled if Monroe agreed to be photographed shaking hands with the chairman of the committee. The offer was declined.

The next day Miller explained to the committee that he needed to go to England to see about a production of “A View From the Bridge” and “to join the woman who will be my wife.” As headlines summarized: “Playwright Talks of Reds, Marilyn.” In New York, Monroe issued a statement confirming their plans and hoping for a “quiet wedding.” Just two weeks after getting married, the couple flew to London, where production was to begin on “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

The story centers on Miss Elsie Marina, an American chorus girl (she says things like “your grand ducal”) who falls in love with an uptight Balkan prince. For the film the play was expanded slightly to include a reference to “Un-Carpathian Activities” and a scene in which the Prince Regent of Carpathia visits the cast of “The Coconut Girl” and meets Elsie,” whose gown strap breaks as she bows, whereupon a pin is called for. Whether Monroe’s strap-tease at the Plaza had been premeditated, “engineered in advance” (as Curtis Gathje writes in “At the Plaza”) or just an obliging snap, the eye-popping effect was duplicated in the film.

“The Prince and the Showgirl,” however, had an eye-closing effect when it was released in June 1957. Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times that the plot was thin, that “Sir Laurence is kept pretty much a stuffed-shirt” and that “Miss Monroe mainly has to giggle, wiggle, breathe deeply and flirt.”

After seeing the final cut Monroe sent Warner her analysis: “American audiences are not as moved by stained-glass windows as the British are, and we threaten them with boredom.” But her performance was hailed in Europe; she won awards in France and Italy.

And after her fictional meeting with a royal, Monroe met a real head of state: Queen Elizabeth II. Both were 30 at the time of their formal introduction in London that October.

The showgirl curtsied, and nothing but cameras snapped.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 13, 2011, on page AR16 of the New York edition with the headline: The Prince, The Showgirl, And the Stray Strap.