Expo Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe: The star with marbles in her bra
Article publié le 13/03/2012
par Hanah Betts
en ligne sur telegraph.co.uk
An exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death reveals the tricks used to create the Hollywood actress's distinctive look.
1/ She liked it hot: Hannah Betts at the Marilyn Monroe exhibition in London Photo: MARTIN POPE
2/ Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, 1953 Photo: c.20thC.Fox/Everett / Rex Features
Norma Jeane Mortenson, then Baker, Dougherty, DiMaggio and Miller died 50 years ago this August of a barbiturate overdose, aged 36. In a little over 15 years, the woman we know as Marilyn Monroe had established herself as an actress, singer, producer and, above all, a sex symbol, despite her protestation that “a sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing”.
Yet reified she was, more so than any star of her age. Monroe endures as the great female icon of the 20th century, a sumptuous 5ft 5½in, 36-22-36-inch welter of contradictions comprising voluptuousness and vulnerability, innocence and experience, part angel, part whore.
The latest attempt to analyse Monroe’s image comes with a new exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery in London: 66 largely unseen Monroe images from its 90 million-strong archive, plus new video footage and 12 of her most memorable outfits. Even prior to its opening, viewers were storming the doors, drawn by the totemic name “Marilyn”. “From the point of view of images sold, Monroe is only rivalled by Audrey Hepburn as the female idol in our top 10,” confirms gallery director Louise Garczewska.
Originally, it was Monroe that Truman Capote wanted to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which might have proved the role of her life. While the teenage Hepburn had endured the challenges of the Second World War as a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital, Monroe had survived a perilous childhood of material and emotional penury from which she was determined to emerge by recreating herself as an icon.
One of Monroe’s better foster parents assured her that she would one day be a star like Jean Harlow and let the infant Norma Jeane wear make-up and have her hair curled. Later, the fledging starlet adopted her mother’s maiden name of Monroe, as her heroine had assumed Harlow. “Marilyn” was chosen by a film executive for its sex appeal and “nice flow”, despite the young starlet’s initial dislike of it.
Where Norma Jeane had been a brunette, Marilyn was an ever more transcendent blonde. Her overbite was corrected during a stint at Columbia Pictures, a cartilage bump removed from her nose. Monroe’s make-up artist, Allan “Whitey” Snyder, observed that it was during preparation for Niagara (1953) that they achieved “the look”. It was all about juxtaposing light and shade to ensure that Monroe would look radiant by camera; specifically a black and white camera. She looks cartoonishly garish in one of two colour images included in the exhibition.
The actress had a characteristically sultry explanation for her ambition to remain pale but decidedly interesting. In September 1952, she declared: “I’m personally opposed to a deep tan because I like to feel blonde all over.” The starlet slathered on layers of Vaseline, hormone cream, Erno Laszlo Active pHelityl Cream, or Nivea (meaning “snow white”) to give a glow under studio lights, followed by a light film of foundation by Laszlo and powder by Anita of Denmark. This layering technique meant that, even in the more unstudied Getty images, light beams from her cheeks. This glow was augmented by the blonde down caused by the hormone cream. Monroe expert Gene London has maintained: “She had the heaviest peach fuzz beard of any actress in Hollywood. They [studio chiefs] wanted to remove the facial hair, but Marilyn absolutely refused. She said that when the light hit the fuzz it caused her face to have a soft glow, so they didn’t have to photograph her through special lenses, lace, or Vaseline the way they did with so many stars.”
Further tricks were used to shape her nose, sharpen her cheekbones, make her eyes look more deep-set, arch her brows, and emphasise her heart-shaped face. A plumper and fuller pout was created with five different varieties of lipstick and gloss: darker reds on the outer corners, lighter shades in the middle to lend dimension, with a highlighted cupid’s bow and bottom lip. Her luminous face was framed by a halo of platinum hair.
It could take an hour and a half to achieve this chiaroscuro confection of highlights, hollows, lifts and contours. Its strength was that it somehow reflected her personality. As her third husband, Arthur Miller, wrote: “She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery… lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence.” In the Getty images showing her promoting The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), her face shines forth with a lustre that renders Laurence Olivier a saturnine goblin.
Her body also shimmered, the lavish hourglass so excessive in the context of contemporary Hollywood scrawniness. The now fading gowns are unexpectedly tiny (largely UK size 8) until one consults the images in which they are worn, where some alchemy of femininity renders them all trembling, blancmange flesh. Marilyn was crammed into these creations. The still shocking, sheer, black beaded number she sported in Some Like It Hot was so tight that her then pregnant form had to be lifted onto Sugar Kane’s piano.
Her physique may have varied slightly (especially during pregnancies, all of which ended in miscarriage), but its contours were established during the filming of Niagara; not least in the notorious scene in which she is shown from behind, wiggling the 116 feet to the Falls. The pink linen dress in which she made this journey appears blushingly innocent – not so when filled. As Constance Bennett remarked after viewing the film: “There’s a broad with her future behind her.”
Her heaving bosom was no less a focus. “She always wore a bra to bed because she didn’t want her breasts to sag,” says London. “Marilyn took to placing marbles in her bras, or she’d take three buttons… and sew the buttons together and place those inside her dress.” Looking at the pert-nippled footage, one imagines this technique in action.
Monroe’s clothes were often criticised. No less an authority than Joan Crawford carped at her “vulgarity”. The gaudy physics of this “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” aesthetic were closely attended to. Hems were weighted to achieve the requisite cling, biases cut so tight that she could not sport underwear, a reputation that only added to her allure.
All this effort was as nothing without a means of recording it. More than any other actress, Marilyn manipulated the still photograph to publicise her attractions. She worked with some of the most influential artists of the day, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cecil Beaton, Milton Greene, Bert Stern and Eve Arnold. The latter enthused: “I never knew anyone who even came close to Marilyn in natural ability to use both photographer and still camera.”
The Getty images tell a story of fresh-faced ambition, settling into the stylised features of her celebrity’s height, before bloating into the confused final months recorded by The Misfits. Throughout, she is never anything less than compelling. As Matt Butson, vice-president of Getty’s Hulton Archive, notes: “Monroe looks right through the lens at the photographer and at us – there’s a relationship, contact. And when she’s vulnerable – as she increasingly was – we see that vulnerability. Stars today are so tightly managed. We never see who these people actually are. Will they, like Marilyn, still be around in 50 years’ time? I doubt that.”
'Marilyn’ runs until May 23. A smaller exhibition will be at Getty Images Gallery in Westfield Stratford City, March 23 to June 3. Prints from £65
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Des photos inédites de Marilyn Monroe aux enchères
Never-before-seen Marilyn Monroe photos up for auction
Article publié le 16/03/2012
par Randee Dawn
en ligne sur todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com
Makeup artist Allan "Whitey" Snyder had a unique and complicated connection to Marilyn Monroe: Friends and co-workers, the two worked together from an early screen test in 1946 until her death, and she even asked him for an extraordinary favor once. Now, Snyder's estate (Whitey died in 1994) has put up for auction many photos he took of Monroe in a professional and personal capacity over the years -- many of which have never been seen.
"It's spectacular," said Martin Nolan of Julien's Auction House, who brought several of the photos going up for auction on March 31 to the TODAY studio Friday, and spoke to Matt Lauer. "He was involved with her on the set and off the set, Matt, so he had amazing, privileged access."
Many of the photos were taken in the 1940s and 1950s and show Monroe smiling, giving her all to the camera while on location for some of her well-known and lesser-known films. Reportedly, Snyder would photograph Monroe to calm her down when she was feeling jittery.
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"The camera loved Marilyn Monroe, but Marilyn loved the camera," said Nolan. "When the camera was rolling she became Marilyn Monroe. She became distracted from her own issues and just played the role. She loved the camera."
But it wasn't all about fun and games: Once, Monroe asked Snyder that if she died before he did, would he be the makeup artist for her body. Making a dark joke, Snyder told her, "Sure, drop off the body while it's still warm and I'll do it." Proving Monroe had her own appreciation for that kind of humor, she bought him a gold Tiffany money clip -- which Nolan brought into the studio, and which is also up for auction -- that is engraved: "Dear Whitey, While I'm still warm, Marilyn."
"That's gross," said Lauer, after Nolan showed the clip. "I'm glad you told the story and not me."
Ultimately, Snyder did Monroe's makeup for her funeral, and was one of her pallbearers; other items in the auction include memorabilia from his estate including a clipping showing him carrying her coffin.
For the auction, not just the photos are going up for sale, Nolan noted: In some cases, the rights to the photos are also up for sale -- the buyer will be able to reap royalties from republishing them. It's a good investment, said Nolan: "(Marilyn memorabilia) continue to increase year over year, it's unbelievable. ... She's still relevant today, and of course that adds value. She's a global icon."
To see some of the items up for auction, be sure to click on the slideshow above.
1/ Classic Beauty
Marilyn Monroe smiles for a photo signed to the son of her makeup artist, Allan "Whitey" Snyder. The autograph reads "To Ronnie/ Love & Kisses / and Oh your Dad! / Marilyn Monroe." Snyder was an established makeup artist when he first worked with Monroe her 1946 screen test, and went on to become her on-screen and personal makeup artist. A collection of Snyder's memorabilia is part of a Hollywood Legends auction put on by Julien's Auctions on March 31 and April 1.
2/ Pretty in pink
An unnamed, undated photo from the collection of Monroe's makeup artist, Allan "Whitey" Snyder.
3/ Life's a beach
An unnamed, undated photo from the collection of Monroe's makeup artist, Allan "Whitey" Snyder.
4/ Hat's off to her
Monroe poses on the Alberta, Canada, set of 1954's "River of No Return." The photo was taken by her makeup artist, Allan "Whitey" Snyder.
5/ Slide rules
Two color transparency slides taken on the set of 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
6/ Open air
Monroe poses on the Alberta, Canada set of 1954's "River of No Return." The photo was taken by her makeup artist, Allan "Whitey" Snyder.
7/ Deep thoughts
Monroe in a photo on the set of her final film, 1962's "Something's Got to Give," which was never finished.
8/ Sunshine smile
Monroe poses with co-star Robert Mitchum on the Alberta, Canada, set of 1954's "River of No Return."
9/ Bearly there
Monroe poses with some Canadian bears on the set of 1954's "River of No Return."
10/ Law abiding
Monroe poses with a Mountie (possibly just an actor) on the set of 1954's "River of No Return."
11/ Smiling through pain
Monroe poses on the Alberta, Canada, set of "River of No Return." The actress was injured after slipping on a wet rock during filming, and had her ankle bound up.
12/ Preferential treatment
Snyder applies makeup to Monroe on the set of 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
13/ Sheer fabulousness
Snyder applies Monroe's makeup on the set of 1960's "Let's Make Love."
14/ Exit lines
A Western Union telegram sent to Snyder by Monroe after she was fired from the film "Something's Got to Give" in 1962. The film was never finished and was her last work prior to her death on Aug. 5 that same year.
15/ A little princess
A color slide taken on the set of "The Prince and the Showgirl" of Monroe in 1957, taken by Snyder. The making of this film was documented in 2010's "My Week with Marilyn."
16/ A thousand words
A collection of Monroe-related items comprising nine books about her life, 10 magazines featuring the actress, an LP record of the soundtrack of her 1960 film "Let's Make Love," a framed color photo of her and one Marilyn Monroe Limited Edition Commemorative Silver Trading Disc.
17/ On her way
Monroe posing in a test photo taken by Snyder on the set of her final film, 1962's "Something's Got to Give," which was never finished.
18/ My captain
Tony Randall signed this album and gifted it to Monroe from his 1958 musical, "Oh! Captain."
19/ Setside setup
Snyder applies Monroe's makeup on the set of 1960's "Let's Make Love."
20/ Business card
Monroe posing in a test photo taken by Snyder on the set of her final film, 1962's "Something's Got to Give."
21/ Giving her all
Monroe poses in another wardrobe in a test photo on the set of "Something's Got to Give."
22/ Under there
Monroe poses in undergarments in a test photo on the set of "Something's Got to Give."
23/ Forever in blue jeans
Monroe poses in a denim ensemble in a test photo on the set of "Something's Got to Give."
24/ Big smile
An unnamed, undated photo from the collection of makeup artist Allan "Whitey" Snyder.
25/ Last requests
Snyder appears in a black and white photograph as one of Monroe's pallbearers, along with a letter from Westwood Memorial Park thanking him for his cosmetic work and for being that pallbearer. Behind the letter and photo is an article showing Snyder with Monroe.
26/ Out in the cold
A color slide of Monroe, photographed on the set of 1956's "Bus Stop."
27/ Close your eyes
A color slide of Monroe, photographed on the set of 1956's "Bus Stop."
The actress requested that if anything ever happened to her that Snyder do her makeup for her funeral, too.
28/ Taking a rest
A color slide of Monroe taken on the set of "The Prince and the Showgirl" in 1957.
