Life Releases Newly Discovered Marilyn Monroe Photos

She appears to be leaning against one of the Texas live oaks that shade the picket fence on the south side of the book depository parking lot.

@persimmon:

Thank you. I have to admit I was kind of expecting a silly response like the other one.

1.1.1.

Actually, a whole bunch of these were published a few months back when Google images added a big batch of LIFE material to what they have available.

If you go to images.google.com there's a link to the LIFE photo archives. Click it, and off to the right (under 'people') you'll see a link to MM. Click that, and several of these shots will turn up, along with plenty of other goodness that LIFE had on ice.

Krashstar

@allyzay:

I'm pretty sure 1.1.1. does not want a medal. She or he shared an opinion about Marilyn Monroe in a post about, um, Marilyn Monroe. Why attack a commenter for saying which stars of classical Hollywood are her/his favourites? I don't get it.

@BookishLookish: heroes? that's going a bit far. she had great quotes and even decent comedic timing (i.e. all about eve). but what exactly about her that you find worthy of hero worship besides her surgically enhanced beauty?

@1.1.1.: did you want a medal?

I will never understand the cult of Marilyn Monroe. As a child, I found that powder puff voice impossible to listen to.

When I look at photos of Louise Brooks, Ingrid Bergman and Elizabeth Taylor, I see the beauty. With Marilyn Monroe, I see the makeup that's looks like it's been applied with a trowel. There's something irreducibly cheesy about her.

1.1.1.

@Banjo-Sea Kitten: Watching my mother, a beauty near this level (not prejudice -- sad fact for me as I look nothing like her), age (and turn 79) makes me wonder if MM and James Dean didn't get off easy.

Today would have been her 83rd birthday.

Banjo-Sea Kitten

@resipsaloquacious: And Marilyn too.

@BookishLookish:

Heart-stopping.

resipsaloquacious

She had been a model for a few years already and understood how to make a good picture. Even overdeveloped, completely gorgeous. One of my heroes.

Yup, that's Marilyn Monroe all right.

I have an unseen-by-the-public photo of Big John Studd I'll be releasing shortly.

zibby

Unspoiled beauty. In her eyes, anything is possible. Makes my head swim.

The weight of all those dirty hands on her must have been impossible.

stanhalen

@apocalypse-nowish: I admire her struggle. She started with nothing, not even a parent's love. You would really like the Leaming. It's a bit dry, but the facts she unearths are irrefutable: MM fought against J. Edgar Hoover like a tigress!

@BookishLookish: I really loved Donald Spoto's biography of her. Even if it was totally inaccurate (although I doubt that it was), he did a good job of really showing who MM was and that at the end of her life she was being controlled by a really horrible man.

Bookish, she's one of my heroes too.

@ArmCandy:

From what I've read, she was imprisoned by her own act. She was frustrated when educated people didn't take her seriously. Needless to say, some of them were sexist men who preferred her as a sex kitten.

1.1.1.

@bess marvin, girl detective: And I disagree with you and take my quote off your stupid website. You are not worthy.

@BookishLookish: oh please, don't act like she cured cancer or something or had this remarkable career. most of her success is because of her looks and a persona she created. she was a more earnest, slightly more talented paris hilton.

@bichon: The voice was part of an act (like Paris), but I wouldn't say she was very intelligent. Credited biographies have reported that she fretted and studied like crazy before any of her conversations with the Kennedys, jut to be sure she didn't seem dim.

ArmCandy

I have a photo of MM that my dad took in 1954 in Korea when she was on her honeymoon w/ Joe DiMaggio. I believe it has never been published either. Can I get a story now?

I Don't Get It

@bess marvin, girl detective: Yes, well, I wouldn't expect someone who would reduce the appeal of another human being to the removal of some minor facial cartilage to get it. But for those of you who are interested, I recommend Barbara Leaming's biography; also very useful for scholars of HUAC.

@ahotdoughnut: getting off easy ftl.

Blake Kelly

She faked the voice, and was actually quite intelligent. The obsession is not unlike ones we have for Elvis, JFK, James Dean, etc. Dying young and or mysteriously causes that.

bichon

@BookishLookish: ah NOW i see why you're REALLY irate with me. you're still smarting from that little argument we had months ago. so in addition, you hold grudges AND you're petty.

and in regards to my blog, stupid or not, the quote stays up. see it as a pat on the back. every bitch has its day. you are no different.

@BookishLookish: awww, you sad because i don't agree with you? maybe those your husband's ex had more than one reason to not like you

She looks so very, very much like my sister in those pictures that it's almost creepy.

JulesNoctambule

@bess marvin, girl detective: Oh, goodness. I have no beef with you, little girl. You don't like Marilyn, that's your aesthetic failure. And I have no idea what "argument" you are talking about. Except now you have shown everyone that you are a sad and vicious little twat, and I really don't care to chat with those.

Cojalo suave, sister. Thanks for the private PM, too!