gentlemen prefer blondes

Here's another essay from the longer-format piece I'm working on about Marilyn Monroe.

Lorelei Lee, holding a tiara, "How do you put it around your neck?"
Dorothy Shaw, "You don't, honey, it goes on your head!"
Lorelei Lee, "You must think I was born yesterday."
Dorothy Shaw, "Well, sometimes there's just no other possible explanation."

In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes the viewer might be tempted to side with Jane Russell's character Dorothy Shaw's befuddlement at some of the things that Marilyn Monroe's character Lorelei Lee says. But Lorelei is amazingly successful at just about everything she tries to do. Like getting a rich old man she has just met on a transatlantic ocean liner, who happens to own a diamond mine, Sir Francis "Piggy" Beekman (Charles Coburn), to hand over her his wife's diamond tiara. Or convince her dim-bulb of a fiance Gus Esmond's (Tommy Noonan) rich father that she's not after his son's money.

Esmond Sr., "Have you got the nerve to tell me you don't want to marry my son for his money?"
Lorelei Lee, "It's true."
Esmond Sr., "Then what do you want to marry him for?"
Lorelei Lee, "I want to marry him for YOUR money."

.... 

Lorelei Lee, "Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?"

Lorelei and Gus were planning to elope via steamship to France, but Esmond Sr. forbade Gus from going on the trip. Lorelei was upset at how easily Gus gave in to his father, and decided she would go abroad anyway, with best pal Dorothy.

Based on Anita Loos's hugely successful book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the movie spoofs dumb blondes, gold diggers, horny old men, and sex in general. Lorelei was a flapper when Loos first wrote about her in Harper's Bazaar in the early 1920s. Her amusing stories about Lorelei and Dorothy spawned a book in 1925, a 1928 silent movie (now lost), a 1949 Broadway musical adaptation starring Carol Channing, and the 1953 Howard Hawks film starring Monroe and Russell.

Loos was not the first author to write about a "dumb blonde," but Gentlemen Prefer Blondes certainly popularized the stereotype.

Studies show that people may presume blonds are not only less serious-minded but also less intelligent than brunettes. This is reflected in the 'dumb blond' jokes that became part of American culture during the 1900s. The concept arose in Europe. The original 'dumb blond' may have been a French courtesan named Rosalie Duthe, who developed a reputation for being beautiful but empty-headed and incapable of carrying on a conversation [who] was satirized in a one-act play, Les Curiosites de la Foire, which debuted in Paris in 1775. The dumb blond character resurfaced in 1925 in the form of Lorelei Lee, a fair-hared young woman searching for a rich husband in Gentleman Prefer Blondes [the novel by Anita Loos.] — Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History, by Victoria Sherrow

Even brunette bombshell Jane Russell gets to don a wig and to play a dumb blonde for a while in the film. But these so-called dumb blondes aren't really dumb at all. Lorelei Lee has an amazing amount of confidence. She knows what she wants and she goes after it. She is considered a gold digger by everyone around her, including her best friend Dorothy, but Lorelei is much more than that. She is a pretty girl trying to fight against a system that expects the girl to wait for a man to choose her. Lorelei doesn't want to wait. She wants her career as an entertainer and she also wants to live the good life. Lorelei is not going to wait around for her boyfriend to decide to "forgive" her. She's going to go ahead and do what she wants, which includes traveling to Paris, flirting with a rich old man who might give her diamonds, and generally anything else that might come along that could be to her benefit.

Marilyn must have connected to the many parallels to her own life. Lorelei is a man magnet, but she also wants to be a success. Dorothy, on the other hand, seems to be along for the ride, wanting to have as much fun as possible.

“The chaperone's job is to make sure no one else has any fun. But nobody chaperones the chaperone. That's why I'm so right for this job.”

Are Lorelei and Dorothy shameless? Most definitely. But also independent women, something not too commonly seen in 1950s movies. So many of the romantic and sex comedies of the era specialized in plots featuring girls trying to trap guys, or guys trying to get hot-looking girls. Some of the films had humor, while some of them are just an excuse to showcase cheesecake or tease the audience with double entendres. These movies rarely took their characters beyond the wedding fadeout. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows the same formula, but there is something about the two girls' subversive behavior during 98 per cent of the movie that undermines the usual '50s rom-com blueprint.

Can we imagine Lorelei and Dorothy as happy contented housewives? Hardly. These two sassy gals would want to continue to work and perform, or at the very least frequent the sorts of nightclubs where they used to be headliners. But what would their new husbands think about such behavior? An honest sequel would feature two rich divorcees headed back to Paris for some fun and frolic. This dilemma was lived out in real life for Marilyn, who within a year of the release of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was married to Joe DiMaggio, who wanted her to give up her career and stay at home. And do what? Who did he think he married? Their marriage lasted nine months.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was Marilyn's first big success, her first starring role where she really stood out, and the audience took notice. Still just a contract player, Marilyn made far less money on this film than her costar Jane Russell, but you'd never know it from either lady's performance. They are best buddies and partners-in-crime throughout the film. The pay inequities didn't prevent them from forming a lifelong friendship after the film wrapped, either. The studio originally wanted to cast Betty Grable as Lorelei, but she would have, like Jane Russell, made $150,000 on the picture. Fox decided to go for a bargain with Marilyn, who only made $9,000 for the film. And Grable, a good sport, happily passed the "blonde torch" to her successor ("Honey, I've have mine. Go get yours.") They worked together later that year on How to Marry A Millionaire.

Marilyn is wearing a white version of the gown designed by Travilla that she wore in the "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Marilyn not only proved to the studio that she was box office, but Gentlemen Prefer Blondes became a testament to her brilliant comedic timing. She's very funny and steals every scene she's in. Marilyn had a winning combination of beauty and humor, something unusual for the typical blonde starlet of the day. The only other actor that comes to mind who shared these gifts in such abundance was her idol, Jean Harlow.

Only a few numbers, written by Jule Styne and Leo Robyn from the 1949 Broadway musical, made it into the movie: "Bye, Bye Baby," "[Two] Little Girls From Little Rock," and "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend." Two new songs, written by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson, "When Love Goes Wrong" and "Anyone Here For Love?" were added. "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" is not only the highlight of the film, but has become the iconic Marilyn performance.

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.
A kiss may be grand, but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat.
Or help you at the automat.
Men grow cold as girls grow old, and we all lose our charms in the end.
But square-cut or pear-shaped, these rocks won't lost their shape.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend. — Jule Styne and Leo Robyn

Marilyn's rendition of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" has been imitated often, most recently by pop songstresses Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but no one has ever come close to Marilyn's wit and star power. The star rehearsed with choreographer Jack Cole (who directed all of the musical numbers in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) for more than three weeks to get everything just right. Like "Diamonds," all of the film's musical numbers are bright and bouncy and a joy to watch.

"Marilyn and I had never danced before; we were a pair of klutzes," Russell told Cole biographer Glenn Loney in Dance Magazine. "Jack was horrible to his own dancers, but with us, the two broads, he had the patience of Job. He would show us and show us and then turn us over to Gwen." (Gwen Verdon, Cole's protégée, was on the brink of Broadway fame as the high-kicking redhead dancer of Can-Can.) ... Russell said she fled several sessions in exhaustion while Monroe begged Cole and Verdon to continue into the night. — Los Angeles Times

Marilyn performs the number beautifully, and it became one of her most beloved moments on film. As successful as Cole's coaching had been, it is also undeniable that the amazing pink number she is wearing adds immeasurably to the scene. Designed by William Travilla, who had worked with Marilyn previously on Don't Bother to Knock, and continued to work with her on many more films and public appearances, the deceptively simple-looking pink sheath is a marvel of engineering, lined with black felt to maintain its shape and hug her voluptuous form.

Dorothy Shaw, "If we can't empty his pockets between us, then we're not worthy of the name 'Woman.'"

In 1953, the year Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released, Marilyn was all over the news and cinema. She was in a highly publicized relationship with recently retired Yankee slugger and superstar Joe DiMaggio. Her film Niagara came out in January. On June 26, she and Jane and Russell were invited to add their hand- and footprints to the cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles (The always humorous Marilyn reportedly joked that she should sit in the cement and Jane should lean forward). In July Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was in theaters and another splashy comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire, was released in November. She appeared on the cover of the first issue of Playboy in December 1953, and was named the Sweetheart of the Month for 1953. Inside the magazine was a nude photograph of Monroe, from her infamous nude calendar shoot, a potential scandal she had weathered with aplomb in March 1952, simply by admitting that as a struggling model and actress in 1949 she had needed the money, $50, to get her car out of hock.  The following year she won the Golden Globe's Henrietta Award: World Film Favorite Female for 1953. She also won the 1953 Photoplay Award for Most Popular Female Star.

[Lorelei is stuck trying to sneak out the porthole of a ship's cabin and is found by seven year-old] Henry Spofford III, "All right. I'll help you. I'll help you for two reasons."
Lorelei Lee, "Never mind the reasons. Just help me."
Henry Spofford III, "The first reason is I'm too young to be sent to jail. The second reason is you've got a lot of animal magnetism."

No matter how popular or beloved Marilyn's characterization of Lorelei was, when the film wrapped she was ready to move on. Marilyn wanted to be a star, but she also had more serious acting ambitions. As suited as she was to comedies and musicals, she feared being typecast. The two actresses were such a winning combination in the film it's a shame that they didn't get a chance to work together again. But the studio would never have conceived of Monroe and Russell (or Russell and Monroe, depending on billing) as a comedy team. Comedy was something men did. Women were cast for their beauty, or occasionally for a special ability, like the fabulous voice of Judy Garland.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is one of the most colorful and entertaining films of the '50s and of Monroe's career. Marilyn's portrayal of Lorelei Lee completely captures Anita Loos's bubble-headed but shrewd and lovable gold-digger.

Dorothy Shaw, "Honey, did it ever occur to you that some people just don't care about money?"
Lorelei Lee, "Please, we're talking serious here."

Images from Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans

Related articles

• xoxoxoe's #CBR4 Review #30 & 31: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes & But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, by Anita Loos

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• xoxoxoe's #CBR4 Review #29: Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, by Anthony Summers

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• marilyn, gone 50 years ago today
• LIFE on the Set of 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'

gentlemen prefer blondes, but gentlemen marry brunettes

Anita Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a sensation when it was first published, in serial form, in Harper's Bazaar in the early 1920s. Heroine and flapper Lorelei Lee narrates her own escapades and those of her best pal Dorothy Shaw. The two gals are besieged by suitors on both sides of the Atlantic. Although Lorelei is always out to get a nice piece of jewelry or some other gift from an admiring genteman, it's hard to label her a gold digger. She and Dorothy are not exactly husband hunting — they are more often the quarry.

Once Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was published in book form in 1925, it soon became a best-seller, and Loos was asked to write a sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, which was published in 1928. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes also spawned a successful Broadway musical and two film versions, one made in 1928, which has been lost, and the classic Marilyn Monroe/Jane Russell female buddy movie from 1953. Loos was first inspired to create the character of Lorelei after watching writer H.L. Mencken, a friend and writer that she greatly admired let a girl, a blonde, that she considered a bubblehead wrap him completely around her finger. Mencken not only didn't mind being teased in print, but he helped her get it published.

I read an edition that included both novels, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady and But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. The original Harper's illustrations, included in this double-edition by Ralph Barton really capture the era of flappers and speakeasies. Readers familiar with the technicolor film directed by Howard Hawks will be interested to see what survived from Loos's original characterization of Lorelei to Monroe's version.

"So I really think that American gentlemen are the best after all, because kissing your hand may make you feel very very good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever."

Both books are written as entries from Lorelei's diary. Little Rock's most famous fictional debutante has decided to become a writer, and Lorelei never lacks for anything to say about herself and her endless quest for "education," or the merits and faults of those around her. Comic misspellings are peppered throughout both books: "Eyefull Tower," "safire," "Dr. Froyd," "negligay," etc. Lorelei always has her eye on the prize — and the next prize, and the next prize. She constantly complains about her best pal Dorothy's behavior, but Dorothy seems to do quite well for herself.

"I mean I always encouradge Dorothy to talk quite a lot when we are talking to unrefined people like Lady Francis Beekman, because Dorothy speaks their own languadge to unrefined people better than a refined girl like I."

"Safires" and "encouradgements" aside, Lorelei has no problem spelling words like "diamonds" or "champagne." Lorelei and Dorothy's antics are always amusing to read about. There is a bit of suspense involved in which suitor Lorelei will finally say "yes" to and mean it this time. No matter how much they might depend on a gentleman to take them to lunch at the Ritz, or take them shopping for bracelets and "negligays," Lorelei and Dorothy always seem in charge of their own destinies. And they seem to be having a great deal of fun, too. From the introduction by Regina Barreca:

"Loos's Lorelei and Dorothy didn't fall into vice; they jumped. The leap was a fortunate one. Lorelei manages her affairs, financial and sexual, with great success. She's a broker for her own goods. Her heroicism relies on her intelligence even more than on her blondeness, and on her willingness to understand the pleasures and penalties of the choices she makes."

As funny as Lorelei and her narrative are, Dorothy invariably gets the best lines, as she sizes up another "gentleman" while the girls are traveling in Paris:

"... so Dorothy spoke up and said, 'I hear that they number all of you Louies over here in Paris.' Because a girl is always hearing someone talk about Louie the sixteenth who seemed to be in the anteek furniture business. I mean I was surprised to hear Dorothy get so historical so she may really be getting educated in spite of everything. But Dorothy told Louie he need not try to figure out his number because she got it the minute she looked at him."

No matter how many fiancés or adventures they have, the girls' most important relationship is with each other, as Lorelei proves in But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, when she takes up writing again, but this time to tell Dorothy's story, which is quite a humdinger. Dorothy grew up in a carnival, and we follow her from the carny life to the stage, the Ziegfeld Follies, and beyond.

Lorelei may be a little distracted by her new married state, and even motherhood,

"And I always think that the sooner a girl becomes a Mother after the ceremony, the more likely it is to look like 'Daddy.'"

but she still is serious about writing. She even manages to get an invitation to join the Algonquin Circle. Of course Dorothy is not so impressed."Well, Dorothy finally finished her chicken hash and spoke up and said that she had overheard enough intellectual conversation for one day, so she was going out to hunt up a friend of hers who only talks about himself when he has a toothache."

Both books are humorous and quick reads. It would certainly help to be a little familiar with the 1920s, especially New York and Hollywood. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes aren't dated, but they are definitely a humorous time capsule. Lorelei and Dorothy don't let anyone hold them back. They are sassy and witty and completely unapologetic. They aren't exactly role models, but they are strong women who get what they want out of life. And that is always appealing to a girl like I.

for the love of marilyn

My post yesterday about Marilyn Monroe and our enduring fascination with the woman, her weight, her life, made me realize that I hadn't really written much about her talent as an actress. Marilyn cultivated a kewpie doll persona — both deliberately and thrust upon her — of breathy voice, wide eyes, wiggling hips, and voluptuous curves. Her personal tics have been imitated ad nauseum by so many would-be starlets and drag queens that it is easy to forget how driven an actress she was, and how talented.

With Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot

Marilyn was a product of her time. Her dyed blonde hair and bright red lips epitomized the '50s. She was hardly the only blonde bombshell out there. She was the most successful, because she brought that something extra, that ineffable "it" factor and smarts. Yes, Marilyn was smart. She was a troubled, even haunted woman. But she also had an insatiable curiosity and a desire to improve herself. She was also an adept comedienne, and she knew how to showcase her considerable assets.

"My illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!"

The facts of Marilyn's life have become the stuff of legend, and they have also provided a blueprint for many young women from difficult backgrounds who wanted to make it big in Hollywood. Her father left her mother before she was born. Her mother, who worked as a film cutter for RKO, spent her life in and out of mental institutions, leaving Norma Jeane to be raised in foster homes and even for a few years, an orphanage. She married her first husband at 16, clearly trying to escape an unstable life. The marriage only lasted four years, and Marilyn became a blonde and started her modeling career, which eventually led to a screen test with 20th Century-Fox.

She played a femme fatale in Niagara

Marilyn was far from an overnight success. She made an impression in a small part in All About Eve. Good film roles started to trickle in, including Niagara, where she played the unfaithful wife of Joseph Cotten. She may not have wanted to be typecast as the sexy girl, but she effortlessly exuded sex on camera. Her beauty and ability to poke fun at her previous "dumb blonde" roles made her a star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which led to How to Marry a Millionaire and The Seven Year Itch. Marilyn could have continued to play musical comedy roles forever, and become quite successful, but she wanted to delve deeper. She began studying with Lee Strasberg at the famous Actors Studio, which led to more serious roles (and her being taken more seriously) like Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits. Her career achievements were overshadowed by her dependency on drugs and alcohol and her unhappy romances with high profile men, like husbands Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and alleged affairs with John and Robert Kennedy. Her death by barbiturate overdose has created a mythology and industry of speculation — was it a suicide, accident, or even murder?

So much gossip still surrounds Marilyn, so many questions as to why she was so troubled. She became not only dependent on drugs, but also handlers — acting coaches, psychiatrists, husbands. It is easy in hindsight to criticize her, question her, but so many people forget that she was constantly fighting for the things she wanted in her life. She was underpaid for most of her career, even once she became a star. She desperately wanted to have a child, and suffered at least two miscarriages while she was married to Arthur Miller. Just that, the inability to have a child, can do a number on a woman. She was abandoned by a mother with mental illness and a father she never knew. She was blessed and cursed with her beauty. what must it have been like to wake up, either alone or with someone and confront "Marilyn?" In the later years of her career she was chronically late and difficult to work with. A lot of that was definitely the haze from the previous night's sleeping pills, but maybe it took her that long to also become Marilyn. Our ultimate images of her are plastic. With red lacquered lips and shiny sculpted hair, bedecked in jewels, she is almost a statue of sex. Looking at her in later films and photos, she kept the trademark blonde hair, but she was trying to soften her make-up, her hairstyle, her image.

Marilyn in the 50s and 60s

The persona of Marilyn endures through all of her melodrama and in some of her best roles. When you look at her filmography, it is amazing to see how she struggled to get to the top, how many movies she made before she had her first truly memorable role as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Her entire film career only spanned 15 years. As Lorelei Lee, both the camera and the audience love her antics with Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell), but they are not just two pretty girls served up by director Howard Hawks as visual candy. They are two women in charge and on the loose, on the hunt for men and fabulous jewelry. It's the traditional romantic chase, inverted. Many of the male characters in the film fear that Lorelei is predatory, a gold-digger, but she cleverly counters, "Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?"

Marilyn quipped about her own ife in a similar fashion, "Wouldn't it be nice to be like men and just get notches in your belt and sleep with the most attractive ones and not get emotionally involved?" Hawks, known for more male-centric fare like Red River, Sergeant York and To Have and Have Not, tapped into that feeling and made a girl power musical.

Lorelei, contemplating a tiara, "How do you put it around your neck?

Modern viewers might feel that Marilyn is a parody of herself in this film, but Gentleman Prefer Blondes, from 1953, was really her first starring role — it's where she became the woman we now associate with sex bomb Marilyn. The movie is loaded with sexual entendres, mostly voiced by Russell, who in an unusual twist, is the character who is doing most of the ogling. At one point she contemplates the entire Olympic swim team, who are just presented, chorus girl style, for her and the rest of the gals in the audience, to appreciate. She has a great rapport with Marilyn, who plays Lorelei, the ultimate material girl, who can be ditzy or self-aware, but has never met a diamond she doesn't like:

Lorelei, contemplating a tiara, "How do you put it around your neck?"
Dorothy, "You don't, honey, it goes on your head!"
Lorelei, "You must think I was born yesterday."
Dorothy, "Well, sometimes there's just no other possible explanation."
Lady Beekman, "It's a tiara."
Lorelei, "You DO wear it on your head. I just LOVE finding new places to wear diamonds."

Marilyn as Lorelei is fun and perplexing and sexy — a completely memorable character, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is still one of the most enjoyable movies out there. It's a shame she was never paired again with Russell, as the two are such a winning combo.

As Chérie in Bus Stop

Three years and four movies later, after working with The Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg, Marilyn appeared in Bus Stop. It was the perfect transition piece for her, from musicals to drama. She played a saloon singer, Chérie, a woman of little talent who dreams of making it big as a way to escape her current good-time girl life. It's hardly a female empowerment piece. Actually it's more of a caveman clubs woman and carries her off story. But there's no denying how lovely Marilyn is in the film, nor how heartbreaking is her rendition of "That Old Black Magic." Bus Stop taps into Marilyn's vulnerability and parallels what outsiders have come to believe as her own unhappy search for true love.

In 1959 Marilyn appeared as the ukelele-playing Sugar Kane in Some Like It Hot, one of the great American movies. Marilyn, according to director Billy Wilder, was more than a little difficult to work with, but none of that shows on screen. She is at the height of her voluptuousness, as well as being sweet, funny, and of course, vulnerable. As the singer in a 1920s all-girl band, she shares some wonderful scenes with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, dressed in drag as they hide out from some Chicago mobsters led by George Raft. Marilyn plays a more world-weary version of Lorelei Lee. Sugar is someone who in love has always got "the fuzzy end of the lollipop." She is a half-hearted gold-digger, and hopes that teaming up with Daphne and Josephine might help change her luck and snag her a millionaire, "I don't care how rich he is, as long as he has a yacht, his own private railroad car, and his own toothpaste." Some Like it Hot is a hilarious sex comedy, with hints that walking a mile in someone else's heels may have had a real effect on Joe and Jerry. Womanizer Joe may have found true love with Sugar. He has at least found, for the first time in his life, it impossible to just love her and leave her. As for Jerry, well, nobody's perfect.

A color still from The Misfits - Marilyn with Clark Gable

Marilyn's last film, The Misfits, is sometimes difficult to watch, as it is so closely tied to the real life struggles of its stars. Marilyn's marriage to playwright Arthur Miller (who wrote the screenplay) was falling apart.

"Arthur did this to me. He could have written anything and he comes up with this. If that's what he thinks of me, well, then I'm not for him and he's not for me. Arthur says it's his movie. I don't think he even wants me in it."

The Misfits was Gable's last film. He died of a heart attack after filming ended. Watching Marilyn in The Misfits is watching the ultimate Method actor. It's virtually impossible to sparate Marilyn from her character, even when Miller's lines verge on the clunky. Marilyn lets it all hang out. She's an open wound. At times it's heartbreaking to watch the emotions cascade across her face. But she and Gable have undeniable chemistry. She is beautiful, sexy, at times broken, and natural in the scene where she dances first with Gable, and then Eli Wallach.

"I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me and that I've made of myself, as a sex symbol. Men expect so much, and I can't live up to it."

Marilyn may have fought her battle with her image and lost, but she has become an enduring image of beauty and sexiness. But she is far more than the girl with the white dress over the subway grate or the bombshell in the pleated golden gown. She was also a very entertaining actress.


All Marilyn quotes are from imdb.