Remembering Marilyn With Gabe Pressman

First posted here on June 23, 2017 Gabriel ‘Gabe’ Pressman, a reporter for New York’s WNBC-TV for over 50 years, has died aged 93. Born and raised in the Bronx, he covered events ranging from the assassination of Malcolm X to 9/11. Among his many interviewees were Harry S. Truman, Elvis Presley, Fidel Castro and,...

The Day Marilyn Kept Rockefeller Waiting

First posted here on August 6, 2015 Newsday has dug into its archive for an account of Marilyn’s belated arrival in New York on July 2nd, 1957, from her summer home in Amagansett, to launch the construction of a new Time-Life building. Arthur Miller wrote about the event in his autobiography, Timebends, recalling his astonishment...

Marilyn and the Hollywood Studio Club Women

First posted here on December 10, 2019 Film historian Cari Beauchamp, who last year wrote ‘Atomic Blonde‘, an article detailing Marilyn’s mysterious 1953 PSA for the US Military, has now contributed a definitive history of the all-female Hollywood Studio Club on the intersection of Lexington Avenue and Lodi Place, where Marilyn lived on and off...

When Miguel Ferrer Stole Marilyn’s Heart

First posted here on January 22, 2017 Miguel Ferrer, the accomplished character actor whose many screen credits include Robocop and Twin Peaks, died last week aged 61, The Guardian reports. He was born on February 7, 1955 to singer Rosemary Clooney and her husband, actor Jose Ferrer (pictured above left.) Among his impeccable Hollywood connections...

Marilyn’s Directors: Howard Hawks

First posted here on December 9th, 2011 In this extract from the filmmaker and critic Peter Bogdanovich’s anthology, Who the Hell’s In It? (2004), he recalls an interview with classic Hollywood maestro Howard Hawks, who directed Marilyn in Monkey Business (1952) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953.)   “Monroe was frightened to come on the stage...

Richard Avedon’s Marilyn: A Persistent Memory

First posted here on February 4th, 2018 Taken at the end of a long sitting in 1957, the portrait now known as ‘Sad Marilyn’ has become one of her most iconic images, and a stand-out in her collaborations with Richard Avedon. Mark McClish, who worked with Avedon during the 1990s, names it as a favourite...

Richard Avedon’s Marilyn: Fabled Enchantments, and More

First posted here on February 4th, 2018 Penny Cobbs, who worked for Richard Avedon during the 1980s, has described their collaboration on a series of posters based on his ‘Fabled Enchantresses’ sessions with Marilyn. “We did four Marilyns – her impersonating the old-time sex symbols Jean Harlow, Theda Bara, Clara Bow, and Lillian Russell –...

Richard Avedon: Waiting for Marilyn

First posted here on February 4th, 2018 Frederick Eberstadt, who was Richard Avedon’s studio manager from 1958-60, shared his memories of the Some Like It Hot photo shoot in the new oral biography, Avedon: Something Personal. "When Dick was doing the publicity photographs for Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis came in carrying the most elaborate...

Richard Avedon, the Greenes and Marilyn

First posted here on February 4th, 2018 Amy Greene is one of many luminaries interviewed by authors Norma Stevens and Steven M.L. Aronson for Avedon: Something Personal, in which she reveals the ties between Milton and Avedon, and later, Marilyn. "One night in 1950, the photographer Milton Greene was having one of his Friday night open-houses...

Mike Nichols on Marilyn, Arthur Miller and Richard Avedon

First posted here on February 4th, 2018 The film and theatre director Mike Nichols, who died in 2014, is one of many whose memories are shared in Avedon: Something Personal, a new oral biography of the American photographer. Nichols studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio in 1953, before developing a comedy act with Elaine...