Sam Shaw, photographer and friend to Marilyn, was born almost 100 years ago, on January 15, 1912. A newly relaunched Shaw Family Archives website have announced a variety of exciting projects marking this important anniversary. including: 100 Photos for Press Freedom, a magazine tribute; a statue based on Shaw’s most famous shot of Marilyn, on location for The Seven Year Itch, to be placed in the French city of Boulogne-Sur-Mer; the ongoing ‘Marilyn in New York‘ subway exhibit; and Shaw’s inclusion in the Ferragamo Museum’s Monroe exhibit, which ends on January 28th.

Interestingly, the Shaw family recently collaborated with art publisher Taschen on a tribute to James Bond. Imagine what they could do for Marilyn!

Thanks to Chris at Club Passion Marilyn

The Chicago Tribune takes a look at the various ways Marilyn’s legacy has endured – through movies, TV, music, art, literature, advertising, photography and more.

“There’s a moment at the end of the promo reel for Love, Marilyn, an upcoming Marilyn Monroe documentary that will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, when Uma Thurman, speaking in words that were written by Monroe, almost whispers these lines:

‘Please don’t talk about me when I’m gone.’

Obviously, Monroe didn’t get her wish…

…But the most substantial musical treatments could be Dan Bern’s Marilyn in which the singer-songwriter posits that her life would have been better if the author she married had been Henry Miller rather than Arthur Miller, and T Bone Burnett’s After All These Years which Burnett has said was inspired by a story he read about exhuming Monroe years after her death:

‘Was she still as alluring, still as seductive?
Could she still drive you crazy by the look on her face?
Did she still have a whisper you could hear cross an ocean?
Was she still a scandal, still a disgrace?’…

…It’s also not hard to find fake Marilyn Twitter accounts including @TheMsMonroe, which puts its approach this way: ‘It’s 1962 and Marilyn Monroe Tweets regularly.’”

‘Please don’t tweet about me when I’m gone?’“

This month’s updates include a review of the great new book, Marilyn in Fashion; footage of director Howard Hawks talking about Marilyn; two magazine items from 1957; reporter Vernon Scott’s account of the famous ‘pool scene’ in Something’s Got to Give; and my profile of photographer Jean Howard.

This month’s updates include Fraser Penney’s review of Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed, the new, fully updated and expanded biography by Michelle Morgan; ‘Shooting Marilyn’, a 1953 article by Philippe Halsman for Photography magazine; and this lovely portrait of Marilyn in The Misfits, by Bruno Doucin.

This month’s updates include Fraser’s review of Marilyn by Magnum; a vintage magazine article from 1954; a look back at Marilyn’s trip to Washington in 1957; and a 2006 article about Inge Morath.

Also on the website are details of how to donate to Flowers for Marilyn’s birthday tribute on June 1st.

This month’s updates include a profile of photographer William Rizzo, and a 1954 interview with Emmeline Sniveley, who had signed the young Norma Jeane to her modelling agency eight years before.

Photo by Yury Toroptsov, 'Marilyn and I', 2010

Marijane Gray, who has written several articles about Marilyn, was interviewed by Elisa Jordan for The Examiner recently, and spoke out about ABG and Facebook’s treatment on Monroe’s fans – and in particular, the mass deletion of non-profit tribute pages.

“It would do a lot to restore public opinion of them if they admitted they were wrong about what constitutes a copyright violation and left the non-commercial tribute pages in peace. There are enough people out there selling fake autographs, fake memorabilia, putting Marilyn’s face on cheap junk … go after them, not the people who want to look at photos or have a chat about her.”

Photos from the estate of Allan ‘Whitey’ Snyder – soon to be auctioned at Julien’s – made the MSN homepage today.

Photo by Harry Snowden

In the light of recent events in which ABG – who handle licensing matters for Marilyn’s estate – have had non-profit, fan pages deleted from Facebook – Marijane Gray has investigated the subject in an article for Yahoo! Voices, speaking to fans and legal experts on copyright and fair use.

‘Authentic Brands Group would do well to heed an actual quote from Marilyn: “If I am a star, the people made me a star.” Well, the people still love their star, and love her so much they will rebel against what they see as the commodification of her. Marilyn was viewed as a cash cow in life, never getting the respect she deserved, and it is a great tragedy that 50 years after her death nothing has changed.’

This month’s updates include a Movieland profile from 1957; a review of Marilyn in New York, a book about photographer Ed Feingersh; lobby cards from early Monroe movies, and a gallery of photos from the triumphant ‘New Marilyn’ press conference, from when MM returned to Hollywood in 1956 after a year’s absence.

Articles about Marilyn published in Life magazine – spanning 1949-1972 – have been shared by Stacy over at Everlasting Star’s Magazines & Articles Discussion forum. Not to be missed!

In a bizarre sign of our times, Marilyn Monroe – or rather, ABG, the licensing arm of her estate – is now verified on Twitter. She also has a Facebook page.

While I’m strongly in favour of Marilyn’s estate having a public voice, so far I’m not too impressed by the content – too many misattributed quotes, celebrity shout-outs and product plugs. All in good fun, of course, but nonetheless I don’t think this accurately reflects her rich legacy.

I’d like to see fans having more input in these accounts, and a bit more quality control. Ideally, these accounts should be managed by someone who has an in-depth knowledge of Marilyn’s life and career.

One of Marilyn’s last photographers, George Barris, has launched a new website.

 This month’s updates include ‘Misquoting Marilyn’ by Marijane Gray; my profile of photographer Eve Arnold; plus a review of Michelle Morgan’s new book, Marilyn’s Footsteps, and a cover story from 1955.

 Retro World is a new Facebook game featuring a Marilyn-inspired character, reports USA Today:

‘After you type in your name and select an available avatar, you’ll begin Retro World on a Hollywood set…But the real fun doesn’t start until you choose to play one of the “Shows” at the movie theater, beginning with a ’60s-style spy thriller, “Owl Files,” which pays homage to James Bond, Communists, the Space Race, and so on. While Dick Clark plays himself as the game’s host, of sorts, other licensed stars assume the role of fictional characters in these story-driven tales; Monroe is a sexy spy in “Owl Files,” for example, while Presley plays as a doctor in an upcoming show.

Most of the graphics in Retro World are still images, mixing real actors with virtual objects and sets, but animation sequences and music helps to bring the stories to life. These aren’t near-photorealistic Call of Duty visuals mind you, but most Facebook gamers know not to expect that from free, online games.

While it’s exclusive to Facebook at this time, Retro World is expected to debut on other social network platforms, such as Google+, as well as tablets.’