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Celebrating Marilyn in Palm Springs

Marilyn in Palm Springs by Bruno Bernard, 1949

Marilyn, a regular visitor to Palm Springs, will be remembered at its International Film Festival with a screening of The Prince and the Showgirl at 1pm this Saturday, January 14, at the Palm Canyon Theatre, reports My Desert.

Susan Bernard will be talking about her new book, Marilyn: Intimate Exposures, afterward.  She has also selected 40 of her father’s photographs to exhibit in stores on both sides of North Palm Canyon Drive in the Uptown Design District north of Alejo Road as part of a Marilyn Walk (on display all week.)

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‘Picturing Marilyn’ in New York

Marilyn by Andre De Dienes, 1946

‘Picturing Marilyn’, an exhibition featuring 62 photos by Andre de Dienes, Richard C. Miller, Bruno Bernard, Philippe Halsman, Sam Shaw, Milton Greene and Bert Stern, will be on display (and up for sale) at New York’s Milk Gallery for two days only (November 10-12.)

The exhibition is featured in fashion bible Women’s Wear Daily. Curator Etheleen Staley comments, “The key to it is that she has been so photographed, and was so photogenic that, in a way, people are drawn to her image even more than her movies.”

Other highlights include a replica of the black dress Marilyn wore for Bert Stern in 1962 (remade by Christian Dior), and a screening of My Week With Marilyn.

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Susan Bernard Interviewed


Author Susan Bernard talks to Elisa Jordan at The Examiner about her new book, Marilyn: Intimate Exposures; her father, Bruno Bernard’s photo archive; and the claim that he introduced Marilyn to agent Johnny Hyde.

“I wanted to not just show photos, but show the back of the photos to show the process of the photographer. I thought that was really interesting where they would literally type a story on a typewriter and they’d cut it out and paste it with tape on the back of a photo. Life was different then! He always wanted to tell the back story. The process of what it was like to be a photographer at that time was very interesting to me and I thought it would be very interesting to other people. And I wanted actually show the negatives. I wanted to show that there is a negative of the flying skirt [from The Seven Year Itch] in existence, and that the original proof sheets do exist. That was one of my goals. In picking the pictures, I just wanted to select the pictures that showed not the obvious glamour pictures, but showed her pensive or thinking—pictures that told a story.”

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Marilyn in the Blogosphere

Early fan reviews of MM-related books and film have been posted online. Artist Elizabeth Grammaticas attended last week’s premiere of My Week With Marilyn at the New York Film Festival:

” ‘My Week with Marilyn’ is the most heartfelt attempt to understand Marilyn Monroe that I’ve seen in a motion picture, despite at times the questionable credibility of the initial text. Michelle Williams doesn’t physically look all that much like Marilyn.  Marilyn is hard to physically capture,  and there are others with a greater likeness…but personality wise…Michelle finds Marilyn.  I agree with other critics that Michelle falls short of…performing Marilyn performing Marilyn (ie…in her scenes recreating ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’), but at times if you blur your eyes, catch a profile, angle, a walk or an expression you see moments of candour or pain where you feel like you are actually seeing something more real than a publicity shot of the real Marilyn Monroe with a her white dress blowing up over her head. One of my favorite parts of the film is when Michelle as Marilyn says ‘shall I be her?’ and turns the Marilyn persona on.  This is seen in the trailer of the film, but like the trailer of the original ‘Prince and the Showgirl’…this trailer doesn’t remotely depict what ‘My Week with Marilyn’ is about. The films are about basic interaction between very different people on a much more subtle level.’

Over at The Mmm Blog, Melinda Mason reviews Susan Bernard’s new book, Marilyn: Intimate Exposures:

“Intimacy (as the title suggests) is what Susan Bernard must have been striving for in this edition of her book.  As Marilyn book collectors will be aware, Susan also published a book based on her father’s photos and journal entries called ‘Bernard of Hollywood’s Marilyn’ in 1993.  While some photos are the same and many journal entries are identical, that is where the similarities end.  ‘Marilyn: Intimate Exposures’ is a far superior book.  It even includes a beautiful photographic print from ‘The Seven Year Itch’ in an envelope at the back so you can frame it.”

And on Goodreads, David Marshall (author of The DD Group and Life Among the Cannibals) reviews Bye Bye, Baby, a novel about Marilyn’s death by crime writer Max Allan Collins.

‘But when a historical figure is suddenly no more, (and make no mistake about it, Marilyn Monroe is a historical figure), attention should be paid. All angles concerning their passing should be looked at carefully. All research should be scrutinized. All opinions should be considered. And that should not be restricted to non-fiction attempts at understanding the incomprehensible. Fiction can be a powerful tool and this includes the fun reads. Future generations may come across Bye Bye, Baby and even if they understand the work is “just” a novel, there’s plenty here to get you thinking and rethinking, and, hopefully, that will lead them on to other books on the subject. That, as far as I am concerned, is one of the greatest services of fiction—it makes you think. And Collins more than does his share in that regard.’

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Lindsay Lohan Pens Intro to Bruno Bernard Book

Megan Fox may be so over Marilyn, but it’s good to hear that Lindsay Lohan is still very much a fan. She has written a forward to Marilyn: Intimate Exposures, a new collection of photos by Bruno Bernard, as revealed in the Huffington Post:

“Marilyn was the beautiful bad girl in that tight, rose-colored dress. The character she played was strong and taking control, which I unconsciously knew at that young age [12] was a necessary quality for a woman. I can understand the photographer Bernard of Hollywood’s [Bruno Bernard] statement, ‘it took a superhuman effort to be Marilyn.’ I identify…

…People in their mind have created who I am and act as if there is no real person inside of me. Just like Marilyn. Marilyn never wanted to be just a celebrity. Neither do I … I had always thought that movie stars were in films that would last forever in your mind. But now the films don’t. I don’t want to be remembered as someone who just wanted to be photographed, who goes out at night, and gets in trouble…

…Heath Ledger once said to me, ‘It’s built you up to knock you down and that’s all it is.’ Marilyn said she had no foundation. But she said she was really working on it. I’ve been trying to do the same thing … I believe in myself and I’m a good actress.”

 

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Greene, Kelley, Bernard Join ABG

Statement from PR Newswire:

‘Authentic Brands Group (ABG), in addition to its recent acquisition of The Estate of Marilyn Monroe owned in partnership with NECA, Anna Strasberg and Anna Freud Center, announced today it has consolidated the licensing efforts of the Marilyn Monroe brand by signing exclusive agreements to represent the Marilyn Monroe photography of Milton H. Greene, Tom Kelley and Bernard of Hollywood – who together produced the most celebrated and recognized photographs of Monroe.’

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Bruno Bernard’s ‘Marilyn: Intimate Exposures’

Marilyn: Intimate Exposures, showcasing the work of the late Bruno Bernard and authored by his daughter, Susan Bernard, will be published in October by Sterling Signature.

Two previous books on this subject have already published: the now rare Requiem for Marilyn (1986) and Bernard of Hollywood’s Marilyn (1993.)

Intimate Exposures includes essays by Jane Russell and Lindsay Lohan, and can be pre-ordered from various retailers, including The Book Depository

Product Description

Includes frameable print!
2012 is the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, and this lavishly illustrated volume celebrates her enduring beauty through photographs by legendary Hollywood photographer Bruno Bernard. Bernard’s iconic photograph of Marilyn standing over the subway grate in a billowing white dress is synonymous with Hollywood glamour and sex appeal, and many of the images here have never before been published. They cover key moments in Marilyn’s life, including her first professional sitting in 1946, all enlivened by fascinating excerpts from Bruno’s journal.
Fans of the blonde bombshell will also treasure the stunning, frameable print included with this keepsake book.

About the Author

Susan Bernard, daughter of Bruno Bernard, is an author, producer, and president of Bernard of Hollywood Publishing/Renaissance Road, Inc. She preserves and internationally exhibits, publishes, and licenses her late father’s work, generating feature articles in The New York Times, Time,Newsweek, Vanity Fair, American Photo, Entertainment Weekly, and other journals. Bernard of Hollywood’s famous “Marilyn in White” photograph was chosen as the photographic Symbol of the Century in 1999 by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in its Fame After Photography exhibition.
  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Sterling Signature (October 4, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 140278001X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1402780011

Details from Amazon

Thanks to Chris at Club Passion Marilyn

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Bruno Bernard’s Marilyn Wall Graphics

LTL Prints, a US-based wall graphics company, has launched a unique collection of Bernard of Hollywood wall graphics, featuring ‘Larger Than Life’ images from the archives of Hollywood photographer Bruno Bernard. The range includes many images of Marilyn Monroe from her early modelling days to the peak of her fame.

Here’s the blurb…

Bernard of Hollywood premium wall graphics from LTL PRINTS are available in a range of customer-selected sizes (from laptop-size up to seven feet tall), are self-adhesive and will stick to almost any surface (walls, windows, even ceilings), and can be removed and re-hung 100 times without leaving a mark or damaging your walls.

Press Release

LTL Prints

Bernard of Hollywood