Marilyn Monroe 1926-1962
Listen to this KPCC interview with photographer Bert Stern at the launch of his new, deluxe book for Taschen at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, where the 1962 session was shot.
Larry Schiller, who also photographed Monroe in the months before she died, also speaks.
Carrie White of the Huffington Post reports on the launch of Bert Stern’s new Marilyn book for Taschen, with text by Norman Mailer, at the Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles, where Stern photographed Monroe in 1962.
Guests included legendary music producer Quincy Jones, actresses Penelope Ann Miller and Julie Newmar (who played Catwoman in the cult 1960s TV series, Batman), and comedian Chris Tucker. (Interestingly, some guests were as shocked as me by the book’s $1,000 price tag!)
Stern was introduced by Lawrence Schiller, who photographed Marilyn during filming of the pool scene in the unfinished Something’s Got to Give.
While at the launch, Stern spoke to the Los Angeles Times about his memories of the shoot. The suite where he photographed Marilyn is now part of the hotel’s La Prairie Spa.
‘”I didn’t want any clothes. I wanted things — jewelry, scarves, objects,” said Stern of the Monroe session. As usual, she showed up three hours late but thinner then he had expected. The 36-year-old Monroe sipped on her favorite Dom Pérignon champagne, picked up a few scarves from off the bed and giddily danced around while Stern snapped away. “She was in a terrific mood, a lot of fun,” Stern said. “She wanted to be in Vogue.”
“She got fed up with the dresses and wanted to go back to less things,” recalled Stern, who didn’t want a glitzy showbiz photo. An admirer of Edward Steichen’s black and white portrait of Greta Garbo, he wanted something more intimate, that definitive, immortal picture.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime event. I knew I’d never shoot her again.”‘
Lawrence ‘Larry’ Schiller, whose nude photos of Marilyn during filming of Something’s Got to Give are currently on view at the Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles, has spoken to the Hollywood Reporter.
“I knew Marilyn over a two-year period. I met her first on a movie called Let’s Make Love. I photographed her at that time on and off through the time of her death. I was 22 years old and she was 34 or 35. The relationship was not a sexual relationship. It was very much a relationship of a young guy who isn’t even that good of a photographer yet and how she teaches him how to take pictures of her. She shows me how the light would be better from this angle or that angle…The dumb blonde was a great performance. She had shaped this voice to go with it.”
‘12 Photographs‘, a selection of nudes taken by Lawrence Schiller during filming of the pool scene in Something’s Got to Give, will be on display at the Duncan Miller Gallery, Venice Beach, from October 21-November 26.
While you’re in Venice Beach, why not check out the work of pop artist Ron English at Post No Bills (featuring a screenprint, ‘Marilyn Comic‘.)
“Catherine Hicks‘s performance in the 1980 made-for-television biography Marilyn: The Untold Story is generally regarded as the best biographical portrayal of Marilyn Monroe. Produced by Lawrence Schiller, the photographer who took the famous nude photos of Marilyn on the set of Something’s Got to Give, Marilyn: The Untold Story was based on Norman Mailer’s ‘novel biography.’
The film was enhanced by the participation of three talented directors, including Hollywood veteran Jack Arnold. The impressive roster of behind-the-scenes personnel ensured pleasant entertainment, but the three-hour drama lacks insight into Marilyn’s personality and fails to add anything new to the Monroe lore and literature.
Hicks, whose thoughtful performance is the highlight of the production, managed to capture Marilyn’s voice and mannerisms and suggest her alluring presence without resorting to caricature.
Hicks received a well-earned Emmy nomination. (In an ironic twist, Monroe ‘replacement’ Sheree North appears in this film in the role of Marilyn’s mother.)” – Susan Doll, author of Marilyn: Her Life and Legend
The opening scenes from this hard-to-find biopic are now on Youtube, with more to follow.
