Collection 1 - Nude – Pure – Us!

214 KALTBLUT
She was really talented and I think she knew it. That
was partly the reason of her sadness. She had to
probe she was an actress, not just a silly good looking
blonde. I found some pictures of her in class at
the Actor’s Studio in New York City. She wasn’t sitting
in the front row like the star she was. She was
in the last one with no makeup and smoking a cigarette,
just listening of what Lee Strasberg had to say.
She wanted to learn.
There’s a story (can’t say if it’s true) about her presence
there. It is said that the rest of the students resented
Marilyn, basically ignoring her, and felt she
didn’t belong with them, as they were serious actors,
and she was just a Hollywood star. However, when
she took to the stage herself, something happened.
Something that just never happened at the Actor’s
Studio before.
The students applauded. When Marilyn died in 1962
Lee Strasberg said that he was sure she could have
been one of the great actors of the stage.
SHE WAS ALSO A REBEL
She started and ended her career being naked in
front of a camera. During the Pin Ups era in the late
1940s she became one of them. For some actresses
that was the first step. We all remember that famous
“Playboy” cover in December 1953.
But the truth is that those pictures were taken in
May 1949 when she was a no one and after becoming
a successful young star with Twentieth Century Fox
those pictures were published. It was a big scandal.
Except for her. Marilyn admitted she freely posed for
the photos. She liked her body, she liked her sexuality
and there was nothing to be ashamed of. That was
Marilyn Monroe.
In June 1962, one month and 2 weeks before her
death, Marilyn started a three-day photo session for
“Vogue” with photographer Bern Stern at the Bel-
Air Hotel in Los Angeles. More than twenty-six hundred
pictures were taken. Half of them naked ones.
She was just 36 years old but she looked more than
40. She looked stunning but sad. She was lost. In fact
she was already “dead”. Those photos were like a final
statement of Norma Jean (Marilyn’s real name).