magnificent. the female power that she s harnessed is phenomenal. she s arching her back, and her arm is up to create beautiful lines, beautiful angles. they look like 19th century nudes. she wasn t afraid of showing off her body, which was a great body. but it s easy to forget what a conservative country america was. nude modeling was not considered respectable. it could have ended her career. i said, are you sure they won t recognize me? he said, i promise. this is hollywood. it is a symbol for magic, entertainment, and make-believe. after love happy, marilyn thought she was on the brink of stardom. she s done it. she s there. but it doesn t happen. it s like marilyn is just another blonde girl. but one thing that all the great movie stars shared was determination. so of course she went back and tried again. a savvy 23-year-old marilyn is preparing for a photo shoot. marilyn was out of contract, and so she decided that she needed a strategy to ge
you know, in every sense. just letting rip and having fun. this shoot is taking place at the home of marilyn s first major movie agent, johnny hyde. johnny hyde was one of the most powerful agents in hollywood. marilyn wanted respect. she wanted somebody to say, you can be a star. and johnny hyde gave her that affirmation. she loves to be in front of the camera. it s all coming from up here. she s staging it, and the photographer is clicking it. i can t imagine him saying, oh, hang on to that tree. put your legs up. it s just like, follow the yellow brick road. follow marilyn, and you ll get the shot. she seemed to really have an intimate understanding of what the camera needed from her. she used whatever she could
joe hit safely in 56 consecutive ball games. the yankee clipper was a magician with a 40-ounce bat. a lot of people said it was a publicity stunt. it very possibly was a publicity stunt. you leverage somebody else s stardom to add to your own. dating joe dimaggio was a very smart thing to do. he was one of the most famous heroes in the united states. marilyn is flooded with thousands of fan letters every week. but as her fame grows, the past comes back to haunt her. early on in 1952, the nude photographs marilyn took as an anonymous model gained popularity and started popping up in gas stations and all over the place.
she and her costar tom ewell walk out of the movie theater and she approaches a subway grating. oh, do you feel the breeze from the subway? isn t it delicious? marilyn s friend the photographer sam shaw is in the crowd. his photos create history. it s almost like she s saying this one s for you, sam. she is playing to the photographer and she is really turning it on. that is the image that most people remember. it s just an exhilarating moment because you feel it s something that s happening accidentally and yet it isn t. it s a woman having fun with her own body and having a laugh to the camera and i think that s why it s lasted the test of time. oh! here comes another one. we thought it would be over
it was like, wow! what s going on? it was a shift in the consciousness. i remember feeling that. she goes to the miss america pageant in atlantic city and wears this very, very low-cut dress down to her navel. it s j.lo before there was j.lo. we are all born sexual creatures, thank god. to see a woman that is so in charge of her sexuality is extremely empowering. marilyn is owning her sexuality. but soon others will exploit it. my name is hugh hefner, and i m editor/publisher of playboy magazine. in december 1953, marilyn inadvertently makes history.