‘This is New York’: Marilyn’s Pop Culture Flashlight

Marilyn’s iconic ‘subway grate scene’ from The Seven Year Itch is featured in This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture, an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), as Tiffany Del Valle reports for the New York Observer.

“This is New York: 100 Years of Art and Pop Culture is a four-part show of stories told through art, music, film, fashion and more … The exhibition ends with Scenes of the City, an installation in ‘You Are Here’ that shows behind-the-scenes images of New York City films and gives insight into how they were made. There’s West Side Story (1961) and Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), as well as a snapshot of Billy Wilder, director of The Seven Year Itch (1955) standing next to Marilyn Monroe above the windy subway grate during the filming of the unforgettable white dress scene. The grand finale of this section is the 16-screen film experience that highlights the many New York moments in Hollywood and independent films.”

The image shown above was captured by George S. Zimbel on the night of September 14, 1954, when the scene was shot on the southwest corner of 52nd and Lexington – and the subway grate still stands (albeit unmarked) today.

The shoot attracted a large crowd and numerous photographers, but due to the excessive noise it was later redone on a Hollywood soundstage. So while the photos generated huge publicity, the final version was more polished.

This year will mark the 70th anniversary of the fabled incident – which also pushed Marilyn’s marriage to Joe DiMaggio to breaking point –  although The Seven Year Itch wasn’t released until June 1955.

Another photo from that evening, taken by Marilyn’s friend Sam Shaw, was posted on her Instagram account yesterday. The caption notes that Marilyn also filmed further scenes at a brownstone house on East 61st Street during her New York visit.

Marilyn moved to New York permanently just a few months later. Her other famous ‘New York moments’ – riding a pink elephant at the Ringling Brothers circus in 1955, and singing ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’ to John F. Kennedy in 1962 – were both live performances at Madison Square Garden.

But for a fuller picture of Marilyn’s life in New York, we must turn to photographers like Ed Feingersh, Roy Schatt, and Sam Shaw, and the candid snapshots of James Haspiel and the Monroe Six.