This evocative image of Marilyn amid the paparazzi – captured by Eve Arnold during a 1956 press conference with Sir Laurence Olivier at New York’s Plaza Hotel, to announce their upcoming collaboration on The Sleeping Prince (aka The Prince and the Showgirl) – is featured in the latest Square Print Sale at Magnum Photos, ending on Sunday, April 27.
‘Halfway through, one of the very thin straps on Monroe’s dress broke and there was pandemonium as everyone clamoured to find a safety pin,’ says Michael Arnold, Eve Arnold’s grandson, tells The Guardian. ‘Afterwards, Monroe winked at Eve. She had planned the mishap to create a scene.’
However, in his 1982 book, Monroe: Her Life in Pictures, James Spada wrote that when a snarky reporter asked Marilyn, ‘How did you feel when the strap broke?’, she snapped back: ‘How would you feel if something of yours broke in front of a whole room full of a lot of strangers?’
More recently, the photo was used to promote the 2024 Champs-Élysées Film Festival.
Befitting the theme of ‘Spectacles’, another photo (by Bob Henriques) shows Marilyn arriving at the Some Like It Hot premiere in 1959 – both straps intact! Each 5.5 inch image is placed inside an 6.6 inch white archive matte paper mount, available for £110 unframed or £300 framed.
And finally, the latest edition of Eve Arnold’s Monroe monograph is featured in the current issue of UK magazine Amateur Photographer (#2419, dated April 22, 2025.) You can read my review here.
The Marilyn Report 