Marilyn and her Gentlemen Prefer Blondes co-star Jane Russell are featured in the latest issue of Australian Women’s Weekly Icons (#32/2603), as part of a section on Hollywood’s ‘Dynamic Duos.’ The eight-page story focuses on the women’s friendship on the set, and the sparks they generated on the screen.
This issue is a summer special, and the article is a reprint. For readers outside Australia, the magazine is available digitally via Zinio, and print copies can be found on eBay – but shipping costs are high…
In June 1953, as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opened in the US, Marilyn and Jane signed their names in the cement outside the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. A separate article explores the history of this iconic venue and the starry ritual it inspired.
Meanwhile, a photo of Marilyn with husband-to-be Arthur Miller and their dog Hugo in Roxbury, Connecticut prior to their 1956 wedding is included in a layout on stars and their pets, as part of the regular ‘At Play’ series.
A still photo of Marilyn with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall in the powder-room scene from How to Marry a Millionaire introduces another section on ‘Style Makers.’
A 1940s beach shot by Laszlo Willinger illustrates a feature on the birth of the bikini; while a Gene Kornman portrait exemplifies 1950s makeup trends.
And this photo of Shirley MacLaine with Hollywood costumer Edith Head reminded me somewhat of Travilla’s design for Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Jane Russell also appeared in the previous issue of Australian Women’s Weekly Icons (#31/2601), with a ‘Leading Ladies’ article including a photo of her in costume for the hilarious court scene from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in which she dons a blonde wig to impersonate Marilyn.
More dubiously, that issue also shared a fictitious account of Marilyn’s alleged first meeting with John F. Kennedy, taken from James Patterson‘s ‘true crime thriller,’ The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe.
Elsewhere, a photo of newlyweds Marilyn and Arthur Miller cycling in England showed up in the ‘At Play’ feature.
The Marilyn Report 