Photographer John Florea shot these amazing pictures of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe during the 1950s.
Marilyn Monroe’s name alone suggests diverse pictures to different people. For some, it implies the whole benchmark of female sensuality. beauty. Grace is intricacy. For others, one thinks of insecurity. Tragic suffering.
Originally a photographer for the San Francisco Examiner, Florea came on the LIFE crew in 1941 and lived in Hollywood, specialising in celebrity pictures of actresses such Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.
Florea left LIFE in 1949 after returning to Hollywood following the war to keep photographing celebrities.
An exhibition “Masters of Starlight: Photographers in Hollywood” in 1988 at the LACMA, Los Angeles included color-painted portraits of cinema stars created in the 1950s.
Later, he produced, directed, and wrote for almost 130 TV shows between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s.
In 1951 Florea first took pictures of Marilyn Monroe. Before her 24th birthday, she had already starred in two praised films: “The Asphalt Jungle” and “All About Eve.” Twentieth Century-Fox just signed her on a seven-year contract.
For “All About Eve,” Marilyn handed Thomas Moulton the Academy Award for Best Sound Recording on March 29, 1951.
Florea shot her that day in a sophisticated black gown; the images were chosen to highlight an article, “1951’s Model Blonde,” which Collier’s September edition published.
Florea shot Marilyn with sailors on a journey to the USS Benham in Long Beach on June 19. She donned the black netted dress shown in “As Young as You Feel.”
Lying on a rug, this era also produced two of the most hideous pictures of Marilyn.
She looks at the camera squarely with heavy-lidded eyes and a finger hanging from her mouth. She lays her hand on her head and stares up in agony in another view.
Although Monroe was already a beautiful model, she had not yet found the outstanding portrait shooters to turn her from starlet into goddess.
Florea was pleased to play along as most of her publicity images from this era followed the “cheesecake” template.
Marilyn struck a tight-fitting bathing suit posture on a rock, one strap pulled down. Other sessions revealed Florea’s inclination towards mischief.
Marilyn sat at a dressing table dressed in a negligee for one shot, pouting silently while the phone rang.
Another shows Marilyn in thermal underwear over a raging log fire.
Men’s mags that winter caught it, apparently demonstrating she could look great in everything.
Florea shot Marilyn on the sets of her films between 1953 and 1954.
She sat cross-legged and counted a mound of money while posing in character as gold-digging Lorelei Lee during Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
(Photo credit: John Florea / Wikimedia Commons / Unabridged Marilyn, Randall Riese, Neal Hitchins, 1987 / Article based on Marilyn’s Photographers: John Florea by Tara Hanks at tarahanks.com).
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