New York of the 1950’s offered a smartness and comfort at every turn, the new paint, the alluring window displays, the diamond lights, the crocodile file of taxis, the long hot baths, the short cold drinks, the succulent dishes.
And what an Aladdin’s cave of literature. Fifth Avenue bookshops were stacked with newly published deluxe editions. Best sellers went over the counter in millions, Sunday newspapers still weighed enough to give you a hernia, and news-stands were sky-scrapered with hundreds of different magazines. In the museums, paintings by the world’s great masters hung cheek by jowl on the walls.In early 1955 during her “New York Exile” Marilyn Monroe befriended photographer, Ed Feingersh.
Together they worked on a project for Redbook magazine. Marilyn had fled Hollywood to sidestep the unacceptable constraints of her contract with Twentieth Century Fox and to study at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg.
For a week Feingersh followed her around the city, from her hotel suite at the Ambassador Hotel to an excursion on the subway, a stop for refreshments at Costello’s restaurant, a visit to Elizabeth Arden, getting ready for the premiere of Tennessee William’s ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’ which took place at the Morosco Theatre and the after show party at New York’s famous El Morocco nightclub and her famous ride atop a pink elephant for Mike Todd’s Celebrity Circus, a charity benefit gala for The Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation at Madison Square Garden!
The photographs of Marilyn here represent the spirit of optimism and radical changes that characterized her in 1955, from self-confident to extreme vulnerability; vibrant and cheerful one minute to dreamy, pensive, sad the next. It’s a treasure trove of images of the worlds most famous woman on the verge of a new tomorrow and striving for her dream, and yet still a little unsure of herself.
By Fraser Penney
