Hello , Norma Jeane!
Marilyn Monroe may have been the most photographed celebrity, but get ready to see the ultimate blond bombshell in a completely new way, thanks to dozens of never-published photos going on display Tuesday at the Sumo Gallery in Tribeca.
There’s Monroe standing next to a Canadian Mountie! There’s the former Norma Jeane Mortenson looking relaxed and seductive in an untucked white button-down, blue jeans and cowboy boots. There’s an Allan (Whitey) Snyder shot of Monroe between takes filming “Niagara” and looking like the girl next door — a very very sexy girl next door.
Yes, there is the expected iconographic stills in “Marilyn: The Lost Photos” — not that we’re complaining about Monroe, looking like a perfect 10 as she lounges in the sun in a tight white bathing suit hugging her shapely self — but even the posed shots from her glory days reveal something about Monroe and stardom.
“There are photos from when she was the center of attention, and you can tell she is loving it,” says Pierre Vudrag, whose Los Angeles-based Limited Runs sells rare prints online and is behind the gallery show. “Later on, we all see the photos where that fame came down on her and destroyed her.”
Vudrag has been building the show since 2012, when he came across a trove of shots taken by Snyder, Monroe’s personal makeup artist who even did her up for her funeral in 1962. Snyder did not intend to publish any of his candid shots, so Monroe was extremely relaxed and natural in front of his lens.
That explains the Snyder shot of Monroe posed in the wild with some bears.
What’s most striking about that photograph is not the vicious man-eating wild animals, but the fact that Monroe is almost entirely without makeup.
“She never allowed anyone to photograph her without makeup,” says Vudrag. “When you look at that picture you are seeing Norma Jeane, not Marilyn Monroe.”
Later, Vudrag found other unseen shots by Milton H. Greene, a pioneer in color photography; Thomas “Doc” Kaminski, who was the official studio photographer on Monroe’s last movie, “The Misfits”; and Mischa Pelz, a photographer who long told friends he had photos of Marilyn Monroe but never showed them off. Pelz’s photos from the sets of Monroe’s back-to-back hits “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “How to Marry a Millionaire” were only discovered after some boxes fell off a shelf during an earthquake.
“She was the most famous actress in the world, but in these photos you see she is a real person,” Vudrag says, “not just the sex symbol.”
jsilverman@nydailynews.com
“Marilyn: The Lost Photos ” at Sumo Gallery, 37 Walker St. between Church St. and Broadway, (917) 450-5634, July 23-26, noon to 7 p.m. For info, visit sumotribeca.com. Also, prints of all 38 photos are on sale at limitedruns.com.
