Andre de Dienes

Marilyn Monroe, California, 1953

1953

In 1945 Dienes met the nineteen-year-old Marilyn Monroe, then called Norma Jeane Baker, who was a model on the books of Emmeline Snively’s Blue Book Model Agency. Snively told Dienes of Norma Jeane, and suggested her for his project of photographing artistic nudes. In his memoirs Dienes described the first time he met Monroe saying "...it was as if a miracle had happened to me. Norma Jeane seemed to be like an angel. I could hardly believe it for a few moments. An earthly, sexy-looking angel! Sent expressly for me!". His series of pin-up shots of her at Long Island's Tobay Beach, in Oyster Bay, New York became notable. Norma Jeane had recently separated from her husband, James Dougherty and told Dienes of her wish to become an actress. Dienes suggested that they go on a road trip to photograph her in the natural landscapes, for which Dienes paid her a flat fee of $200. Dienes had earlier been present at the first meeting of Monroe and her mother in six years, and had presumptuously announced to her mother that he and Monroe were to be married. His photographs of Monroe from this trip sold widely and he made far more money from the images, and did not offer Monroe a percentage of the sales, or paid her on the profits. Dienes next met her on Labor Day in 1946, with her new name of Marilyn Monroe, they next worked together in 1952, where he shot her at the Bel Air Hotel and 1953, where she telephoned him at 2am, and took him to a darkened street where he used his car headlights to illuminate her, taking pictures her wide-eyed and unmade up. Dienes last saw her alive in June 1961. Of their last meeting he said that "...her success was a sham, her hopes thwarted...the next day she left a bouquet outside my door: a selection of her latest photos. Smiling, radiant - utterly misleading; I little guessed that this was our last goodbye.” Source: Wikipedia