I have no idea how blogger will arrange the pictures I scanned in. Probably in the ugliest way possible. Oh well, nothing can dampen my enthusiasm for this post. I love talking about blonde bombshells. It was one of the greatest entertainment innovations of the 50s. It was not only good for busty actresses and scandal magazines but for popular literature, art, comedy, and the morale of the whole civilized world.
So far as I know the bombshell was invented by Norma Jean...I don't know her last name...the genius who transformed herself into Marylin Monroe.
She was already beautiful but she wanted more than beauty, she was looking for something funnier and more flambouyant
. She began by imitating Jean Harlow's look in "Dinner at Eight" then she slowly personalized the look. In the act of stylizing herself she helped to stylize the whole era she lived in. Charismatic, super-stylized characters like Marylin and Elvis provoke new structures in the media that portrays them, new kinds of stories, music, film making and acting. They're catalysts who stimulate everyone else's creativity. No wonder Arthur Miller fell in love with her.
14 comments:
You know how there's always a foremost genius in every field of profession on this planet? You know, that one guy who can take the question you've just asked him and boil it down from scraps to a meaty stock and feed it back to you in the form of an answer stew that just saturates your palette with such itellectual flavor that you have to ask even more question to get even MORE answers? That man is you, Master Chef Fitzgerald. I can't believe that this resource is readily available to anyone who just wants to read it!
By the way, there was a book written by Frank Sinatra's chaffuer titled 'Me and Mr. S', it did not paint Monroe (aka Norma Jeane Mortenson, which I got from her official website for you) in a very healthy light, both emotionally and physically.
Please continue your blog, I am humbly awaiting more of your writing and theories, as i feel like I'm sitting at the feet of an artistic Dalai Llama.
Sorry to be off topic, but I just posted the mother of all theories (or maybe a better term is keen observations) on my blog. Check it out IF YOU DARE!!! (:O
I'll say this, david.
Your post was an effective antidote to eddie's!
Thanks alot? ;-)
I think Norma Jean was way more attractive than Marilyn.
Marilyn, Jayne Mansfield and Gina Lollabrigida were great caricatures of women, so fun for artists, but there's something so appealing about looking at "frumpy"(or as I see her, "real")Norma Jean.
Jorge, you couldn't have gotten within 100 miles of gorgeousness like the 18 year old Norma Jean Baker on her worst day.
You're too young and way too callow(look it up)to appreciate the talent of Marilyn Monroe--to you she's obviously a pair of...whatever. But IF you could sit still long enough or eat enough green vegetables to raise your brain power, you'd see that it takes wit, timing and brains to pull off a performance like Marilyn's in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" or "Some Like it Hot" or "How to Marry a Millionaire". She wasn't stupid, and she didn't get ahead just by being pretty. Movies cost millions to make back in the olden days, too, and studios didn't waste money on no-talents no matter how pretty they were.
Same goes for Jayne Mansfield, who's also totally underrated and appreciated(who played her role in "Rock Hunter on Broadway, for chrissakes; think it's a piece of cake to perform a long play, 8 shows a week in front of a live audience? So much for dumb blondes).
Jayne Mansfield was even more consciously contrived. I don't think Norma Jean/Marilyn was totally preconceived. And Elvis wasn't thinking of molding into an icon either, he just wanted to look hip and cool.
I don't think it works quite that way, from effort, especially these days, to become a lasting symbol. I mean Paris Hilton -claims- this is what she is doing or attempting, but is she succeeding?
Don't underestimate the role of pure serendipity, and don't overestimate intent.
I've always preferred the Italian-model bombshell, not to take anything from the fabulous American blondes. In tribute to them all, here is perhaps the best photo in the world.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Jean Harlow the original blonde bombshell. I'm sure Marilyn took inspiration from her and the many amazig film noir girls of old. I mean rita hayworth in The lady from Shanghi...talk about blonde bombshell!
Off the topic question. I know you worked on Tiny Toons, but did you work on Animaniacs?
Anonymous: Animaniacs? I only did a little work on that. Around that time I left Warners to work on Ren & Stimpy.
I like Mamie Van Doren.
It was not only good for busty actresses
I wish someone would do the same to women with big butts.
Agreed that MM was a genius, and I don't use the word lightly, but it's her comic talent that impresses the most.
Marilyn doesn't get nearly enough credit for being a BRILLIANT comedienne, and virtually inventing a comedy archetype that will live forever.
She took a standard burlesque stage character "type" - the generic sexy girl - and gave it a voice, a personality, a point of view, and a soul.
This was no small achievement in 1950's America, especially considering the fact that it's harder for women to get laughs from an audience, (for the simple reason that people generally laugh at what they can relate to, and the loudest, heartiest laughers are usually the men) - and even more so if she happens to be distractingly beautiful.
That Marilyn was a comic genius should be self-evident to anyone who bothers to look past her other (sigh!) attributes. Check out her hilarious performances in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, SOME LIKE IT HOT, and especially HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONARE for starters. She was the real thing, alright.
If she's remembered at all for her comedy, it's in a demeaning way, by people who can't appreciate what she created, and how hard it must have been to accomplish. They either think A) she really was the dizzy character she created, and wasn't really acting - or worse, B) her performances are somehow demeaning to women or something. (As if stylized comedy characters should be role models! That's just as stupid as criticizing Stan Laurel or Jackie Gleason for not being representitive of the average man!) I think people who hold these views are jealous, or else just kidding themselves.
Mike: Well said! Well said!
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