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Wow... Marilyn Monroe would have been 95 yo today. Her sister, (still alive) will be 102 yo
Only goes to show that celebs who die relatively young are really suspended in time. 
Link to tweet
3 replies
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Marilyn Monroe in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" - "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend"
2,639,817 views•Oct 17, 2018
Marilyn Monroe Video Archives
164K subscribers
Marilyn Monroe singing "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend" in her 20th movie appearance from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" 1953
{snip}
Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
{snip}
Marilyn Monroe version
Song by Marilyn Monroe
The song is perhaps most famously performed by American actress and singer Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Monroe's character, Lorelei Lee, has been followed on a Transatlantic ocean liner by a detective hired by her fiancé's father, who wants assurance that she is not marrying purely for money. He is informed of compromising pictures taken with a British diamond mine owner and cancels her letter of credit before she arrives in France, requiring her to work in a nightclub to survive. Her fiancé arrives at the cabaret to see her perform this song, about exploiting men for riches. Diamonds are an element in another story line in the film, in which Lorelei is given a diamond tiara by the mine owner, in gratitude for her recovering the photographs. In a later scene, Jane Russell, who played opposite Monroe, sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in court, while pretending to be Lorelei.
Most of the song in the film is Monroe's own voice and sources differ on how much help she got. The American Film Institute, TCM, and a biography of director Howard Hawks say the only help she got was for the brief high-pitched introduction to the song (usually not included in singles), which was sung by Gloria Wood. However, an article in The New York Times recounting the career of famous ghost singer Marni Nixon claims Nixon dubbed the phrase “These rocks don’t lose their shape.” George Chakiris can be easily spotted as a member of the admiring male chorus.
The number was later re-shot in CinemaScope, to be used as part of a CinemaScope demonstration held on the Fox lot in March 1953. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck told Daily Variety that it only took 3+1?2 hours to shoot the number in CinemaScope versus four days for the original film version. The public finally saw the CinemaScope version ten years later when it closed Fox's documentary tribute to Marilyn, but this has not been released on DVD or VHS.
{snip}
{snip}
Marilyn Monroe version
Song by Marilyn Monroe
The song is perhaps most famously performed by American actress and singer Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Monroe's character, Lorelei Lee, has been followed on a Transatlantic ocean liner by a detective hired by her fiancé's father, who wants assurance that she is not marrying purely for money. He is informed of compromising pictures taken with a British diamond mine owner and cancels her letter of credit before she arrives in France, requiring her to work in a nightclub to survive. Her fiancé arrives at the cabaret to see her perform this song, about exploiting men for riches. Diamonds are an element in another story line in the film, in which Lorelei is given a diamond tiara by the mine owner, in gratitude for her recovering the photographs. In a later scene, Jane Russell, who played opposite Monroe, sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in court, while pretending to be Lorelei.
Most of the song in the film is Monroe's own voice and sources differ on how much help she got. The American Film Institute, TCM, and a biography of director Howard Hawks say the only help she got was for the brief high-pitched introduction to the song (usually not included in singles), which was sung by Gloria Wood. However, an article in The New York Times recounting the career of famous ghost singer Marni Nixon claims Nixon dubbed the phrase “These rocks don’t lose their shape.” George Chakiris can be easily spotted as a member of the admiring male chorus.
The number was later re-shot in CinemaScope, to be used as part of a CinemaScope demonstration held on the Fox lot in March 1953. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck told Daily Variety that it only took 3+1?2 hours to shoot the number in CinemaScope versus four days for the original film version. The public finally saw the CinemaScope version ten years later when it closed Fox's documentary tribute to Marilyn, but this has not been released on DVD or VHS.
{snip}
at Los Angeles General Hospital. Gladys was a film cutter at the time of Norma Jean's birth and named her 3rd child after Norma Talmadge. It's suspected by biographers that her father was C. Stanley Gifford, even though Gladys registered her surname after her ex-husband Mortenson or sometimes spelled Mortensen. Norma Jeans maternal grandmother, Della Baker, had her baptized under the name Norma Jean Baker.
Norma Jean in 1938
Circa 1941
Marilyn in 1962
