American postcard by Classico San Francisco, Inc., no. 105-013 Photo: Twentieth Century-Fox.
Charles Coburn,
Marilyn Monroe,
Jane Russell,
Norma Varden and
Elliott Reid in
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1955).
By 1953,
Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars, with leading roles in three films: the Film Noir
Niagara, which focused on her sex appeal, and the comedies
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and
How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a 'dumb blonde'. Although she played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, she was disappointed at being typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project, but returned to star in one of the biggest box office successes of her career,
The Seven Year Itch (1955).
American film actress
Jane Russell (1921-2011) was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She became an icon with her first film role in Howard Hughes'
The Outlaw (1943). Her biggest hit was the musical
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) in which she played Dorothy Shaw opposite Marilyn Monroe's Lorelei Lee.
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