MARILYN'S DECOLLETAGE CREATES AN UPROAR

In Atlantic City to appear as the Grand Marshall for the 1952 Miss America pageant, Marilyn was asked to pose with “the real Miss Americas,” women in the Armed Services, as part of a “glamour” recruitment campaign. An enterprising photographer stood on a chair to capture the full measure of the Monroe cleavage. The photo wasn’t given much press play because of the plenitude of beautiful women at the pageant; most papers were interested more in their state’s entry. But an irate army information officer, aghast at the thought that the picture would give parents of potential recruits “a wrong impression of Army life,” ordered that the picture be killed. Of course, it then received tremendous play, running seven columns wide in the Los Angeles Herald and Express and on front pages across the country. Marilyn was asked about the brouhaha, and in a story under the headline “Marilyn Wounded by Army Blushoff,” she said, “I am very surprised and very hurt. I wasn’t aware of any objectionable decolletage on my part. I’d noticed people looking at me all day, but I thought they were admiring my Grand Marshal’s badge.”