If your anything at all like me, I like nothing more than strolling around the hustle and bustle of New York City, up and down the avenue’s across the city from street to street, weaving through the multitude of parks and small Green spaces, it’s simply heaven to me. But more than that everywhere you turn in Manhattan seems to be an iconic place, whether it be where a movie was filmed or a favourite TV series set, a place where something historical has happened be it a speech or a moment in time, mean streets where the likes of Lucky Luchiano, Carlo Gambino or John Gotti, ran their Mafia or streets with iconic locations that we have grown up with again through movies, television or books and magazines, there really is spot on every corner of the city with a story, but the grate above has it’s own unique piece of New York history, this grate in fact that thousands of people each day simply walk over, throw litter in etc. a grate ignored by tourists as well as walking tourist groups alike. Yet this grate is one of thee most famous movie places ever, that no doubt you’ve seen the pictures and will know it’s history when told.
The subway grate is located on Lexington Avenue, where it meets 52nd street. It is just like any other subway grate you can see in Manhattan. There are no plaques to say it’s different? Nobody is stood there telling you it’s history? After all, it’s just a subway grate, right? But if you know you know the significance of this spot, and how it has cemented its place in movie history for eternity.
Lets go back 70 years to 1954, New York City, a movie was being filmed on the corner of Lexington Ave & 52nd Street, the director Billy Wilder was filming a scene of the film “The Seven Year Itch” starring the beautiful and gorgeous Marilyn Monroe, In the script, Marilyn and her co-star Tom Ewell exit a movie theater and a breeze from the subway passing below lifts Marilyn’s skirt. Instead of rushing to cover her legs, as any decent woman of that era would have, Marilyn instead exclaims, “Isn’t it delicious?” Even if you have not seen the film, or not a fan of Marilyn Monroe herself, you have seen the photographs, the statues, the references to it. The whole world has for decades, and no doubt will for decades to come.
Regardless of whether you love Marilyn Monroe or you dislike her, it doesn.t matter if the shot was staged or not, it is iconic, though provoking, and probably been seen by hundreds of millions of people, the shot cemented her into everlast fame, it was an incredible shot taken at exactly the right moment, which kind of captured exactly who Marilyn Monroe was! She was a show woman who thrived behind the camera, where better to capture one of the most famous movie photographs ever taken than New York City “The City That Never Sleeps”
What Became Of The Iconic Dress?
After Marilyn’s death in 1962, costume designer William Travilla kept the iconic dress locked up with many of the costumes he made for her, to the point the collection was rumored to have been lost? After Travilla died in 1990, the clothes were displayed by his colleague Bill Sarris. It joined the private collection of Hollywood memorabilia owned by Debbie Reynolds at the Hollywood Motion Picture Museum. During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Reynolds said it was ecru “because as you know it is very old now”. In 2011 she said she would sell the entire collection at a staged auction, beginning on june 18th. I was predicted to sell for between $1 & $2 Million Dollars? But actually made $5.6 Million Dollars (including a $1 Million commission fee).
Marilyn’s husband at the time the movie was filmed was Joe DiMaggio, is said to have “hated” that dress, but it is a popular element of Marilyn Monroe’s legacy. In the years following her tragic death, images of her wearing the white dress were shown in many imitations, representations, and posthumous depictions of the actress. As an example of this, a full-sized plaster likeness of Marilyn in this dress was featured in a key scene in the Ken russell film of The who’s “Tommy” (1975). It has been emulated even in the late 20th and throughout the 21st century in cinema, worn by Fiona in Shrek 2 (2004), by Amy Poehler in Blades of Glory (2007) and Anna Faris in The House Bunny (2008), amongst others. In the film The Woman In Red (1984), Kelly Le Brock repeats the same scene, but wearing a red dress. Glamour magazine website has classified the dress as one of history’s most famous dresses. A similar survey conducted by Cancer Research UK voted the dress number one of all-time iconic celebrity fashion moments.
In Conclusion
If you ever get the chance to visit New York City or if you live there but only see it as your living space, look beyond the usual “places to visit” such as the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, 5th Avenue etc. research and go visit places like this, no plaques to say what’s here, no fandom going on, no flowers left in rememberence, just a place on a street which bore witness to a moment in cinema history that will be remembered for ever, locked in the vaults of time, you can walk to the spot and stand in the very place that Marily Monroe did all those years ago! Just remember to hold you clothing down, we wouldn’t want a modern day reanactment would we now…………?
Life Through Ordinary Eyes 