Because the parade of lost and never-seen-before images of Monroe go on unabated ...
Lost photographs taken by a 15-year-old boy a natural and relaxed Marilyn Monroe one afternoon in New York are being exhibited for the first time.
Peter Mangone often cut class from the Bronx's James Monroe High School in 1955 and donned a suit and tie to look for his idol outside her then home at the Gladstone Hotel.
With just an eight millimeter movie camera, luckily for him, Monroe in her charismatic laid-back way, had invited him to film her one afternoon as she made her way along Fifth Avenue.
Caught on film: Marilyn Monroe was filmed by Peter Mangone in 1955 as she walked down Fifth Avenue. He thought he had lost the footage for almost fifty years
'The whole day she played with me,' he said in an interview with the Today show in 2006. 'People that have filmed her said no one captured her like the [15-year-old] kid, because she wasn’t threatened, she wasn’t afraid. It wasn’t going to be in the paper so I got the real girl. 'She noticed and cared - she was absolutely magical'
The 'real girl': 15-year-old Mangone waited outside Monroe's hotel before she invited him to film her for the afternoon. His intimate photographs are being exhibited in New York
Playful: Monroe entertained her young fan Peter Mangone as he filmed her for the afternoon on New York's Fifth Avenue
'I was always aware of his fascination with Marilyn Monroe and the film,' his partner of 33 years Dan Pye told southfloridagaynews.com. 'Every time we visited New York City and walked past the hotel he’d say 'if I only hadn’t thrown that film away.’'
Three years later and slightly embarrassed by his movie star crush, Mangone had intended to bin the film along with his old movie magazines, somehow the five and a half minutes of footage survived.
He went on to have a celebrity lifestyle of his own as a roller derby star and well-known hairdresser and was delighted when he received the call that his film was intact.
Special bond: Peter Mangone, then 15, was invited to film Marilyn Monroe for the afternoon. The 8mm footage was taken of Monroe and the designer who later was fitted for the dress she sang Happy Birthday to JFK at Madison Square Garden in, right
New Yorker: The owner of the Danziger Gallery exhibiting the photographs said Monroe felt at home in Manhattan, where the shots were taken
Monroe and Mangone were joined on the walk by the fashion designer George Nardiello, who would later sew her into the sequined dress she sang Happy Birthday to JFK in, and her friend and business partner Milton Greene.
The star was recently divorced from Jo DiMaggio and had just moved to the city.
Unnoticed: The star was not troubled on the streets of New York as she walked around in 1955.
Natural beauty: Monroe wasn't made-up for her afternoon captured by 15-year-old photographer Peter Mangone.
ames Danziger, the Gallery Owner said: 'Marilyn loved Manhattan, when she died, she was actually a New York City resident and she seems very comfortable in Manhattan. And I think that the way that she is dressed in these pictures, in a very chic kind of black suit with a fur collar makes her look much more like a New Yorker than we normally think of Marilyn as being.'
The gallery's promotional material adds: 'So much of our fascination with Monroe is tied up with her face it comes as something of a surprise to see her hourglass figure and how chic and New Yorker-y she looks in her fur trimmed black cashmere suit.
'But it is the way that she drifts in and out of interaction with her 15 year old film-maker fan that is most intriguing. She blows him a kiss with a smile that could light up the Empire State Building. She looks up at the skyscrapers with a look that is both naïve and perturbed.'
'The exhibition will continue as planned – a fitting tribute to Pete'.
Divorced: Monroe had just separated from Joe DiMaggio and moved into the Gladstone Hotel in Manhattan. It was here Peter Mangone began filming her
No comments:
Post a Comment