The Real Story Behind Marilyn Monroe’s Iconic Subway Grate Image That Helped Make Her a Star
The white dress. The bilowing skirts. Her dazzling smile as she coyly attempts to press down her skirts as a way to preserve modesty. The image of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate as the skirt of her white halter dress whipping up around her is well known. It is an image that has echoed through pop culture and instantly comes to mind when fans think of the screen siren.
But what many do not realize is that the image was carefully conceived and created for a purpose.
Though most cinephiles and Monroe fans know that the image was a still from her film, The Seven Year Itch, many might not know that it was created by photographer and close friend Sam Shaw, and that the still image used for the movie’s ad campaign was actually a carefully crafted shot meticulously made in a Los Angeles studio.
20th Century Fox Film / Courtesy: Everett Collection.
In Shaw’s book, Dear Marilyn: The Unseen Letters and Photographs, he explains the backstory of the celebrated photo. In the tome, Shaw recalls that the famous photo of Monroe and actor Tom Ewell was inspired by an image he had shot years earlier featuring a model and a sailor on the Coney Island boardwalk. He later recreated the scene for the film.
“I knew that someday I would repeat the same composition on a bigger scale when the opportunity arose,” he wrote.
The scene was not only a pivotal moment in the film, but it was also an opportunity for the filmmakers to see how far they could push the envelope on censorship, a major cultural flashpoint of the era as freedom of speech was under scrutiny. When filming took place, thousands of fans and members of the press gathered to watch, though the situation remained orderly. It was the perfect moment to test the waters.
20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection
“The police were completely off guard, more fascinated watching Marilyn, forgetting the mob. Not one person in the crowd broke through,” wrote Shaw. “They were too mesmerized by what they were seeing. [Director Billy] Wilder and [producer Charles] Feldman were both anxious to see how far one could go against censorship. It was the early 1950s, and the National Legion of Decency, the puritanical group we called the ‘Bluenoses’ reigned. But Marilyn’s elegance and clean sense of fun, under Wilder’s sensitive and witty direction, controlled the scene — very daring for its time.”
When the scene was being shot in New York, Shaw was underground, watching the production from down below in the grate next to the wind machine.
After filming on location in New York, Wilder reshot the subway grate scene’s close-ups in a Los Angeles studio with Shaw on hand to capture the stills. In his book, Shaw wrote, “I was in charge of the still photos in the studio with precise studio conditions.” His images were ultimately used as the film’s promotional materials and remain some of the most recognizable photos of Marilyn Monroe.
Shaw’s photo is one of Monroe’s most famous images, helping catapult her to stardom and cementing the mythos of the blonde bombshell that would define her legacy.
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