Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Sculpture of Marilyn Monroe Unveiled in Chicago


(AP) - GIANT STATUE OF MARILYN MONROE ERECTED IN CHICAGO



Marilyn Monroe's billowing skirt shows it's possible to catch a nice breeze in the Windy City.


As dozens of people watched Friday, a 26-foot-(8-meter-)tall sculpture of Monroe in her famous pose from the film "The Seven Year Itch" was unveiled on Chicago's Magnificent Mile.


In the movie, a draft catches Monroe's dress as she stands over a subway grate to cool off.


Many in the crowd that descended on the plaza throughout the day - including a tuxedo-clad wedding party - wasted little time positioning themselves under the movie star's dress to catch a subway-level view and take pictures with their cell phone cameras.


Not that Monroe, her eyes closed and a sublime smile on her face, seemed to notice.


Some of those who took pictures of the sculpture called "Forever Marilyn" were surprised when they came around the side and back of the sculpture and saw honest-to-goodness lace panties on the movie icon.


The film scene and photographs taken from it left much more to the imagination than artist Seward Johnson's sculpture.


Chicago has a history of public art displays, including a herd of fibreglass cows that lined Michigan Avenue some years back.


The plaza where Monroe will be stationed until next spring was the home a few years ago to another Johnson sculpture: the equally iconic, though far less glamorous, grim-faced farmer and his spinster daughter from Grant Wood's "American Gothic."


The actual white dress worn by Monroe in the scene from director Billy Wilder's 1955 film that helped make her a screen legend sold for 4.6 (m) million US dollars at an auction last month of Hollywood costumes and props collected by film star Debbie Reynolds.





















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