![]() “I feel a double connection to her, because she was the launching key to the beginning of Playboy,” Hefner reflected to CBS in 2012. Monroe's tragic 1962 death precluded Hefner from ever meeting the woman who helped make him famous. The fans, my public, cheered when I admitted it was me, and that calendar and that Playboy first-issue publicity helped my career." Hefner and Monroe never met ![]() "I admitted it was me who posed for that nude calendar even when the Fox executives became nervous and believed this would cause the ruination of any films I would appear in and also the end of my movie career," she added in Barris' book. As concerns arose at her home studio, 20th Century Fox, some urged Monroe to deny the nude images were authentic. READ MORE: Inside Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio's Roller Coaster Romance Hollywood executives want Monroe to deny that she posed for the photosĪfter all, the Playboy photos could have jeopardized Monroe’s career. "I never even received a thank-you from all those who made millions off a nude Marilyn photograph," she told Barris. Indeed, Monroe's impact was undeniable - though she was never paid more than her original $50 paycheck from Kelley and went on to claim to Barris that she "even had to buy a copy of the magazine to see myself in it." She and Hefner also never met in person (though the latter did claim he once spoke to Monroe via telephone and that she was in his brother's acting class). So we published that picture and it caused a sensation." And I'm the kid that didn't think the post office had that right. Playboy hit newsstands for the first time in December 1953 with a price tag of 50 cents, a black and white photograph of a smiling, fully dressed Monroe seated atop an elephant, and a promise to the reader for one "FULL COLOR" nude photo of the actress for the “first time in any magazine."Īs Hefner explained to E! News in 2008: "Most people had heard about it but almost nobody had seen it and nobody had seen it because the post office had taken the position that you couldn't send nudity through the mail. We’ve selected the better of the two as our first Playboy Sweetheart.” (Sweetheart of the Month was the precursor to Playmate of the Month.) When they appeared as calendar art, they helped catapult her to stardom. As described in Playboy's first issue: “There were actually two poses shot au naturel back in ’49, just before the gorgeous blonde got her first movie break. He purchased the rights to Monroe’s nude photos from the Chicago-area company in fall 1953 for a reported $500. Hefner quickly hitched his wagon to Monroe's rapidly rising star. The 'Playboy' founder was captivated by Monroe Hugh Hefner holding the first issue of Playboy, featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover Photo: Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images WATCH: Episodes of Secrets of Playboy online now. Hits like 1952's Monkey Business preceded back-to-back 1953 classics Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire. Meanwhile, just one year after she posed for the photos out of desperation, Monroe had begun to find great success as an actor, appearing as both Miss Casswell in All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle's Angela Phinlay in just 1950 alone. “I was nervous, embarrassed, even ashamed of what I had done, and I did not want my name to appear on that model release.”Įither way, Kelley eventually sold the photos for $900 to the Western Lithograph Co., and the images were later published as part of a "Golden Dreams" pinup calendar. ![]() On the release documents for the Red Velvet series, as the images were known, the actress signed her name “Mona Monroe.” The reason? “I don’t know why, except I may have wanted to protect myself,” Monroe told Barris for his memoir. Barris also noted that the shoot lasted two hours and Monroe had made Kelley promise she'd look unrecognizable in the photos. In 1949, a cash-strapped, jobless Monroe posed nude for pinup photographer Tom Kelley in exchange for the $50 she needed to make a car payment, as described in her friend, photographer George Barris' 1995 book, Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words. That was, of course, because neither was legally required. READ MORE: Inside Marilyn Monroe's Final Days and Fragile State of Mind Monroe took the nude photos because she needed to pay her bills In fact, when the late Hugh Hefner used "the famous Marilyn Monroe nude" (the exact words emblazoned upon the publication's splashy inaugural cover) to launch the men's lifestyle and entertainment glossy - and his storied Playboy brand as a whole - in 1953, Monroe hadn't consented to the then-four-year-old images' use, nor had Hefner directly paid her a dime. The naked truth about Marilyn Monroe's famed appearance on the first Playboy cover: The iconic blonde bombshell (born Norma Jeane Mortenson) never actually posed for the magazine at all. ![]()
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