It was 1am on a sultry September night in New York in 1954. At the corner of Lexington and 52nd Street, Marilyn Monroe, outside the Trans-Lux movie theatre, was shooting a scene for The Seven Year Itch, released the following year. As she straddled a subway grate and let the updraft of air billow the skirt of her white georgette Billy Travilla gown sky-high, movie history was made.
Thousands of fans, penned behind crush barriers, had stayed up all night just to catch a glimpse of her. Her publicist Roy Craft would later recall: ‘The Russians could have invaded Manhattan and nobody would have taken any notice.’