Fascinating Information About Legendary Marilyn Monroe's Life

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Fact – 13

On the cover of Pl@yboy, a well-known men's publication, Monroe was the first female. For this she was given merely fifty dollars.
The chronicle of events underlying Marilyn's December 1953 debut Pl@yboy cover girl choice is an interesting one of time and circumstance. Actually taken years earlier, in 1949, when she was a struggling model in dire need of work, the images used for this historic cover and centerfold were Photographer Tom Kelley took the first pictures, sometimes referred to as the "Red Velvet" series, for a calendar firm, paying Marilyn just fifty dollars—about $550 in today's money. Hugh Hefner eventually paid $500 for the rights to these pictures without ever meeting Monroe. Publication of these pictures signaled a turning point in American popular culture and Marilyn's career. Her public appeal of the pictures and well-known quotation "I had nothing on but the radio" won her even more than erasing her reputation as many expected. This episode showed her elegance and humor in handling possible scandal, turning what might have been a career-ending event into yet another stepping stone toward more notoriety.

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