Summer Premium and Catalog Auction July 31 & Aug 8
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/9/2015
In 1953 Hugh Hefner was looking for the penultimate bombshell with which to launch the first edition of Playboy Magazine with. Lucky for Hugh there existed a little-known nude photo shoot featuring the biggest sex symbol in the world – Marilyn Monroe. Taken four years earlier, the then unknown “Mona Monroe” received $50 to pose nude for photographer Tom Kelley. Of the session one, named “Golden Dreams”, was reproduced on calendars available to companies to add their names to as advertising. Monroe was as yet unknown and the calendars that featured her nude portrait went more or less unnoticed. However by 1953 Monroe was a superstar and Hefner bought the rights to the soon to be famous pose. The rest is history… The 8x10 color image of the young starlet is the same nude color photo of her, which appeared in the centerfold of Playboy as “Sweetheart of the Month,” but for the purpose of this rare version of the calendar a black negligee has been added for modesty. The picture is identified “Posed by Marilyn Monroe in the nude with lace overprint.” The picture is titled “The Lure of Lace”. This particular calendar proof was made to solicit orders and reads, “This Is the Famous Marilyn Monroe Picture, Your Advertisement Here in Three or Four Lines Will Make Friends.” While we have seen several Marilyn Monroe calendars which feature her picture from this first issue of Playboy Magazine, this is the first example of the “proof” used to solicit orders that we have encountered. Framed to 12” x 16”. Comes with Gotta Have It LOA.