Marilyn and Earl Leaf 1956

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written by Immortal Marilyn | views: 1053

About Earl Leaf:

Earl Leaf began his career as a journalist for Time and The Saturday Evening Post. Later he snapped the first known western photographs of rebel leaders Mao Tse-Tung and Chou En-Lai while behind communist lines as the North China Manager of United Press. Later he traveled extensively through Europe and Latin America as a war correspondent with the precursor of the CIA, which lead to his illustrated book on the dancers of the West Indies, Isles of Rhythm.

Back in the states, Leaf bummed around from place to place, documenting his travels much like Jack London or Thor Heyerdal. He was nicknamed "Loose Leaf" by a group of hobos that he rode the rails with while writing an account of their lives for a Reno newspaper. In the early 50s, Leaf landed in Hollywood, quickly becoming a fixture at press functions. Working as staff photographer for Movie Play, Movie Time and Movie Spotlight magazines, he amassed a huge portfolio of movie stars, rock stars, and candids.

If one subject remains constant and obsessive in the work of Earl Leaf, it is women. Leaf shot nearly every day of his life and when he wasn't shooting the stars, he was shooting the young ladies who'd come to Hollywood with stars in their eyes. A famous papparzo he was. For years, he shot rolls of scantily clad women in his hidden bamboo-covered shack. Previously, the trend in Hollywood had been posing movie starlets in benign domestic settings; Leaf aimed to capture something more sensual and real. His unorthodox approach clicked big-time, revolutionizing the Hollywood publicity machine.

He's remembered for his motto, "Down with the boudoir barricades; into the bedrooms with the cameras and the tripods."

Earl Leaf died in 1980 at the age of 75, leaving behind a vast estate of vintage photographs and negatives purchased by the Michael Ochs Archives in 1991.

It's all make believe, isn't it? Read more Marilyn Monroe quotes

Earl Leaf & Marilyn Monroe:

Earl Leaf photographed Marilyn many times throughout her life and his career, beginning in 1950 right up to her last year with us, 1962, at the Golden Globes.

If Earl Leaf was famous for anything it was getting along with the famous. He first met Marilyn at a 1950 C-list, or even Z-list, Hollywood party that was fizzling badly. Marilyn felt comfortable enough with him to say, "Let's blow this joint and go live it up somewhere." Earl Leaf declined the offer, this time, but over the years the two would form a nice friendship.

On the cloudy afternoon of May 17, 1950, Earl Leaf showed up in the yard of a Beverly Hills mansion to photograph a no-name starlet, Marilyn Monroe. (The house was of course the home of Johnny Hyde's, where Marilyn was living at the time). She climbed trees, did hand stands, cartwheels, played with her dog, and dressed in a bathing suit for the photo session. He then photographed her at the 1951 Henrietta Awards, held in 1952, and he was also present photographing her, among others, at the 1953 premiere of "How to Marry a Millionaire".

Of the "How to Marry a Millionaire" premiere Leaf write - "His wife on his arm or not, Bogart couldn't help looking down Marilyn's dress. Neither could the rest of America." To him it seemed "it was a night that confirmed Marilyn's achievement of everything she had ever wanted - a night when what she needed still seemed almost in reach."

It would not be until 1956 that he would see or photograph her again..