Marilyn and David Conover 1953

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written by Immortal Marilyn | views: 896

"There was a luminous quality to her face,a fragility combined with astonishing vibrancy." -David Conover

"Yes, I always knew the camera was kind to me. I thought of it as my friend. It was because of David Conover that I found that out. Might say he was the first of photographers that couldn't wait to flap their shutters at my body. He sold a lot of me to Yank magazine and that was my first big break. Didn't mind at all going off on weekends with him and shooting outdoor shots." - Marilyn Monroe

“I never thought of her as a sex goddess or a movie queen. She was a woman, sometimes frightened, often confused; a woman who in many ways was still a child, who with courage was learning to reach out and grow, to mature as an individual and in her art.” - David Conover, sometime after Marilyn’s death

David Conover was an author and photojournalist, who some will credit with discovering Marilyn. He was born in Missouri on June 26th, 1919 and died in December of 1983. In 1946 he moved to Wallace Island, set up home and stayed there up until his death.

In 1945 David was an army photographer for the US Army’s 1st Motion Picture Unit. Captain Ronal Regan was his Commanding Officer. He instructed David to go on a routine assignment to take pictures of women in war work at the Radio Plane Factory in Van Nuys, California. One of his photo shoots was to photograph women working on the assembly line engaged in the war effort at the Factory. He could not believe his eyes when he noticed Norma Jeane with a spray can in hand. With the factory foreman they moved to a more appropriate location where small engines for remote controlled target aircraft were assembled. These pictures show Norma Jeane with a propeller in her hand. Norma Jeane was overjoyed when David expressed his interest in taking some color shots of her, and so over the next few weeks he commuted from Culver City to Radio Plane.

From Conover’s Journal he writes:

June 28th, 1945 – After parade duty I picked up my film at Eastman. The guy asked me who my model was – that she was a humdinger! I showed the shots to Norma Jeane this evening. She liked them tremendously, and I think she was excited about them as much as I.

…Norma Jeane wants to be a movie star. (Seems everybody does these days – ha!) I told her she would have to be a model first, and to think about it.

I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one. Read more Marilyn Monroe quotes

Norma Jeane Dougherty, then married to her first husband James Dougherty, did think about it. She became a model, and of course then, as we know, became a movie star. She became Marilyn Monroe.

David Conover wrote in his journal of Norma Jeane, who was 19 at the time that they met, “Could I be falling in Love?”. To get to know his 19 year old model whom he was greatly attracted to, Conover took her on a two-week shooting expedition in the hills of Southern California. Immediately on their return Conover was shipped overseas, and the two lost touch for some time. It would not be until January of 1953 that they would meet again, then she would be Marilyn Monroe.

These early photographs taken by David Conover are to be known as Norma Jeanes first step up the ladder to stardom and David went on to recommend her to many other well known photographers, such as commercial photographer Potter Hueth, whom she also did some modeling for. It was Hueth who later showed pictures of her to Emmeline Snively of the Blue Book Modeling Agency.

Norma Jeane’s first magazine cover was the popular Yank magazine in 1945, or Douglas Air Review in January 1946, depending on sources. Each cover photo taken by David Conover.

Conover wrote that what captivated him was “a luminous quality in her face, a fragility combined with astonishing vibrancy”.