Vintage original 1952 calendar featuring a color 8 x 10 image of a nude Marilyn Monroe, 10 x 17, with text in the lower border reading: “Golden Dreams, Made in U.S.A.” The mount features an advertisement for Walkington Sales and Service of Lebanon, Indiana. In good to very good condition, with a heavy crease to the cardboard mount, and spotting, creasing, and minor surface loss to the image.
On May 27, 1949, in Los Angeles, Monroe posed nude for Tom Kelly on red velvet and was paid $50 for the sitting, signing the release on the photos as ‘Mona Monroe.’ In February 1952, two years after the original calendar was published, a wire service reporter, Ailene Mosby, discovered that the featured beauty was none other than Marilyn Monroe and a scandal broke. Fox Studio executives panicked and called Monroe in to ask if it was indeed her. Monroe affirmed that it was and soon after released a press statement explaining that she posed nude because she was penniless and needed to pay her bills. Her fan mail increased dramatically after her confession, and her latest movie, Clash by Night, opened to big business.
