Chicago unveils Marilyn Monroe's iconic movie moment
Marilyn Monroe's billowing skirt shows it's possible to catch a nice breeze in the Windy City.
As dozens of people watched, an 8m sculpture of Monroe in her famous pose from the film The Seven Year Itch was unveiled on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. In the film, a draft catches Monroe's dress as she walks over a subway grate.
Many in the crowd that descended on the plaza throughout the day - including a tuxedo-clad wedding party - wasted little time positioning themselves under the movie star's dress to catch a subway-level view and take pictures with their cellphone cameras. Not that Monroe, her eyes closed and a sublime smile on her face, noticed.
Some of those who took pictures of the sculpture, called "Forever Marilyn", were surprised when they saw honest-to-goodness lace panties on the movie icon. The film scene and photographs taken from it left much more to the imagination than artist Seward Johnson's sculpture.
The actual white dress Monroe wore in the scene from director Billy Wilder's 1955 film that helped make her a screen legend sold for US$4.6 million ($5.4 million) at an auction last month of Hollywood costumes and props collected by film star Debbie Reynolds.
Chicago has a history of public art displays, including a herd of fibreglass cows that once lined Michigan Avenue. Monroe will be in the plaza until next spring. "Thank God, she has panties," said Wanda Taylor, voicing the relief of a mother who wouldn't have to spend hours answering questions from her 9-year-old son, Kendall Sculfield.
