VENTURA : Photos of Monroe Filming on Display

Of all the photographs of Marilyn Monroe, perhaps the most famous is the one shot during the filming of “The Seven Year Itch,” when the seductive star’s dress billowed up.

Bill Kobrin of Camarillo was a free-lance photographer hired that night in 1954 by 20th Century Fox to shoot publicity shots of Monroe as the scene was filmed on a New York City street.

Ten of the photographs he took of the famous scene are on display this month and next at the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St. in Ventura.

He said he had as much fun photographing the crowd as photographing the star.

About 1,000 people were gathered behind a police barricade when the filming began after midnight. Studio publicists had informed the media that Marilyn’s revealing dress would “stop traffic.” There to see it was syndicated columnist Walter Winchell.

The scene called for Marilyn to emerge from the theater on a hot, muggy night. For relief, she was to step onto a sidewalk grate as a subway train roared below, creating a burst of air that would blow her dress up.

Because the subway’s blast of air was not strong enough, crews fitted big wind machines under the grate. Each time the scene was shot, onlookers applauded wildly and made catcalls. The only one not happy with the scene, Kobrin said, was Monroe’s then-husband, Joe DiMaggio.

“The more the dress went up, the more excited the crowd got, the more excited Marilyn became, and the more livid Joe got,” Kobrin said. “She loved it.”

Kobrin said Monroe, whom he shot on numerous occasions, was very accommodating. “She never turned down a photographer,” he said. But she was always the star. “When you looked at Marilyn, you were looking at the creation of Marilyn.”

The photos on display in the gallery show the film crews at work and the onlookers ogling Monroe, who was with co-star Tom Ewell. The photos that Kobrin shot and the reaction of the crowd gave studio executives the idea to use the scene for promotional purposes, he said. The photo most associated with the scene ultimately was shot in the studio by another photographer.

Kobrin photographed other famous people during a long career in celebrity journalism. He worked for Look magazine, and for 20 years he was a network TV director of photography. He now heads his own photographic consulting firm.