You would think that Marilyn Monroe is such an object of fascination that every photo of her would have surfaced ages ago—if not during her life, then at least soon after her death in 1962.
But in 2013, a book by Christopher Andersen, These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack With Jackie, made news because it asserted that Marilyn Monroe actually phoned Jackie Kennedy in 1962 and told her that JFK was going to make her, Marilyn, his second wife. That spurred LIFE.com to dig into its archives and find a series of pictures that LIFE’s Loomis Dean made in 1948, when Marilyn was a mere 21 years old. None of Dean’s photos from that shoot had ever been published in LIFE.
So. Here she is, with another then-aspiring actress, Laurette Luez, and Hollywood veteran Clifton Webb on the set of a comedy called Sitting Pretty. Neither Marilyn nor Luez were in that movie. But Luez was under contract to Twentieth Century Fox—the studio that released Sitting Pretty—and Marilyn had once been under contract to Fox, and eventually would be again, so the presence of the two women on the set, whether as young actresses looking for pointers, or for publicity purposes, isn’t all that surprising. In fact, as Marilyn and Laurette Luez change seats at one point (the fourth image), it’s highly unlikely that these are purely impromptu shots of the trio.
(Incidentally, Webb was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the film, one of three Academy Award nods he earned in his long career.)
It’s always jarring to see Marilyn as, in effect, an ingenue, in the years before she achieved stardom and then went on to transcend the movies and enter a realm of tragic legend. But in early 1948, Marilyn Monroe was just another talented, engaging young actress who hoped to be famous someday.
Be careful what you wish for.
Then-unknown actress Marilyn Monroe with Clifton Webb and Laurette Luez on the set of a 1948 comedy, “Sitting Pretty.”
Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Marilyn Monroe, Clifton Webb, Laurette Luez, 1948
Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Then-unknown actress Marilyn Monroe with Clifton Webb and Laurette Luez on the set of a 1948 comedy, “Sitting Pretty.”
Long before the heady, rock star-like run for the White House, before “Ich bin ein Berliner,” before the Cuban Missile Crisis, the pillbox hats, Marilyn’s “Happy birthday, Mr. President,” Camelot and the limo drive through Dallas, John and Jackie Kennedy were a young newlywed couple much like any other newlywed couple with one notable difference: by the time of their wedding they were, in a sense, already superstars.
The pair had appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine two months before their wedding, in July 1953, perched on the sloping deck of a sailboat off of Cape Cod, both of them smiling, windblown, emphatically New England-y, beside the cheeky headline, “Senator Kennedy Goes a-Courting.” They were both from prominent, monied, influential families, and they were frequently featured, together and apart, in the society pages of major newspapers.
Their marriage in Rhode Island on September 12, 1953, was national news. LIFE magazine sent photographer Lisa Larsen, then in her late 20s, to cover the highly publicized event. Her photos from the occasion offer not only a before-and-after record of the nuptials, but a surprisingly intimate chronicle of one of the most high-profile American weddings of the 20th century.
For its part, LIFE magazine reported on the scene in an article in a Sept. 1963, issue:
The marriage of Washington’s best-looking young senator to Washington’s prettiest inquiring photographer took place in Newport R.I. this month and their wedding turned out to be the most impressive the old society stronghold had seen in 30 years. As John F. Kennedy took Jacqueline Bouvier as his bride, 600 diplomats, senators, social figures crowded into St. Mary’s Church to hear the Archbishop of Boston perform the rites and read a special blessing from the pope. Outside, 2,000 society fans, some who had come to Newport by chartered bus, cheered the guests and the newlyweds as they left the church. There were 900 guests at the reception and it took Senator and Mrs. Kennedy two hours to shake their hands. The whole affair, said one enthusiastic guest, was “just like a coronation.”
—Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
The bride and bridegroom finally sat down to lunch after the long, wearying ordeal of the receiving line. Jacqueline, whose wedding dress contained 50 yards of material, got settled in while her husband started right in on the fruit cup.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Bouvier and her husband Sen. John Kennedy stood in front of the church after their wedding ceremony.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The line of guests waiting patiently to congratulate the couple extended to the front lawn of the bride’s mother’s 300-acre Hammersmith Farm at Newport.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John and Jackie Kennedy on their wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jackie Kennedy on her wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier at their wedding, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John and Jackie Kennedy with ushers, bridesmaids and flower girls.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John and Jackie Kennedy with groomsmen and other guests on their wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Joe Martin. U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, congratulated the bride and bridegroom.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Flower girl Janet Auchincloss, half sister of the bride, talked to Kennedy while the bride looked out the window at guests waiting to go through the receiving line.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John and Jackie Kennedy on their wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Guests, including Robert Kennedy, watched as newly married John and Jackie Kennedy cut their wedding cake, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Kennedy on her wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A slice of wedding cake was offered to the bridegroom by flower girl Janet at the luncheon. Kennedy had already had some cake so did not want any more.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
John and Jackie Kennedy on their wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Kennedy on her wedding day.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Guests at the wedding reception for John and Jackie Kennedy, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Kennedy danced with her husband, John F. Kennedy, at their wedding reception, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Kennedy danced with her new father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Kennedy danced at her wedding reception.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A girl with a flower at John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding reception, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Jacqueline Kennedy on her wedding day, Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Off for their honeymoon in Acapulco, Mexico, the bride and bridegroom left the wedding reception amid a shower of rose-petal confetti and rice.
He had the requisite looks, charm and talent, but it wasn’t until 1969, when he was in his mid-30s, that Robert Redford truly broke out as a genuine Hollywood player. That year he starred in two very good films (Downhill Racer and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here) and one hugely entertaining, honest-to-god classic, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
That was also the year that LIFE photographer John Dominis spent a week with Redford as the legend-in-the-making mixed business and pleasure at his homes in Utah and New York. Dominis set about chronicling the days and nights of an increasingly famous man struggling mightily to maintain control of both his private life and his career.
At the time, Redford was married to first wife, Lola Van Wagenen. With their kids Shauna and Jamie (their youngest daughter, Amy, would arrive in October 1970), the couple lived for several months each year at a three-story A-frame house they had built themselves in Lola’s snowy, mountainous home state of Utah. During that part of the shoot, Dominis spent a few days trying to keep up as Redford traversed his vast property on horseback, skis and snowmobile.
Only a few of Dominis’ photos made it into the February 1970 LIFE cover story. Here, LIFE.com presents a series of outtake photos from the photographer’s time with the Sundance Kid. Redford’s on horseback in the Utah mountains; hailing a cab in Times Square; playing with his kids; and always, always taking care of business.
Dominis’ pictures captured a new kind of movie star, one who carefully managed every aspect of his career, from creative choices to nuts-and-bolts business matters. For Redford, the reasoning behind his decision to take control of his professional life was eminently practical.
“They throw that word ‘star’ at you loosely, and they take it away loosely if your pictures flop,” he told LIFE. “You take responsibility for their crappy movie, that’s all it means. So what I said was, since you say I’m responsible if my name is above the title, then give me responsibility. That’s all.”
Dominis’ unobtrusive, fly-on-the-wall approach to shooting, meanwhile, suited the star just fine, especially in light of how little time Redford really seemed to have to himself. In New York, for example, he was swamped with details connected to the release of his next movie, Downhill Racer. Even in Utah, a place to which he retreated to get away from it all, Redford “engages in endless long-distance discussions with agents, partners and other unfree spirits,” LIFE reported.
There’s no doubt that Redford made an impression on Dominis. “He was a real man,” Dominis told LIFE.com. “A strong person. I liked him a lot. And he was nice to me, even though he didn’t know me.”
One key aspect of Redford’s appeal for Dominis, a sportsman himself, was the actor’s obvious love of, and respect for, the natural world and the dramatic landscape of the American West. (“Other people have analysis; I have Utah,” Redford once quipped.)
By 1975, Redford had amassed about 7,000 acres of land in Utah, including a ranch, a ski resort, a horse-training farm and a large tract in the Wasatch mountain range. “I’d understand it if someone said it was too much for one man and his family,” he told People that year. “But I don’t think I’m just piling up land the way some men pile up money. I’m collecting space, and space has a very deep meaning for me.” In the coming years, of course, Redford would give much of that land in service to his craft, making it the site of the enormously popular and influential Sundance Film Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute.
Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
Robert Redford, Utah, 1969
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford and daughter Shauna
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford and son Jamie, Utah, 1969
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford, Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford, Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford in Times Square, between meetings, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford hailed a cab in Times Square. Just a few blocks away, at the Biltmore Theater on 47th Street, was where the actor got his first major notices as the star of Neil Simon’s 1963 Broadway play, Barefoot in the Park.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford with son Jamie, daughter Shauna and two unidentified companions, New York City, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford in his agent’s office in New York, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford, Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford looked over promotional material for his film, Downhill Racer , New York City, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford with his son, Jamie, in New York City, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford with son, Jamie, New York City, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford with his daughter, Shauna, in New York City, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford; his first wife, Lola van Wagenen; son, Jamie; and daughter, Shauna, Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford (“the Sundance Kid”) with a cardboard cut-out of Paul Newman (“Butch Cassidy”), Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford, Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford, Utah, 1969.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Robert Redford took a break from reading a script.
John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
In the summer of 1955, two men, both of them white, abducted a 14-year-old African-American boy named Emmett Till from his great-uncle’s house in Money, Miss. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam beat Till almost to death, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him in the head and then dumped his body, weighted by an enormous cotton-gin fan tied with barbed wire, into the Tallahatchie River.
Their motive: Till, visiting from his native Chicago, had reportedly flirted with or, according to some accounts, spoken “disrespectfully” to Bryant’s wife a few days before.
When an all-white, all-male jury acquitted Bryant and Milam of kidnapping and murder in September, the verdict shocked observers across the country and around the world. And when, mere months later, the men openly admitted to Look magazine that they had, in fact, mutilated and murdered Till, the outcry was so intense and the reaction of Till’s devastated family so dignified that it lit a spark that helped ignite the modern civil rights movement.
Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.
The site of Emmett Till’s kidnapping, Money, Miss., 1955.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
J.W. Milam’s brother Leslie owned this barn near Drew, Miss. Before his murder, Emmett Till was pistol-whipped in the barn.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The store in Money, Miss., where Emmett Till allegedly flirted with Roy Bryant’s wife Carolyn.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A ring found on Emmett Till’s body, which his great-uncle, the Rev. Mose Wright, used to identify his body. The ring belonged to Till’s father.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A scene in Mississippi around the time of the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, 1955.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Emmett Till’s mother Mamie Bradley spoke to the press after her son’s kidnapping and murder.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
From left: Emmett Till’s great-uncle, the Rev. Mose Wright; his mother Mamie Bradley; and his cousin Simeon Wright.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A crowd gathered outside the Sumner, Miss., courthouse during the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Defendant J.W. Milam arrived at his trial for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A scene outside the courthouse during the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Defendants Roy Bryant, left, and J.W. Milam, right, during their trial for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Defendant Roy Bryant sat with his wife Carolyn and their children during his trial for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Defendants J.W. Milam, left, and Roy Bryant, right, during their trial for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Defendant J.W. Milam kisses his wife Juanita during his trial for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
Ed Clark; Life Pictures/Shutterstock
A sign in Sumner, Miss., site of the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the August 1955 kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
There’s nothing quite like being there at the earliest emergence of a new Hollywood star, and as the premier pictorial weekly of its era, LIFE magazine was uniquely positioned to feature more than a few famous faces at the start of their careers, well before they became bona fide legends.
Marilyn Monroe posed in 1947. The next year, she’d get a six-month Columbia Pictures contract.
J. R. Eyerman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Seen here in a 1954 photo that ended up on the cover of LIFE, Rita Moreno debuted on Broadway at 13 before making it big years later in the film version of West Side Story.
Loomis Dean/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Rita Moreno, 1954.
Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
.Kim Novak, 1954
J. R. Eyerman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Kim Novak, 21, posed with crystal figurines in 1954. The Chicagoan started off as Miss Deep Freeze for a local refrigerator company, and was recruited by Columbia Pictures to be a more manageable replacement for Rita Hayworth.
J. R. Eyerman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Elizabeth Taylor in 1947, at age 15.
J.R. Eyerman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Sophia Loren posed in 1957, the year she began to make a name for herself in America in such movies as Boy on a Dolphin (her U.S. debut) and Legend of the Lost.
Loomis Dean/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Audrey Hepburn in 1951—two years before her film breakthrough in Roman Holiday—posing under a theater marquee for the stage version of Gigi.
Time Life Pictures/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Catherine Deneuve in 1961, at age 18.
Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Margarita Carmen Cansino, soon to be Rita Hayworth, modeled tennis fashions in 1939. After her small turn in Only Angels Have Wings that year, fan mail started pouring in. She was soon a major star.
Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Cyd Charisse, seen here in 1945, was best known for her dancing roles opposite Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.
Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Nineteen-year-old Ann-Margret belted out a tune during a screen test for the movie State Fair in 1961.
Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Esther Williams, the famed synchronized swimmer (seen here in 1943), got her start in movies when MGM wanted a female sports star to rival Fox’s figure skater, Sonja Henie.
Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Eva Marie Saint opened a prop door during a TV shoot at NBC studios in 1947. The Newark, N.J.-born actress started her career as an NBC page.
Andreas Feininger/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Eva Marie Saint (in 1949) got her film break in 1954’s Oscar-winning On the Waterfront.
Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Actress Jeanne Crain took a bubble bath for her role in the movie Margie in 1946.
Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda was a well-regarded actress by the time this shot was taken in 1959, when she was 22, but it took the screwball Western Cat Ballou (1965) to turn her into a movie star.
Allan Grant/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Jane Fonda, 1959.
Allan Grant/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
The actress Gene Tierney posed in 1941. Best remembered for 1944’s Laura, Tierney left New York’s socialite life to be an actress.
Grey Villet/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Mickey Rooney kissed co-star Judy Garland at the premiere of Babes in Arms in 1939. The two starred in nine movies together, among them the popular Andy Hardy series.
Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Barbra Streisand sang in the musical that was her Broadway debut, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, in 1962.
George Silk/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Shirley MacLaine sang on the TV program Shower of Stars in 1955.
Loomis Dean/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Debbie Reynolds, circa 1950. She’d won a film contract just two years earlier, after winning the Miss Burbank pageant at age 16.
Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews ran lines in My Fair Lady rehearsals, 1956. Though the stage musical helped launch Andrews’ career, she was replaced in the big-screen version by Audrey Hepburn.
You know those times when you glimpse a photograph and you think you know what’s happening in the picture, but then something indefinable about the shot plants a seed of doubt, and you look again, and you find that your first impression was absolutely, utterly wrong?
For a lot of people, this 1949 Loomis Dean picture is one of those photographs. At first glance, it looks pretty straightforward: a hunting dog, soaking wet after going into the water to retrieve a duck blasted from the air by its master, sits with the dead or perhaps mortally wounded, but certainly doomed waterfowl in its jaws.
But wait a second. That duck doesn’t look injured. In fact, judging by its still (apparently) vibrant eye and, especially, its rapidly fluttering right leg, the duck is most definitely, emphatically alive.
The priceless look on the dog’s face, meanwhile, is hardly that of a ghoul. In fact, if anything, the dog looks downright embarrassed as if it would rather be anywhere but there, with a live duck in its mouth.
What is going on here?
We’ll let the caption that accompanied this picture in the unputdownable 2008 LIFE book, The Classic Collection, clear up any lingering confusion.
“Don’t worry!” wrote the book’s editors. “The duck’s fine!”
And that is why this photo is funny, and not tragic. Here’s the story: One day in 1947 the Olson family in Yakima, Wash., brought home a duckling named Donald (of course). Donald instantly became friends with the family dog, to the extent that Donald emulated everything the dog did, including chasing children and other dogs from the yard. Donald actually became quite a nuisance in the neighborhood, so the Olsons gave him to a rancher a dozen miles away. There he became pals with a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Trigger. Now, whenever the rancher tossed Donald into the pond so that he could be with the other ducks in other words, his own kind Trigger would immediately dash in and retrieve him. Trigger was as gentle as possible, as we can clearly see here, but ultimately it was decided that Donald would be best back with the Olsons.
