Niagara Milestones

The following are facts about Marilyn Monroe during the filming of "Niagara" in June, 1952.

• Marilyn spent only 13 days in Niagara Falls, Canada filming “Niagara”. She had never been in the City before and she never returned after that – June 5th to 18th, 1952;
• Marilyn starred in the film as Rose Loomis and Rose is murdered. It’s the only time in Marilyn’s career that her character died;
• “Niagara” more than any other film she appeared in, established Marilyn as an exceptional dramatic actress. The plurality of her other roles were comedic;
• Allan “Whitey” Snyder always did Marilyn’s make up and became a very close friend. Not only did he make her up for her Screen Test in 1946, for “Niagara” in 1952, and for most of the rest of her films; but he also delivered on his promise to make her up when she died - August of 1962;
• No other film that Marilyn starred in had as much of an impact on the creation of the icon she became as did her first starring role which was in "Niagara";
• Of her performance in “Niagara”, her Director – Henry Hathaway would say: “I found her marvelous to work with, easy to direct and terribly ambitious to do better;
• Marilyn’s signature undulating, hip-swaying, shimmy in “Niagara,” lauded as the longest walk in film history, took an astonishing 116 feet of film and 16 seconds to film and became famous as “The Walk”;
• Dorothy Jeakins who designed Marilyn’s trend setting wardrobe for “Niagara” was also the winner of the very first Academy Award for Costume Design in 1948. The presenter of the award was Elizabeth Taylor;
• Reports that Joe DiMaggio was everpresent on the sets of "Niagara" are exagerated. In his first year of retirement as one of the most famous Yankees ever, he was still very much involved with the team. His presence in New York City (likely in the Broadcast Booth) for the Yankees' 10 home game schedule from June 4th to the 14th would have limited the time he could spend in Niagara Falls;
• With “Niagara” Marilyn became a major Box Office Draw. 20th Century Fox’s return on its investment of One Million Dollars was a whopping Six Million Dollars. And Marilyn began receiving an average of 12,400 fan letters a month.