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		Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) Marilyn Monroe was perhaps the greatest sex symbol ever to come out of Hollywood. She also turned out to be quite a good actress, and although she was often difficult on the set, she was capable of delivering some astonishingly original performances. As Billy Wilder, director one of her finest films Some Like It Hot, once put it, getting "three luminous minutes" of Monroe up on the screen was well "worth [the] week's torment" that it sometimes cost. This picture was taken during Monroe's trip to Korea in 1954 to entertain American armed forces stationed there. By now she was one of Hollywood=s top-grossing stars, and the G.I.s crowded by the thousands to catch a glimpse of her. They were not disappointed. Despite the bitter winter cold, judging strictly from the thinly clad Monroe up on stage, it might as well "have been the hottest day of the year." The maker of the picture was a Navy medic, Hospitalman 2nd Class David Geary who had come to one of her performances armed with a new Argus camera. David D. Geary (1930-1999) Silver dye bleach print from 1954 transparency, 1998 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of David D. Geary