On the night of September 15, 1954, New Yorkers crowded the corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street. They came to watch Hollywood history: Billy Wilder was filming a scene for The Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe, in her white halter dress, would stroll over a subway grate. A passing train would send her skirt billowing into the air, and photographers would capture a moment that became one of the most recognizable images of the 20th century.
But not every photograph from that night told the same story. While most cameras caught Monroe smiling and playful, one young photographer revealed something different. George S. Zimbel’s Serious Marilyn Monroe photo shows the actress not as an icon, but as a woman caught in a rare contemplative moment.
George Zimbel at 25
In 1954, George was just 25, a freelance photographer under contract to PIX Inc. He loved working without assignment, free to shoot a story as he saw it. Armed with his Leica — quiet, discreet, perfect for slipping into the background — he joined more than 100 photographers, a Hollywood film crew, dozens of police officers, and several hundred spectators
pressed against the barricades.
“I bet you there were two or three hundred people there,” George later recalled. “They were behind the police lines and my idea was that I was using a Leica camera, it is very quiet, so even though they said no more shooting I took a few frames and the next thing I knew I was behind the police line. Fortunately, for me, that was a very good place to be so I just kept shooting where the barrier was and that was fine.”
That shift in position — pushed behind the police line, away from the pack — gave him the angle that produced Serious Marilyn.
A Changed Mood on Set
The night began with excitement. Monroe arrived close to midnight, glowing in the spotlight. The crowd surged forward. She waved and played to them, and they shouted for more. The energy was palpable — a mixture of awe, curiosity, and the kind of excitement only a movie star could generate in 1950s New York.
Director Billy Wilder staged multiple takes. Tom Ewell, her co-star, played the flustered bachelor while Monroe’s dress rose higher with each pass over the grate. The fans roared. George’s photographs from that night don’t just record Monroe — they capture the atmosphere of a restless city watching a moment of history unfold.
Then the atmosphere shifted. Monroe’s husband, Joe DiMaggio, appeared with columnist Walter Winchell. DiMaggio, upset at the public spectacle, turned and left. The filming halted. A heavy silence fell until Monroe smiled again, signalling it was time to continue.
It was during this pause, amid the tension, that George caught the expression that would define Serious Marilyn.
Serious Marilyn: Humanity in a Public Moment
Unlike the exuberant, widely published shots, George’s image shows Monroe serious, inward-looking. It is not the starlet who laughs on cue, but the actress determined to be seen as more than an image.
Anne Tucker, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, explained the photograph’s power:
“George also photographed not just Marilyn the icon but Marilyn the person. In the picture that he calls the Serious Marilyn — Marilyn who was so desperate to be accepted as a serious actress, somebody who had a craft and knew what her craft was — he gets a contemplative moment of her. There aren’t many pictures of her like that, there are few but not many. This is consistent with his approach: find the humanity in his subject and then make it visible in such a way that the rest of us would connect with it.”
For George, this pursuit of humanity was central. Whether photographing politicians like John and Jackie Kennedy, or strangers in Montreal cafés, he aimed to show people as they truly were. As critic Gary Michael Dault wrote in The Globe & Mail, George’s work was “the fruits of a wise, alert, compassionate sensibility at large in the world, reveling in the real.”
A Publicity Stunt, Not a Film Scene
The images from Lexington Avenue never made it into the film. The roar of the crowd and the sounds of the city made the footage unusable. Wilder restaged the entire subway grate scene later on a Hollywood soundstage.
That makes the New York shoot a pure publicity event — one of the most successful ever staged. Dozens of photographers, hundreds of onlookers, and one unforgettable night.
Among them was Jules Schulback, a tailor with a movie camera. His home-shot film, rediscovered decades later, shows Monroe’s dress lifting and, briefly, her face turned serious. The story was reported in The New York Times.
Years later, I had the privilege of showing Schulback’s granddaughter every frame George took, as we searched together for a glimpse of her grandfather in the crowd. The intersection of those two archives — one family’s film, another’s photographs — underscores how history is made of many overlapping perspectives.
From Negatives to Legacy
After the shoot, George did not rush to publish his photographs. He filed them away, preoccupied with other assignments. The negatives survived a 1966 darkroom fire and his family’s move to Canada in 1971. They remained unseen until a 1976 exhibition at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Prince Edward Island, followed by Montreal’s Galerie Art 45 in 1982.
In 2000, they appeared internationally at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern in Spain, where Marilyn’s image hung in a gallery built from ancient stone walls — an almost mythic homecoming.
“To me these photographs are a document of the age of innocence,” George reflected years later, “my own.”
The Legacy on Film
George Zimbel’s work — and his unforgettable night photographing Marilyn Monroe — have also been preserved on film.
Zimbelism (2015) is a feature-length documentary from the National Film Board of Canada. It explores Zimbel’s life and career, including his Marilyn photographs, and has been celebrated internationally for capturing both the humor and humanity of his approach to photography.
The Night I Shot Marilyn (2017) is a short film drawn from Zimbelism. This excerpt focuses on the Lexington Avenue shoot, told in George’s own voice, and brings viewers directly into the crowd through his recollections and photographs.
The Night I Shot Marilyn: A Film Experience
In The Night I Shot Marilyn, George recalls in his own words what it felt like to be pushed behind the police lines, hearing the roar of the crowd, and watching Monroe’s dress whip higher in the night air. His Leica camera was quiet, discreet, and perfectly suited to slipping into the background. That vantage point gave him the opportunity to see Monroe not only as a Hollywood star but as a woman, caught in a fleeting moment of vulnerability.
What makes the documentary Zimbelism especially powerful is that it doesn’t just tell the story — it shows George at work. Viewers are invited into his darkroom, watching as he carefully creates a print, decades after that unforgettable night. The film captures the essence of a master printer at 85 years old, reflecting on Monroe not just as the subject of an iconic image, but as part of the larger arc of his life’s work. His voice carries both wisdom and tenderness, offering a perspective only possible with time and distance.
For viewers, the film becomes more than a retelling of an iconic photograph — it’s a way to feel the tension, the excitement, and the atmosphere of that 1954 New York night, while also seeing the lifelong artistry and humanity of the man behind the camera.
Why Serious Marilyn Still Matters
The Serious Marilyn Monroe photo endures because it shows something rare. Not the familiar bombshell, but a woman pausing amid chaos. A performer aware of her craft, a wife under pressure, an actress yearning to be taken seriously.
For collectors, it is more than a picture of a movie star. It is a cultural document — a record of one of Hollywood’s most famous publicity shoots, filtered through the eye of a photographer committed to truth. It connects us to Marilyn’s struggle and to George’s belief that even in spectacle, humanity can be found.
In an age of endless celebrity imagery, Serious Marilyn feels startlingly relevant. It reminds us that behind every icon is a person — and behind every performance, a moment of honesty worth preserving.
Explore and Collect George Zimbel’s Work
Explore and Collect George Zimbel’s Work
The photograph Serious Marilyn — along with other images from George Zimbel’s archive — is available as a signed print, personally printed by George during his lifetime. These works represent not only a historic moment in photography but also the hand of the artist himself.
If you are considering collecting photography, we encourage you to visit one of the galleries that represent George’s work. The gallery teams are professionals who can help guide you, answer questions, and provide expert advice on building a collection:
Stephen Bulger Gallery — Toronto, Canada
Fahey/Klein Gallery — Los Angeles, USA
Catherine Couturier Gallery — Houston, USA
A Gallery for Fine Photography — New Orleans, USA
If you already know what you’re looking for, you can also purchase through our online store.
At this time, only signed prints printed by George himself are available. We do not currently offer estate-printed editions, though this is under consideration for the future. If you are interested in digital prints, we are keeping a waiting list — please reach out if you’d like to be added.
To stay connected with the archive and see new features, follow us on Instagram @GeorgeZimbelPhotography. Your support helps us preserve and promote George’s legacy so that his work can continue to inspire future generations.
