Posts Tagged with Bus Stop

DON MURRAY REMEMBERS MARILYN
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DON MURRAY REMEMBERS MARILYN

Marilyn Monroe’s co-star Don Murray recalls working with the actress on “Bus Stop” from a fairly recent interview he did for CLOSER Magazine

“Marilyn was very kind to me, I thought she was magnificent. I never understood why she was not nominated for an Academy Award.

I had been overseas, so I didn’t know much about her, I was totally taken aback by how important a movie star she was. There was press around all the time because of her.

She had difficulty remembering her lines, so we had to do many takes. Often, when we were doing a scene, she would get so emotionally involved that she’d go off her mark. The director told me to put my hands on her hips and move her to her marks. That’s what I did whenever we were shooting above her waist.

“She was always late. Not 10 minutes, but two hours or half a day! She also took a week off and called in sick, but she was actually having a romance with Arthur Miller at the Chateaux Marmont! It was quite a trial. Being from theater, I wasn’t used to that!”

MONROE AND TRAVILLA
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MONROE AND TRAVILLA

 

Marilyn and Travilla

Legendary costume designer William Travlla worked with Marilyn on 8 of her movies made at FOX Studios. Which designs are some of your favourite??

“Don’t Bother To Knock”
“Monkey Business”
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”
“How To Marry A Millionaire”
“River Of No Return”
“There’s No Business Like Show Business”
“The Seven Year Itch”
“Bus Stop”


“Givenchy gave Audrey Hepburn a little black dress, Jean Louis made Rita Hayworth sizzle in “Gilda,” Adrian helped make Greta Garbo a goddess, and Marilyn had Travilla to flatter her natural assets. Travilla was a FOX contract designer who workd under wardrobe director Charles Le Maire. He personally crafted the clothes worn by Marilyn for both industry functions and in the majority of her FOX films after she was elevated to star status. They had a friendly personal relationship, and unlike Garbo, who later told Adrian that she never liked the clothes he designed for her, Marilyn was delighted to be dressed by Travilla.”
~‘Marilyn Monroe: Platinum FOX’ by Cindy De La Hoz.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON MURRAY


Here at Marilyn Remembered, we are wishing Don Murray a very happy Birthay on his 90th birthday!

Don Murray ( born July 31st 1929) is an American actor who is best known for his breakout preformance in the 1956 drama “Bus Stop” which earned him an Academy Award nomination.

Having worked in movies and television since 1954, some of his biggest credits include: “Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes,” “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Knots Landing.”

Murray with his wife Bettie Johnson at the New York premiere of “My Week With Marilyn” in 2011

Speaking in 2014, Murray said of his time working with Marilyn Monroe on Bus Stop:

“Bus Stop” was her comeback film. And I thought she was magnificent in it, although she was always late on the set and she had a hard time remembering her lines. She also had a very short concentration span: she would start a scene and stop in the middle because she forgot her lines. So she had to do all her scenes in tiny, little pieces because she couldn’t sustain a scene all the way through. We never saw a complete scene with her. All the actors in the film came from the stage, like Hope Lange and I, Arthur O’Connell, Eileen Heckart – everyone in the film – so we were used to having a continuous performance and we would go to the rushes to see yesterday’s work. We would see all these little pieces and we thought the film was going to be a disaster. However, the first time we saw it at a preview, all of a sudden we realized what the magic of films was, with the editing and cutting it all together: she was magnificent! I never understood why she was not nominated [for an Academy Award] for “Bus Stop”.

Happy Birthday Mr Murray!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM TRAVILLA

“She was the easiest person I ever worked with.” William Travilla on Marilyn Monroe.

William “Bill” Travilla, known professionally as “Travilla” was an American costume designer for theatre, film and television. Marilyn fans will know him best as being the head costume designer on eight of her films:

Monkey Business (1952)

Don’t Bother to Knock (1952)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954)

River of No Return (1954)

Seven Year Itch (1955)

Bus Stop (1956)

“She was so childlike she could do anything, and you could forgive as you would forgive a seven year old. She was both a woman and a baby, and both men and women adored her.”

The admiration for Marilyn was clearly reciprocated, as Monroe once autographed a nude calendar for him with the words:

“Billy Dear, please dress me forever. I love you, Marilyn”

Travilla had a long and varied career spanning more than 4 decades, he created some of the most iconic looks in film and television and was nominated for an Academy Award four times, eventually winning in 1950 for his work on “The Adventures of Don Juan.”

Travilla passed away on November 2nd 1990 aged 70.