Marilyn’s Double Dare

The bathing beauty,far right, sticking a fork through a sixinch wiener, is none other than Marilyn Monroe. Then still called Norma Jean Baker, the budding bombshell was making one of her first public appearances—in the 1947 Jantzen wholesale swimwear catalogue. This long-forgotten moment from the history of stardom was recently rediscovered in Jantzen’s Oregon archives—along with the information that the costume was called “Double Dare” because of two upperthigh-revealing portholes. Curiously, another featured player in the same catalogue was the juvenile James Garner,right. His trunks were called “Savage.” —Gideon Bosker

Gideon Bosker