Marilyn Monroe making The Seven Year Itch promotional ads September 15, 1954

Out of all the images that exist of Marilyn Monroe, this is perhaps the most iconic. The Seven Year Itch director Billy Wilder created a media circus of hundreds to witness the famous 'skirt uplift' scene, despite filming happening during the early hours.

When Marilyn Monroe stood atop a New York City subway grating—her white dress billowing above her waist as co-star Tom Ewell looked on with lecherous intent in director Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch—she was already established as the era’s most potent sex symbol. But the film, and the subway imagery in particular, forever enshrined her as the screen’s quintessential love goddess.The scene was originally filmed during the early morning hours of September 15, 1954, at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street. Heavily publicized beforehand, it attracted a thousand or more spectators like iron filings to a magnet. Also on hand were Monroe’s husband, Joe Dimaggio, scores of photographers, and a sizeable contingent of New York’s finest called in to maintain order. Under Wilder’s relaxed but firm direction, the lead actors undertook repeated takes exiting the famous Trans-Lux Theater and exchanging flirtatious banter until the magic moment when Monroe’s dress is blown heavenward, revealing her million dollar legs and—scandalously for the era—white underpants.The scene’s repercussions were immediate and enduring. The combination of Monroe’s exhibitionism and the crowd’s loudly libidinous response resulted in reams of publicity for the film, helping to make it the biggest box office hit of 1955. But it also spelled the end of Monroe’s brief marriage to Dimaggio, who was more than unhappy at what he perceived as a public transgression of the bounds of decency and decorum. The scene was eventually re-shot under controlled studio conditions (ostensibly because crowd noise rendered the location footage unusable) and toned down, with Monroe’s dress never rising much above her knees. However, the overtly sexual nature of the original shoot lived on in the film’s promotional ads and in photos reproduced around the world.