In order to raise money for the Actors Studio, a benefit gala for The Rose Tattoo was planned. As tickets were slow to sell, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe were called upon to be photographed for PR and improve ticket sales. These images were the result of those few hours in November of 1955.
It was Milton H. Greene who physically brought Marilyn Monroe to Lee Strasberg’s Actors studio and the reason being, his friend Marlon was a member. It was that friendship that got Milton’s wife Amy involved as the Chairman for the Rose Tattoo Actors studio benefit and her first duty was to sell tables. Having serious difficulty as nobody she contacted had heard of the small clique of New York actors at the time. Ticket prices were $150 and enticement of The Rose Tattoo with Anna Magnani and Burt Lancaster being shown at the Astor Theater on 46th and Broadway followed by a gala dinner and dance on the roof was just not enough.
Tickets were not selling, so Amy brought in the big guns. She told Marlon that he and Marilyn were being recruited to get photographed and within hours, the PR people were handed 3 photographs of Marlon and Marilyn holding a facsimile of a big ticket that people could buy. It made every major newspaper in New York (there were 15) and the phone began ringing off the hook. Suddenly a hit was in their hands and all due to the magic of celebrity dom.
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