11/20/2008 5:09 pm
Culture
Photographer Milton Greene's Wife Pays Tribute ... and Reveals the Truth of the Tale of Marilyn Monroe's Veil
BUT THAT’S ANOTHER STORY:
A Photographic Retrospective of Milton H. Greene
Her demeanor brightened whenever she spoke about Milton.
"The book was closure."
Milton died August 8, 1985, from melanoma; a long and painful fight, Amy explained. Milton was a fisherman. He had many small skin cancers removed but then it turned inward and spread, she said. "It was his own damn fault. He was never conscious of the gravity of his decisions."
"But that was Milton."
Amy fell in love with Milton in 1952. They were introduced by another famed photographer, Richard Avedon. Amy was in front of the Sherry Netherlands Hotel. She was sitting outside in blue jeans (during a time when everyone was always dressed to the nines, and dames changed clothes three times a day, she explained). A man walked past her and asked if she would ever consider modeling. That man was the late, great Avedon, who would later marry Milton Greene’s first wife Evelyn. Amy and Milton married one year later. On their wedding day, Amy’s mother whispered this into Amy’s ear: "Never go to bed sad."
They never did.
Amy described Milton as elegant. He loved clothes: He owned 250 suits, 100 shirts and had his underwear made in Paris. He was dapper: Everywhere he went, he was well dressed. She recalled a lunch more than five decades ago in Paris. She was with Milton and Robert Capa (who started, with old friend Henry Cartier-Bresson, Magnum Photos). She described Milton and Capa chatting together like "thoroughbred race horses in a meadow." They were dark, intense, brilliant, immaculately dressed and really focused as they talked the technicalities of capturing a perfect photo. "Sitting there was just fabulous."
Amy’s mentors were her mother, Dorothy Shaver and Fleur Fenton Cowles. Her mother was a Cuban native who raised Amy in America and worked long hours to provide her daughter with everything such as exposure to the arts and a good education. Shaver was the first president of New York City’s prestigious Lord & Taylor in 1945. Fleur Fenton’s best-known work was starting the magazine Flair with her publisher husband Gardner "Mike" Cowles. Flair was aimed at a sophisticated audience interested in fashion, travel and the arts. It lasted only from February 1950 to January 1951. To Amy, the end of Flair "was a sad day for society."
Milton is remembered for his close friendship with Marilyn Monroe as well as for the production company he started with Monroe. Milton first encountered Monroe on assignment for Look magazine. Before Monroe married Arthur Miller, Monroe lived with Amy and Milton in their Connecticut farmhouse. The Greenes and Monroe became close friends. Amy and Milton were two of the very few who attended Monroe and Miller’s secret wedding ceremony in 1956. Among the many legends of Marilyn Monroe was that she had to die her wedding veil in coffee to match her beige-colored wedding dress. However, Amy knows the truth behind this story.
"Many Internet sites say Marilyn had no veil and had to dye one in coffee," Amy writes in But That’s Another Story. "Bull feathers. It was my wedding veil she used, which I had dyed in tea a week before. So much for the Internet. Don’t you hate blogs?"
Amy Greene will not be reading this interview off of a screen. She’s not into computers.
- Email this Post
- login or register to post comments
3 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment