The Marilyn Monroe 100th Birthday Blogathon: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

In the early 1950s, 20th Century Fox, like all the Hollywood studios, began facing massive declines in theatre attendance. The advent of television provided Americans with a cheaper and more convenient form of entertainment at home, where families could watch a wide variety of programmes at little additional cost. Desperate to lure potential moviegoers away from their television sets, studio chiefs began exploiting the two obvious advantages that film enjoyed over the new medium: the size of its images and, at a time when television broadcasting was in black-and-white, the ability to produce photographic colour. The introduction of Kodak's Eastmancolor film stock in 1950 made movie production more affordable and efficient, since it could be used with conventional cameras, unlike the previous and more cumbersome Technicolor system. Within four years, over 50 percent of all Hollywood features were being produced in colour.

 

LEFT: A typical 1950s American family gathered around a television set (photo by H. Armstrong Roberts). RIGHT: Frame from Carson City (1952), the first Hollywood film shot in Warnercolor, Warner Bros.' branding for the Eastmancolor process.

Since 1932, motion pictures had been projected using a standardized aspect ratio of 1.33:1. However, as television eroded the film industry's domestic audience, the studios increased the screen size as a way of attracting people back to the theatres. Early experiments with stereoscopic 3-D and Cinerama — a multi-camera widescreen process invented by Fred Waller in 1952 — generated public curiosity, but the true widescreen breakthrough came with the creation of an anamorphic system named CinemaScope.

 

The development of CinemaScope began in 1926, when French inventor Henri Chrétien patented a process called Anamorphoscope. Using lenses that employed an optical technique known as Hypergonar, the system compressed images during filming and expanded them during projection, creating a picture twice as wide as that produced by conventional lenses. Although Chrétien initially failed to attract interest from the film industry, the rapid rise of television in the early 1950s encouraged Hollywood studios to pursue new technological innovations that could compete with home entertainment.

 

In 1952, Spyros Skouras, the president of 20th Century Fox, instructed the studio's research department to develop a widescreen projection system that could be installed in existing theatres at a relatively low cost. Earl Sponable, the head of Fox's research department, and his assistant, Herbert Brag, proposed adapting Chrétien's anamorphic lens technology, leading Fox to purchase the inventor's existing Hypergonar lenses. Because the original lenses had technical flaws, Fox collaborated with the Canadian optical company Bausch & Lamb to produce an improved design. The resulting CinemaScope process used anamorphic lenses to compress a wide image onto standard 35-mm film and then restore the image's full width during projection. With an aspect ratio of 2.55:1, CinemaScope offered a major advantage over competing widescreen systems, because it required no special cameras, film stock, or projectors. Fox promoted the innovation as «a new dimensional marvel you see without glasses.» The first film released in CinemaScope was the Biblical epic The Robe (1953), although the first feature completed using the process was a glossy comedy named How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

 

Original theatrical release posters for How to Marry a Millionaire.

The script of How to Marry a Millionaire was penned by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, who drew inspiration from two stage plays: The Greeks Had a Word for It by Zoe Akins, and Loco by Katherine Albert and Dale Eunson. The story he created focuses on three ambitious New York City models — Schatze Page, Loco Dempsey and Pola Debevoise — who are determined to escape financial insecurity by marrying wealthy men. They pool their savings to rent a luxurious Manhattan penthouse and present themselves as members of high society in hopes of attracting millionaire suitors. Schatze, the most resourceful of the trio, becomes engaged to the rich widower J.D. Hanley, but finds herself falling for Tom Brookman, a charming man she believes is poor. The sweet but naïve Loco begins an affair with the married businessman Waldo Brewster, and later meets Eben Salem, a forest ranger. Meanwhile, Pola, who is extremely near-sighted and refuses to wear glasses around men, is briefly attracted to the fraudulent oil tycoon J. Stuart Merrill, before getting to know Freddie Denmark, the owner of the penthouse they are renting. As their search for millionaire husbands continues, each woman discovers that genuine love matters more than money. Schatze realizes she cannot marry J.D. because she truly loves Tom, who turns out to be one of the richest men in the country. Loco chooses the honest and dependable Eben over the wealthy but unsuitable men she had pursued, while Pola falls in love with Freddie, who appreciates her for who she is and encourages her to stop hiding behind her insecurities.

 

Stills from How to Marry a Millionaire. LEFT: Lauren Bacall and Cameron Mitchell as Schatze Page and Tom Brookman. MIDDLE: Betty Grable and Rory Calhoun as Loco Dempsey and Eben Salem. RIGHT: Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne as Pola Debevoise and Freddie Denmark.

 

To maximize the film's box-office potential, Fox decided to use two of its greatest sex symbols, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. Since signing an exclusive long-term contract with the studio in 1940, Grable had been Fox's top leading lady and one of the most popular pin-up girls of the war years, rivaled only by Columbia's Rita Hayworth. Although her popularity had begun to decline by 1953, she still had enough star power to boost a picture. How to Marry a Millionaire turned out to be Grable's last film as a Fox contract player; after a series of disputes that led to her being put on suspension for refusing several roles assigned to her — including the leads in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), both of which were eventually given to Monroe — she decided to step away from the studio and focus on revitalizing her stage career. Grable returned to Fox two years later as an independent artist to star in How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955), after which she retired from motion-picture acting.

 

As for Monroe, she was enjoying a spectacular ascent to superstardom. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, she spent much of her childhood in foster homes, as a result of her mother's struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. During World War II, while working in a munitions factory, she began a modelling career, appearing on numerous magazine covers and advertisements. Her success as a model led to a six-month deal with 20th Century Fox in 1946, during which she adopted the stage name «Marilyn Monroe.» However, the studio struggled to find suitable roles for the inexperienced actress and decided not to renew her contract. Undeterred, Monroe continued to study acting, singing and dancing, while supporting herself with further modelling jobs and occasional film work. Her breakthrough finally came when she landed small roles in the critically acclaimed pictures The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and All About Eve (1950), the latter produced by Fox. These performances convinced Fox to re-sign Monroe to a seven-year contract, positioning her to be Betty Grable's successor as the studio's leading blonde star. By the time Monroe was cast in How to Marry a Millionaire, she had already been catapulted to Hollywood's top ranks following the release of the box-office hit Niagara (1953), which had established her as a major sex symbol.

 

With Grable and Monroe cast, Lauren Bacall was hired as the third female lead, in her first film under her new contract with Fox. After the commercial failure of Bright Leaf (1950), she had severed her ties with Warner Bros., her home studio since her screen debut in 1944, and attempted to find independent projects that would allow her to finally showcase her versatility as an actress. Although her agent advised her against signing with Fox, she was persuaded by studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck, who assured her that the one-picture-a-year deal would provide her with high-quality roles specifically tailored to her skills. According to Bacall, she had been the one to bring Akins's play to Fox, having expressed her interest in the story to both Zanuck and Jean Negulesco, who had been hired to direct the film. However, Bacall had never starred in a comedy before, so Zanuck asked her to do a screen test to ascertain her suitability for the role. Although Bacall was initially taken aback by the request, she was determined to be in the picture, believing it would put her career back on track. Swallowing her pride, she agreed to the test, proving to Zanuck, Negulesco and Johnson that the was right for the part.

 

The casting of Grable, Bacall and Monroe lent itself to the incorporation of a few witty «inside jokes» into the dialogue. In a scene where Loco and Waldo are listening to the radio, she insists that the musician playing is «good ol' Harry James,» who was Grable's husband in real life. Likewise, in a conversation with J.D., Schatze tries to persuade him that she prefers older men and expresses her infatuation with «that old fella, what's-his-name, in African Queen.» The star of that film, Humphrey Bogart, was married to Bacall. Additionally, when Pola models a red, diamond-encrusted swimsuit, she is introduced with the line, «You know, of course, that diamond's are a girl's best friend,» a nod to Monroe's iconic musical number in the smash-hit Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), which was completed less than a week before she started working on How to Marry a Millionaire. Lastly, during a plane sequence, when Pola pulls out a book to read, its title is Murder by Strangulation, the fate of her character in Niagara.

 

Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable in How to Marry a Millionaire.

How to Marry a Millionaire began production on March 9, 1953. Although filming proceeded smoothly throughout, the use of CinemaScope brought on some technical challenges. Because of the wide aspect ratio, close-ups were distorted and the actors were spaced farther apart and required to be constantly moving. Horizontal stripes, large florals and strong textures were forbidden due to the distortion, which limited costumers in the patterns used in their designs. Additionally, many scenes were longer, with the actors asked to deliver up to the six pages of dialogue at a time. While Bacall felt comfortable with this method, likening it to working on the stage, she remembered that Monroe was «frightened [and] insecure» about the demands of the new filming technique. She would often look for the approval of her acting coach, Natasha Lytess, who was always on the set, and sometimes demanded as many as 15 takes before she was satisfied with her own performance. Monroe not only experienced difficulties delivering her line, but the simplest tasks and actions required of her also terrified her into making mistakes that would cause lengthy delays. 

  

While the issues created by Monroe's insecurities could have led to tension between the three actresses — especially when the press tried to pit them against each other — it actually brought them closer together. Bacall and Grable, both veterans of the industry at that point, felt protective towards Monroe and gave her the genuine feeling that she could rely upon them as co-stars and as friends. «Grable and I decided we'd try to make it easier for her, make her feel she could trust us,» Bacall later said. Although Monroe was initially hesitant to trust them, their warmth broke down her protective wall and they became developed a strong bond during production. «I couldn't dislike Marilyn,» Bacall stated. «She had no meanness in her, no bitchery.»

 

Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe on the set of How to Marry a Millionaire. 

 

How to Marry Millionaire premiered on November 4, 1953, with a glitzy opening at Fox's Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills. Monroe arrived at the event with Bacall and Bogart, with photos of the trio causing a sensation on front pages around the world. Critical reception was generally positive, with particular praise for its star power, visual style and comedic tone, although some reviewers dismissed its formulaic plot. William Brogdon of Variety described the film as «a solid comedy that would click even without the anamorphic filming,» and commended the three female leads, as well as Negulesco's direction. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was less impressed, writing, «the substance is still insufficient for the vast spread of screen which CinemaScope throws across the front of the theatre, and the impression it leaves is that of nonsense from a few people in a great big hall.» In turn, Harrison's Reports considered the film should be «a box-office natural from all angles — presentation, story, cast, direction, production values, Technicolor photography and, above all, entertainment values that will register strongly with the great mass of movie-goers.» How to Marry a Millionaire was, in fact, a great financial success, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of that year. Charles LeMaire and William Travilla received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.

 

Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe at the Los Angeles premiere of How to Marry a Millionaire. 

 

How to Marry a Millionaire occupies an important place in American film history as both a showcase of 1950s Hollywood glamour and a reflection of post-war attitudes toward gender, romance, and consumer culture. The film united three of the era's most prominent female stars — Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, and Marilyn Monroe — and played a crucial role in Monroe's transformation into a major Hollywood attraction. While its story centres on women seeking wealthy husbands, the film ultimately endorses love and personal fulfillment over material gain, reinforcing prevailing social values of the period. Moreover, as one of the first features released in CinemaScope, it demonstrated Hollywood's determination to innovate in the face of growing competition from television. More than a commercial success, How to Marry a Millionaire captured a pivotal moment in American popular culture, marking both the transition between generations of female stardom and the beginning of a new era in cinematic spectacle.

This post is my contribution to The Marilyn Monroe 100th Birthday Blogathon hosted by Kristen at Hoofers & Honeys. To view all entries, click HERE.

 

 

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SOURCES: 

Brogdon, William. «Film Reviews: How to Marry a Millionaire.» Variety, 11 Nov. 1953, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/variety192-1953-11/page/n69/mode/1up. 

Capua, Michelangelo. Jean Negulesco: The Life and Films. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2017.

Crowther, Bosley. «The Screen: Trio of Stars in CinemaScope.» The New York Times, 11 Nov. 1953, https://www.nytimes.com/1953/11/11/archives/the-screen-trio-of-stars-in-cinemascope-monroe-grable-bacall.html. 

Eyman, Scott. 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio. Running Press, 2021. 

«How to Marry a Millionaire.» AFI Catalog of Feature Films, https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/50878. 

«'How to Marry a Millionaire' with Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, David Wayne, Rory Calhoun, Cameron Mitchell and William Powell.» Harrison's Reports, 7 Nov. 1953, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/harrisonsreports00harr_1/page/n207/mode/1up. 

Sklar, Robert, and David A. Cook. «History of film.» Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 May 2026, https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-film.

Uzarowski, Anthony. Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool. The University Press of Mississippi, 2026. 

Vogel, Michelle. Marilyn Monroe: Her Films, Her Life. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014.