How Norma Jeane was discovered. Brief explanation.

"I always knew the camera was kind to me. I thought of it as my friend. It was because of David Conover that I found that out. Might say he was the first of photographers that couldn’t wait to flap their shutters at my body. He sold a lot of me to Yank Magazine and that was my first big break." - Marilyn Monroe 

Marilyn's first husband, James Dougherty enlisted into the Merchant Marines in 1943 and had been shipped out to the Pacific in April of 1944. He would remain there for the next two years. Marilyn had moved in with James's parents and gotten her a job at the Radio Plane Factory in Van Nuys, California. In 1945, David Conover was instructed by his Commanding Officer, Ronal Regan, to go and take pictures of women doing their part for the war effort. 

There he met the undiscovered Marilyn Monroe and asked to take pictures of her. Her first magazine cover was the popular Yank Magazine in 1945. David insisted she take up modeling since she was such a natural before the camera. David recommended her to many other well known photographers, such as Potter Hueth, whom she also did some modeling for. Potter Hueth showed pictures of her to Emmeline Snively of the Blue Book Modeling Agency where she actively started modeling.

 © Norma Jeane for Yank Magazine (1945). Photos by army photographer, David Conover.