BY JOEY SWEENEY
In 1954
Billy Wilder stood on Lexington Avenue between 52nd and 53rd
to capture the hot wind of a subway vent
blowing up Marilyn Monroe's skirt
as a crowd of onlookers beheld the sight.
The screaming and hollering of the crowd,
hollering like we don't even know now,
rendered every shot of it unusable.
When I think of you
I think you must know this, Majestic Gentleman.
And I think you also know
- you must know
that the image and scene everyone knows
was in fact captured later
on a cool and silent
relatively silent, at any rate,
soundstage in Hollywood
Where looking was work
where you fake the moment until you can make the moment
but just like it is out on the street
You take whatever you can.
