Marilyn Monroe, Miss December, 1953

Some say her real name is Norma Jean Baker. Others claim it's Norma Jeane Mortenson. Her measurements have been reported as 35" 24" 37", 37 1/2" 25" 37 1/2" and 37 1/2" 23" 37". Sometimes she's 5'4" tall and weighs 120 pounds, but she may shift unexpectedly to 5'5 1/2" and weigh in at 118.

Though the gentlemen who handle such matters for the magazines and newspapers of the nation seem to be working with a rich variety of statistics, their sum totals all come out the same. No matter how you add it up, Marilyn "blonde all over" Monroe is the juiciest morsel to come out of the California hills since the discovery of the navel orange.

Her own exciting 3 dimensions are doing as much to keep her studio in the black as all the ballyhooed 3-D gimmicks. She can put more sensual appeal into a simple glance or movement than any Oomph, It, Snap, Crackle or Pop girl in Hollywood's sensual history. She's as famous as Dwight Eisenhower and Dick Tracy, and she and Dr. Kinsey have so monopolized sex this year, some people in high places are investigating to make certain no anti-trust laws have been bent or broken.

At this point, it seems perfectly natural to ask why? What has made Marilyn "all I wear to bed is Chanel No. 5" Monroe the undisputed Love Goddess of this particular generation?

Publicity is the most obvious answer. Nobody climbs to stardom without a healthy boost from the rear by a Grade-A publicity man. In this case, there are two -- Harry Brand and Roy Craft -- both Grade-A. They do their boosting for 20th Century Fox, and they outdid themselves on Marilyn. Yet some of the biggest publicity breaks were unplanned. Marilyn's romance with Joltin' Joe DiMaggio was on the up and up; in fact the studio boys were actually against it, because they thought it would hurt her popularity. And when they first heard about the now famous nude calendar, even their ulcers had ulcers.

Yes, publicity is certainly a part of Marilyn's popularity -- but only a part. Promotion men grow grey trying to out-promote one another in the glamour girl field, for constant exposure to the cheesecake virus has left most citizens almost immune. Marilyn caught on in epidemic proportions because, as Life put it, she's "the real article."

What makes Marilyn the real article?

Is it her body? Fortunately she has given us an unusually complete view of this part of the attraction for careful study and consideration. There is no denying the young lady is very well stacked.

Yet, her curves really aren't that spectacular. Even if you believe the best of the conflicting reports--37 1/2" 23" 37" (and we don't) -- we've known girls in our roguish wanderings who beat those dimensions all to hell.

The same can be said for her face. It's sweet, wide-eyed and innocent -- and on top of her rather surrealistic torso, it's slightly sensational. But Hollywood uses slightly sensational females for waitresses and studio messengers.

More than either face or body, it is what little Norma Jean has learned to do with both. Caruso, they say, could break a wine glass with his voice. Marilyn shatters whole rows of beer steins with a single, seductive look. And when she turns and slowly undulates out of a room, seismographs pick up quivers a thousand miles away.

All of which is to say -- there is nothing else quite like Marilyn on this good earth -- be it animal, vegetable or mineral. She is natural sex personified. It is there in every look and movement. That's what makes her the most natural choice in the world for our very first Playboy Sweetheart.

Sweetheart of the Month----

We'll be running a beautiful, full color unpinned pin-up in each new issue ofPlayboy,but we're mighty pleased to have the famous nude of Marilyn Monroe as a starter.

There were actually two poses shot au naturel back in '49, just before the gorgeous blonde got her first movie break. When they appeared as calendar art, they helped catapult her to stardom. We've selected the better of the two as our firstPlayboySweetheart.