To Surreal, With Love – A Poem by Ralph Monday
To Surreal, With Love
Sheree North died aged 72,
one of the last in a long line of Fox blondes
stretching from Sonja Henie, Alice Faye,
Betty Grable, June Haver to Jayne Mansfield
and Marilyn Monroe.
North, hired by 20th Century-Fox, the intention:
making her the next Monroe, height and measurements
she almost matched exactly.
She told an interviewer in 1983, “same reaction when producers
hear my name, the blonde who was to
have taken over from Marilyn Monroe.”
February 1954, the 21-year-old dancer signed with Fox
[who had] problems with the unreliable Monroe.
The following year, North featured on the cover of
Life magazine, lead in How To Be Very, Very Popular,
a part which Monroe turned down.
It was a lively launch to her career. Paired with the
38-year-old Betty Grable (in her last screen role), North
seemed fresh,energetic, in number “Shake, Rattle and Roll,”
publicized as “the first rock’n’roll dance on the screen!”
Erasure Poem
Source: Bergan, Ronald. “Sheree North.” The Guardian. Friday 18 November
2005
