Looking to boost ticket sales and raise some dough for the Actors Studio, the powers that be decided to throw a benefit gala for The Rose Tattoo. But, despite the all-star lineup, tickets were slow to sell. That’s when Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe came to the rescue.
You see, Marlon was a member of the Actors Studio and good buddies with Milton H. Greene, who brought Marilyn into the fold. And when Amy, Milton’s wife, was asked to chair the Rose Tattoo benefit, she was faced with a daunting task: sell tickets to a bunch of unknown actors in a small clique in New York.
With ticket prices set at a hefty $150, the appeal of watching The Rose Tattoo with Anna Magnani and Burt Lancaster at the Astor Theater, followed by a fancy dinner and dance on the roof, wasn’t enough to fill the seats.
But, being the savvy PR strategist that she was, Amy knew what to do. She called on Marlon and Marilyn to pose for some photos, which would be splashed across all the major newspapers in New York (15 of them, to be exact). And, just like that, the phones started ringing off the hook. With the power of celebrity behind them, the Rose Tattoo benefit became an overnight success.
