Sixty-two years ago this month, Norma Jeane DiMaggio — better known as Marilyn Monroe — travelled to South Korea to entertain more than 100,000 American troops in just four days.
She actually flew to the then-wartime Asian country during her honeymoon with baseball legend (and then-husband) Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio in Japan. True to his mercurial and often times petulant nature and reputation, the New York Yankees’ slugger was pissed that more people turned out to get a glimpse of Monroe than him in the “Land of the Rising Sun”, so he refused to make the journey with his new wife to Korea.
They divorced a few months later.
As for the USO shows, however, Marilyn was smitten, not so much with her husband, but with the performances, saying that they were “the best thing that ever happened to me. I never felt like a star before in my heart. It was so wonderful to look down and see a fellow smiling at me.”
During the extravaganza, a U.S. Marine took the following photograph of the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star — and it’s a killer:
Marilyn Monroe performing in South Korea (photographed by US Marine) this month 1954: #USMC pic.twitter.com/4r9O2Vh84n
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) February 20, 2016
Additionally, here’s Monroe doing “Bye Bye Baby” during the visit: