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http://www.npg.si.edu/img2/marilyn/lmari176.jpg
In February 1954, Navy medic '''David Geary''' was in the right place at the right time.

When Marilyn Monroe stopped by to entertain the troops in Korea, a friendly MP waved Doc Geary up to a second row seat. Dave had his new Argus with him and took these pictures, now preserved by the [http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/marilyn/korea5.htm National Portrait Gallery].

[http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/marilyn/mar176.htm View the Marilyn Monroe photos]
[http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/marilyn/intro.htm Introduction by Mary Panzer]
[http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/Rios022603.html Newhouse News article]
[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0=marilyn%20AND%20monroe%20AND%20david%20AND%20geary&s_dispstring=marilyn%20monroe%20david%20geary%20AND%20date(8/1/1998%20to%208/31/1998)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=8/1/1998%20to%208/31/1998&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:A&xcal_useweights=no Boston Globe article ($)]
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A recent acquisition by the Portrait Gallery has been the subject of feature stories by both the Boston Globe and NBC’s “Today” show. The photos were neither taken by a professional nor elaborately posed. That is what makes them remarkable, says Mary Panzer, curator of prints and photographs at NPG.

The photographs are captivating images of actress and singer Marilyn Monroe, taken by Springfield, Mass., resident David Geary, in Korea in February 1954, when Monroe gave a series of concerts for American GIs. The photos came to the collection with a routine phone call.

“Dave Geary called me last year about some pictures he had taken of Marilyn Monroe in Korea and asked if I wanted to see them,” Panzer says. “Frankly, I didn’t expect too much, but when the envelope arrived, I was bowled over. The pictures were just what he promised; some of the best portraits of Monroe I’d ever seen.”

The stage, the backup singers, the servicemen in the audience and Monroe’s vivid expressions are all visible in the photos. “You feel like you’re right there,” Panzer says.

It didn’t hurt that Geary had a second-row seat. Appearing on “Today” in August, Geary explained that he served as a medic during the Korean War. When military police in the front rows saw him walk by, they yelled, “Hey, Doc! Come sit with us!”

What makes the photographs even more interesting is that Geary “wasn’t there as a photographer, to take pictures to sell or on assignment,” Panzer asserts. “You feel like you’re seeing a Marilyn Monroe you’ve never seen before.” Geary kept the photos carefully stored in a shoe box all these years, because “he has always loved a beautiful girl, and Monroe’s beauty made him happy.”

Panzer notes that Monroe later described her performances in Korea as a high point, saying, “It’s the first time I felt like a star in my heart.”

“What these portraits give us,” Panzer adds, “is Monroe as seen by one of the guys who made her feel that way.”

Geary decided to give the original slides of Monroe to NPG after friends at a Springfield bar he frequents suggested he contact the Smithsonian. “Geary had no personal motive in giving the pictures to NPG; he just wanted to put them where the most people could see them,” Panzer says. “This was just his chance to make a contribution.”

Since acquiring and displaying the pictures, Panzer has received calls from several people with interesting stories to tell about Korea— and even artifacts to share. The acquisition “has opened the door to many opportunities, and I am grateful to Dave Geary for realizing that SI is where these things belong.”

Several of Geary’s Monroe photos are part of the “Recent Acquisitions” exhibition, on view at NPG through Jan. 24, 1999.

 ''The Torch'' (Smithsonian Institution staff newspaper), October 1998[[BR]]
 [http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MAB/publications/1098oct.pdf PDF] | [http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:dXSUlewFCXoJ:nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MAB/publications/1098oct.pdf HTML]