Chris Tarman
Well-known member
Yesterday I bought a DVD of one of my favorite movies, "Some Like It Hot" . I hadn't seen it in ages, so my wife and I watched it tonight. Ok, so yeah, everyone knows about Marilyn Monroe "playing" ukulele in this film. I don't know if she actually played it or not, but there is a pretty iconic scene of her playing her white uke with the band on the train just after "Daphne" and "Josephine" (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis) join the group. At the end of the tune, Marilyn drops a flask of alcohol out of her dress, and the band leader and manager are going to fire her... there is a good close-up of the fingerboard of her ukulele. I couldn't believe my eyes! I paused the DVD, backed it up and froze it on the view of her fingerboard. It had white lines inlaid down the center of the board, and diamond-shaped position markers (doubled, one on each side of the center lines for each position). That's right... someone actually painted a Martin Style 3 white!!!! Gah!!!! The headstock shape is right, too. I did a Google search, and also found a picture of her with what looks like a Style 2 (NOT painted white).
You can sort of see that it's a Style 3 in this picture:
, but if you look at this eBay item and click "enlarge", you can REALLY see it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230507986119#ht_3236wt_1141
And here's the scene, but it cuts just before the "money shot" of the fingerboard:
You can sort of see that it's a Style 3 in this picture:
, but if you look at this eBay item and click "enlarge", you can REALLY see it:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230507986119#ht_3236wt_1141
And here's the scene, but it cuts just before the "money shot" of the fingerboard:
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