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Hello, Norma Jeane!
A New Jersey shutterbug might have scored the deal of a century after shelling out $2 for an envelope of never-before-seen images of a bikini-clad Marilyn Monroe.
Anton Fury claims he purchased the rare negatives at a Parsippany garage sale in 1980.
“I thought it was just some chick in a bikini,” Fury told The Post yesterday.
Hours later, Fury examined the negatives on a light box and realized what he had incredibly scooped up: “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, look what I found!’ ”
For reasons he can’t explain, Fury sat on the negatives and did nothing with them for more than 30 years.
“I got married at that time and was trying to make a living, trying to get by,” Fury said. “And then I was living the life. It wasn’t on the top of my list.”
Fury, 52, still might have the negatives under wraps, if not for a flood three months ago that forced him to take inventory at his Wayne studio. Looking at all his belongings, Fury — an adult-entertainment photographer — moaned to himself: “What am I doing with all this stuff?”
So finally, Fury brought these negatives — 30 of Monroe and 70 of fellow 1950s bombshell Jayne Mansfield — to Beverly Hills art and memorabilia appraiser David W. Streets, whose jaw hit the floor when he saw them. The appraiser refused to put a money figure on the images, saying he’d need to know more details — such as who shot the pictures and exactly when they were done.
Streets estimated the pictures came from the early 1950s, just before Monroe hit it big in 1953 with “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
In one shot of Monroe, she’s under white sheets while a man wearing glasses and a suit is touching her knee and hip.
The same man appears in at least one shot with Mansfield.
“I’m hoping someone is going to see this guy and say, ‘Hey that’s Uncle Dave’ or ‘so and so,’ ” Fury said. If the pictures are as rare as believed — and Fury has the legal rights over them — he’d like to sell them all at auction. “I don’t want to be the guy making T-shirts and mugs,” he said. “I don’t want a big legal battle.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li