Pressroom

• Media Contacts
• Press Releases
• ETV Management Team
• Logo Farm
• ETV Style Guidelines
• Stock Photos

South Carolina ETV

• About ETV
• History of ETV
• Testimonials
• Annual Reports
• Schedule a Tour
• Weather Center
• Contact Us

Stay Connected

ETV and American Masters Present Two American Icons: Marilyn Monroe and James Dean

For Immediate Release
June 23, 2006

Columbia, SC…On Wednesday, July 19, ETV airs back-to-back episodes of American Masters, featuring two of the most iconic figures of the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.  Although both died tragically at a very young age, they continue to capture the imaginations of millions around the world and remain as popular today as they were back then.

At 9 p.m., Marilyn Monroe: Still Life makes its debut on ETV.  This new film offers a unique take on one of the world’s first superstars by turning to the still photographs that captured Monroe’s beauty, grace and, ultimately, her complicated relationship with her own fame.

Through interviews with photographers such as Eve Arnold, Arnold Newman, Elliott Erwitt, George Zimbel and Phil Stern, and especially through the photos themselves, Still Life captures moments of great triumph and great tragedy. Other notables, such as Gloria Steinem, Norman Mailer and Hugh Hefner use their memories to paint their own pictures of Monroe, who would have celebrated her 80th birthday this year.

At 10 p.m., the award-winning James Dean: Sense Memories offers unique insights into the life of this young actor and his emergence as a star.

"His on-screen persona will forever symbolize adolescent angst and alienation,” says Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of American Masters. “But this film reaches far beyond Dean’s movie image, exploring how a very real childhood of loss and abandonment (after his mother’s death, nine-year old Dean’s father deserted him) informed his tragic characters, making them not only believable, but totally unforgettable.” 

Evocative of the 1950s era of beatniks and hot rods,  and a sizzling New York jazz scene, Sense Memories is a precise slice of Dean’s life: the brief period between the start of filming East of Eden and the end of filming Giant. As Dean’s East of Eden co-star Lois Smith says in the film, Sense Memories is a look back “at this boy, at that year.”

South Carolina ETV is the state's public educational broadcasting network with 11 television and eight radio transmitters, and a multi-media educational system in more than 2,500 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies. Using television, radio and the web, SCETV's mission is to enrich lives by educating children, informing and connecting citizens, celebrating our culture and environment and instilling the joy of learning.

###

For more information, contact Rob Schaller at (803) 737-6556 or rschaller@scetv.org.