In late September 1958, Marilyn Monroe was on set filming the classic comedy Some Like It Hot — and she was pregnant. Her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, personally informed director Billy Wilder of the pregnancy and asked him to handle Marilyn with care, specifically requesting that her workday end no later than 4:30 PM. Wilder did not respond well to the request.
Despite the pregnancy, production continued at a demanding pace. Marilyn worked long hours on set, and the physical toll was significant. She suffered from insomnia and lived in constant fear of losing the baby. The pressure of maintaining her role in a major Hollywood production while managing a fragile pregnancy made the situation all the more difficult.
It was during this period that photographer Phil Stern was assigned by Look magazine to shoot the view from Sam Goldwyn’s window on the Goldwyn Studios lot. Armed with telephoto lenses and working from a bird’s-eye vantage point above Goldwyn’s office, Stern began photographing the scene below. What he captured turned out to be something no other photographer had ever documented.
Marilyn, completely unaware of Stern’s presence above her, moved naturally and without posing. The telephoto lens closed the distance without alerting her. The result was a series of candid photographs showing Marilyn Monroe visibly pregnant — unguarded, unposed, and entirely herself. These images stood apart from the carefully managed publicity shots that typically defined her public image.
Throughout filming, Marilyn’s drama coach Paula Strasberg was a constant presence on set. Strasberg had long served as both a professional support and a close companion to Monroe during productions, and the two were frequently seen together during the making of Some Like It Hot.
On December 16, 1958, Marilyn Monroe suffered a miscarriage. It was not her first. Monroe had a documented history of being unable to carry pregnancies to full term, a reality she was deeply aware of during those weeks on set. She attempted to conceive again two years later but was unsuccessful. The September photographs taken by Phil Stern remain a rare and unfiltered record of a deeply personal chapter in her life, caught entirely by chance from a rooftop window.
