Norma Jeane’s first job was working for Radioplane Corporation, where she had various duties. She mounted propellors, helped make parachutes, and also worked on painting the side of fuselages. In the Spring of 1945, the US Army’s 1st Motion Picture Unit sent photographer David Conover to the Radioplane Corporation to take pictures of the Women in War Work. He wrote a book about it all called Finding Marilyn: A Romance (This was during World War II, and Norma Jeane was one of many women who worked at factories all over the USA to help with the war effort.)

David Conover was instructed to get pictures of pretty women at work for the soldiers abroad. He spotted young Norma Jeane, and the rest is history…

One of her first modelling assignments was for a series of ads for aircraft companies and for airlines.
And she was one of the first jet-setters, travelling around the USA, and to Japan, Korea, and Mexico in airplanes.

Pictures from the Ceasar Vasallo Archives are here with the consent of Ceasar Vasallo

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