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Billy Wilder, who directed Marilyn Monroe in both Some Like it Hot and The Seven Year Itch, once described her rare, magical quality on camera like so: “She had flesh which photographed like flesh. You feel you can reach out and touch it. Unique is an overworked word, but in her case it applies. There will never be another one like her, and Lord knows there have been plenty of imitations.” Over a decade before either of those films, a young, fresh-faced Norma Jean Dougherty, then a model at the Blue Book Modeling Agency, was paid $10 an hour by a pin-up artist and photographer named Earl Moran. Check out some of the gorgeous shots that resulted from their collaboration, pulled from a fantastic collection assembled by vintage everyday, and we think you’ll see exactly what Wilder meant.

Photo credit: Earl Moran