Marilyn Monroe dress, which prompted veteran star Joan Crawford to describe her behavior as "unbecoming an actress and a lady" to the press. While "Niagara" made Monroe a sex symbol and established her "look", her second film of the year, the satirical musical comedy "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", established her screen persona as a "dumb blonde". Based on Anita Loos' bestselling novel and its Broadway version, the film focuses on two "gold-digging" showgirls, Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw, played by Monroe and Jane Russell. The role of Lorelei was originally intended for Betty Grable, who had been 20th Century-Fox's most popular "blonde bombshell"
Jeanne Crain Alan Young, and Rudy Vallee. The production was filmed on location in Paris. The film was based on Anita Loos' novel, a sequel to "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". "Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as "A Paris Pour les Quatre" ("To Paris for the Four"), and in Belgium as "Cevieren Te Parijs". Later in the 1950s, Crain, Russell, and another actress formed a short-lived singing and dancing lounge act on the Las Vegas Strip. Crain made the Western comedy "The Second Greatest Sex" (1956), then starred with Glenn Ford, Russ Tamblyn, and