Long Island beach honors Marilyn Monroe's 1949 photo shoot site

TOBAY Beach now carries a plaque for the day Marilyn Monroe was still Norma Jeane Mortenson, standing on Long Island sand at age 23 while André de Dienes made the photographs that helped push her toward stardom. The historical sign at the Town of Oyster Bay beach in Nassau County was dedicated by Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and Receiver of Taxes Jeff Pravato, turning a quiet stretch of shoreline into a stop on photography’s celebrity map.

The tribute was unveiled on Friday, May 29, 2026, days before Monroe would have turned 100 on June 1, 2026. That timing gives the marker a double meaning: it remembers a 1949 shoot and also lands as a centennial salute to one of the most photographed figures in American culture. The Town of Oyster Bay said the portraits were meant to build Monroe’s portfolio and catch the attention of casting directors, a practical career step that would soon ripple far beyond Long Island.

The beach itself mattered to the image-making. Town officials said the weather cleared after an overcast, rainy start, and the shoreline was largely empty when de Dienes worked with Monroe. CBS New York noted that TOBAY Beach was quieter than nearby Jones Beach at the time, giving the shoot a sense of privacy that is hard to imagine now. One of the images reportedly ended up on the cover of a prestigious British magazine, helping generate immediate publicity and drawing Hollywood’s attention to Monroe.

That historical reach is what makes the plaque more than local decoration. It marks a place where photography, geography and celebrity converged before Monroe became Marilyn Monroe, and where a single session helped set her visual identity in motion. CBS New York also noted that Monroe later lived in Amagansett while married to Arthur Miller, underscoring how Long Island threaded through both her personal life and her photographic history. At TOBAY Beach, the sand is still the same, but the frame around it has changed: what once looked like an ordinary beach now reads as the spot where history began and a legend was launched.