Howard Hughes discovered Jane Russell and began promoting her as a new bombshell star in 1940, but the movie that really put her over the top didn't come along for 13 years - and it had nothing to do with Hughes. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the smash hit of the summer of 1953, starred Russell and Marilyn Monroe as showgirl best friends with opposite talents: Monroe's Lorelai demands diamonds in exchange for her total objectification by men, while Russell's Dorothy eschews gold-digging - instead, it's she who does the objectifying of men. The number Isn't Anyone Here For Love?, sung by Russell amid a bevy of male dancers playing the American Olympic team, reverses the typical dynamic of a Hollywood musical, in which a woman dressed to be ogled by men is depicted as the passive prisoner of the male gaze. Gentlemen would become the pinnacle of Russell's screen career, and the actress had a simple explanation for why: "It was the first time I played Jane Russell."

Seduction Author Karina Longworth