Where does this catchphrase come from? A google search revealed that there’s a 1998 song of that title by Clifford Gilberto, but the phrase is definitely older. The implication that it might have originated in the porn industry is obvious, but can it be traced back to a single incident, such as a film, a song or a novel where it came up first?
My intuitive guess would have been that Marilyn Monroe uses this phrase in the “Some Like It Hot” scene in the train restroom in which she tells Tony Curtis, disguised as Daphne, about her biography. A quick check, however, seems to show that I’m wrong.
I remember it from Naked Gun (1988), a police-drama spoof. The detective says to Priscilla Presley’s character (Jane?), “I saw the pictures,” referring to something police-related, and she replies, “I was young. I needed the money.”
It’s just proliferation of the phrase that’s made it so common and cliche. Not to mention the flaw in the logic of the statement just make it a totally weird thing to say.
That’s my guess. Probably not a verbatim quote, but close. She was referring to the nude photos taken in 1949, when she really was young and broke. The Playboy centerfold was one of those photos, but published in '53.
*“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
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