RARE MARILYN PHOTO TO BE UNVEILED WEDNESDAY IN VEGAS

A Las Vegas man plans to unveil on Wednesday what he claims is a rare photo of Marilyn Monroe posing as a nude hitchhiker.

The media has been invited to the Orleans Hotel and Casino at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Lawrence Nicastro, said to be in his 70s, claims he found the photo last year at his home in Las Vegas, according to his publicist Chris Harris.

Nicastro was running a service station in the Bronx when a man dropped off a car for repairs on New Year's Eve 1962. When the man never returned to pick up his car, a 1962 Ford Sunliner convertible, Nicastro opened the trunk and had placed the contents in storage.

Nicastro, who moved to Las Vegas in 1995, didn't see the photograph until it surfaced last year among some storage items, Harris said.

Harris said he believes the photo was taken near Pyramid Lake near Reno in 1960. Monroe filmed "The Misfits" with Clark Gable in 1960.

It was the last completed film for both: Gable, 59, died a couple months after finishing the film and Monroe died of a drug overdose in August 1962.