Marilyn Monroe 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' Dress

A dress built to look like nothing at all

The gown Marilyn Monroe wore to sing for John F. Kennedy was made of sheer, flesh-colored marquisette fabric, with rhinestones sewn across it. Most accounts count 2,500 of them; Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which owns the dress today, describes it as carrying more than 6,000 hand-sewn rhinestones. Under stage lights the effect was meant to be startling: the fabric nearly vanished against her skin, leaving the impression of a woman dressed in light.

It was a custom piece from Jean Louis, the French-born designer who ran Columbia Pictures' costume department from 1944 to 1960 and had dressed Rita Hayworth in her black satin strapless gown for Gilda. The design was sketched by Bob Mackie, then 23 and a recent college graduate, who had been hired to draw for Louis. Louis paid $1,440.33 to have it made.

Louis had built a similar illusion gown for Marlene Dietrich, who wore hers in her cabaret concerts. According to Louis's biography, Monroe admired it, asked Dietrich how it worked, and was sent to Louis for her own version. Dietrich wore the idea first; Monroe made it famous.

The fit was extreme. Monroe had trouble getting into it, wore nothing underneath, and, by the accounts of both the 2016 auction and Louis's own biography, had to be sewn into it.

May 19, 1962

The occasion was a Democratic Party fundraising gala at the third Madison Square Garden, held ten days before Kennedy's 45th birthday on May 29. More than 15,000 people attended. Broadway composer Richard Adler staged the show; Monroe's hair was done by Kenneth Battelle and her makeup by Marie Irvine. She arrived with her publicist Patricia Newcomb and her former father-in-law Isidore Miller.

Peter Lawford, the evening's host and Kennedy's brother-in-law, played on Monroe's reputation for lateness by introducing her several times without her appearing. When she finally stepped into the spotlight he called her 'the late Marilyn Monroe.' She slipped off a white ermine coat, and the audience gasped. Jazz pianist Hank Jones accompanied her.

She sang the ordinary 'Happy Birthday' lyrics in a breathy, intimate voice with 'Mr. President' as the name, then added new lyrics, aimed at Kennedy, to the 1938 song 'Thanks for the Memory.' Kennedy came on stage as a large cake was brought out and joked that he could 'now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way.'

The stage lighting, designed by Sam Leve, made the dress read as see-through; his New York Times obituary called it his most famous, if unintentional, touch. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was not there; she spent the day at a horse show in Virginia with her children. The dress, the song and her absence fed rumors of an affair that have never gone away.

Three months later

Monroe went to New York in the middle of filming Something's Got to Give, and she was fired from the picture in June 1962. Some sources tie the firing directly to the trip; that link is disputed, and this page leaves it open.

The gala was one of her last major public appearances. She died in August 1962, at 36, less than three months after the performance. The dress, made for one song on one night, became one of the defining images of the Kennedy years and of Monroe's final months.

From $1,440 to $4.81 million

In 1999 the gown sold at auction in New York for $1,267,500, widely rounded to $1.26 million or $1.3 million. The buyer is reported as collector Martin Zweig. One contemporary report describes a New York memorabilia firm as the winning bidder, which may reflect a dealer bidding on a client's behalf; the sources do not settle it.

On November 17, 2016, the dress was the headline lot of a three-day sale in Los Angeles of about 1,000 lots from Monroe's estate and collections, much of it material that had passed to her acting coach Lee Strasberg. It was shown on a mannequin built to Monroe's exact measurements. Ripley's Believe It or Not! bought it for $4.81 million, a figure most reports round to $4.8 million. Ripley's own account dates its winning bid to November 18.

Guinness World Records lists the sale as the most expensive dress sold at auction, about $200,000 above the $4.6 million winning bid for Monroe's white dress from The Seven Year Itch in 2011. That earlier dress was reported to have cost its buyer more once commission was added, so the comparison depends on how the two prices are counted. Ripley's vice president Edward Meyer called it 'the most iconic piece of pop culture that there is.' The company first displayed it at its Hollywood attraction and has shown it at other locations since.

The 2022 Met Gala

On May 2, 2022, Kim Kardashian wore the original dress up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Costume Institute benefit. She said she lost 16 pounds in about three weeks to fit into it. She wore it only for the red carpet, a matter of minutes, then changed into a replica for the gala itself. She is the only person other than Monroe known to have worn it.

The decision drew sharp criticism. Bob Mackie, who sketched the dress, called it 'a big mistake,' adding that it was designed for Monroe and 'nobody else should be seen in that dress.' Conservators and fashion historians objected that skin oils and strain could harm fragile, 60-year-old silk.

In June 2022 a private Monroe collector posted before-and-after photographs that appeared to show new damage: pulled seams, threadbare sequins and tears along the back closure. Ripley's denied that the Met Gala caused any damage. It released an early-2017 condition report noting that 'a number of the seams are pulled and worn' and that there was puckering at the back by the hooks and eyes, and said it would keep displaying the dress 'in as-is condition.' Ripley's said it did not pay Kardashian and she did not pay it; she made donations to two Orlando-area charities on the company's behalf.

A song that never stopped being quoted

The performance has been restaged and parodied for decades. Mike Myers imitated it in Wayne's World in 1992. Madonna turned it into 'Happy Inauguration, Mr. President' on Saturday Night Live in January 1993. Lana Del Rey restaged it in her 2012 video for 'National Anthem.' Characters sing it in Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.

As an object, the dress is identified by its documented history more than by any marking: the sheer marquisette body, the crystal work, the Jean Louis construction, and an unbroken chain of public sales and display from 1999 to today. Its condition is part of the record now too. The 2017 condition report and the public dispute after 2022 have become part of its provenance.

The numbers

Event

Democratic Party fundraising gala for President Kennedy's 45th birthday

Date and place

May 19, 1962, Madison Square Garden (third building), New York

Attendance

More than 15,000

Length of performance

About 30 seconds

Kennedy's birthday

May 29 (he turned 45)

Timeline

1. 1962

   Bob Mackie, 23, sketches the design for Jean Louis, who pays $1,440.33 to have it made.

2. May 19, 1962

   Monroe wears the dress to sing 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President' at Madison Square Garden before more than 15,000 people.

3. Jun 1962

   Monroe is fired from Something's Got to Give.

4. Aug 1962

   Monroe dies at 36, less than three months after the gala.

5. 1999

   The dress sells at auction in New York for $1,267,500; the buyer is reported as collector Martin Zweig.

6. Jun 18, 2011

   Monroe's Seven Year Itch dress sells at auction on a $4.6 million winning bid, then a record for a dress.

7. Nov 17, 2016

   Ripley's Believe It or Not! buys the dress at auction in Los Angeles for $4.81 million, listed by Guinness World Records as the most expensive dress sold at auction.

8. 2017

   A condition report notes pulled and worn seams and puckering at the back hooks and eyes.

9. May 2, 2022

   Kim Kardashian wears the dress on the Met Gala red carpet, then changes into a replica.

10. Jun 16, 2022

    Ripley's publicly denies that the Met Gala appearance damaged the dress.

The world in 1962

• Feb 20, 1962

  John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth, aboard Friendship 7.

• Apr 21, 1962

  The Century 21 Exposition opens in Seattle, opening the Space Needle to the public.

• Jul 2, 1962

  The first Wal-Mart store opens in Rogers, Arkansas.

• Jul 10, 1962

  Telstar, the first commercial communications satellite, is launched.

• Sep 23, 1962

  The Jetsons premieres on ABC.

• Oct 14, 1962

  The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when a U-2 photographs Soviet missile sites in Cuba.

• Oct 16, 1962

  The New York Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants 1-0 in Game 7 of the World Series.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Marilyn Monroe 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' Dress is number 18 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (15 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Peter Lawford introduced Monroe as 'the late Marilyn Monroe' after several fake-out introductions poking fun at her lateness.
• The lighting designer's obituary called the see-through effect his most famous, and unintentional, touch.
• The dress cost $1,440.33 to make in 1962 and sold for $4.81 million in 2016.
• Jean Louis first built a similar illusion gown for Marlene Dietrich's cabaret act; Monroe went to him after asking Dietrich how it worked.
• Kim Kardashian wore the original only for the walk up the Met steps, then changed into a replica.
• Ripley's says Kardashian did not pay to wear the dress; she made donations to two Orlando-area charities instead.
• Bob Mackie was 23 when he sketched the gown, years before becoming famous as a designer himself.