The sultry song made an indelible mark on society’s collective conscious, as did Ms Monroe’s nude-coloured sequined dress, designed by Jean Louis, which was so tight she had to be sewn into it. The rhinestone encrusted dress, worn by Monroe at a birthday tribute to President John F. Kennedy 19 May 1962 during which she sang her own version of “Happy Birthday” to him, is expected to bring an amount in the high six or low seven figures.
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Julien’s Auctions is offering the sequined stunner November 17 in Los Angeles.
The performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden was actually 10 days before the president’s 45th birthday.
Less than three months after Marilyn performed Happy Birthday, she died aged 36, following an overdose of sleeping pills. Kennedy was assassinated barely a year later.
The custom-made, one-of-a-kind dress is “not only Hollywood, but political and historical”, said Julien’s president Darren Julien. “She called it skin and beads”, said Julien of the gown.
The current owner is reportedly a private investor who purchased the gown in a 1999 auction for almost $1.3 million. “It’s never been off it, and is immaculately preserved”.
Prior to being sold, the dress will be on display in an exhibition in New Jersey and another in Ireland before being returned to Los Angeles. It will include some of her watercolors and handwritten poems, which will be sold by Julien’s.
The dress also will travel outside of the United States for the first time for an exhibition at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Ireland, from October 29 through November 6.
Ironically, given her death later that year, actor Peter Lawford jokingly introduced Monroe at the NY event in 1962 as the “late Marilyn Monroe”, because she had a reputation for being tardy.
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With a stroke of irony in the form of an innocent quip, actor Peter Lawford introduced Monroe that night as “the late Marilyn Monroe” albeit a woman who needs no introduction.
