The Story Behind The Song: Marilyn Monroe’s intimate ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’
It was an impossible moment to forget: onstage at Madison Square Garden, legendary actress Marilyn Monroe drops her fur coat to reveal a skin-tight flesh-coloured dress. She then approaches the microphone and sings a sensual version of ‘Happy Birthday’ to the sitting president, John F. Kennedy. Murmurs about a connection between the Some Like It Hot actress and the President had been stirring for some time, and Monroe’s intimate rendition came up just short of a direct acknowledgement between the two.
The full scope of Kennedy and Monroe’s relationship will likely never be known. A concerted effort was put forth to obstruct Kennedy’s affairs with other women, and with Monroe as one of the most recognisable figures in pop culture, extra care was taken to hide their interactions. Kennedy established cosy relationships with journalists and government insiders that helped him bury stories and leads regarding his extramarital affairs.
Monroe had been offered the opportunity to appear at Kennedy’s 42nd birthday celebration during pre-production of the film Something’s Got to Give. While she was initially granted permission by producer Harry Weinstein, the first two weeks of the film’s production suffered from significant delays. Monroe was expected to stay on set in order to keep production on the film moving, but instead, she kept her commitment to appear at Kennedy’s birthday party instead, causing friction between her and the studio, 20th Century Fox.
Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline, was at least aware of some of Kennedy’s extramarital indiscretions. Jackie Kennedy rarely attended official events with her husband, and his 45th birthday was no different. The birthday party doubled as a Democratic Party fundraising event, and the First Lady opted to attend the Loudon Hunt Horse Show with her children instead.
In the book These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie, Christopher Andersen claimed that Monroe and the First Lady had a memorable interaction during one of Monroe’s numerous phone calls to the White House that year. After Monroe claimed to Kennedy that her husband was going to ask her to marry him, Kennedy allegedly responded: “Marilyn, you’ll marry Jack, that’s great . . . and you’ll move into the White House and you’ll assume the responsibilities of first lady, and I’ll move out and you’ll have all the problems.”
Monroe’s performance at the event was simple. Joined by jazz pianist Hank Jones, Monroe sang the words of ‘Happy Birthday To You’ while inserting ‘Mr. President’ into the spot usually reserved for the song’s subject. After that, Monroe sang a short excerpt from the 1938 song ‘Thanks For The Memory’ with new lyrics that specifically referred to Kennedy and his achievements. “Thanks, Mr. President
/ For all the things you’ve done / The battles that you’ve won / The way you deal with U.S. Steel / And our problems by the ton / We thank you so much.”
Monroe’s sultry rendition, along with her revealing dress choice, caused an immediate reaction from the audience. Kennedy himself was slightly taken aback by the performance, and while he was being given his cake immediately following Monroe’s rendition, he approached the microphone to deliver a quip. “I can now retire from politics after having had ‘Happy Birthday’ sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way,” Kennedy responded.
The starlet’s dress was originally sketched by iconic costume designer Bob Mackie, who then passed the actual construction of the dress off to French costume designer Jean Louis. The dress was originally auctioned off in 1999 for $1.26million before Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison subsequently purchased the dress for $4.8million in 2016. Pattison loaned the dress to Kim Kardashian, who wore it during her appearance at the 2022 Met Gala.
However, Kardashian caused damage to the fragile dress by wearing it for the event. The incident upset Mackie. “I thought it was a big mistake.. [Marilyn] was a goddess. A crazy goddess, but a goddess,” Mackie claimed after the event. “She was just fabulous. Nobody photographs like that. And it was done for her. It was designed for her. Nobody else should be seen in that dress.”
The event would be Monroe’s final public appearance. With a number of delays following her performance at Kennedy’s birthday party, Monroe was eventually fired from Something’s Got to Give, although Fox executives signed her to a new deal just a few weeks later. On August 4th, just three months after Kennedy’s birthday celebration, Monroe died from an intentional overdose of barbiturates. She was 36 years old. 15 months later, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was 46.
