LOS ANGELES, United States (Reuters) — The image of actress Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy in 1962 is historical and so is the skintight, sheer, flesh-colored dress she wore that night.
The dress – known as “Happy Birthday Mr. President” – and more than a thousand other items connected to her will be auctioned off starting on Thursday (November 17) with a conservative price tag expected to be around two to three million dollars (USD).
“The dress is so much more than just an item of clothing,” said Martin Nolan, Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions, which is overseeing the sale. “It’s historical, it’s political, it’s a work of art. It’s Hollywood, it’s Marilyn Monroe. It’s the Kennedy’s. It’s everything wrapped up into one piece of fabric souffle gauze with twenty five hundred crystals hand-stitched here in Los Angeles with Elizabeth Courtney a Western Costume company designed by John Louis and Bob Mackie did the sketch.”
Besides the iconic dress, the auction of Monroe items is extensive, personal and wide ranging.
“It is over a thousand items going on the auction block,” explained Nolan.
“It’s a 3 day auction event. Everything representing Marilyn Monroe’s life and career. Her paintings, her poetry, her writings, her personal wardrobe, her personal home furnishings, her pots and pans. We have a stuffing recipe handwritten by Marilyn Monroe, her recipe books, her toaster or her juicer or her shoes or handbags, her makeup everything you could think of. And then of course all her most important career dresses, the dress she wore as “Sugar Cane” sitting on the piano singing, ‘I’m Through with Love,’ which she won a Golden Globe for in 1960.”
Nolan told Reuters that he is expecting the auction to bring in more than 5 million dollars in total.
The live and online auction will kick off on Thursday with the sale of the “Happy Birthday Mr. President’s” dress and continue through the weekend.