--- title: Marilyn Monroe Sings 'Happy Birthday' to JFK, May 19, 1962 description: On the anniversary of the May night in 1962 when Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday" to JFK, LIFE revisits a classic portrait from that evening. canonical: https://time.com/3879885/marilyn-monroe-sings-happy-birthday-to-jfk-may-19-1962/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-18T16:24:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:59.084Z og:title: Marilyn Monroe Sings 'Happy Birthday' to JFK, May 19, 1962 og:description: On the anniversary of the May night in 1962 when Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday" to JFK, LIFE revisits a classic portrait from that evening. og:url: https://time.com/3879885/marilyn-monroe-sings-happy-birthday-to-jfk-may-19-1962/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2175062404a499e5/6988472455a8599355a8b02a/marilyn_sings_jfk_19621.jpg?branch=production&width=595&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 595 og:image:height: 335 og:image:alt: Marilyn Monroe 1962 by Bill Ray og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marilyn Monroe Sings 'Happy Birthday' to JFK, May 19, 1962 twitter:description: On the anniversary of the May night in 1962 when Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday" to JFK, LIFE revisits a classic portrait from that evening. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2175062404a499e5/6988472455a8599355a8b02a/marilyn_sings_jfk_19621.jpg?branch=production&width=595&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alone in a Crowd: Marilyn Sings 'Happy Birthday' to JFK, May 19, 1962 > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Marilyn Sings to JFK: The 50th Anniversary of an Iconic Photo [Watch (HLS stream): Marilyn Sings to JFK: The 50th Anniversary of an Iconic Photo](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Rrnhu3Eg.m3u8) (4:05)  _Published 2012-05-15. Photographer Bill Ray shares the behind-the-scenes story of his classic picture of Marilyn Monroe_ by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 18, 2014 4:24 PM UTC  Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to JFK, New York, 1962. Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to JFK, New York, 1962. © Bill Ray by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove May 18, 2014 4:24 PM UTC You can’t see her face. The angle from which the photograph is taken is unconventional, and almost vertiginous. The hair, when considered dispassionately, looks absolutely weird. But Bill Ray’s celebrated picture of [Marilyn Monroe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn%5FMonroe) onstage at the old Madison Square Garden, singing “Happy Birthday” to [President John F. Kennedy](http://www.jfklibrary.org/) during a May 1962 birthday gala in his honor, remains one of the all-time great celebrity portraits. It has drama (a lone figure, spotlit, on a dark stage). It has sex (a skintight, sequined dress that conceals very, very little). And, of course, in retrospect, it also feels absolutely charged with pathos: Marilyn, after all, would be dead within months of the picture being made, while JFK’s assassination in November 1963 was less than a year and half away. [\[See rare photos from the night Marilyn sang to JFK.\]](http://life.time.com/history/marilyn-monroe-john-kennedy-happy-birthday-1962/#1) But like all pictures that assume a stature and a celebrity of their own, far beyond what the photographer could possibly have hoped for or even imagined at the time he or she made the shot, Ray’s photograph is more than a mere portrait. In its stark, almost severe black-and-white simplicity — a female figure, a few sheets of paper, a rather battered old wooden lectern, all surrounded by an impenetrable black void — the image of Marilyn Monroe seems to capture not only a celebration, but the 35-year-old movie star’s loneliness; her desperate need for affection and affirmation; and the isolating, withering effects of fame on those souls unprepared for its unblinking gaze. \[WATCH: Bill Ray discusses how he got his famous shot of Marilyn, as well as other memories from that now-legendary evening in New York half-a-century ago.\] [**_Ben Cosgrove_**](http://life.time.com/tag/ben-cosgrove/) _is the Editor of LIFE.com_ [Visit BillRay.com to purchase prints to see more of Bill’s remarkable photographs.](http://www.billray.com)  Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to JFK, New York, 1962. © Bill Ray ## Transcript I've never seen anybody that took a look at this picture that didn't know that it was Marilyn Monroe. I didn't hear anybody well that's Jane Mansfield or somebody else. so, oh my god, that's Marilyn singing happy birthday to JFK. [ MUSIC ] So, JFK came to New York. 50 years ago in May. To celebrate his birthday. For most people my age and in 1962 when they had the birthday party at Madison Square Garden I was 26. Kennedy I think was a god. We were so relieved to have a nice young, good looking person in there after Eisenhower. Well I was assigned by Life Magazine to cover the birthday party and it was at the old Madison Square Garden between 50th and 51st Avenue. You know it's always very exciting photographing a president of the United States. Since then I've photographed quite a few, in fact I had photographed both Truman and Eisenhower before that, but it was a very exciting moment. [ MUSIC ] Well, it's a picture of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President to JFK. Who was, visiting New York on, May 19th and 20th of 1962. And all of the stars from Hollywood. Well, most of the stars from Hollywood, and all the heavy hitters from New York. Were there, with the exception of Jackie Kennedy, who had let it, announced that she was visiting her horse friends in Virginia. Marilyn was on the program, along with Jack Benny, and Jimmy Durante, and Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee, and Maria Callas, and Henry Fonda. And Mike Nichols, and Elaine May, and on and on and on. Photographers were free to roam in the beginning, and then, when the evening started to, when the entertainment started to get going, why, it was clear that all of the photographers were gonna be kind of herded behind a rope and rounded up, and that's when I got out of there. And started my way up around up in those girders. Luckily I had a 300 millimeter telephoto lens, which was my only opportunity to try to get a picture of the performers. Marilyn in particular, with Kennedy looking up at her. The evening sort of unfolded in very nice regular sort of way with some of the garden lights on, ambient light on. And at one point, all the lights went out. It was just totally dark. I mean pitch black. And then the spotlight came on, and there was Marilyn Monroe in this dress. Which didn't have any zippers, didn't have any buttons. Didn't have any sewing on her body. And was covered in these Sorority Crystals that looked like diamonds that are flashing like that. And you could just hear one big breath when gasp. And it was perfectly quite and as she started the song, this breathe sexy song. Happy birthday Mr. president. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. And it was as if she had hit a memory switch. You really didn't know what had happened before. And God help anybody who went on after her. And it was incredible. And when she finished the light went out, couldn't see a thing. And then president Kennedy was up there thanking her but Marylin had evaporated, she was gone. I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me. [ NOISE ] They were gonna harass anybody with the press that was down there in front, that, that was certain. That, that's the way it was shaping up. And I just went up far enough and out of the way far enough that I wasn't bothered. Well I think it makes me think it was one of the more incredible moments in my career. It eas an all star evening. 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