The only known picture of President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe together, 1962

  

This black-and-white image, taken by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton, is the only known photograph of JFK and Monroe together. Monroe is still wearing the infamous tight-fighting, sheer rhinestone-studded dress she wore while singing at Madison Square Garden.

President Kennedy, with his head slightly bowed, looks down as he listens to Marilyn. His brother, Robert Kennedy, stands beside the pair, watching. Singer Harry Belafonte is in the background and historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who served as a consultant at the Kennedy White House, stands on the sidelines smiling.

The photo was taken at a private location in the Manhattan home of film executive Arthur Krim and his wife Mathilde, and the image's existence was kept a secret for decades.

Anthony Sherman was one of the Secret Service agents on the job that night. She recalled, "Oh man! I'll never forget that night. I was assigned to the post of the private house where the party took place. I remember the car very clearly pulling up and the door opened and driving out." Gone, this incredibly beautiful woman, Marilyn Monroe, with this old man [Isador Miller, Arthur's father, and Melyn's "date" for the evening, a man she loved and called "Dad"].

She was on this outfit — or whatever it was — it was kind of a must-see — which she clearly wore on stage. What is Knockout? As she got off the car and headed towards the entrance, everyone was stopped dead in their tracks.

She walked up to me, I had a list of people invited, and she said, 'Hello, sir, I'm Marilyn Monroe.' And I stood up thinking, You're Marilyn Monroe, right. We smiled and as soon as I let him go, I thought, Whoa. I was working for the President of the United States so every moment was history. but this? It was history for me.

Happy Birthday, Mr President". Monroe's iconic dress was created by designer Jean Louis and originally cost $1,440.33

Marilyn came in a body stocking covered with sequins that looked like they were just stuck to her skin because the net was the color of a flesh," Mathilde Krim recalled. George Master said Marilyn was "delighted in that Jean Louis gown. She was flamboyant, but somehow elegant and subtle about her nudity as if not wearing underwear was the most natural thing in the world."

President Kennedy's birthday celebration was held at the 3rd Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, and was attended by over 15,000 people, including many celebrities. The event was a fundraising gala for the Democratic Party.

Monroe's dress was made of a sheer and flesh-colored marquesette fabric, with 2,500 shimmering rhinestones sewn into it. The dress was so tight-fitting that Monroe had a hard time wearing it; He didn't wear anything under it.

The fundraiser birthday party was the last known night that Kennedy and Monroe crossed paths. After singing an allegedly scandalous version of "Happy Birthday", Monroe transitioned to a rendition of "Thanks for the Memory", the lyrics of which she had written for the man at the time.

The performance was one of Monroe's last major public appearances before his death, less than three months later, on August 4, 1962.

When JFK took the stage to thank him, he said, "I can retire from politics now, after singing Happy Birthday to me in such a sweet, healthy way," adding to Marilyn's delivery, skinny dress and image. Describing as a sex symbol .

If the public didn't already believe that Hollywood sex symbols and the Commander-in-Chief were secret lovers, Monroe's sexy performance would make her the subject of intense speculation for decades to come and relentless tabloids full of lies and fake photos reported. will lead. The two of them together—especially since Monroe would die only a few months later. She was also rumored to have an affair with JFK's brother, Robert.

According to biographer Donald Spoto, Monroe and JFK met four times between October 1961 and August 1962. Their only "sexual encounter" is believed to have occurred on March 24, 1962, in a bedroom of Bing Crosby's home two months before the concert. Her masseur Ralph Roberts said.

Less than three months after they were photographed together, on August 5, 1962, Marilyn would be found dead of a barbiturate overdose at her Los Angeles home. She was 36 years old. A year later, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was 46 years old.