Famous 'Happy Birthday' dress on display in Newbridge

The dress Marilyn Monroe wore in May 1962 when she sang a breathy Happy Birthday to president John F Kennedy at a fundraiser in New York is on display in Newbridge.

The glittering “skin and beads” dress in soufflé gauze, which arrived in Ireland by private jet, will be on display in Newbridge Silverware for a week prior to its auction in November.

It will be the only public viewing in Europe.

“It is the most important dress of the 20th century because of its historical, political and ultimately tragic associations,” said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles, at a private viewing in Dublin.

The dress was created by Hollywood costume designer Jean Louis, who had made something similarly seductive for actress Marlene Dietrich 10 years earlier.

Monroe, then 36, emerged onto the stage in front of an audience of 15,000 in Madison Square Gardens and shrugged off her white fur wrap to reveal a flesh coloured backless gown outlining her hourglass figure, and sparkling with 2,500 rhinestones.

It was her last public performance. Three months later she was dead and a year later, so was Kennedy.