Ella Fitzgerald
Photography by Bill Ray
Ella Fitzgerald backstage before singing during a Democratic Party fundraiser and birthday salute to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden om New York, 19th May 1962. Maria Callas, Miriam Makeba, and Harry Belafonte would also perform, but the highlight of the evening was certainly Marilyn Monro’s steamy serenade of “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.”