We were invited to Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Orlando to check out the World’s Most Expensive Dress – the Marilyn Monroe “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress that cost Ripley’s 5 million dollars! Designed by a 22 year-old Bob Mackie, there are 6000 beads stitched into the dress that was worn on May 19th, 1962 for the 45th birthday of President Kennedy. Here is a look at the dress and a few other display items!
Ripley’s Believe it or Not! is a fun walk-through, and not far from the Orlando Eye at I-Drive 360.
The dress is here for a limited time, through at least the end of the year. Ripley’s doesn’t say where the dress will go next or when.
Here is the dress, in a heavy duty case. It is in its own room, along with other items that are related.
On the other side of the room is a Marilyn Monroe wax figure in a replica gown.
Here is our video of the display, and then check out the rest of our photos!
There is a lot of history packed into this small room, including a poster for the gala. It was held at Madison Square Garden, and while Marilyn Monroe is who everyone remembers from it, there were a lot of entertainers on the bill – those include Judy Garland, Bobby Darin and Ella Fitzgerald.
The gala was also a Democratic Party fundraiser.
This is an original gala ticket for “President Kennedy’s Birthday Party”.
16,000 people attended the birthday gala.
There is a sketch by designer Bob Mackie of Marilyn Monroe’s dress.
The auction paddle from Julien’s Auctions.
This was harder to photograp close up, but there is a gala program as well.
And some items from Marilyn are in this case.
A sign talks about her hat.
And her fur stole.
If you watch our video, you can see more about the dress from this monitor display.
We posed with the Marilyn figure.
A closer look at the dress.
This shows the size of the room, it is about double this or a little bigger.
It had been a few years since we last visited Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Orlando and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it – I wish we had more time this visit to see even more of the galleries. The Marilyn Monroe dress is a very interesting piece of history, but there is a lot more to see throughout this unique attraction as well.
