Franklin Delano Roosevelt "President's Birthday Ball" Program Collection.

Rare collection of menus, programs, and ephemera from the annual 1942-1945 charity balls celebrating the birthday of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed by "visiting stars of the screen, opera, stage and radio" including Lucille Ball, Rosalind Russell, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, Dorothy Lamour, and many others. The collection includes: 1. Program for The President's Birthday Ball 1942, Quarto, staple-bound, celebrating The President's Birthday Celebration in Honor of The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Birth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Benefit of The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, inscribed "Property of Elsie Ball Bowley + General Bowley" and signed by Rosalind Russell, Dottie Lamour, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mickey Rooney, Jean Hersholt, George Marshall, Dinah Shore, and others. 2. Menu for Celebration of the President's Birthday Ball Reception and Banquet to the visiting stars of screen, opera, stage, and radio ... The Mayflower Hotel, January 28, 1944, signed by Lucille Ball, Maria Montez, Red Skelton, Jinx Falkenberg, Walter Pidgeon, and others. 3. Seating List/President's Birthday Dinner, January 29, 1945," signed by Margaret O'Brian, George Murphy, Charlotte Bentley, and others. 4. Additional ephemera, unsigned, from the President's Birthday Ball, including original program from 1944; menus from 1942, 1943, and 1945; seating lists from 1942, 1943, and 1944; 3 ribbons, 1 worn as hostess, 1943, and 2 worn as "Dinner Committee," 1944 & 1945; 2 original tickets for 1943. The President's Birthday Ball was begun in 1934 by President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in order to raise money for the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, which became the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) in 1938. Each year the ball brought stars of "screen, opera, stage and radio" together for a fund-raising bash — Irving Berlin and Eddie Cantor each provided original songs for various events, and festivities would pause late in the evening for a broadcast address from the President. In very good to near fine condition. A very rare grouping of political and Hollywood signatures.