Preparing for President Roosevelt’s lavish birthday celebration, Rita Le Blanc posed with a birthday candle on Jan. 27, 1935. (It’s unclear if Ms. Le Blanc was joined by 52 others, as it was the president’s 53rd birthday.) At any rate, her fellow candle-bearers “wore tunics of bluebird blue, with silver sparkling in their belts and brilliant caps,” and “carried a large pink candle with an electric flame.” The pageant and ensuing ball — one among hundreds of similar celebrations across the country — raised money for the President’s Birthday Ball Commission for Infantile Paralysis Research.
