It’s no secret that New York has always been a stage for extraordinary intersections of glamour, power, and art. One of the most magical of those moments happened on a single night at the ballet and was captured in a now-iconic photograph that landed on the covers of the New York tabloids. It’s the night Elizabeth Taylor & Jacqueline Kennedy met Margot Fonteyn backstage.
The story comes from Couri, a longtime New York society figure and ballet lover, who was right in the middle of it.
The Photo That Stopped New York
In the black-and-white image, a radiant Dame Margot Fonteyn peers out of a dressing-room window in full costume and headdress. Beside her stand two of the most famous women in the world: Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Couri himself is also in the frame, along with other guests.
“Can you see who’s in it besides me?” Couri asks in a recent recounting of the evening. “That’s Elizabeth Taylor… that’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis… and looking out the window is Dame Margot Fonteyn.”
They were at the premiere of The Merry Widow, the beloved ballet starring Fonteyn, one of the greatest ballerinas who ever lived.
A Night of Legends
Fonteyn’s legendary partnership with Rudolf Nureyev (a close friend of Couri) had already made them worldwide icons. That night, the stars aligned in a more personal way.
Hay had brought Elizabeth Taylor to the ballet. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was also in attendance; the two women knew each other through Nureyev’s circle. After the performance, Couri escorted both Taylor and Jackie backstage to meet Fonteyn.
It was the first time these two towering figures, Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had ever met.
The resulting photograph, taken by New York Daily News photographer Dick Corkery, exploded. It ran on the covers of the New York tabloids and became an instant sensation. Decades later, Couri still calls it one of his favorite memories.
“Not only do I love the ballet,” he says, “but of course I absolutely adored both Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, and Dame Margot Fonteyn. What a mix. What a magical moment.”
Why This Story Still Resonates
In an era when celebrity and high culture often feel carefully staged, this encounter feels almost accidental: three of the most iconic women of the 20th century brought together by a shared love of ballet and a single social connector.
Fonteyn represented the pure artistry of classical dance. Taylor embodied Hollywood glamour and larger-than-life charisma. Jackie O carried the elegance and mystique of Camelot. Seeing them together, smiling in a simple backstage corridor, is a reminder of how small the worlds of art, politics, and celebrity once were.
The photograph remains a perfect time capsule of New York at its most glamorous: a night when the ballet was the center of the universe, and legends crossed paths as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
And as Couri puts it with a smile: “There’s your story. It’s Couri in New York.”
