Hillary earns 1.5 million dollars at 60th birthday bash

NEW YORK: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton raised 1.5 million dollars at a 60th birthday bash in a Broadway theater that doubled as a campaign fundraiser, reports said.   

British rocker Elvis Costello sang "Happy Birthday, Mrs. President" and comedian Billy Crystal told the jokes at the party on Thursday night organized by her husband, former president Bill Clinton.   

The event was held at the 3,000 seater Beacon Theater in Manhatten with tickets priced between 100 and 2,300 dollars.

A Clinton campaign source told the Newsday daily that 1.5 million dollars was raised.   

Among those present was New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer, himself considered a future contender for a presidential campaign, and Hillary Clinton's 88 year-old mother Dorothy.   

Costello's song was an updated reprise of Marilyn Monroe's serenade to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. "I always thought it was impolite to talk about a lady's age," Costello quipped.   

Bill Clinton, standing next to the couple's daughter Chelsea, 27, introduced his wife by reminiscing about how they met at Yale Law School in 1970.