April in Paris Ball
[7] In the 1960 event, prizes given included a Ford Thunderbird car, a Chinchilla coat, a Renault Dauphine, a TV Hi-Fi system, an electric typewriter, 25 cases of expensive French wines, original paintings and porcelains, jewels, clocks, evening bags and a pedigree poodle, with gift boxes given to guests which included gold key rings and jewelry, champagne and brandy, Maxim ashtrays, pipes, silver bottle openers, hats and scarves, and flowers.
[7] The initial show, held on 9 April 1952,[9] featured a "three-hour spectacular of five tableaux, directed by Stuart Chaney", [depicting] a twelfth century scene of troubadours at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII's meeting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, Louis XIV at Versailles, and a fashion show of forty creations by Dior, Fath, Balmain, Dessès and Givenchy".
[10] Court jesters, singers, numerous dancers, dwarf wrestlers, jousters, trained animals loaned by John Ringling, and three dozen Scotch pipers were also a feature.
A spectacular of six tableaux were put on, consisting of Le Moyen Age, with costumes by Marcel Rochas, Le Cardinal aux Chats, with costumes by Jacques Fath, Dans les Jardins de Marly, with costumes by Jeanne Lanvin, Les Chinois a Versailles, with costumes by Nina Ricci and Arturo López Willshaw [fr], Cendrillon de Paris, a fashion show featuring gowns by Balenciaga, Balmain, Desses, Diro, Fath, Givenchy, Gres, Lanvin, Patou and Schiaparelli and hats by Gilbert Orcel, Legroux Soeurs, Paulette and Caroline Reboux, and finally a François Rabelais play, starring Walter Slezak as Rabelais, Tom Ewell as Panurge, Betsy von Furstenberg as Lady Dantern, Albert Hecht as Friar John, and John Cromwell as Bird.
Roger Dunn, Tyrone Power and Reginald Gardiner were invited to conduct the master of ceremonies, with special mention to French actress Suzy Delair.
[15] With Audrey Hepburn too ill to perform as John Paul Jones, Gloria Vanderbilt stepped in at the last minute, which impressed Gilbert Miller.
[21] After the ball, a wealthy New York broker offered to donate $50,000 to charity if Maxwell and the Duchess would abandon their feud and shake hands in front of press photographers.
[24] Genuine circus costumes from the period were flown over from France, and the ball featured Marlene Dietrich as a ringmaster in trousers, a waistcoat, top hat and white gloves.
[24] Due to conflict between Philippe and the Waldorf-Astoria staff, he was exiled from the Waldorf in 1960, and the ball was moved to the Hotel Astor that year, where the likes of Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, Joan Crawford and organizer Elsa Maxwell helped transform it into the Paris Opera House.
[6] Held on 9 April 1960 under the title of Un Bal Masque a l'Opéra de Paris, the show featured a series of tableaux entitled L'Elegance de Paris, with costumes by Revillon, La Couture, with designs by Pierre Cardin, Jean Desses, Christian Dior, Gres, Jacques Heim, Hermès, Guy LaRoche, Nina Ricci and Jean Patou, La Couleur Opera, featuring "La Cabaret de l'Aurore" and the Lester Lanin orchestra and the US premiere of the 1735 Jean-Philippe Rameau French opera-ballet "Les Indes Galantes", starring Mony Dalmes, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Jean Jacques Strauss, Les Fleurs, with Parisian and European opera and ballet stars such as Claude Besny, Pierre LaCotte, George Zoritch, Judith Raskin, and Madeleine Rizzo, and finally Les Savages & La Chaconne, featuring Cathryn Damon, Dorothy Straiger, Constance Carpenter, Gretchen Wyler, Charlton Heston and Myles Easton.
[30] Russell Edwards of The New York Times stated that even in 1974 the Paris Ball "remains the most prestigious, with its national and international guest list, but not necessarily the most social".
