BALL: A Year in the Life of the April in Paris Extravaganza

by William Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 1972

Readers with a taste for society-page twitter should find William Wright's saucy roasting of the 1971 April in Paris charity ball as delicious as those fruits de mer and pigeons des Iles Sousle-Vent on which the 1011 social uppercrusts dined prix fixe ($175 per head) at the Waldorf-Astoria where it all began twenty years previously. On review are the gilded people who make the event go -- there's ball chairman (none of that declasse chairperson nonsense here) ""Brownie"" McLean of New York and Palm Beach whom one unflattering photograph made look like ""an albino racoon"" and who quipped to the author that she's going to write a book called New York Balls I've Had; there's suave Claude Philippe, ball impresario, whose jobs include pushing tickets (he goes at it with ""the ardor of an Arab rug salesman"") and lining up a few ""blockbuster"" names (he flushed out Mamie Eisenhower, the Duchess of Windsor, and Henry Kissinger last year though each begged off at the last minute); and there's lovely Stephanie Wrightsman of New York, Palm Beach, and Texas oil; dress designer Arnold Scassi; Bobo Rockefeller (she canceled her pre-ball cocktail party -- was someone ""out to get"" Brownie); a mysterious ""Mrs. Ball-Breaker"" definitely out to get Brownie; assorted nouveau snobs like Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So who come to show off their family jewels and bad manners. There's also quite a bit about the ball's backroom problems, finances, hypocrisy, social climbing, bickering, and bitchery. No wonder such events seem to be in ill repute these days, says Wright. But he predicts that they won't altogether disappear: there are always those who will be attracted to them even if they lack the eclat of yesteryear.

Pub Date: Oct. 23, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Saturday Review Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION