Perceptions

Happy Birthday, Diahann Carroll

Perception: the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

Happy Sunday, July 17th, 2016,
July 17 is the 199th day of the yearin the Gregorian calendar.
There are 167 days remaining until the end of the year.
For me, it feels like time is fleeting. The days are dwindling down. There are some that are thinking summer is escaping. There are others who are counting the days to autumn. There are some who complain about the heat.
There are others who relish in it. I went to an outdoor pot luck dinner last night. When the food was brought out, for many, it was a feast. A smorgasbord of seafood. For me, however, it was far from that. I abhor seafood of any kind. I, do, however, like a nice juicy steak once in a while.
There are many who are appalled at that thought. I'm going to a dinner party at a friend's tonight. She is a vegetarian. I always love going to dinner at her home.

She always gives me a different way of looking at preparing a complete dinner without meat. Something, I feel that I truly should be doing more of.
Friday night, I went to see The Secret Life of Pets. For me, it was loud and violent. I may be the only person out there who feels this way. 
The bottom line is that each and every one of us is unique.
I got the idea for today's blog because of a blog I wrote yesterday.

The headline of my blog was Taking a Chance on Love and I wrote about three friends who are putting LOVE into the world through this art.
I also wrote about my work on a certain project

With my sister. We look at most things differently! But our LOVE for each other is REAL

and the work that I am doing on behalf of Gun Violence Prevention.
In particular, The Brady Campaign.
When I first got involved with them in response to the Orlando Massacre last month, it was because I was referred to them when I reached out to Heritage of Pride to march on Gay Pride Sunday.
I also learned at the time that they wanted us to wear orange because orange is the color of healing on the Pride flag and it is also the color that has been adopted by Gun Violence Prevention organizations nationwide.
I have always loved the color orange, the brighter the better.
However, a well-meaning friend, upon seeing my blog yesterday, immediately associated the color

orange with Isis and prison garb.
I was hoping to get the cabaret community to come together to march in unity. With very few exceptions, the lack of response was deafening.
What I perceived as a lack of caring, I'm sure that if you were to ask out of those who ignored calls and emails, their response was just that they were too busy.
How many times have you posted something on Facebook that has been misconstrued and/or

completely taken out of context? It has happened more times than I wish to acknowledge.
Barbra Streisand once said, "People who Need People are the UN-Luckiest people in the world."
I get it. The bottom line is we ALL desire to be validated. Most people who are in my profession gravitate to this business for that very reason and then spend their entire lives chasing that dream.
I ran into a friend the other night who is an amazing talent.
From my perspective, she has a great career. She confided to me that she has no agent and it is difficult to get major auditions.

I have been fortunate enough to interview many artists. From the youngest novice to the most seasoned veterans, we ALL experience the same highs and lows.
Carol Channing once shared a story with me that I often repeat. When she was starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on Broadway, she became the toast of Broadway. She was the second actress to appear on the covers of Time and Life. She was only the second actress to achieve that distinction, the first being Tallulah Bankhead (they also shared a birthday).
As successful as she was, everything came crashing down with Dorothy Kilgallen's scathing review of her performance.
The reviews were almost universally rapturous, but to this day Channing remembers columnist Dorothy Kilgallen's dissenting opinion. Gentlemen, Kilgallen quipped over the Hearst wire, apparently prefer amazons. "You only remember the ones who didn't like you," Carol said.
It began to sink in and Carol began to wonder if perhaps audiences might be feeling and seeing the same performance that Kilgallen saw.

YVONNE ADAIR and CAROL CHANNING Gentlemen Prefer Blondes original Photo 1949

It began to freeze her in her tracks until Anita Loos, who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes set her straight.
Loos sat Carol down and said to her point blank, "Please understand that for every person who likes you, there are an equal number who don't. The sooner you realize that, the easier it is to put it all in perspective."
Carol said that one moment changed her whole life. When Carol told me this story, it had the same impact on me.
She was having this conversation with me when I was expressing to

her the frustrations I was having in my own career.
For those of you who don't know, I performed as Carol for twenty years.
Carol always felt that I should not "hide behind her" and step out on my own. However, she always supported my work.
I walked a fine line for years. The "straight" venues were afraid to book me sight unseen even with portfolios full of incredible press clippings. They were afraid they were going to get a "gay campy drag show".

The "gay venues" were afraid to book me because I wasn't campy enough. I did practically no pride events. I was never booked on cruise ships, gay or straight. I performed on one ship that I was already booked to do a cruise on. I was not paid for my services. I did it as a barter for my excursion costs. I have never been included as part of that world of openly gay artists. I still feel I'm on the outside looking in.
I always portrayed Carol as I saw her with no spin and/or embellishments which is not the way that most people who "impersonate" choose to go. They are filtering the ones they are performing as with a wink and a nod.

Twenty years with awards, great reviews, and a pristine record as always professional and I was still having to prove myself.
It wasn't just on a professional level. It was also in my day to day interactions.
I knew I was "different", to say the least.
It also happened in social situations. If I was asked by a complete stranger what I did for a living and if I said, "I'm an entertainer", they would

light up like a Christmas tree and seem intrigued. If I answered that I performed as Carol Channing, they would perceive an entire picture of me that was very rarely based in reality.
It has been 6 1/2 years since I last performed as Carol and there are still many who ONLY see me as Carol.
It is also interesting to note the perceptions that people have of me as an individual.
I have always had to deal with a "perception" issue. I often wonder if it is some karmic path that I am on.
When I was a kid, I was perceived to be someone and some THING based on others perceptions of me. In what were the formative years of my life, I was bullied and called names that still make me cringe.
Even in our politics, Trump says the most atrocious things and his followers builds and builds. Hillary, on the other hand, is constantly fighting an uphill battle based on perceptions that people have of her.

 Our hands can choose to drop the knife. Our hearts can choose to stop the hating. For every moment of our lives is the beginning - - Stephen Schwartz

Not only were these horrible things being said by the kids I went to school with, but by

I often think of "Ricky" as my inner child

some of the adults around me that I entrusted to protect me.
Even now, people form opinions of me based on innuendo and second hand information. I find that I'm not the only one who experiences this.
I truly want to be the best person I can possibly be. I want to celebrate all that I come in contact with. Sometimes, I slip up. We ALL do. We have to realize that people always don't see things the way we see them. We all need to take a deep breath and step back and think about what circumstances have led someone to act and/or react the way they do.
It has led to who I am today...I'm on an open book!
When I begin each blog I write, I start with a clean slate and write with a stream of consciousness that takes me down a path that I am always open to. I try not to censure my thoughts unless I feel it might hurt someone. Thanks for taking the time to read what I had to say today.

Diahann Carroll, Photographed on March 14, 1955

Read this article on Diahann Carroll and how she changed perceptions of Black Women on Television in the '60s.

Thank you, to all mentioned in this blog for the gifts you have given to the world and continue to give!

With grateful XOXOXs from YOUR pro-active friend,

 

Check out my site celebrating the legacy of Dolly Gallagher Levi!

Ashley Brown as Irene Molloy from Goodspeed Opera House's production of Hello, Dolly! starring Klea Blackhurst

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.  FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!

Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!   

        

Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!

Please leave a comment and share on Twitter and Facebook

Keeping Entertainment LIVE!
 

TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAY

Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com

Pia Zadora -- Back Again and Standing Tall

Be true to yourself as long as you don’t hurt anyone else. Be who you are. You only live once. It’s all about honesty and the world you live in. Honesty is important even when it hurts someone else’s feelings.

The above sums of the philosophy of Pia Zadora and how she is now living her life.

She has had more careers in her lifetime than most. She made her Broadway debut when she was seven years old in a play with Tallulah Bankhead! She won a Golden Globe in her twenties. She made a few “wrong turns” in her career and then, thanks to Frank Sinatra, she began singing with symphony orchestras. She performed from Carnegie Hall to The London Palladium and was beginning to be taken very seriously in this business. Then Life happened. She left the business for fifteen years to raise a family. She recently returned to performing AND New York tin a new cabaret show. This February, 2013, was her first appearance in New York since appearing in Crazy for You in 1995.
I am a fan of Pia’s. My mom was in New York this weekend for my birthday, her FIRST TIME EVER IN NEW YORK! We celebrated at Pia’s show Saturday night. We are both excited that we saw her. She is at the top of her game and not to be missed. I was also very excited to sit down and talk with her earlier this past week.

She returned to the New York stage for an exclusive five-show engagement at The Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, ending a 15-year hiatus from the New York stage. Her new show, “Pia Zadora -- Back Again and Standing Tall,” which the native New Yorker premiered on the West Coast in 2011, recently played the prestigious Smith Center in Las Vegas this summer. 

Pia made her Broadway debut in Midgie Purvis starring Tallulah Bankhead

I posted on Facebook on Monday that I was going to be interviewing Pia later that afternoon.

I have to be honest. All of the questions but one was not acceptable…at least to me. Why people are interested in salacious gossip and/or innuendo is beyond me.
I am interested in what makes a person tick, what their life experiences have been that have brought them to THIS point in their lives.  
I call it celebrating a person’s body of WORTH!
I’m excited to be celebrating the one and only Pia Zadora!

Born in New York, Zadora was first a child actress on Broadway -- appearing with Tallulah Bankhead, and later with Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof -- and in film, appearing in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians in 1964.  

For her breakout film, Butterfly (1981), she won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year appearing with Orson Wells. In 1984 she was nominated for a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy Award.
Also in 1984 she had a hit duet with Jermaine Jackson that reached #1 in several European countries.

 Pia’s first experience in this business was with Tallulah Bankhead! What a way to start! The show was called Midgie Purvis. Pia’s recollections are that Tallulah was an extremely charismatic, iconic, and very passionate. Burgess Meredith directed it. The premise is that a childish 50-year-old woman leaves her dismissive family, disguises herself as an 80-year-old woman, and becomes a babysitter.
She ends up corrupting the children she is baby sitting.

 

She teaches them to smoke and smoke. Pia was seven years old at the time.
That carried off stage as well! She was wild. Pia would go in her dressing room and Tallulah would say, “Here, Darling, take a sip of this. It will help you. You’ll feel good.” On stage, the smoking consisted of some sort of powder puff device. Off stage, Tallulah tried to show her how it was really done so that people would believe her!   

Then there was Divine and John Waters who Pia worked with in the original Hairspray. All of these iconic people left an imprint on Pia in terms of helping to model and shape her life. She likes to walk straight ahead and be brave.
All of these icons share that quality. They were her biggest role models.

One of Pia’s fondest memories goes back to when she was in Fiddler on Broadway. Also in the cast was Bette Midler; she played Tzeitel. They used to hang out together and had a lot of fun. The girl who played the middle sister was Liza Minnelli’s best friend. 

Although Pia was ten, they included her with them. They would go dancing and dinners and partying.
When Pia went to see Liza six months prior to this at the Hilton in Vegas, it was like two school girls seeing each other again. They were yelling and screaming together backstage. It was as if they both were reconnecting with their past. They were eleven and twenty one again. That is a wonderful fond memory.

Another great memory for Pia was having her daughter. Pia married businessman Meshulam Riklis in 1977, when she was 23 and he 54. He used to joke about the age difference. When she got pregnant, he said, “Thank God! Now, you’ll have someone your own age to play with.”

What makes Pia unhappy? Seeing people who are suffering and in pain or sick or dealing with real challenges and dealing with life struggles and what they have to endure. This is why she does what she does. She wants to alleviate their challenges…even for a short while through her music. She desires to make people feel better and understand that we all suffer throughout life to varying degrees.

    

We talked about LIVE entertainment and why it is still so important.
Pia is right when she says you cannot replace the experience of a one on one LIVE performance. This is one reason why she loves cabaret and intimate settings like The Metropolitan Room in New York and The Razz Room in San Francisco.
It is a form of performance art in which you can share with your audiences the story of your life and look in their eyes and impart your feelings and your lessons and your stories, no matter how you desire to phrase it and make an impact on them one on one.

Has she ever lost her concentration on stage? It is inevitable! When she was ten, she was in Fiddler on The Roof with the legendary Zero Mostel!

One night the curtain went up at the wrong time and Mostel dropped a candlestick and it rolled across the stage. They went with it. When you are in a play, you become the character and improvise and go with whatever happens. You must pretend that it didn’t distract you while remaining in character. Once, Pia was appearing in a supper club about fifteen years ago. At the time, Pia’s daughter had a Pomeranian named Baldie because of a bald spot on his head. 

One night the audience was reacting to something going on on stage behind her.

She turned around to see Baldie. He had followed her onto the stage. Because of the physical resemblance of Pia and her daughter, he used to mistake the two.
They also walked the same way. Pia refers to this as a “truck driver kind of a walk.” Upon seeing Baldie, Pia quipped, “Oh my God! My old wig has followed me out on stage.” It cracked the audience up.

Frank Sinatra with Pia Zadora

Then there was the time she was opening for Frank Sinatra. She had these quick changes between gorgeous Bob Mackie gowns.
They were throwing shoes and etc at her. Within 45 seconds she was trying to make a graceful entrance back on to the stage. As she made her entrance, she heard a gasp. She looked down to see that she was pulling on to the stage practically a whole roll of toilet tissue on her heel! She didn’t have much a comeback for that one except that there was no time for her to go to the bathroom between costume changes! She told the audience someone must have stuck that on her heel.

The biggest change that Pia has seen since first starting out is social media.
There was NO internet when she began in this business.
Now she can see practically everything she ever did on the internet and You Tube. Technologically, everything has gone beyond its original scope. Along with that, the entertainment industry has lost part of its personal touch.

I asked Pia about her creative process and he she prepares for a new project. She tells me she has ADD.
While we were talking on Monday, she was spiraling because of the list of things she had to do that day prior to flying to New York for this engagement.

While we were talking, she chipped a nail. So add a trip to the manicurist to her already full list of things to do. She says the only way she can contain and/or confine herself to the task at hand is to meditate which she tries to do when she is in one of her ADD clusters. When all else fails, she gets a massage. It takes her a while to calm down but eventually she gets to that place where she can start thinking about what lies ahead and what needs to be done. These thoughts are ever present when she first wakes up in the morning. She tries to go for long walks to sort it all out.

What she wants to do or say or what she wants to sing all starts to form. With this particular show, she has a great team surrounding her. This is her “come back” show. She took a fifteen year hiatus to “torture myself.” She had two young young kids traveling with her when she got pregnant with her third. They had no frame of reference and needed to settle down and go to school. She needed to give them a normal life. She couldn’t keep doing what she was doing. As a child, she didn’t have a normal life. She was always traveling and working. At the point that she decided to take a break, she was a single mother. She ended up settling down herself to give them a normal upbringing and fifteen years quickly came and went. She got married a couple of times during that period. Her NOW husband is her FOREVER husband. He is a policeman.
They moved to Vegas where he was on the force. They still live in Vegas. Her youngest is now fifteen and basically independent. They started seeing shows. A friend asked Pia to come onstage and do a number and she realized how much she had missed this.

Singing full blast while driving her son in carpools was fun but being on stage was much more fun. She started pointing together this new show, a show in which Zadora slips into a number of jazz, Broadway and popular standards from “Great American Songbook,” the Grammy-nominated Golden Globe winner updates us on her colorful life, her career and her growth as an artist. 

The show is created by the Emmy-winning director and choreographer Walter Painter; the Emmy-nominated Academy Awards writer Jon Macks, and the Tony and Peabody Award winner Larry Grossman.

The music direction is by legendary Sinatra pianist Vinnie Falcone, who leads a five-piece all-star band, that includes Jay Leonhart on bass, Ronnie Zito on drums, Joe Lano on guitar, and Ned Ginsberg on keyboards. Bob Mackie has designed the gowns. It’s going to be a fun run.  To reach this audience, she has done many print and radio interviews. I was lucky that she fit my interview in as well. She did The Huffington Post last week. 

She is going to be on The Joy Behar Show. No one reads newspapers anymore!  

In the list of icons above that made an impact on Pia, one name is conspicuously missing. He stands in a class alone. Frank Sinatra.
They spent a lot of time together. They traveled together. They did a cross country tour, Don Rickles, Frank Sinatra, and Pia. Prior to that, she was appearing in Florida with Jackie Mason. Sinatra was a friend of Mason’s and came to see the show. The next day she received a dozen white roses. The card read, “You knocked them dead, kid from the guy with blue eyes.” Two hours later, his people called her and asked if she would like to open the show for Mr. Sinatra. 

It came after a time in which she had been doing a lot of pop music in Europe. She had a number one song in France in which she had a duet with Jermaine Jackson. She also had a Grammy nomination in ‘85 for Best Rock Vocal Performance Female, for "Rock It Out." Sinatra changed Pia’s musical direction.  She then did the Pia and Phil album. She sang classic standards with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and she did it well. 

These are standards that Sinatra recommended when she was with him. That album started her on her Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, London Palladium and Pyramids in Egypt tour. That led to symphonies all around the country. The tide turned musically for Pia because of Sinatra. He had a major impact on her.  

The things that Pia has enjoyed the most came later on in her career. That would include Hairspray with John Waters, Naked Gun: 33 and a Third. In the beginning, it was really an experimental process. The later part of her career has been about choosing things that she has fun with. She also loves singing the standards.
This is also where she has had the most success.  

One of my platforms is arts in education.

Pia also feels that it is very important. It is important to have a strong background in music. Pia comes from a musical family. Her father was a Broadway and concert violinist. He did both Broadway and classical.
He worked in the pit on La Cage Aux Folles, Porgy and Bess, and many others.
He was constantly practicing and had a very strong work ethic. He had studied in Europe. His mother was an opera singer. She started Pia vocalizing when she was three. Pia later on went to Julliard. A lawyer goes to law school. Why shouldn’t someone in music have the same type of education? Everyone needs to study their craft.

What would she tell her 25 year old self? Youth is wasted on the young! The one thing that she tells her kids which they don’t realize yet is that they will not be young forever. It really does go quickly as corny as that may sound. You turn around at 25 and then you’re 50! They have to see this! Jump on that horse and ride it. It is so fleeting.   

What she is doing now is what Pia really loves doing. She desires to keep doing it.

The greatest change facing Pia in today’s industry is keeping herself fresh and in the NOW and real and being true to what she desires to do despite all the other influences around her.

Technology is so different from where it was twenty five years ago. There are so many different things happening that are distractions. They can be alluring but once must stay simple and true to what you are doing and not suffocate the art. Pia has been mostly out of the public eye for the past fifteen years. It is now all about re-establishing herself. Many have a preconceived idea of who and what she is all about because of who she was in the past. She has to enlighten them because it really is not who she was and certainly who she is not now. She is also connecting with an audience who don’t know who the heck she is. There is a whole new audience out there and listening to the kind of music Pia desires to sing.

This music is timeless. A lot of pop stars are now doing the standards. The old and the new are merging and Pia is re-introducing herself.

We talked about Carol Channing receiving the 2013 Kennedy Center Honor.
We are both in agreement that Carol is the consummate and ultimate musical comedy entertainer. Pia’s father was a violinist for Hello, Dolly for its entire run. He passed away about fifteen years ago. Pia knew Carol when she was a small child. Pia last saw Carol six months ago when she appeared with a symphony in Palm Springs. Carol Channing is the one and only. She has no competition. She stands alone.  

There is more of grounding within Pia since leaving the business fifteen years ago. She understands herself more now.
She understands what she desires to do and wants to do better as opposed to the many random choices that were made by both her and those she surrounded herself with. 

When she was younger, she had such a hard time with all the controversy surrounding her. That comes with being young and “crazy.” That has all changed in a good way.  

The business has also grown and evolved. She considers it more of branching out than changing.

When it comes to these gorgeous Bob Mackie gowns, she considers them a second skin. She says she sleeps in them! 

Pia has held on to these dresses even after she stopped working. She couldn’t let them go. So when it came time for her to start working again, there were a couple of gowns that he made for her when she was pregnant. She has taken them in and going through these gowns, she has been reconnecting with the memories of her concert career and all of the places that she traveled to.
They have become a part of her. After she has “whatever”, she hopes that will live on somewhere.

This next question comes from Myles Savage of The Platters. Has Pia shared any love today?  (This was asked around 12 Noon EST on Monday. She was in Vegas) 

She had just woken up. The night before, she had accidently kicked her little Papillion in her sleep. She yelped and immediately Pia grabbed her to comfort her. 

She ended up petting her for about an hour and a half. THAT was the love she had shared prior to my call.

“Pia Zadora -- Back Again and Standing Tall” performed five times on four consecutive evenings. For upcoming schecule of other entertainers, please visit www.metropolitanroom.com.

I can’t wait to welcome Pia back to New York again and cheer her on!

Thank you Pia Zadora for the gifts you have given to the world and continue to give!

With grateful XOXOXs ,

Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!
This book will be a celebration of this great American classic.
 If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!

Do you have any pics to share?

If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.

NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.  FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!

Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!    
               

My next blog will be...My interview with Frank Anzelone: A Director's Take on Hello, Dolly!


Thank you, to all the mentioned in this blog!

  

Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!

TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAY

Richard Skipper                     

 
This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!

"I Aspire" A Celebration of Truman Capote's Famed Black and White Ball

"Beware of monotony;it's the mother of all the deadly sins."
_Edith Wharton, Anerican author (1862-1937)

Happy Thursday!
Light the candles...get the ice out...
I hope this finds you well and BUSY! I got up this morning and the above quote was the first quote I saw today and I love it! Many things can be said about me. Monotonous is not one of them. mo·not·o·ny/məˈnätn-ē/Noun
1. Lack of variety and interest; tedious repetition and routine.
2. Sameness of pitch or tone in a sound or utterance.

I'm planning a big event for October and I'm using Truman Capote's infamous black and white ball as my template. Only the positive aspects of course. Truman Capote was a literary legend, and two major motion pictures focused on how he created his masterpiece, In Cold Blood.
Flush with the bestsellerdom of In Cold Blood, which earned him millions, Capote decided to throw an extraordinary masked ball-partly in honor of his friend the Washington Post president Katherine Graham and partly to celebrate his own success at the end of the grueling process of writing the book-at New York's legendary Plaza Hotel. For several months, the most sought-after piece of paper in New York and jet-setting society was the tasteful white card bearing the words, " Mr. Truman Capote requests your company at a Black and White Dance." Capote boasted that he invited 500 friends but made fifteen thousand enemies-those who weren't invited.

The glittering roster of guests included Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, the young actress Candice Bergan, literary lions Norman Mailor and William F. Buckley, and various international crowned heads, Kennedys, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys.

Social snubs and prickly rivalries, no doubt, swirled through the ballroom at New York's Plaza Hotel that night in 1966... on the night Benson photographed Truman Capote's notorious Black & White Ball. Tallulah Bankhead insulted Norman Mailer, Lauren Bacall spurned eager dance partners, and the host himself tried to physically block the exit when Frank Sinatra and then-wife Mia Farrow departed at midnight.

Desiring to keep the party mix interesting and unpredictable, Capote also invited people from the town where the murders from In Cold Blood occurred, publishing types, and even the doorman from the UN Plaza, his apartment building.

In PARTY OF THE CENTURY* THE FABULOUS STORY OF TRUMAN CAPOTE AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE BALL, Deborah Davis, in fascinating detail, captures the drama and excitement of The ball itself.

(Katherine Graham And Truman Capote)

If you opened your mailbox in the fall of 1966 and found this invitation in your mailbox, you knew you were on the "it" list: "In honor of Mrs. Katharine Graham / Mr. Truman Capote / requests the pleasure of your company / at a Black and White Dance / on Monday, the twenty-eighth of November / at ten o'clock / Grand Ballroom, The Plaza / DRESS Gentlemen: Black tie; Black mask. Ladies: Black or White dress; White mask; fan. R.S.V.P. Miss Elizabeth Davis, 465 Park Avenue, New York." This was the most coveted invitation of the 1960s, the card asking the recipient to attend the "Party of the Century", Truman Capote's legendary Black and White Ball.
One of the most iconic and memorable dinner parties ever thrown, the Black and White Ball still holds a special place in the history of American high society. This is its story.

Truman Capote is perhaps best known for his 1958 novella "Breakfast at Tiffany's" which was later translated into the Audrey Hepburn film classic of the same name.

(Jack Mitchell photographed Truman Capote in his United Nations Plaza apartment (above) in color and black and white for the Chicago Tribune Magazine. When Mitchell asked Capote why there was water in a vase containing artificial calla lilies, Capote replied "To make them look real, of course!" The blog is all about parties!
- Craig B. Highberger)

Already a well respected author and popular figure on the social scene by the mid-1960s, Capote's fame and status skyrocketed with the huge commercial success of his 1965 book "In Cold Blood", which would also later become a movie. "In Cold Blood" told the story of the brutal murders of a farmer and his family in Kansas, and despite some question as to how factually accurate Capote's account of the events were, the book is widely acknowledged as the first true crime book, thus launching the genre.
The success of "In Cold Blood" made Truman Capote a millionaire (although by his own account, the $2 million he made is less impressive when the six years spent researching and writing the book are taken into account), and helped to secure his place in high society.

(Tallulah Bankhead)

William Frank Buckley, Jr.

(November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American conservative authorand commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for extensive vocabulary.

The Plaza Hotel in New York City is jointly owned by Elad Properties and Kingdom Holdings, a Saudia Arabia based corporation. It has been managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts since 1999.

The commercial and social success that Truman Capote achieved for himself was the pinnacle of the dreams of the young Alabama boy whose motto was, "I aspire". Capote was already a fixture on the New York social scene before the release of "In Cold Blood" and had a group of society ladies with whom he often dined known as his "flock of swans". Truman's blueblood "swans" included fixtures of American society: Babe Paley, Slim Keith, Gloria Guinness, Lee Radziwill (sister of Jacqueline Kennedy), C.Z. Guest, and Marella Agnelli. The socialites of New York affectionately referred to Truman Capote as Tru Heart or Tru Love, and he was like their favorite little pet (albeit one with a sharp tongue and an attitude).

To celebrate his grand achievements, Capote decided to throw a party. Not just a party, but the party, the one to which everyone who was anyone would desperately desire to be invited. He set the date for November 28, 1966 in the Grand Ballroom of New York's legendary Plaza Hotel. Capote wanted his party to be spectacular, to make a splash, and he set about making that come true. The event was much more than a party to Capote, it was performance art, and a childhood dream come true. Realizing that it would look better to at least pretend that the party was in honor of someone else, Capote designated Washington Post publisher Katharine (Kay) Graham as the guest of honor.

Speaking of the guest list, it is one of the most interesting parts of the story behind the Black and White Ball. Truman Capote was a skilled social climber and a master manipulator. When it was he who held the power, he decided to take the opportunity to make or break people socially. Capote taunted potential guests by saying, "Well maybe you'll be invited, and maybe you won't". He was fond of saying that when he threw his famous party, he made 500 friends and 15,000 enemies.
Some said that it was less about whom Capote did invite, and more about the people whom he consciously snubbed. Capote meant for the guest list to the Black and White Ball to become the 20th Century's answer to the famous "400" of the Gilded Age (an 1892 list of the four hundred members of high society who could fit in Mrs. Astor's ballroom on 5th Avenue), and in many ways it did.

An expert at self-promotion, Capote got the kind of publicity for his upcoming party that had never been seen before. People were desperate to score invitations to the Party of the Century.
Pleas were made, cash bribes were offered, and would-be party goers phoned so often that Capote was finally driven out of New York for a time. One of the few guests whose begging was successful was a man who told Capote that his wife had threatened suicide if she did not make it onto the "in" list. Not wanting to be the cause of a death (his own mother had been a suicide), Capote did agree to extend an invitation to the unfortunate woman and her husband.

(Gloria Guinness, William and Babe Paley)

Barbara "Babe" Cushing Mortimer Paley (July 5, 1915 – July 6, 1978) was an American socialite and style icon. She was first privately, and later publicly, known by the popular name "Babe" for most of her life. She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1958.

Some women are born into their fortunes, others earn them the old fashioned way: they marry them. Lady Slim Keith fell into the latter category. Born Nancy Gross in Salinas, California, Slim was an unremarkable girl in a strict, unhappy home ruled by her bigoted father. Her difficult childhood was made more bearable by her mother, as well as the John Steinbecks, their neighbors and good friends.

Read more: Slim Keith - the Fashion Spot

(Gloria Guinness and her daughter, Dolores Guinness
both wearing Balenciaga. Photograph by Henry Clarke for French Vogue, 1957)
Gloria Guinness (August 27, 1912 – November 9, 1980),

born Gloria Rubio y Alatorre, was a Mexican-born socialite and fashion icon of the 20th century, and a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar from 1963 until 1971. She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964.

Lee Radziwill:

PARTY OF THE CENTURY* THE FABULOUS STORY OF TRUMAN CAPOTE AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE BALL lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings of the guests and their gorgeous and extravagant costumes, masks, and jewels and including the guest list, the recipe for the Plaza chicken hash served at the ball, and other memorabilia, this portrait of revelry at the height of the swirling, swinging, turbulent sixties will be the book of the season for anyone interested in American popular culture and the lifestyles and legacies of the rich, famous, and talented.

C.Z. Guest with her son

Capote carried a composition notebook around with him for weeks, working on the guest list. Names went on the list, names were removed, and some were placed back on. When the final guest list was complete, it included 540 people, of whom close to 500 ultimately attended the ball. To hear it told, though, quite a few more people were invited; there were plenty of social climbers who told their friends that they had been invited to the Black and White Ball, but had to be in London or Paris on that night (and then actually left the country to keep up the charade!). Their efforts were all for naught, however, as Capote "leaked" the guest list to the New York Times, which published it in its entirety the day after the party.


Thank you Truman Capote for creating a world we will probably never see again and thank you Deborah Davis for creating a fascinating look into that world with PARTY OF THE CENTURY* THE FABULOUS STORY OF TRUMAN CAPOTE AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE BALL !

WIKIPEDIA and PARTY OF THE CENTURY* THE FABULOUS STORY OF TRUMAN CAPOTE AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE BALL are MAJOR SOURCES of this Blog!

Also, Truman Capote's Black And White Ball



STAY HOME TONIGHT AND READ PARTY OF THE CENTURY* THE FABULOUS STORY OF TRUMAN CAPOTE AND HIS BLACK AND WHITE BALL Don't have it? Order it http://www.amazon.com/Party-Century-Fabulous-Truman-Capote/dp/0471659665 Relive this historic event
Become A Facebook friend of mine!
Follow me on Twitter
If you've seen one of my appearances/shows, add your thoughts to my guestbook at www.RichardSkipper.com



Tomorrow's blog will be a YOU TELL ME...I'm open to suggestions!

Please contribute to the DR. CAROL CHANNING & HARRY KULLIJIAN FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS: http://www.carolchanning.org/foundation.htm

And help us get Carol Channing the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor!
Contact me for details!
TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED JULY!
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com