The International Debutante Ball Foundation Charities: 51st International Debutante Ball

Friday, December 29, 2006

The International Debutante Ball Foundation Charities: 51st International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria. 7:30 p.m.: Receiving Line, Badildon Room - Cocktails, Jade Room. 9:00 p.m.: Dinner, Grand Ballroom. 11:00 p.m.: Presentation of Debutantes, Grand Ballroom. Fifty three young women of distinction from the United States and abroad (including eight sets of sisters) will make their bow to society. The debutantes represent England, Austria, China, France, Greece, The Republic of Panama, Scotland, Switzerland and sixteen American states. Each debutante will be accompanied by her own escort in white tie and tails, and a military cadet in dress uniform who carries the flag of the country or state which she represents. Details from 212-861-5911.

The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld

The Interpretation of Murder
by Jed Rubenfeld

In 1909, Sigmund Freud, accompanied by his then-disciple Carl Jung, made his one and only visit to the United States. Freud always spoke, in later years, as if some trauma had befallen him. He called Americans savages. This is the story of what happened in 1909. The Interpretation of Murder is an intricate tale of murder and the minds most dangerous mysteries.

It unfurls on a sweltering August evening as Freud disembarks from the steamship George Washington. Across town, in an opulent apartment high above the city, a woman is found dangling from a chandelier. The next day, a second woman, Nora Acton, barely escapes the killer. Suffering from hysteria, only Freuds psychoanalytical methods can help her recall the identity of her assailant. In a historically accurate portrait of early 20th century New York City, The Interpretation of Murder will take you deep into the subterfuges of the criminal mind.

About the Author

Currently the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale University, Jed Rubenfeld is one of this country’s foremost experts on constitutional law. As a Princeton undergraduate, he completed his thesis on Freud. At the Juilliard School, he studied Shakespeare. Rubenfeld lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and two children.

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)

Andy Hardy Meets Debutante

MGM, 1940. Directed by George B. Seitz. Camera: Charles Lawton, Sidney Wagner. With Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden, Judy Garland, Ann Rutherford, Diana Lewis, Sara Haden.

Haute Couture Debutante

Limited Edition Debutante

Greenberg & McConville Debutante Photography

© Greenberg & McConville

Internationally acclaimed photographers Arthur Greenberg and Brian McConville have recorded America's debutantes for over 30 years. During that time, in New York, California and Washington, DC, they have also been privileged to photograph the weddings of many of our debutante clients and their families.

Check out their Debutante Gallery of Photographs

Greenberg & McConville
(800) 888-3258

Crosley 1960's Princess Phone - Blue

Crosley 1960's Princess Phone - Blue

It's little, and it's lovely and you probably remember it in your sister's bedroom or at your mother's desk. The original desk phone was redesigned with this smart new look. The Princess, introduced in 1959, was compact and attractive. Featured in a variety of colors, including pastels, this unit had a smaller footprint to fit in those not-so-big spaces. With it's rounded edges, sleek lines and fashionable stylings it quickly became a favorite.



Crosley 1960's Princess Phone - Pink

The Outrageous Debutante

The Outrageous Debutante
by Anne O'Brien

They have been summoned to London to enjoy the "delights" of the Season, yet neither Theodora Wooton-Devereux nor Lord Nicholas Faringdon is an enthusiastic participant in the game of love.

Until a chance meeting sets their lives on a different course. And soon the handsome gentleman, who has captured the heart of the beautiful — though somewhat unconventional — debutante, is the talk of the town!

But when a shocking family scandal rears its head and forbids that they be united, it seems fate is not on their side. Now Thea must end the relationship before it is too late...by playing the truly outrageous debutante!

Dressing Up Debutantes : Pageantry and Glitz in Texas

Dressing Up Debutantes : Pageantry and Glitz in Texas (Dress, Body, Culture)
by Michaele Thurgood Haynes

For ninety years, young society women in San Antonio, Texas have donned custom-designed dresses and trains to take part in the Coronation of a queen and her court. These royal robes, which weigh fifty pounds and more and cost an average of $18,000, are highly embellished with rhinestones and beads. The Coronation is part of the ten-day, century-old festival celebrating the final battle of the 1836 Texas revolt against Mexico.

This book provides a significant contribution to the study of social elites in Western society through a material culture analysis of the Coronation costumes worn by the Euro-American debutantes. Set against the backdrop of a city undergoing many demographic, socioeconomic, and political changes, the themes of Coronation pageants represent the mythologized ethnic and class history which reinforces the hierarchical positioning of its participants. The royal robes serve as the canvas upon which this theme is carried out. The Coronation, held in a city with a Hispanic majority, has come under attack for its elitism, but participation in it is still important for the old Euro-American aristocracy and for a very few extremely wealthy Hispanic families. Integral to the continuation of this increasingly contested tradition is the emotional appeal that wearing these intricately decorated gowns holds for participants.

Debutantes by Charlotte Bingham

Debutantes by Charlotte Bingham

A century ago marriage, and marriage alone, offered a nicely brought-up girl escape from the domination of her parents. Indeed it was the only path to freedom. That path led her to a Season in London and, the ultimate goal, Coming Out as a debutante. But along the way she had to survive a terrifying few months, a make-or-break time in which her family's hopes for her could only be fulfilled through a proposal of marriage.

For Lady Emily Persse, Coming Out means leaving her beloved Ireland, and its informalities, for England and its stricter codes. For Portia Tradescant, released from the boredom of life in the English countryside, it means trying to get through the Season despite the best efforts of her eccentric Aunt Tattie. For beautiful May Danby the Season is an entree to a whole other life, worlds away from her strict convent upbringing in Yorkshire.

Debutantes, Charlotte Bingham's delightful and stylish new saga, centres around a single London Season in the eighteen-nineties. But it is not just about the debutantes themselves. It is as much about the women who launch them, and the Society which supports their way of life. It is also about the battle for power, privilege and money, fought, not in the male tradition upon the battlefield, but in the female tradition...in the ballroom.

Pictures from Aly Spencer's Deb Ball

Two sets of pictures for viewing:

Set one

Set two

30th annual Krewe of the Knights of Sant' Yago Debutante Ball

Eight debutantes primped and preened like pretty swans in white wedding gowns, called debutante dresses for this occasion. Their reasons for making a formal debut varied, from daughterly duty to Lindsay Miller begging her father to join the krewe so she and her sister could be debutantes.

"It started out an ordeal and ended up a pleasure," said her father, George Lorton.

By AMY SCHERZER, Times Staff Writer
St. Petersburg Times
published August 2, 2002

St. Petersburg Debutante Club entertains a new class of debs

The St. Petersburg Debutante Club entertains a new class of debs at a weekend coffee every spring; the tradition continued Saturday, with debutantes, their mothers and alumnae gathering in the home of Michelle and Jim Neader.

The young women will be presented Dec. 27 in the Coliseum.

By MARY JANE PARK, Times Staff Writer
Published May 18, 2005

Debutantes

The lives of debutantes, which usually revolved around the social Season, changed forever with the advent of war in 1939. What function did the debutante tradition fulfil?

Never trust a ceremony that begins with flocks of young women (notionally virgin) processing in white dresses towards some ritual object. There's bound to be a dark and sinister motive behind all this innocence. So it was with the offerings to Artemis in ancient Greece, back in the fourth century BC. So too with the presentation of debutantes (young women making their debut, or entry, into society) at the start of the social Season.

Debutantes
By Angela Lambert
BBC

Los Debutantes

"The story of two brothers who get involved with a sexy stripper and her boss, the nightclub king of Santiago, as told from three perspectives. Sexy, gritty, emotional." --IMDB

Luego de un período de cesantía, Silvio (24) ingresa a trabajar en el circuito de negocios pornográficos administrados por Don Pascual Tello. Estas labores le significan ingresos con los que nunca había soñado. Sin embargo, el ascenso incluye diversos servicios personales a Tello y no pocas humillaciones.

Además, Silvio debe hacerse cargo de su hermano menor Víctor (17), quien al final de su adolescencia sueña con perder la virginidad e ingresar a la universidad. La vida de los hermanos se quiebra cuando Silvio no puede rehuir la tentación de iniciar un romance clandestino con Gracia, la chica que además de ser la amante de su jefe, es de quién Víctor se ha enamorado platónicamente.

Directed by
Andrés Waissbluth

Writing credits
Julio Rojas
Andrés Waissbluth

Los Debutantes

Blackberry Debutantes

A bipartisan tale of two girls taking on the district.

One native, one newcomer. One Democrat, one Republican. One blonde, one brunette. What these two young single ladies in the District share, however, are mutual loves and desires. Desires for a good strong drink, a BlackBerry, Lilly Pulitzer, and a love for Breakfast at Tiffanys, for Seth Cohen and Andy Roddick, and for the city of Washington, DC.

Blackberry Debutantes

The O.C. Debutantes

  

"The Debut" episode of THE O.C.

Ryan becomes a member of the Cohen family when Kirsten and Sandy decide to take full, legal responsibility for him. At rehearsal for an upcoming Cotillion, Marissa sets Ryan up to escort Anna, and Summer is regretfully partnered with Seth. When the dancing stops, the drinking begins and all of the kids gather for a pre-Cotillion fiesta on the beach. As in a previous episode, Seth and Ryan arrive to an unwelcoming crowd and problems arise when Luke eyes Marissa and Ryan together, but Ryan resists the desire to fight. Meanwhile, Sandy is approached by the SEC who explains that Jimmy is the subject of a fraud investigation and Kirsten's $100,000 loan to him has placed the Cohen family in the spotlight as well. At the Cotillion, Sandy's, Jimmy's, and Ryan's tempers are all put to the test in the "The Debut" episode of THE O.C.

Read more...

Ryan: Guess I don’t really fit in, huh?
Sandy: Oh, I got news for you. Nobody does. I guarantee you--every single person at that cotillion feels like a fraud. They’ve all got secrets and they’re all terrified the guy net door is going to find them out.
Ryan: So, what’s your secret?
Sandy: Sometimes, when the sun’s coming up and the surf is good, and I haven’t pissed my wife off quite as much as I have today, I kind of like this place.
[they look at each other]
Ryan: You just stabbed me again.
Sandy: Oh, sorry

Princeton Debutante Ball

Catholic Charities board member Phyllis Coyer of Princeton is responsible for the idea of a Princeton Debutante Ball. "The Thanksgiving season is the perfect time for young women to make their debut," said Mrs. Coyer. "It is the time of year when we share our gratitude for blessings and certainly, we are thankful for the young women who will be the leaders of tomorrow and who will take their place in making our communities a better place in which to live."
By Lynn Adams Smith
Princeton Packet Special Writer
Sunday, Feb. 27, 2000

Ukrainian Debutante Balls

Debutante is from the French word débutante, which comes from "débuter" (to begin). The tradition of such balls started in Austria. Originally, debutante balls were meant as a way to present marriageable young ladies to proper society. One source we found says the custom, at least as it's practiced in the United States, traces its origins to England and that the first American presentation of debutantes to society began during colonial times, in 1748 in Philadelphia.

For Ukrainian Americans, of course, the custom is much newer. For example, Philadelphia's Ukrainian Engineers' Society ball of 2004 was its 50th, while the debutante ball of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM) this year marked its 40th year.

The Chervona Kalyna ball, on the other hand, traces its tradition back to 1930 when the first Plast Ball was held in Stryi, Ukraine. That ball was organized by members of the Chervona Kalyna Plast Fraternity who today continue to organize the popular Chervona Kalyna event, now a debutante ball, in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

Read more...

Have Gun, Will Travel TV Series

Episode entitled "The Debutante" with Wayne Rogers and L.Q. Jones

Paladin locates unappreciated farmgirl, granddaughter of wealthy San Francisco socialite, and tries to convince her to go back with him.

The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877-1995

The Veiled Prophet organization has been a vital institution in St. Louis for more than a century. Founded in March 1878 by a group of prominent St. Louis businessmen, the organization was fashioned after the New Orleans Carnival society the Mystick Krewe of Comus. In The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877-1995, Thomas Spencer explores the social and cultural functions of the organization's annual celebration--the Veiled Prophet parade and ball--and traces the shifts that occurred over the years in its cultural meaning and importance. Although scholars have researched the more pluralistic parades of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, very little has been done to examine the elite-dominated parades of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This study shows how pluralistic parades ceased to exist in St. Louis and why the upper echelon felt it was so important to end them.

Mystery Debutante