There may be no party more glamorous in the history of New York City than the Black and White ball novelist Truman Capote hosted for 540 of his friends at The Plaza Hotel 50 years ago.
Capote organized the bash on the evening of Nov. 28, 1966, at the Plaza's Grand Ballroom in honor of Washington Post and Newsweek president Katharine Graham, then one of the most powerful women in America.
The author, flush with earnings from his best-selling masterpiece "In Cold Blood," insisted that attendees wear only black and white. According to his strict guidelines, all should wear masks, and the women should carry fans.
"I want the party to be united the way you make a painting," Capote said of the dress code.
Capote's extensive guest list included men and women from all corners of New York society: creatives such as singer Frank Sinatra, poet Marianne Moore, and artist Andy Warhol; intellectuals including Lionel Trilling and economist John Kenneth Galbraith; politicians like R. Sargent Shriver; businessmen like Ford Motor Company CEO Henry Ford II; and socialites like Gloria Vanderbilt and Babe Paley.
They arrived at the masquerade in black and white dresses and bespoke masks, ogling each other, dancing to show tunes played by the Peter Duchin Orchestra, and tucking into a midnight buffet of chicken hash, spaghetti, pastries, and coffee.
Here's a glimpse of bold-faced names in attendance that night, their invitations so coveted that some excluded New Yorkers explained away their absences saying they'd been called away to London or Monte Carlo that evening: