Many Washingtonians make their way to Palm Beach in winter, especially for the annual International Red Cross Ball. The D.C.-based foreign ambassadors invited each year are one of the ball’s most colorful features (photo by Lucien Capehart, courtesy of the Red Cross Ball, Palm Beach Chapter). The ball starts with formality―the receiving line of ambassadors standing before their respective flags as they greet guests, then their processional down the red carpet to the ballroom―and ends with fun. As always, everybody danced to the Peter Duchin Orchestra, the ball’s favorite band.
This year, the countries represented included Switzerland, Portugal, Oman, Afghanistan, Luxembourg, Romania, Monaco, and Liechtenstein (the latter’s lively ambassador, Claudia Fritsche, could easily have won the cup for best dancer, if one were given).
The first woman chairman of the national Red Cross (and former U.S. ambassador to Finland), Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, down from Washington, spoke of the evening’s serious purpose, the ball’s role in raising funds for the work of the Red Cross, whether it be battling hurricanes in Florida or floods in Ecuador. She presented the Chairman’s Award to Michele Kessler for her commitment to fighting measles as well as the scourge of malaria in Africa, which has been reduced by 90% since the Red Cross effort began.
The night before the ball, Michele and husband Howard Kessler, the magnate who pioneered the idea of affinity credit cards, hosted the glamorous Ambassadors Dinner at their 25-acre estate, with every beautifully appointed room holding art treasures.
Washingtonians were again a strong presence at the ball. Seen: the ball’s chief of protocol (and former U.S. ambassador to Denmark) Stuart Bernstein and wife Wilma, and two former State Department protocol chiefs, Marion “Joe” Smoak and Nancy Brinker, who just finished her stint on that job. Others present included Smoak’s wife Francie; Susan Eisenhower and Bucky Carlson; our former ambassador to the U.N. Esther Coopersmith, wearing decorations awarded her by Thailand; Mary Ourisman, until the week before our ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Judy and Ahmad Esfandiary; Mary Mochary and Dr. Phil Wine; Dr. Mary Frances Smoak and husband Bill Walde; and developers Al Pierce and Lola Reinsch.
Also in attendance were two couples who split their time between Palm Beach and Washington, Bill Tiefel and his beautifully bejeweled wife, Norma, and Brad and Denise Alexander, she sporting the loveliest parure of the evening, a shower of turquoise and diamonds adorning her neck and ears.
The ball’s warm and hospitable co-chairs for the last three years, Nancy and William Rollnick, said this is their last year as chairmen; they will be a difficult act to follow. Nancy is an award-winning Broadway producer and an acclaimed photographer with a dozen books to her credit, and Bill Rollnick is the retired president of Mattel, who helped guide Barbie to fame.
Donald Trump flies the diplomats down from D.C. on his private plane. For many years I have been aboard, too, but lost my spot this year because there were more ambassadors than usual. Often, diplomatic dropouts happen because of events in their country, or illness, but this year, there weren’t any crises and the ambassadors were all disgustingly healthy, so no room for me.
Trump is continuing the tradition begun by the late cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who lived in Washington and flew ambassadors from D.C. to Palm Beach in her private plane. The ball is held at her 62,000-square-foot vacation mansion, Mar-a-Lago, which Trump bought and has redone as a private club.
He has given Palm Beach new life since he began investing there, but not without irritation and legislation. Palm Beachers were irked by some of the changes The Donald hath wrought.
The sight of the American flag waving high above the club as I walked into the ball reminded me of one such dispute. Trump had erected a no-no in front of Mar-a-Lago: an 80-foot flagpole. The limit is 42 feet, said the town council. Six months of legal wrangling and the threat of fines of $1,250 per day followed. Trump contributed $100K to charities for war veterans and VA hospitals, moved the pole back from the waterfront, and dropped his $25 million lawsuit against the city. His flagpole is now at a tall 70 feet. Everyone made nice.
That standoff was settled amicably, with benefits for all, a way Trump often handles such things (after he applies some muscle, natch).
Because it was Palm Beach, there was of course the usual scandale du jour, this time Laurence Leamer’s latest, Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach, which had just come out, skewering some well-known islanders and madly embarrassing a local playboy, who is banned from one entire country because of his antics on its national airline.
Larry’s latest was being printed as an even bigger and farther-reaching scandal broke, seasonal Palm Beacher Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The official, 163-page list of his victims named 569 residents of the Beaches, including some of the town’s most generous charitable donors.
These financial wounds raised concerns that this year’s ball might suffer, but it rolled merrily along, still the high point of the Palm Beach Season, just as it has been for the last 52 years.
