Held on January 23, 1931, at the Hotel Astor in New York City, the masquerade gala was organized by the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects. The ball’s theme was Fête Moderne: A Fantasie in Flame and Silver. During the height of the Great Depression, and just as Manhattan’s skyline was undergoing a explosive Art Deco transformation, seven of New York’s most prominent architects arrived at the costume gala dressed literally as the iconic skyscrapers they designed.
Standing side by side in elaborate cardboard-and-fabric costumes, the lineup includes: Leonard Schultze as the Waldorf-Astoria; William Van Alen as the Chrysler Building, his costume featured detailed patent leather and a cape made to mimic the building's sunburst spire; Ely Jacques Khan as the Squibb Building; Ralph Walker as the Wall Street Building; Arthur J. Arwine as a low pressure heating boiler, A. Stewart as the Fuller Building; and Joseph Freelander as the Museum of the City of New York.
The ball took place during the Great Depression. Tickets cost $15, a small fortune at the time. Despite the economic hardship outside, the party served as a spectacular, eccentric celebration of human ambition and the rapid vertical rise of the modern American metropolis. It remains a definitive cultural symbol of the Jazz Age and early American modernism.
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