Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/61757
Behind O DAY—AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, YOU'RE INVITED. By Susanna Negovan Photography by Tyler Curtis/Darkroom Demons n a cold night in January, guests huddled in The Drake hotel's lobby stood agape as they watched outrageously costumed partygoers stomp by on their way to the grand ballroom. Clad in British period dress that spanned more than a century—Princess Di in her wedding gown, Jack the Ripper in a broad cape, Boy George in his dreadlocks—the brigade entered a private party, where doors were flanked by four stone-faced security guards in dark suits. The wild assemblage had gathered for the Twelfth Night Masque, an annual gala that for more than 100 years has been attended—and helmed— by some of the city's most powerful names, and that is virtually unknown outside the circle of the invited. The bawdy bash was founded in 1905 by Billy Gamble (of the Proctor & Gamble lineage) and his friends, and over the years has included such esteemed local families as the Fields, the Wirtzes, and the Walgreens, as well as corporate bigwigs, and prim socialites and their pedigreed progeny, all of whom use the occasion to let their hair down. Attendees are sworn to secrecy, invitations are hard (if not impossible) to come by, and the theme changes annually, although it's always a little scan- dalous. I first heard about the event several years ago, when a socialite of a certain age asked me if I was attending Twelfth Night. "Pardon?" Mary and Bruce Southworth at the 1980 Twelfth Night Ball. "It's a secret party," she said. "Picture the notori- ous costume ball from the movie Eyes Wide Shut." Intrigued, I asked around. While a few people acknowledged hearing about it, none would admit they had ever attended. And then finally, a few months ago, I was given a phone number and a name: Dante. (Are you kidding me? I thought.) He's the Grand Vizier of Twelfth Night, and I was told he might be willing to talk about it. When I called him, he was surprisingly forth- coming; for the record, Dante A. Bacani is his real name, and he's a digital media producer who is trying to pump up attendance to match the party's heyday—the '50s through the '80s—when up to 600 guests attended and out-of-control behavior michiganavemag.com 113 the Masqued Ball A MYSTERIOUS EVENT FOUNDED IN 1905 BY CHICAGO'S MOST PROMINENT FAMILIES CONTINUES TO THIS photography by john bartley (1980 ball)