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PREAKNESS BALL PAGEANT Twenty-Seven of Marylands Fairest Girls to Be Selected to Act as Princesses. BALTIMORE, Md., April 25. Twenty-seven of Marylands fairest daughters will be selected to participate in the colorful Preakness Ball pageant on May 14, it was announced yesterday by Alfred Gwynne Van-derbilt, chairman of the Preakness Week Association and master of Sagamore Farms in the Worthington Valley. The court for the coronation ceremonies will comprise the Preakness queen, two, princesses, twenty-three duchesses and one page, all to be selected for their beauty and charm. Baltimores gayest and most colorful civic festival of the year is held at the Fifth Regiment Armory the evening of the historic Preakness, one of the richest races for three-year-olds in the country and an anuual feature at Pimlico since 1873. The ball is the climax of a series of events held during Preakness week, May 9 to 14. POMP AND CEREMONY. As a feature of the ball, the Preakness queen is crowned, with all the pomp and ceremony of royal pageantry. At the first Preakness Ball two years ago the queen, Mrs. W. W. Lanahan, was attended by two princesses from Baltimore and eight duchesses from various parts of the state. Last year the entire court was chosen mainly from Baltimores "younger set" According to Mr. Vanderbilt, the program this year will be more in line with that of the 1936 affair, with the duchesses being selected from representative families throughout the state. The coronation ceremonies will be staged on a more elaborate scale, with duchesses from all of the twenty-three counties.
