Belmont Ball on June 6 to Aid Home for Blind: Gala Benefit Affair Planned for Eve of Running of 00,000 Race, Daily Racing Form, 1952-05-31

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Belmont Ball on June 6 To Aid Home for Bfind Gala Benefit Affair Planned for Eve of Running of 00,000 Race By BOB HORWOOD - Staff Correspondent BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., May 30. The annual Belmont ball comes, of. age Friday evening, June 6, the eve of the Belmont Stakes. This festive affair, held partly in the Manice Mansion, the miniature chateau adjoining the Belmont paddock which is the headquarters of the Turf and Field Club, and partly under canopies outside, was inaugurated two years ago and immediately filled a void in the Long Island social scene with sounds of revelry by night. The Belmont Ball was renewed with considerably more success last spring. This year, it takes its place-as a traditional event young, but defnitely "arrived." The beneficiary this year will be the Lighthouse, maintained by the New York Association for the Blind, 111 East 59th Street. Mrs. John A. Morris, who, with Mrs. Dodge Sloane, Mrs. Walter J. Salmon and other devoted ladies of the turf, has nurtured this charitable project from a dream to an eagerly awaited annual event, reports that this years Belmont Ball should outdo its predecessors in several respects. An out- door dance floor has been installed, in addl- I tion to the somewhat confined space in the mansion, and it is believed that all of the j more than 300 couples expected to attend I will be able to respond to Meyer Davis enchanted music without undue risk to life and limb. i An extensive bar is alscr being set up in the garden adjoining this dance floor. The sponsors of the ball and ultimately the Lighthouse receive 30 per cent of this concession. Joe Palmer will serve as master of ceremonies. The ceremonies of which Palmer will be master consist largely of an auction, conducted by Doc Bond. The items which have been donated to be auctioned for the benefit of the Lighthouse surpass the already high standard set at the first two Belmont balls. They include a lovely bronze statuette of Counterpoint by June Harrah, a painting donated by Jay Rou-suck of the Scott and Fowles galleries, jewelry by Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpels, a clock from Black, Starr and Gorham and a case of sipirtus frumenti donated by HaiTy M. Stevens, Inc. Maggi McNellis and J. Henry Alexandre, president of the Turf and Field Club, have been rehearsing an act which they will unveil during the auctioning of a Crosley car. t Perhaps the most interesting of the items to be auctioned are a collection of trays, decorated with horses heads by Teddy Marcone, a blind Lighthouse staffmember. They would do credit to an artist, with 20-20 vision and an equally skilled hand. Three of the items which will go under Doc Bonds persuasive hammer are "hidden treasures." Unlike the objects in the timeJionored church social grab bag, these have a guaranteed value of not less than 00 each. Last year, it will be recalled, a plate worn by the winner of the next days Belmont States was auctioned, with C. V. Whitney being the highest bidder. It will be further recalled, that Mr. Whitney had the pleasant satisfaction some 18 hours later of finding that he had acquired a shoe from his own horse Counterpoint. A plate from this years winner, as yet unknown, will be auctioned Friday night and spirited bidding is anticipated from the owners of candidates to the Classic Stakes.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1952053101/drf1952053101_59_3
Local Identifier: drf1952053101_59_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800