Arlington Charity Ball Midsummer Nights Dream: Hold Third Annual Summer Ball Saturday in Post and Paddock, Daily Racing Form, 1954-06-17

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Arlington Charity Ball Midsummer Night s Dream Hold! bird Annual Summer Ball Saturday in Post and Paddock Arlington Scene of Charity i Affair Presented by Womens Board of Chicago Boys Clubs Thoroughbred racings ever-growing participation in community, civic and charitable functions earns another major accolade on Saturday, as Arlington Parks famed Post and Paddock Club throws open its doors for the third annual Summer Ball, one of the nations top-ranking social and charitable events. Timed each year to coincide with the opening of Arlington Park which falls this season on June 24, the Summer Ball is presented by the Womens Board of the Chicago Boys Clubs. It climaxes a year-around campaign to produce funds for the C.B.C., and proceeds of the Ball annually guarantee the group financial success. Financing of the Summer Ball is unique among charitable functions. Prominent personalities and organizations in thoroughbred racing annually have underwritten the entire affair. The inaugural in 1952 was sponsored by Mrs. Gene Markey the then widowed Mrs. Warren Wright, owner of Calumet Farm. She paid all bills. In 1953, Mrs. Otto Lehmann, widow of one of Arlington Parks early presidents and founders, absorbed the costs. Group of Sponsors This year, to insure that the Boys Clubs receive maximum benefits, there is a group of sponsors. Arlington Park Jockey Club and Washington Park Jockey Club, both under the executive directorship of Benjamin F. Lindheimer, top the list. The other sponsors are Mis. Markey, Mrs. Elizabeth Arden Graham, owner of Maine Chance Farm; Allie E. Reuben, owner of Hasty House Farm, and Eugene Constantin, Jr., who is racing his entire stable at Arlington Park again this year. The proceeds, however, are derived from the invitational list of some 600 outstanding persons, high on the social, business and civic rosters. They pay 0 per person to attend the galla affair, with all the proceeds going into the Chicago Boys Clubs treasury. The idea of the Summer Ball was originated with two prominent Chicago women, Mrs. Charles Kittle, who is honorary chairman of the Womens Board and once chairman of the ball itself, and Mrs. Leonard S. Florsheim, whose husband is a director and founding member of the Post and Paddock Club. President of the Womens Board is Mrs. Barnes Donnelley. Co-chairmen of the 1954 Summer Ball are two other outstanding Chicago women, Mrs. Lester Armour and Mrs. William A. Patterson. Mrs. Armour was forced to yield her co-chairmanship, however, to Mrs. Patterson due to a recent illness. Mrs. Max Pray Publicity Chairman Dynamo and chairman of the balls publicity this year is Mrs. Max Pray, who was chairman of the 1953 ball. One of the highlights of the 1954 edition is the honor paid to thoroughbred racing by the Womens Board. The entire motif in the Post and Paddock Club Saturday will be on racing. The racing silks of four-foot cutouts of the jockeys who ride for Mrs. Markey, Mrs. Graham, Reubin and Constantin vill be blended into the shaded pinks of peonies and roses, and Hie huge i PARTICIPANTS IN CHARITY BALL Chicagos socialites annually join hands with thoroughbred racing at Arlington Park to produce the Summer Ball, one of the nations outstanding social and charitable functions. The affair is staged for the benefit of the Chicago Boys Clubs and has become a veritable Midsummer Nights Dream. Last, summer these prominent Chicagoans made the ball a fabulous success: left to right 1. Mrs. Francis P. Old, George Russell Carr, Claudia Old and Rear Admiral Francis P. Old; 2. Mrs. Barnes Donnelly, president of the Womens Board of the Chicago Boys Clubs; Benjamin F. Lindheimer, executive director of Arlington Park-Washington Park, and Mrs. Lindheimer; 3. Mrs. John S. Knight and Edwin S. Ford; 4. Mrs. Edward Byron Smith; 5. Mrs. Sidney Gardiner and Mrs. Leonard S. Florsheim; 6. Mrs. Max Pray and Mr. and Mrs. William C. Douglas; 7. Mrs. Lolita Armour Madrin and Alexander Gray; 8. Mrs. Jacob Baur, Herman Waldeck and James S. Kemper, United States Ambassador to Brazil. Photos by courtesy of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Daily News. maroon banquet candles which will flare from the 100 or so pink-covered tables. Even the most cynical ball-goers are annually astonished at the Post and Paddock decorations for the summer event. With the clubs walls completely mirrored, the myriad of lights actually pick up the reflection of Arlington Parks two kidney-shaped infield lakes and form quatre-fold reflections and re-reflections of the scenic beauty. Hollywood itself possibly cannot equal the setting, with hundreds of birds chattering from the outdoors, candlelight, shadows of ancestral trees surrounding the club and music by one of Americas best dance orchestras. Attendance Saturday is expected to surpass even the peak appearance in 1953 of prominent persons from all over the country. Ambassader Leads Parade Last year the parade was led by James H. Kemper, ambassador to Brazil, and Mrs. Kemper; John S. Knight, editor and publisher of the Chicago Daily News, Miami Herald, Akron Beacon-Journal and Detroit Free Press, and Mrs. Knight; Mr. and Mrs. Merrill C. Meigs, who is a prominent editor of the Hearst Newspapers and member of Hie Air Force committee to select a new Air Academy; Mrs. Edward Byron Smith, daughter of Charles Dewey, Polands post-World War I financial adviser, and Alexander Gray, with the J. Ogden Armours only child, Lolita, now Mrs. Charles Madrin. Also in attendance and expected to be on hand Saturday were the Benjamin L. Lind-heimers; Mrs. Naomi Barnes Donnelly; General and Mrs. Robert E. Wood he has been the driving force behind the Chicago Boys Clubs ; Bertha Baur, Herman Waldeck, Rear Adm. Francis P. Old and Mrs. Old, Mrs. Robert Carr, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin S. Ford, George Russell Carr, president of Post and Paddock Club, and Mr. and Mrs. William A. Patterson. Mrs. George Woodruff, widow of the late financier, and Mrs. Fairfax Cone, whose husband is a member of a famed advertis-ing firm, are co-chairmen of this years decorations committee. Mrs. Woodruff, in her own right, is a noted sculptor, whose work, "The Robot," presided over Chicagos Century of Progress expositions. Others participating in making the ball a success are Mrs. Bernard J. Fallon, wife of the president of Washington Park Jockey Club; Mrs. Leigh S. Block, Mrs. Charles Crane, Mrs. Kimball Salisbury, Mrs. Rosa Continued on Page forty-Three Hold Charity Ball Sa-rday In Post and Paddock Club Continued from Page Three Siragusa, Mrs. Calvin Fentress, Mrs. Stuart List, Mrs. Robert Hosmer Morse, Jr., Mrs. J. M. Simpson, Mrs. Joseph Nellis, Mrs. Charles M. Frey, Mrs. Arthur Appleton, Mrs. James Hayes and Mrs. Edmond Sheehan. Among the guests Saturday will be many racing personalities, as well as directors of Post and Paddock Club and Arlington Park Jockey Club, including Thomas E. Wilson, Lawrence Stern, John B. Gallagher and many others.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1954061701/drf1954061701_3_1
Local Identifier: drf1954061701_3_1
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800