Party of the Century.

On the night of November 28, 1966, beginning at 10 o’clock sharp in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel, 540 of Truman Capote’s nearest and dearest gathered for what the writer playfully dubbed his “little masked ball for Kay Graham and all of my friends.”

The legendary Black and White Ball, as it came to be known, was a glittering affair that has since been immortalized as “the party of the century.” Its color palette was inspired by Capote’s fondness for the elegant black-and-white “Ascot Gavotte” scene from the 1956 film My Fair Lady.

That evening, the Kennedys, Vanderbilts, and Rockefellers mingled effortlessly with Hollywood royalty – Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda, Frank Sinatra, and Mia Farrow among them. European aristocrats rubbed shoulders with novelists and scholars. Social Register blue bloods sipped Taittinger Champagne from classic coupe glasses and Martinis from vessels that captured the elegance, exclusivity, and inimitable style of one of the most storied soirées in history.