Candice Bergen on Truman Capote's storied Black and White Ball

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CBS Sunday Morning

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Candice Bergen on Truman Capote's storied Black and White Ball


In November of 1966, author Truman Capote invited 540 of his high society friends to wear only black and white, and come masked and ready to party at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Among the swells, Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, Andy Warhol, Norman Mailer, Henry Fonda and 19-year-old Candice Bergen. The Black and White Ball is featured in…

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30 Comments

  1. Candace Bergen was lovely in her day, and did a great job in The Sand Pebbles, she and McQueen had some chemistry. Now, Marisa Berenson, she was a TRUE beauty. Amazing in Barry Lyndon. Both the still, and film camera, loved her.

  2. Wow! I did a couple of columns for Queer Sci-Fi about Capote's short-stories. I think he may have been happy at home with his husband, who (ironically!) didn't like publicity.

  3. I very much remember reading about the Black and White Ball in my small, hometown paper and later seeing the story and photos in Life magazine. It all seemed so exciting and the stuff dreams are made of. What struck me most was to read that many people who were not invited to Capote's party abandoned New York City and made sure that their publicists put out a press release that they had business elsewhere and couldn't possibly have attended the Ball even if they hadn't been invited.

  4. Capote was a brilliant literary talent. But he was also a remarkably shallow individual. A narcissist with a mean streak that should have been a giant flashing warning sign to anyone with commonsense, to be careful about getting too close, similar to ones found at zoos.

    "Caution: This animal can bite."

    He was a bundle of contradictions. Raised in somewhat modest circumstances and a not infrequent critic of the dissipated lifestyles of the idle rich, he ended up a relentless and highly successful social climber. This despite his open homosexuality in an era when such was not generally accepted.

    Capote's lifelong heavy drinking and later drug addiction which devastated his health, seem to be just another chapter in the endless catalogue of tragic suffering artists.

  5. We held black & white balls at the Arthur Murray Studio where I worked. Perhaps the studio owners were inspired by Capote. The Aubrey Beardsley style print kaftan dresses were popular with the women.

  6. I wish they'd shown Bergen from that era. She was stunning. And smart enough not to be taken in by it all. A bit more from her about the experience would have been nice, too. This show has really gone downhill.