Jewel Ball

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The Jewel Ball is the main annual debutante ball held in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. It occurs every year on the Saturday evening following Father's Day, and is organized by the Jewel Ball Foundation, which appoints a prominent Kansas City socialite to be the chairwoman.

[edit] Predecessor: The Priests of Pallas

Beginning in 1887, partially in response to the establishment of St. Louis's popular annual Veiled Prophet festival in 1878, Kansas City held an annual harvest-time, Mardi Gras-style festival called the "Priests of Pallas." It consisted of a public parade and an invitation-only debutante ball organized by a secret society of prominent Kansas Citians that called itself the "Priests of Pallas". The first year, President Grover Cleveland attended. Gradually, however, the public lost interest. The festival was suspended for several years beginning in 1912, began again in 1920, and ended for good in 1924.

[edit] Inception and Subsequent History

Other cities' established debutante festivities, such as St. Louis's annual Veiled Prophet Ball, however, lived on. By the 1950s, many prominent Kansas Citians believed that Kansas City again needed some sort of debutante festivities. Accordingly, in 1954, Clara Hockaday, a prominent Kansas City socialite matron, founded the Jewel Ball.

Since its inception, the ball has benefited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kansas City Symphony. Accordingly, from 1954 until 2000, the ball was held in the main hall of the Nelson-Atkins. Since then, however, it has been held at Swope Park's Starlight Theatre (Kansas City), but will return to the Museum for 2008.