The Black and White Ball was a masquerade ball held on November 28, 1966 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Hosted by author Truman Capote, the ball was in honor of The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. He was at the height of his popularity as an author and as a public figure following the publication of his non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, earlier that year. For the first time Capote had the financial resources to host a party he deemed worthy of the friends he had cultivated in high society.Capote's friend, author Dominick Dunne, had given a black and white ball in 1964 for his tenth wedding anniversary. Capote attended with Alvin Dewey and others he had met while researching In Cold Blood. Capote was also inspired by the "Ascot scene" from the film My Fair Lady in which the women were all dressed in black and white.Among the guests were Katharine Graham, Lady Bird Johnson, Andy Warhol, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Gloria Vanderbilt, Babe Paley, Billy Baldwin, Marianne Moore, Harry Belafonte, the Maharani of Jaipur, Frank Sinatra, Candice Bergen, Gloria Guinness, Lee Radziwill, Brooke Astor, Pat Sheehan, Mia Farrow, and the Italian Princess Luciana Pignatelli (wearing a 60-carat diamond borrowed from Harry Winston).
