CRESCENT BASH MAY HAVE ENDED AN ERA

Maryln Schwartz
Publication Date: April 7, 1986
Page: 1C Section: TODAY Edition: HOME FINAL

The extravaganza was beginning to look like the final

scene of the movie Giant.

More than 3,500 guests had arrived Friday night for a $2 million
gala to celebrate the opening of the Crescent complex.

One-hundred-fifty valet parkers were lined up, just to make sure there
were no traffic jams.

A socialite in an $8,000 beaded gown kept complaining she'd

wandered around for 30 minutes trying to find the buffet with the
lobster. She'd found the buffet with the stuffed quail, the buffet with
the pressed-duck tamales, the buffet with the baby wild boar. She had
even stumbled across a buffet with a rowboat filled with grilled
oysters. But the party was just too big. She couldn't find the lobster.

There were so many different kinds of music and so much

entertainment that the great Ramsey Lewis Trio jazz band was "just one
of the acts' set up in the lobby of the Crescent Court Hotel.

There were men in tuxedos whose major job was to see that the
guests' long ball gowns did not get stuck in the three-story-high
escalators. The evening was hosted by Caroline Hunt Schoellkopf, the
third-richest woman in the world. One of the guests was Ross Perot, the
second-richest man in the United States.

Champagne, rain poured

And just as in the movie Giant, the rain was pouring -- but nowhere
near as fast as the champagne.

The party in Giant was something that Texans had never seen before.
The Friday night party in Dallas was something we may never see again.
This could well mark the end of an era -- the last of the really
big Texas parties.

On the same day as the gala, the largest savings and loan failure
in the history of Houston was announced. Talk of the slumping economy
couldn't help but drift into conversations as guests munched on their
grilled chicken satay in peanut sauce and sipped their after-dinner
brandies.

"We should all write about this evening in our diaries,' one
tuxedoed man suggested. "I think the time has passed when anyone will
be able to top it.'

And this was a crowd that knows parties.

Even if they didn't actually attend the event, most guests could
recite tales of the doting Texas father who turned a Dallas hotel
ballroom into an exact replica of the Vienna Opera House. He wanted to
give his debutante daughter a debut with a different look.

Still another father paid for party planners to re-create every

major city along Route 66 in a Fort Worth country club. This oilman had
two deb daughters to launch. He didn't want to look chintzy.

Low-profile wealth
But those parties just don't seem to be happening anymore. Even if
some Texans still have an excess of money to spend, they aren't being
so visible about it.

For some time now, major corporations have been notifying charity
ball committees that they can no longer underwrite lavish charity
entertainments. Some ball committees are even talking about reusing
last year's decorations with a new coat of paint.

And even at the fabulous Crescent party, where women came dressed
to be noticed, there were some heartfelt confessions in the ladies
room.

One woman explained solemnly to a friend who complimented her on a

spectacular red-sequined gown, "The dress isn't new. I've already worn
it to my sister's engagement party.'

Former Texas first lady Rita Clements, who was chairwoman of the
Crescent gala, said she thought the grand opening was "the most
important event being held in the nation in 1986.' No one was betting
this would make it into the Guiness Book of World Records. But many
were agreeing with program chairwoman Carolyn Farb that "this wasn't an
event, it was a happening.'

It's not that social observers think Texans will never again host a
party where a roller-skating extravaganza will entertain at one end
while an intimate trio plays Cole Porter at another. But they won't be
doing it for 3,700 guests anymore. People are just scaling down.
At the party in the movie Giant, they were talking about the
nouveau riche. At the party at the new Crescent, they were thinking
about the nouveau poor.