| Orchestra or Band | Corelli Windeatt's Orchestra (150) |
| Set List | 22:00 Music for Dancing including:
'You're The One',
'Pussyfoot Parade'
00:00 Midnight Arrival of 1920's New Year's gift 'Peace'
'Auld Lang Syne'
National Anthems of France, Italy, Serbia, Japan, and America,
'God Save the King' (The National Anthem)
Supper in the Gallery,
Dancing |
| Performance Notes | Founded in 1891 The Chelsea Arts Club is a members club for artists, which for 50 years from 1908 held an annual costumed New Year's Eve ball, which was an infamous part of London's social calendar. After two years at the Royal Opera House the extravagant ball proved so popular it moved to the Royal Albert Hall where it stayed until 1958. The balls attracted media attention with their lavish theatrical sets, multiple orchestras, raucous midnight carnivals and balloon drops and crowds of up to 10,000 socialites, bohemian artists, actors, and ordinary Londoners in elaborate and often scandalous fancy dress dancing until 5am.
Each year a theme was chosen such as Egyptian, Dazzle, Noah's Ark, Prehistoric and Sun Worship around which guests could create flamboyant costumes. London art schools participated by decorating huge carnival floats, which were driven around the auditorium floor and which, at the stroke of midnight, would be destroyed by revellers. The balls were well-known for reports of public nudity, drunken displays of affection, fighting and unadulterated fun. In the vastness of the Hall with its gas lit corridors, curtained boxes and dark staircases naughtiness was the order of the day.
Similarly to the annual Lady Malcolm's Servant's balls (1930-1938) these events were a safe space for the queer community to meet and express themselves with unbridled creativity and little inhibition. There were no scrutineers denying entry or undercover police. LGBTQ+ party goers could feel (relatively) free to be themselves without the scrutiny and surveillance they underwent in their daily lives. For many men especially they could wear drag, dress outrageously, and socialise unashamedly while never appearing to be anything out of the ordinary.
It was New Year's Eve 1958 that was to be the final Chelsea Arts Ball at the Royal Albert Hall. As well as minor damage to the building fabric, a partygoer dispatched a smoke bomb that exploded on the dance floor and ultimately became the straw that broke the camel's back. The Chelsea Arts Ball was asked to take out insurance indemnity against further damage to the Hall and they didn't return. The Ball has returned three times since - in 1984, 1985 and 1992 - although the elaborate costumes and floats didn't make the return trip. The extravagant, eccentric originals remain part of the history of the Capital's social calendar.
The dress code was 'costume of any colour or uniform'.
The rendevous spots round the Hall when names, and when read in sequence, gave the motto:
When Peace Shines Forth With Flag Unfurled,
Then Joy And Morth Shall Rule The World.
The organ was decorated with the fake walls of a temple of stone with classical wreaths above the portal and Union Jacks. On either side were small stages with white and gold curtains. In the middle of the floor was a figure in field grey uniform and manacled wearing an iron crossed helmet, and labelled with compass points and the words 'Militarismus', 'Weltmacht', 'Schreckhehkeit', and 'Kaltur'.
"The Chelsea Arts Club Ball - A Brontosaurus and a Giraffe
Last night the Albert Hall was full of colour and beauty. Chelsea sent its gayest and its best, its artists, 'arrived' or en route, its musicians, its actors, and its writers. St John's Wood and sober Kensington, healthy Hampstead and Bloomsbury, also sent brave contingents.
There were about 4,000 present when 12 o'clock sounded and the surprises burst upon us. No one came early. There were dinner parties everywhere, and from them happy revellers came on between 10:30 and 11:30. The ribbon of word, 'When Peace shines forth with flag unfurled, The Joy and Mirth shall rule the World', when lit up singly, served as rendezvous. The gigantic Hindenburg figure of Militarism in the centre of the room, when 12 o'clock came and the late arrival and the New Year came in together, melted away with the appearance of the Peace Angel, reputed to be the fairest lady in Chelsea, who had climbed a ladder within his leviathan bulk. Her first entrance had been made in a dramatic position over the orchestra, when dark curtain were drawn aside and she stood under the magic number 1920 and bells rang the old year out as roses rained down into the hall.
Two beefeaters stood at each entrance to see that no killjoy in ordinary evening dress entered. There were some magnificent costumes. Boxes dressed alike were, as now often happens, much in fashion: a box full of charming apaches in black and white was a rendezvous for many of the lighter spirits during the evening. Oranges and Lemons was a dress chosen by a pair who came together. A 'Silver Cobweb' was one of the most beautiful dresses in the room and allowed its wearer to dispense with even a pretence at a covered back. A tiny lady in black velvet male costume, with long green feathers in her hat, kept every one wondering who she was.
Many well-known people were easily recognizable in the gay crowds. But at a Bohemian gathering it was the fun that counted most, and the appearance of a gorgeous Brontosaurus which entered about 11 o'clock, closely followed by a giraffe, was a great moment. Period costumes, which have looked heavy at other dances, looked somehow different last night, because they were worn beautifully, and lovely fabrics have a new charm in a tawdry age. A beautiful girl, the wife of a well known sculptor, as a boy in a Louis Seize costume, was one of the most attractive figures in the room. There were a great number of lovely women in trousered dresses than at previous balls. Many young men came as students from the Quartier Latin, and enjoyed themselves like Julian's young men. Pierrots with chalky faces, terrible Chinese sorcerers, fearsome Sioux Indians, noble Roman Senators, and daring Cossacks issued out of a doors wherein mild-looking youths had gone. A barbaric Eastern procession, with the Queen of Sheba in Biblical raiment as its central figure, created a momentary sensation. Many people, too, marvelled at the number of quite elderly ladies who came in fancy dress, some of the 'Hello, America!' type. A box full of them appeared to enjoy themselves hugely, and smoked vigorously, hailing young friends from time to time."
(The Times, 1 January 1920)
The Times (2 January 1920) reported a 'Death After Albert Hall Ball', when a Captain Alexander Ian Mitchell returned home after the ball, accompanied by a friend and two women friends and tripped and fell down the stairs in his house, breaking his neck in the fall.
Programme designed by Claude Shepperson (1867-1921).
The event was recorded by the Topical Film Company as part of 'Topical Budget 436-2', released on 5 January 1920 (British Film Institute identifier 654823) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1919/73),
Handbill (RAHE/6/1919/13),
Dance Card |