The Legendary Park Plaza in Los Angeles has hosted two masquerade ball parties, lately, in June and October, every year, as far as we know. If you know more than we do, please share.
The Legendary Park Plaza is an architectural neo-gothic landmark, built in 1925 by the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elk as Elks Lodge Number 99, where 99 designates the one in Los Angeles. In 1970 the building was sold and turned into a hotel with luxurious Art Deco lounges. Today it is not a hotel anymore, but a venue: there are two lower levels that are used for rock concerts, weddings, commercial filming, and party events, and nine upper levels that are not used. We don’t know why, do you?
The masquerade ball in the Summer, known as Jareth Labyrinth Masquerade, is based on the 1986 fantasy movie Labyrinth and his fictional character Jareth played by David Bowie. Neat idea to start organizing masquerade balls based on a fairy tale! If it will be organized in 2015, we will definitely go. We went to the 2014 KCRW hosted Halloween masquerade ball in October, great party! We even made a small movie to possibly inform and inspire.
As we entered the two story high foyer, out attention was grabbed by the grand chandeliers and beautifully decorated ceilings. The stairs to the left and right lead to the first floor’s DJ and dancing rooms. People waited in line to go up and get in, as others got out and came down, a Merry Go Round sort of thing. The creativity of the costumes is inspiring and ranges from a couple impersonating Dali and one of his painting subjects, to movie characters, fairies and people of the past or future. We observed that although many of the costumes were for Halloween, the majority were masquerade ball like (see our Masquerade Ball Wins Over the Halloween blog), including my wife in Roaring 20’s charming Flapper costume. Just fun without scare.
To the left of the foyer, we went through a DJ dancing room to reach the courtyard. There are burlesque performers and people showing off costumes, cooling off from dancing, or warming up at the bar. Roaming around, we entered rooms where we danced while watching professional dancing performances.
All the way in the back there are food trucks for the hungry. There is also a professional photography stand, with photos to be ultimately used for a best costume contest. We did not take the opportunity, regrettably. Don’t miss it, the photographs are very good and posted on KCRW website, if you don’t mind the latter.
Don’t miss the masquerade ball parties in 2015. We’ll remind you about them, check out our Calendar.
Quiz: Where was the Olympic swimming pool in the Elks Lodge Number 99?
(Wouldn’t it be a fun masquerade ball idea to have a party by this pool? We reckon that there will be more masks and less dresses though.)
