1920 ST LOUIS VEILED PROPHET BALL UNUSED TICKET INVITATION PHAMPLETS & ENVELOPE

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1920 ST LOUIS VEILED PROPHET BALL UNUSED TICKET, INVITATION, PHAMPLETS & ORIGINAL ENVELOPEwell preserved in excellent framable condition with no handwriting or faults from lifelong document collector's estateThe Veiled Prophet Ball (commonly referred to as the VP Ball) is a dance held each December in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, by a secret society named the "Veiled Prophet Organization" (often referred to as "the VP"), first founded by prominent St. Louisans in 1878. The founders' intent was to create an annual local celebration similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, eventually to include pageantry and costuming as well as a parade with floats. Each year, one member of the Veiled Prophet Organization is chosen to serve as the "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," to preside over the VP Ball. Five of the debutantes who attend the ball ( all attend by invitation only ) are chosen by secret process to make up the "Veiled Prophet's Court of Honor." One is chosen to be crowned the "Queen of Love and Beauty" by the Veiled Prophet.The event had its roots in the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Fair, an annual harvest festival which had been held in St. Louis since 1856. It attracted agricultural crops, crafts, demonstrations and attendees from throughout the region. In the economic difficulties after the American Civil War in the 1870s, such events declined. City boosters devised the Veiled Prophet Fair in an attempt to reclaim from the rapidly growing city of Chicago, pre-eminence for St. Louis as a manufacturing center and agricultural shipping point.On March 20, 1878, Charles Slayback, a grain broker and former Confederate cavalryman (who had spent several years in New Orleans after the Civil War and become acquainted with its Mardi Gras traditions) called a meeting of local business leaders at the Lindell Hotel. Together with his brother Alonzo, Slayback created a mythology for a secret elite society, whose public demonstrations would coincide with the annual fair. From Irish poet Thomas Moore, the Slaybacks borrowed the name of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan; they also incorporated features from the Mystick Krewe of Comus of New Orleans. In their version, the Prophet was a world traveler who had made St. Louis his home base. The first parade, attracting over 50,000 spectators, and grand ball were staged that year on October 8, 1878.The fair was also intended to re-assert the social hierarchy which had been challenged by the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Historian Thomas M. Spencer said this was the first and most successful strike of its type, and unusual for involving large numbers of African American workmen as well as ethnic whites. Though the fair has regularly been characterized as "a way of healing the wounds of a bitter labor-management fight," Spencer suggests "the first Veiled Prophet parade was more a show of force than a gesture of healing."The Prophet was selected secretly from among male members, who were made up of St. Louis' business and civic elite. The first prophet was Police Commissioner John G. Priest (who had been energetic in suppressing the 1877 strikers' attempt to prevent strikebreakers from taking their jobs). Although the identity of a given year's Grand Oracle, or Veiled Prophet, was officially a secret, early holders of the office were reported to include Col. Alonzo W. Slayback, Capt. Frank Gaiennie, John A. Scudder, Henry C. Haarstick, George Bain, Robert P. Tansey, George H. Morgan, Col. J. C. Normile, Wallace Delafield, John B. Maude, Dr. D. P. Rowland, Charles E. Slayback, Leigh I. Knapp, David B. Gould, Henry Paschell, H. I. Kent, Dr. E. Pretorious, Win. H. Thompson, and Win. A. Hargadine. In the 21st century, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch still speculates each year on the identity of the Veiled Prophet.The Queen of Love and Beauty, and later maids of honor, were to be selected by the Veiled Prophet from among the debutantes who had received invitations to the ball. (The list of invitees was determined by a process never made public. The supply of tickets was li... read more

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