Having a ball
You shall go to the ball. MARION McMULLEN looks at the last debutantes to take their curtseys at Buckingham Palace 60 years ago
SOCIETY’S eligible young bachelors were known as “debs’ delights” and they dressed the part to squire the bright young things to society’s top events.
The debutantes wore couture dresses, hats and gloves and juggled several party invitations a night... and then were up and ready to do it all again the next day.
But the Swinging Sixties were just around the corner and the tradition of a coming out season was already looking jaded with Prince Philip declaring it “bloody daft”.
However, that did not stop a record 1,400 eager young gals rushing to be among the last debutantes to be presented at Buckingham Palace in March, 1958.
They paraded before Queen Elizabeth over three days as the 200-year tradition finally came to an end.
To qualify as a debutante you had to be 17 or 18, come from one of the wealthiest families and be prepared to spend six months attending parties, dances and teas. The aim was to snap up a suitable husband and to meet the right people.
The debutante season ran from late spring through to autumn.
Hons And Rebels writer Jessica Mitford once derided it as “the specific, upper-class version of a puberty rite”.
Young debs were expected to attend events such as Ascot, the Queen Charlotte Ball and the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art. The “creme de la creme” wore designer gowns by the likes of Christian Dior, Balmain, Hartnell and Worth and favoured pearls. They also had to know how to execute the perfect curtsey before royalty, lay a table and walk gracefully.
But the times in post-war Britain were changing. March in 1958 also saw American rock star Elvis Presley trade in his blue suede shoes for an army uniform and become US Private 53310761 Presley E A for his two-year national service.
In Russia, Soviet Premier Marshal Bulganin was ousted by Nikita Khruschev while, in America, 37-yearold Sugar Ray Robinson became the first boxer to win the world middleweight boxing championship five times as he beat Carmen Basilio in Chicago.
The soundtrack of the year included hit records like Jailhouse Road, Magic Moments by Perry Como and All I Have To Do Is Dream by the Everly Brothers.
The debutante season first began in 1780 when King George III held the Queen Charlotte’s Ball to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Marriagable age daughters from the court circle were presented to Queen Charlotte by their mothers and the tradition continued and grew over the next 200 years.
The Queen Charlotte’s Birthday Ball remained a big part of the London season and was held each year in Grosvenor House with all the debutantes dressed in white ball gowns. The Daily Mirror held its own ball for the 1958 debs at the Dorchester Hotel in London.
Mothers kept an eye on potential society son-in-laws and those that were not deemed suitable were labeled NSIT (Not Safe In Taxis) or MTF (Must Touch Flesh) for those that were a little too free with their hands.
Debs could sign up for lessons if they needed last minute help perfecting their hallmark curtsey for their Buckingham Palace date and a major worry was tripping up in front of the monarch and falling flat on your face.
The well-clad women had to be at Buckingham Palace for 10am and then waited in a anteroom until the Lord Chamberlain called them into the ballroom for their royal presentation.
But the end was in sight for the debs and Lord Altrincham, who was a critic of hereditary peerages and wanted the House of Lords abolished, proclaimed them an embarrassment and said they should have been “quietly discontinued in 1945”.
Queen Elizabeth’s sister Princess Margaret also agreed it was time to end the royal tradition, reportedly declaring: “We had to put a stop to it. Every tart in London was getting in.”
The film The Reluctant Debutante also came out in 1958 starring real-life couple Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall. The romantic comedy followed the fortunes of an American teen thrust into the whirlwind of the London season.
The court dates for debutantes ended as Buckingham Palace garden parties began with invitations for the latter being open to a wider range of people.
But for society’s bachelors it was a sad farewell to the debs, the parties and the ballroom romances. Two were even pictured outside Buckingham Palace in an open top car to mark the end of an era.