Rex Parade - Ball

Ball

In addition to its famous parade, the Rex Organization also holds a private ball for its membership and invited guests on Mardi Gras night. In the 1950s, this ball made headlines when the Duke and Duchess of Windsor bowed down to Rex and the Queen of Carnival.

In recent decades, the Rex ball is held on one side of the Municipal Auditorium, while on the other half of the building at the same time, the Mistick Krewe of Comus (the oldest krewe), holds its ball. A rich tradition is that Comus (the monarch), extends an invitation to Rex and his queen to join him and his consort at the Comus ball. This is called the "Meeting of the Courts", and when the monarchs have all made their exits, the Captain of Comus literally closes the curtain on the Carnival season. This event is televised live locally (and to selected areas outside of the city) - and many New Orleanians stay up to watch - despite their weariness - the very end. The Municipal Auditorium was damaged during Hurricane Katrina, so for the past two years, the organizations have held their balls in the Sheraton and Marriott Hotels on Canal Street, rolling out a red carpet for the Rex court to cross Canal Street to attend the Meeting of the Courts.


Rex, 1904, on Canal Street, New Orleans


Rex, 1907 (?)

Read more about this topic:  Rex Parade

Famous quotes containing the word ball:

    “Will TV kill the theater? If the programs I have seen, save for “Kukla, Fran and Ollie,” the ball games and the fights, are any criterion, the theater need not wake up in a cold sweat.”
    —Tallulah Bankhead (1903–1968)

    “Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
    —Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)

    “But the ball is lost and the mallet slipped long since from the hands
    Under the running tap that are not the hands of a child.”
    —Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)