Sabrina Cha-Cha's Instead Of DeGaulle

a.k.a.

De Gaulle Not Even Missed With Sabrina Stealing Show

a.k.a.

DeGaulle Shuns Swank N.Y. Ball For Dinner by Franco-American

Sarasota Journal (Florida USA),
The Altus Times-Democrat,
Middlesboro Daily News

27 April 1960

By FREDERICK M. WINSHIP

NEW YORK (UPI) -The world famous April in Paris ball got along without Charles de Gaulle and its usual high society patrons Tuesday night, but it had another double feature named Sabrina.

The French president snubbed the big city's biggest annual "bash" at the Hotel Astor to attend a dinner given at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in his honor by seven Franco-American societies. De Gaulle claimed his evening was too full to attend the Astor event.

The general's cold shoulder undoubtedly kept many celebrities from the April in Paris ball, but one thousand lesser lights subscribed in the vain expectation that De Gaulle would relent at the last minute.

The ball guests were feeling a little like have-nots despite an outlay of $150 a ticket until the bosomy British entertainment distraction named Sabrina hove onto the dance floor.

"Who's that?" was the universal question asked by 500 males.

She was half in white satin and half in the flesh. And soon her name was whispered from end to end of the gorgeously decorated ballroom to the other — "Sabrina."

It was just as well that De Gaulle stayed away. The lime-light couldn't have encompassed six feet plus of him and all of Sabrina. Maybe that's why the Duchess of Windsor failed to appear, too, though her excuse was an ailing aged aunt.

Except for the sight of Sabrina doing the cha cha cha, the April In Paris ball lacked much of the charm of its eight previous years. The ballroom was too crowded, the guest list lacked real glamour, and the dinner lacked Gallic finesse.

The only ranking French guests who attended were the Duke of Montesquious-Fezensac and Count and Countess Philippe de Lafayette.

The theme of the event which raised $200,000 for Franco-American charities was a masked ball at the Paris Opera. Photo enlargements of the Paris Opera House transformed three floors of the Astor's Times Square facade, its lobby, and the French ball-room into a stunning facsimile of the French capital's marble palace of music

Related pictures (not from the article)

And from the Ocala Star-Banner 28 Apr 1960...

CENTER OF ATTRACTION

Buxom British belle Sabrina shows her charms at the April in Paris Ball at the Hotel Aslor here in New York.

Sabrina had little competition as the evening's center of attraction due to the absence of French President Charles de Gaulle from the famous high society balL

De Gaulle had sent his regards, explaining that his schedule was too crowded to attend.