Over the Bounding Main to Never-Never Land at Boys & Girls’ Club’s “Heroes and Villains”

Co-chair Stacie Mills as Marie Antoinette

Why are costume parties so much fun? Like Hallowe’en, they seem to bring out our inner children, and give us license to be our fantasy selves – for a night.

Pirates brandished their sabers, Wendy and Michael, clad in pajamas, clutched their stuffed animals and listened to Peter Pan describe Never Never Land, and Tinker Bell offered to transport them. Marie Antoinette regally roamed the spaces, and Napoleon and Henry VIII conversed with Captain Kidd at the utterly exuberant “Heroes & Villains” party benefiting the Boys' & Girls' Club held recently at Rosecliff.

“Heroes and Villains” attendees drew a great deal of inspiration from
literature: from James M. Barrie to Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, the characters leapt to life in Newport, Rhode Island. Just for one night.

Billy Shaw as Henry VIII, Tom Brace as Napoleon

& Emlen Drayton as a bloodthirsty pirate

Dining and dancing to the strains of Bob Hardwick Orchestra, co-chairs Stacie Mills and Tom Eberhardt (dressed as Robin Hood) presided over a rollicking evening. Jane White, Ruth Buchanan, David Thalmann, were at the Peter Pan table, where Bobbi Carpenter made a terrific Captain Hook. There was an absolutely unrecognizable pirate, Blackbeard, and a Captain Kidd (perhaps?) wandering about, Coco Blaffer donned a long blonde wig, and The Women’s Christian Temperance Union marched with “Sinners Repent!” signs. (Yes, that was Mary Hayward, in from Florida, and Carol Ballard under the bonnets.) "Minister" Nicholas Danforth was there to show them the way, thankfully. Honorary Chair (with husband Jonathan) Bettie Pardee came as a “Desperate Housewife”, wielding a kitchen cleaver!

Bettie Pardee as a "Desperate Housewife"

Gangsters abounded, but they weren’t rapping: Kathy Irving had the longest cigarette holder of the evening. She was joined by Michael and Mary Hayes – he with “gat”, she in flapper garb.The hit of the silent auction was a 1976 Mercedes Benz, in perfect condition, displayed on the lawn. Fortunately, there were no werewolves, as a perfect full moon rose just as dinner commenced.

How many pirates does one party need? (Newport Seen counted five.) All of them, really. Oh, what a night.