Taking a Last, Gaudy Fling

Oil with the dance! Let joy be unconfined:

No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet

To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.

--Lord Byron

In their swallow-tailed coats and frilly shirts, their long summer gowns and free-flowing hairdos, they look like characters from a bacchanal in Byron's own early 19th century London. They rival one another not only in elegance and extravagance but in sheer stamina, for the evening is likely to begin with dinner at a chic restaurant and end with a stylish breakfast at dawn. The revelers are not the bored and idle rich of the land, although tabs run high. The partygoers are high school students who are reviving--and revising--that grand and time-honored institution, the senior prom.

Fun Generation. Ignored or mocked during the rebellious 1960s, the senior prom has returned to fashion, partly because of nostalgia, partly because of precocious hedonism and the delights of conspicuous consumption. Not since the 1950s has the prom phenomenon been so "in." The proms seem to reflect the mood of a depoliticized generation that is simply interested in having some fun. Yet today's promgoers are not just reliving the 1950s in the spirit of Grease, the long-running rock musical that recalls the period with such sardonic songs as It's Raining on Prom Night and Alone at a Drive-In Movie.

This spring's prom-trotters are crowding into fancy nightclubs like the Chateau de Ville in Framingham, Mass., where as many as four dances may be going on in one evening, and the management hopes that the girls will come back some day for their weddings. Around Long Beach, Calif., one of the most popular prom spots is aboard the Queen Mary, now serving as a floating hostelry in her genteel retirement. The ballrooms of the onetime grande dame of the North Atlantic are crowded with ten or so dances a week, and the demand is so high, says Scheduler Ann Hunter, "that we are already booking proms for 1978."

In the middle-class Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Ill., 800 students from Bogan High School gather in the ballroom of the towering Sheraton-Oak Brook Hotel. Looking on genially, Principal William Scheid says, "This is the night they pull out all the stops." Senior Donald McNeff does just that as he arrives with his date in a chauffeur-driven limousine. He is wearing a white tux and top hat, and he is carrying a cane. Delighted by creating a momentary sensation, he explains: "I wanted to have some fun for once. Everywhere we stopped, people freaked out." McNeff has arranged to keep the limousine, at a cost of $25 an hour, to carry him and his friends to a nearby motel for several hours of post-prom partying. All told, McNeff figures the evening will cost him $450, much of it saved from a job that he took with United Parcel just to pay for the occasion.

Many proms are governed by a strict code of etiquette and behavior. In keeping with a tradition dating to the 19th century, the boys often present the girls with corsages or bouquets beforehand, and the girls may offer the boys a souvenir garter after the ball is over. "Favors" are de rigueur--gold plastic goblets and memory books for the girls at the Bogan High prom, and beer mugs with the school crest emblazoned on them for the boys. A ten-piece orchestra plays Evergreen, Feelings and The Way We Were, while the couples dine on fruit cup, roast beef and chocolate parfait. Then, after dinner, a five-member rock band belts out its deafening versions of Elton John, David Bowie and Led Zeppelin hits. The boys shed their pastel jackets, the girls toss aside their bouquets, and a revolving crystal ball reflects brightly on the sweat-soaked dancers. Later the couples go their separate ways--to nightclubs, sunrise cruises on Lake Michigan, champagne breakfasts and even a chartered plane ride.

Mounting Expenses. Leaving aside the price of a helicopter--favored as a means of transportation by an ostentatious and wealthy few--the cost of going to the prom can run to $200 or more, including the price of a dress and the rental of a tux. The mounting expenses worry many school officials; some students are unable to attend the affairs. But most of the kids who really want to go seem to make it to the dance somehow. Says Cas Stimson, a senior at San Marino High School in California: "People save all year for the prom--it's really a big thing." At Conroe High School outside of Houston, students solved the money problem by organizing a mammoth campaign to sell magazine subscriptions. They earned more than enough to pay the entire tab of $10,860.

The effort--and the expense--seem to be well worth it for those who do make it to the senior prom. The event creates an all too rare feeling of unity among the graduating students. Says Ken Ross of Bogan High School: "At the prom, we come together before splitting up again--wherever we're going in life."

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