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Fourth ball in which the President had a special interest was that attended by his mother (in black), his daughter Anna (in flame) and his son James in white tie & tails. With 3,500 other Manhattanites they paid $5 a head to dine, dance and see a pageant at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Not only were the President's favorite tunes, The Yellow Rose of Texas, Anchors Aweigh, Home on the Range, played by special appointment to the White House, but the celebrants enjoyed the President's favorite food to the extent of 7,000 scrambled eggs. Crowning event was the pageant: "Health, Wealth and Happiness." Central figure of "Health" was Charles Atlas, whose brawny biceps and leopard skin breechclout are familiar to all readers of pulp magazine advertisements.* He stood on a pedestal while below him paraded socialite ladies dressed as Sun, Air, Water, Bananas, Peaches, Carrots & Peas, Tomatoes, Milk, Coffee and Greens. Central figure of "Wealth" was Donna Marina Torlonia, gowned in gold sequins, before whom paraded more socialites representing Travel, Art, and assorted angels with gilded wings. "Happiness" was represented by the Court of Venus. The Goddess of Love was impersonated by Leonora Corona, onetime singer at the Metropolitan Opera. A Texas girl whose costume as Thai's when she appeared at the Cincinnati Zoo Opera three years ago shocked her audience (TIME, July 31, 1933), Miss Corona showed herself at the Waldorf in a shining little shift and neat metallic girdle, while before her paraded still more socialites as the great love-women of history. Finally in marched 54 debutantes, each bearing a giant candle, 18 maids of honor, a giant birthday cake borne by four chefs, and Oscar of the Waldorf. Franklin Roosevelt was much pleased, for the four balls which he attended by proxy were but samples of many others. They varied in size from the one held at Tacna, Ariz, (pop.: 7) to the one held in Philadelphia's Convention Hall attended by 15,000. They varied in expense from the 35¢ charged in Milwaukee to the $100 a plate charged at a dinner given at Manhattan's Central Park Casino by Mrs. Lucy Cotton Thomas Ament Hann Magraw, one-time actress (Up in Mabel's Room}. Mrs. Magraw found, however, that she could sell only two $100 tickets, to herself and her husband. So she refused to wear her tiara, did not use her gold plates, filled her table at $7.50 a head. The first Presidential birthday ball (1934) netted $1,015,000. The second (1935) netted $1,071,000. The third last week was expected to net anywhere up to $1,500,000. In fine fettle therefore was the President when he broke off his party with the Cuff-Links Gang, went to his microphone and thanked his 5,000,000 birthday guests, promising them that 70% of their contributions would be spent combatting infantile paralysis in their own communities, 30% sent to Warm Springs Foundation for its national program.
As a routine matter the President sent word to Congress that it would have to appropriate $2,249,000,000 to pay the Bonus, in addition to the $12,000,000 expense of distributing it. Then he called in his advisers to consider what taxes should be imposed to raise the money when Congress appropriates it.