Babylon, U.S.A.

There's a Widespread Rumor that the pagan gods and goddesses took a terrific beating about two thousand years ago and slunk off with their tails between their legs, never to be seen again.

Don't you believe it. They've just been biding their time, and lately they've been making their presence known again at a thing called the Artists Equity Masquerade Ball.

For though this affair is held in one of the better hotels in the center of New York City, it has no relation to the sober modern world. It is a pagan renaissance, a gay and colorful harking-back to the days of ancient Babylon, of Rome, of Sodom and Gomorrah.

An innocent passer-by who happened to wander in would be very much impressed by the revelers' costumes or, more precisely, by the lack of them. He might pass through a crowd of rather conservatively dressed couples and run smack up against a naked Eve looking about for a misplaced fig leaf. When young bohemia goes to an Art Ball, it leaves Twentieth Century clothes and conventions at home. Nudity is encouraged -- as long as it's imaginative. So you'll see Lady Godivas, mounted and unmounted, Venus de Milos, with arms but little else, Cleopatras. centaurs, satyrs, bare-breasted slave girls, and more miscellaneously bauled, bangled, and beaded bodies than you can shake a loin cloth at. Plenty of the bodies will be shapely, too, for they'll belong to artists' models and even to haughty high-fashion clothes-horses abandoning the tailored suits of Vogue for the more casual Art Ball fashions.

There's always a generous sprinkling of celebrities and society, and though the affairs could never be confused with a debutante's coming out party, some of the more audacious debs come out of their costumes just the same.

One of the most refreshing things about an Art Ball is that it has no tiresome, high-minded objective. True, there are some concessions to modern custom, such as raising money for the Artists Equity Fund, but nobody gets solemn about it. Everybody is too busy enjoying themselves in the best pagan tradition: eating, drinking, dancing, ogling each other, and pleasant etceteras. We knew you wouldn't want to miss the fun, so we sent a man to the last one, and the man took a camera.

Actress Deborah Kerr (seated, right) and friends dressed as Greek god and goddesses. Deborah took time out from her hit play, "Tea and Sympathy," to reign as Queen of the Artists Masquerade Ball.

Above: This enterprising young lady discovered a sure bet for being the center of attraction.

Below: A macabre gentleman and his slave-girl date parade past judges awarding prizes for the best costumes.

Above: A living painting of our first president shares honors with a brilliant Aztec sunburst made up of equal portions of gold and girl.

Below: Loin-cloth, leopard-skin and lots of epidermis make a simple but effective costume for this jungle girl. Art Ball arrivals made a point of disembarking from taxis at wrong entrances and parading through the lobby of the staid Waldorf-Astoria.

Famous fashion model Dorian Leigh usually appears in Vogue approved styles, but she showed up for the Art Ball in her own spectacular look.

Above: Costumes often give the impression that their designers miscalculated by several inches and covered the wrong areas, but such miscalculations are deliberate.

The panel of judges included such illustrious show folk as Burgess Meredith, Betsy Von Furstenberg, Celeste Holm and Franchot Tone. Art Ball costumes were judged on ingenudity.

Below: Beauteous Betty Biehn, a Powers model during the day, relaxes by dancing with no less a personage than Nero.

The ancient origins of the Art Ball were proclaimed by this bull, an age-old symbol of fertility that dominated the pleasantly pagan proceedings. In the old days, lovely maidens were sacrificed to its image, but its broad back holds no fear for this modern model.

Tasty Tina Louise may not have been the most undressed beauty at the ball, but she was very choice ogling indeed with her flame hair, pretty face and generous chest measurements -- attributes that helped make her number one showgirl of John Murray Anderson's Broadway success, "Almanac."

Tasty Tina Louise may not have been the most undressed beauty at the ball, but she was very choice ogling indeed with her flame hair, pretty face and generous chest measurements -- attributes that helped make her number one showgirl of John Murray Anderson's Broadway success, "Almanac."

Tasty Tina Louise may not have been the most undressed beauty at the ball, but she was very choice ogling indeed with her flame hair, pretty face and generous chest measurements -- attributes that helped make her number one showgirl of John Murray Anderson's Broadway success, "Almanac."

Right: As the evening wore on and liquor flowed, imaginations became wilder and woolier, with bizarre dancers like these two going merrily berserk.