“We would have a hard time having a lavish party if the proceeds were not going to charity,” Hendrickson said Thursday.
Unlike many of Whitney and Hendrickson’s other activities, the gala was purely for fun. Marylou picked a theme each year and then decorated the Canfield Casino in Congress Park extravagantly. Over the years, she made her entrance on dog sled, rickshaw and amphibious car. She and her guests greeted spectators and threw trinkets to those gathered around the entrance to the casino, which is now a museum. “Marylou likes making people happy,” Hendrickson said. Eleanor Swift of Wilton brought her daughter, Anne, now 12, almost every year since the girl was a baby. Over the years they collected a small foam polar bear and horse, a Chinese drum, pens and a Mexican hat. “It was exciting. It was a little bit of Hollywood we might not otherwise see here,” Swift said. Whitney started the gala in 1960 when her husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, asked her to liven up Saratoga. He died in 1992. The Whitney Gala has traditionally been the summer’s premier event as one of the last invitation-only parties in town.
It was heavily attended by celebrities, politicians and big names in the horse-racing industry and was traditionally held the night before The Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.