American Financer George A. Kessler had a passion for unusual parties. All of the wealthy guests at a “hobo dinner” were required to wear tattered clothing and eating out of cans. On another occasion his guests sat down to dinner in an airship hovering over the Atlantic. His most extravagant party, however, was held at the Savoy Hotel in London on June 30, 1905, to celebrate his birthday.

Taking Venice as his theme, Kessler flooded the courtyard of the hotel with water dyed blue to resemble the sea. Magnificent painted backdrops provided the setting, and the entire scene was illuminated by 400 Venetian lamps. His two dozen guests sat inside a huge silk lined gondola bobbing on the “canal,” surrounded by 12,000 carnations and an enormous number of roses. They are food prepared by 15 master chefs and served by waiters dressed as gondoliers.

The evening’s entertainment featured the great opera singer Enrico Caruso; he performed an aria while a baby elephant with a five-foot-high birthday cake strapped to its back was led across a gangplank to the Gondola and 100 white doves flew overhead. Unfortunately, the dye used in the water poisoned the swans that had been scheduled to swim around the gondola.