Each year, one member was secretly chosen to play the Veiled Prophet, whose identity was masked with a literal veil. Members' daughters were often picked as the ball's Queen of Love and Beauty.

The Veiled Prophet is a social organization in St. Louis, Missouri, founded in 1878 by Charles and Alonzo Slayback.

The ball is run by the Veiled Prophet Organization, an all-male club formed in 1878 by upper-class white people in St. Louis in response to a protest by railroad workers.

The Veiled Prophet as illustrated in an 1878 edition of the Missouri Republican. (Public Domain) After 140 years, 2021 might be the end of the Veiled Prophet in public life. For 40 years, St ...

Ellie Kemper’s apologized this week for attending the Veiled Prophet debutante ball when she was 19, where she was crowned the “Queen of Love and Beauty”. But for Kemper’s apology to have ...

Most notably, Percy Green and fellow activists from his Action organization covertly infiltrated the ball in 1972 and unmasked that year’s Veiled Prophet, Tom K. Smith, a senior executive with ...

“The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star Ellie Kemper apologized Monday for her involvement more than two decades ago in a St. Louis debutante ball with racist origins.

Ellie Kemper has addressed the controversy over her participation in the 1999 Veiled Prophet Ball, a week after an article on her crowning resurfaced. Read on for what she has to say 22 years later.

The Veiled Prophet Ball, which was later renamed Fair St. Louis, would also involve a lavish ceremony where a secret committee would choose a secret man to serve as the Veiled Prophet, and he ...

Ellie Kemper has addressed the controversy over her participation in the 1999 Veiled Prophet Ball, a week after an article on her crowning resurfaced. Read on for what she has to say 22 years later.

Ellie Kemper has responded to backlash about her 1999 involvement in a St. Louis debutante ball with racist origins.