The $1,500 Prom Night : After Parties, Limos, Hotel Dinners, the Price Tag for an Enchanted Evening Has Reached an All-Time High
Angela Edwards and her date arrived at the Bonaventure Hotel for their senior prom in a rented convertible BMW. She wore a custom-designed royal blue satin dress, dyed-to-match shoes; her hair, makeup and nails had been done in a salon that day.
For the after-prom party she changed into a black suede miniskirt and black top, then spent the next day with friends on Catalina Island. By the time the weekend was over, Edwards, an 18-year-old Palisades High School senior who says she comes from a middle-income family, had spent more than $500.
Forget any Norman Rockwellian vision you might have of a senior prom, of crepe paper streamers decorating a high school gym, boys picking up their dates in dad’s car, and girls teetering in their first high heels.
For years now, prom nights have come and gone with increasingly higher price tags. With each senior class trying to out-do last year’s prom, spending appears to have reached an all-time high in 1988--up to $1,500 for the night, according to some estimates. That all-too-possible cash outlay--covering not only the prom, but pre-prom parties, an after-prom party, parties between the prom and the after-prom, breakfast the next morning, and sometimes trips to Palm Springs, Catalina or Santa Barbara to recover from the gaiety--has moved at least one school board member to call for a reconsideration of the runaway expenses.
Today, dinner-dances are held in hotel ballrooms and students arrive in stretch limos dressed in expensive tuxedos and one-of-a-kind dresses.
Cost of the Essentials
Consider the cost of what, for better or worse, are considered the essentials of the modern high school prom:
- Prom bids (ticket): anywhere from $75 to $110 per couple.
- After-prom bid (the after-prom is rarely school-sponsored): $25 to $35 a couple.
- Clothes: tuxedo rental for boys, $30 to $75. Dress for girls: up to $2,000.
- Corsage/boutonniere: $15-$25.
- Limo rental (considered a necessity by some parents so their children don’t drink and drive): $40 per hour, usually for a minimum of four hours. Some students also rent fancy cars or luxury buses for a large group.
Extras can include:
- Helicopter charter (snazzier than a limo, guaranteed to turn heads): about $400 an hour.
- Hair, makeup and nails for girls: $50 and up.
- Clothes for the after-prom: $75 and up.
- Breakfast next morning: $15 and up.
- Trips to Catalina, Palm Springs: $50 and up, depending on travel and hotel accommodations.
“I don’t think things differ between the inner city and the Valley or the Westside,” said Los Angeles School Board member Roberta Weintraub, who has introduced a motion to get students to come up with alternatives to expensive proms. “I think the cost is way out of proportion to the incomes. And the worst part of this is that the junior highs are starting to emulate the high schools.”
Weintraub’s motion, to be voted on this month, would have each board member choose one high school from his district and choose a student committee to discuss the problem.
“I’m not saying that I’m trying to take away prom night,” Weintraub said, “but I’m trying to get it back to some perspective. Now the cost is going up to $1,500. It’s gotten out of control, and we need to check all schools in all areas.”
One alternative Weintraub suggested is a rock concert--”Something pretty spectacular, like Disneyland for Grad Night, something that’s an alternative to the prom so the kids feel like they’ve been to something special. What I’m hoping is that students will see how deeply in debt some families are, and how it cuts a lot of people out.”
Parents are also reeling at the cost of their children’s prom, trying to strike compromises between what is asked for and what is affordable.
“I thought the cost (of the prom) was pretty high, but the kids put pressure on each other to out-do one another,” said Georgene Smith, president of the 10th District PTSA and mother of 17-year-old Elizabeth, a senior at University High School in West Los Angeles.
“I’ve taught my daughter to shop carefully, and we were able to keep the cost of the gown and everything down. What drives up the cost is all the other activities: the dinner before, the after-prom.”
Smith said she paid for Elizabeth’s dress and accessories and the limo (about $400 total) and Elizabeth paid for the prom (held at the Sheraton-Universal) and after-prom bids and dinner before the prom with money saved up from her part-time job. Some students who work save all year for this one evening out.
“I was speaking with some mothers of my daughter’s friends, and when one woman said she had spent $1,000 for the prom, nobody flinched. . . . I’ve thought a lot about what the schools can do. It can offer more in the way of social activities, so the prom is not loaded with every drop of meaning it’s supposed to have, but doesn’t. The expectations were built to such a high, there was no way any one evening could meet that expectation. But kids are very spoiled these days. They expect the ritz, frankly.”
“Parents are continuously bothered by the expense,” said Uni High principal Jack Moskowitz. “We’re hearing more and more parents complain about the money young people have to spend--or choose to spend. It’s a serious concern.”
The spending, he said, “is a combination of peer pressure and inertia. It’s what’s been done for several years, and it’s what seems to be the trend. But I’ve had parents tell me that they choose to rent a limo because they feel safer with someone else driving.”
High schools such as Uni and Beverly Hills prepare parents for the shock of senior year expenses (including the prom, graduation, and other activities) via a letter early in the school year. They also urge well-meaning parents who throw pre-prom parties not to serve alcohol, another major concern of prom night.
‘An Expensive Proposition’
Gerald Dodd, principal at Palisades High, agreed that the prom “is a rather expensive proposition. But you have to realize that a lot of these kids are working, and that’s what they choose to do with the money they earn. They love the prom. They like all of the excitement about getting dressed up in something formal and going to a very nice place.”
School administrators and parents had no trouble recalling their own proms; Moskowitz said his ticket “didn’t cost more than $5, I wore a blue suit and tie, it was held at the school and we had a wonderful time.”
At least one high school has tried to stave off escalating costs by holding its prom in the gym. For the second year in a row, Loyola High School students have agreed to forgo the usual hotel ballroom in favor of dinner and dancing on the basketball court.
But this is still no crepe paper streamers affair; the prom budget included $3,500 for a caterer, video DJ, florist and special lighting effects to create a “Night in Rio.” Tickets were $54 per couple.
Would other classes of ’88 settle for a prom in the school gym? While school principals were enthusiastic about it, all admitted the students would never be.
“Perfect by me,” said Alexander Hamilton High principal Betty Maltby, “but tell that to the youngsters. They are interested in the large hotels, in the glamour and the elegance of the evening.”
An All-or-Nothing Affair
Shanna Starr, Hamilton’s senior class sponsor, added, “At our school the students vote on the menu for dinner. This year the kids voted on prime rib. With tax and gratuity it came to $33 for the meal only. In my opinion you cannot put on a decent prom for under $23 or $24 a person. Then there’s the band and the printing cost for the programs. And the prom has to be self-supporting.”
Students perceive the prom as an all-or-nothing affair, so those who cannot afford the whole package often don’t go. Even Beverly Hills High, perceived as a rich kids’ school, has its share of students who can’t afford formal attire.
“Because the evening has expenses beyond the basic ticket,” said Rick Munitz, one of the school’s assistant principals, “if a kid is having financial problems, even giving him $50 isn’t going to help. There are special circumstances; we allowed one girl to come without charging her. Parents ask why it’s so expensive, and we sit down with them and explain the cost of the ticket. If the hotel wants to cut the price, then fine. We’re one of the few proms that had a live orchestra; a lot have gone to DJs. It was fine 20 years ago when they served finger sandwiches and punch. But now, to get the Hilton to give up a room on a Saturday night when there’s no bar, that’s expensive.”
Some local businesses boom around prom time; Mike Caruso Gentleman’s Apparel in Santa Monica rented some 300 tuxedos in one weekend when it seemed every male high school senior on the Westside descended upon the store.
“They go top notch all the time,” said the store’s Tony Caruso. “They want the best. This is their time when they get to prove that they’re becoming adults now. So they just save up all their money and splurge.”
Caruso added that tails ($49.50 to $75) were so popular that they were rented out a week before this onslaught. Other hot sellers included a Pierre Cardin updated tux with pleated pants and big shoulders that rented for $75.
Romantic Dresses
At the Torie Steele clothing store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Krizia boutique manager Susan Murphy noticed no dressing room arguments between mothers and daughters as girls tried on frilly, romantic dresses ranging in price from $700 to $2,000. “I think the girls think it’s important that they don’t show up wearing what someone else is wearing,” Murphy said. “It’s like Emmys and the Oscars; I think they come here hoping they’ll get a dress they won’t see on someone else.”
Down the street at the Kathryn Klinger salon, young women were surrendering their bodies to an all-day, six-hour pre-prom beauty treatment that included scalp treatment, facial, manicure, pedicure, body massage, makeup lesson and lunch, for $235.
The white stretch limos at Starlite Limousines in Mission Hills that rent for $50 an hour (with a four-hour minimum) were reserved weeks ago. And at Jetcopters in Van Nuys, president Kevin Larosa fielded inquiries from seniors who thought limos were too tame. A James Bond fantasy could be theirs for a mere $585 an hour for a six-passenger helicopter and a nearby helipad.
Not every parent fumes at having to subsidize a child’s prom even if it does set them back hundreds of dollars.
“I guess if that’s what’s happening, then for me to say you can’t spend that much money on this or that would be reverse peer pressure or something,” said Mike Cohen, an optometrist in Studio City whose 18-year-old son Brandon attends the Harvard School in Studio City. “I guess it’s part of the cost of doing business. The prom I went to certainly sticks with me, and I think this will stick with him.”
Carlotta Khero attends proms for a living. As vice president of New Leaf, a clothing firm that manufactures prom dresses, she scopes out trends at proms around the country. She is also the mother of an 18-year-old son who will be attending his prom at Crossroads School of Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica. She is thrilled.
“When I think back to my prom, it’s not how much we spent, but it was that someone was coming to take me out, and I was important. So if parents are getting lost in bills and the mortgage and the cost of schools, they should remember that it’s the memory of those sweet times when life had much less responsibility and there was much more dreaming. And the memory of all that is prom night.”
Angela Edwards said that the money she spent on her prom, saved up from her part-time job at a discount clothing store, was well-spent. “The prom was the best time I had since I’ve been at Palisades. My parents are hesitant to spend money. But if I stick to my guns, they end up being behind me.”
And what of Edwards’ younger siblings who will one day attend their prom? “That’s a scary thought,” she said. “I don’t know what’s really left to do.”
