Arabian Night to Remember: Forbes Turns 70

It was a party so lavish, even Malcolm Forbes would not defend it.

“I don’t try to defend it,” said the man who summoned 800 capitalist bigwigs to his Moroccan palace Saturday night for a wildly extravagant birthday party.

“On the other hand,” added the multimillionaire publishing magnate, who turned 70 Saturday, “I don’t feel guilty about it. I feel grateful we can do it.”

Indeed, bashful was not the evening’s theme. The cost of the party has been estimated at $2 million.

Even before guests reached the front door of Forbes’ Palais Mendoub in this Mediterranean resort they had been showered by rose petals thrown by 20 Moroccan women, wowed by 600 belly dancers and acrobats, serenaded by hundreds of chanting and swaying white-robed Moroccans and greeted by 275 musket-carrying cavalrymen on horseback.

“Mighty fine. Mighty fine,” intoned venerable newsman Walter Cronkite as he worked his way past the swirling multitude. He peered again at the cavalry and mused, “I hope they’re on our side.”

The guest list was a high-octane mix of media moguls, political powerhouses, show-biz celebrities and corporate CEOs. Forbes’ date was actress Elizabeth Taylor, who wore an emerald-green caftan with gold metallic braiding.

If any expense was spared, it was not easy to tell.

The guests, most of whom had arrived on Forbes-chartered jets from New York and put up at his expense at the posh Hotel Solazur, began arriving around 8.

The guests--including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who had earlier hosted a party on his yacht; socialite Betsy Bloomingdale; former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger; and Chrysler boss Lee Iacocca--milled about in a garden abuzz with activity.

The chocolate birthday cake--an outlandish, five-section construction covered by white icing--was designed to resemble the garden in which the guests were being served. Models of each of the five Arabian tents made up the sections of the cake.

As the capper, diva emerita Beverly Sills sang a throaty “Happy Birthday.”