Extravagance

In 1971, the Persian Empire celebrated its 2500th birthday as Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran gave a four-day celebration costing $100 million. The focal point of the event was a huge banquet, the banquet hall being a gigantic silk tent lighted with $840,000 worth of colored lights! The guest list matched the occasion: the Shah invited more than 600 dignitaries from 69 nations.

Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 31