Miami Herald - Monday, December 02, 2002
Nicholas Spangler, nspangler@herald.com

"I need you," a woman's voice sounded piercingly over the speakers. And again, quickened and urgent: "I need you." Without a beat the crowd was restless and tense. When it finally dropped in, it was heavy like a sledgehammer, and the dancers roared release.

White Party Week culminated Sunday night with the namesake event, a five-hour party held at Miami's Vizcaya mansion to benefit Care Resource, an HIV-AIDS service organization.

Thirty-two speakers stood on the mansion's terrace and a bubble machine pumped into a crowd that numbered in the thousands by night's end. Guests paid $150 each for tickets.

White was the color of choice: white pants, hot pants, gowns, chaps, G-strings, the occasional white shirt punctuating the mostly shirtless crowd.

Most of the crowd was young, or trying to look so; but there was an older, more subdued set. "I'm 64," said Bob Hammel of Coral Gables. "I know my age. I don't have to act it, but I know I'm not 25 anymore. That's reality." Hammel wore khakis and a white polo shirt; he'd just come from a dinner party and was planning on a short night. He had to wake up early for sailing, he said.

A 72-foot yacht carrying mortgage banker Jimmy Morra and 12 friends docked in the harbor below. A man in a giant fur cap, fur chaps and fur wristbands bounced and spun in front of the speakers. Terry Decarlo and Bill Huelsman wore Navy admirals' uniforms accessorized with pearls and heels. "I'm Don't Ask and he's Don't Tell," Huelsman said. He wore a slinky miniskirt; Decarlo wore a silvery evening gown and walked confidently in three-inch heels.

This is what 3,000 party-goers consume in a night: 700 cases of bottled water, 700 cases of beer, 60 cases of vodka, 100 cases of Cabana Boy rum, 80 cases of juice and 60 cases of something called Tao. "Honestly, I have no idea what that stuff is," said one of the men unloading the beverage truck.

Buffet tables were set up next to intricately trimmed topiaries in the mansion's gardens.

Platters of sushi, finger sandwiches and pastries were laid out for the guests. The News Cafe in Miami Beach brought six gallons of hummus, four giant bags of pita bread and 500 flans packaged in little aluminum dishes.

"It took us a full day to make all this," said Michael Travis, a server. ``We've got about an hour and a half where people are going to eat. After that, they're going to be drinking and dancing. The appetites fail."

DJ Monty Q, known as Montgomery Eckart to his mother, was playing on the mansion's terrace. He'd picked out 300 records from his collection of almost 20,000 for the night. "Five hours is actually a short set for me," he said.

There was more dancing at the south end of the property, where a crew of male strippers from Fort Lauderdale's Boardwalk club were hard at work.

Porn star Matthew Rush posed for pictures and signed autographs for fans. "It comes with the territory," he said. "I'm happy to do it." Rush earns between $1,500 and $2,000 for an appearance like this one, he said.

By 8:30 p.m. a trickle of people was leaving and hundreds more were arriving.

New arrivals passed into the gardens through the mansion's great hall, under the alabaster eyes of a seven-foot Bacchus, who would no doubt have approved of the affair.

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