Decades Ball Raises $400,000

It’s the 1950s, with cool jazz and Alfred Hitchcock in the air. The Decades Ball, the annual party thrown for the history and literary magazine Lapham’s Quarterly, raised $400,000 Monday night as guests were transported back to the ’50s. Actors Tom Hanks and Patricia Clarkson read a scene from the Hitchcock film North by Northwest, and jazz pianist Diana Krall crooned Cole Porter. Lewis Lapham, who was the longtime editor of Harper’s magazine, started Lapham’s Quarterly in 2008, and says the magazine is still going strong. The summer 2013 issue will showcase the best writings about “The Sea.”