October 2, 2025 • 10 mins
GO BACK IN TIME FOR A DANCE FROM THE BIG BAND ERA I love this dance and the entire concept behind it. Khyentse George 1940s Ball Creator and Director joins me today to talk about the event next year. Why so early? Because early bird tickets are already on sale. Find out more about the 1940s Ball here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kenzi George is coming on the show. Kenzie is the creator,
the woman behind the scenes of a Really it just
looks so fun. I just told her off the air,
this is one of those things I have been dying
to come to, but I'm always out of town on
the weekend of the nineteen forties ball. But now we're
getting ahead of it because we're talking about it. Tickets
(00:20):
are already on sale for next June. Kenzie, welcome to
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
First of all, thank you so much, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's such an honor to be here. Thank you for
having us.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now I have to ask you. See, I'm looking at
you right now. You are a young woman, and yet
you have taken it upon yourself to create or recreate
a nineteen forties World War Two kind of style ball,
complete with big band music and all that good stuff.
How did this happen?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Boy, so many years ago? Eighteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Actually, I was working at the Boulder Airport at a
flight school and they had this amazing hangar and I'd
always wanted to do a fundraiser. I worked with a
lot of nonprofits, and I wanted to do a fundraiser
in the hangar.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And combining that with my childhood.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I grew up with my grandparents raising me, and they
were radio performers work in the nineteen forties. They were
my grandmother was a singer and my grandfather was a
sports announcer at a radio station WCDL in Pennsylvania. And
they met at their radio station and they were very
into music and arts and culture growing up, and so
(01:33):
they raised me around a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Of civic activities.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And around a lot of music and a lot of
parties at their house. And so I just grew to
really love that environment, and I really wanted to have
a cool Christmas and nineteen forties and fifties themed party
in this hangar, and one thing led to another. I
met a lot of people involved with different cultural activities
(01:59):
that vintage things and collectors of World War two vehicles
and planes and everything just sort of came together, and
we had our first nineteen forties ball at that hangar
eighteen years ago and.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Now it's like an annual thing. And I have to
tell it looks like from the pictures and the videos
that you can see online, it looks like the people
who are going to the nineteen forties ball, they get
the memo right, They understand the assignment, and they come
with appropriate hair and dresses and it just looks so
much fun.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
They are amazing the attendies they come to this.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm always gobsmacked by how authentic their costumes are and
their hair, because this is not an easy look to
put together in comparison to you know, we can find
things a lot easier nowadays to be on trend, but
to get an authentic nineteen forties look, you have to
really search because the.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Sizings a little off. Yeah, yeah, so you have to
really search.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You have to find something that feels right and fits.
And this is not a short event. This is an
eight hour event. So people come in the middle of
the day in the summer, and we always tell people
to make sure to bring in a comfortable pair of
shoes because we are at an airport, right and the
gravel and all sorts of weird stuff out there at
the airport, and you know, we just we make sure
(03:21):
people are comfortable.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
But they do dress up.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
They wear these incredible outfits and they put so much
time and attention into the details, like everything from a
gorgeous hat that's literally eighty years old or that was
their grandmother's hat or their grandfather's uniform from World War Two.
And it's just amazing to see what folks put together
in the time they do put into it.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Are what are the age ranges here? Who comes to
this event in terms of the demographic.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So that's really interesting too, because when it first started,
I was going to like the Elks Club and like
the senior kind of places to be, like, come to
this ball, You'll have so much fun dancing literally what
goes at the dinners and invite people.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And then the swing dancers.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Of course, I'd go to the Mercury Cafe and put
little flyers on the cars of the swing dancers. So
it started out as really just swing dancers, and and
then it started to get the words started to get out,
and the demographic really changed. And now I would say
the majority of people that attend are just really nostalgic
(04:25):
about their grandparents' era.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
They want a date night out.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
That's unique and has classic music, or they're they love
the romance of the era, or their husband loves the
historical aspects of the era. So I always say it's
a place where romantics and people who love history can unite.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That is really what it is.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's a giant nerd party. It's a giant nerd party.
You can call it what they're just nerds.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Is exactly what it is. And I have my husband
there and he's a total nerd.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Oh that's fantastic, that's wonderful. Well we're having Kinsey on
today because you I have already started selling tickets. Now
I do know that this sells out most of the time. Yeah,
so it's like, if you want to go, you may
as well just go ahead and buy your tickets. When
is the event next June?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
So it's on June twentieth.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's always Father's Day, the Saturday a Father's Day weekend,
and it falls on the twentieth of June.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Okay, so how much your tickets and what exactly what
is the entire experience like, walk me through that.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
So when people arrive, we have everybody park right at
the airport on the lots around the airport. They walk
into the front gates and it's literally like walking into
another world, like taking a time machine and stepping into
a different era. I mean, we are purest to the
details that we put into the authenticity of everything. We
(05:47):
have the World War Two planes there that are on
point with the outfits, and we have these photo setups
where people can like pose with their husband or their
partner or their friends in front of these World War
two planes. And then we have a real authentic World
War two base camp with living history re enactors that
(06:07):
will tell you about what they were doing in World
War Two. We have the Tenth Mountain Division that's out
there and they bring artifacts that the gentlemen that we're
in World War two use to train up at the
Ville Resorts and they have their actual skis and they'll
tell people the history of the Colorado Ski Resorts and
how that was originally where these gentlemen trained for World
(06:31):
War Two. It's just the history there is absolutely fascinating.
Planes are flying overhead. We actually have World War two planes.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
We have a Mustang let. These guys love it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
These guys who fly these planes and collect them, they
just they're exciting to come out.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We have a guy that brings the DC three.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Oh my gosh, that is fantastic. So this isn't just hey,
come and dance and dine, and this is like immerse yourself.
So this is like this is like World War two cosplay.
I mean, is that we're talking about to a certain extent.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
That's one aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And it's interesting because I'm more My husband's the historian,
and I'm the cultural person because of my grandparents, and
so I bring the musical element and the dancing element.
I book all the bands, and we bring in the
Glen Millar Orchestra from New York City and they they're
absolutely the best big band of the era and they
still tour. I mean, they've been touring since the forties.
(07:26):
They're incredible.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
And so they're.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Playing their music and the songs that everyone knows in
the mood is playing and people are dancing, and the
sun is setting with these red and gold hues along
the flat irons the rocky mountains in the background. Because
Boulder Airport has this amazing backdrop, it's absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So that's happening.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You're dancing, you're hearing Glen Millow Orchestra, and you're surrounded
by these planes and.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
The space camp.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
There's actors portraying different movie stars from the era that
arend and they interact with guests and everybody's dressed up
and it's just it's really a magical night. Oh and
one of My favorite part is the lighting. My husband's
always saying that lighting makes an event. So we're sticklers
for the lighting. And we have these beautiful Vietnamese lanterns
(08:17):
that are all sorts of colors hanging over the dance
floor and it looks just.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Like a movie set.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
It's really really magical to hear and see and feel
all of that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
This sounds I mean, do people if they just want
to wear like normal, nice clothes, do they have to
lean into the vibe or can they just show up
in their Sunday best or whatever and you know, not
necessarily on theme.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, we try to encourage people.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
We always send out a little note before you go
and give people tips on how to dress, even if
it's just where your modern dress with some with a
hair flower and some gloves or a fascinator, just to
kind of connect the dots with like, here's here's something
that will work, because a lot of modern dresses work.
It's all about the accessories. But no, we will never
turn anybody away that wants to wear their Sunday best
(09:02):
and doesn't have any sort of accouterments that could work.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
For the forties.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Kensey George I put a link on the blog again.
The event isn't until next June, but the early bird
tickets are on sale, so if you really want to
make sure you're gonna go, because there have been a
couple of times where I looked and it was already
sold out, so I was like, well, dang, yeah, but
you have a chance.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Kensey.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
This just sounds so so so incredibly good. And if
I am in this country in June of next year,
I am coming to this event. So fingers crossed the dip.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Can Mandy will give you the best seats in the house. Yah,
all right, I'd love to see you.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, I think it's it just sounds like an absolute blast.
And we'll talk again before to remind people or maybe
as the event gets closer, because I just think this
is super cool.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, I think I think you really enjoyed it, and
I hope lots of people come to at the tickets
usually sell out about a month or two in advance.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
That's why we get started really early.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Got it all right, Kensey George, thank you so much
for your time to day.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
All Right, I'm a good one. That just sounds like
so much fun.
Kenzi George is coming on the show. Kenzie is the creator,
the woman behind the scenes of a Really it just
looks so fun. I just told her off the air,
this is one of those things I have been dying
to come to, but I'm always out of town on
the weekend of the nineteen forties ball. But now we're
getting ahead of it because we're talking about it. Tickets
(00:20):
are already on sale for next June. Kenzie, welcome to
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
First of all, thank you so much, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's such an honor to be here. Thank you for
having us.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now I have to ask you. See, I'm looking at
you right now. You are a young woman, and yet
you have taken it upon yourself to create or recreate
a nineteen forties World War Two kind of style ball,
complete with big band music and all that good stuff.
How did this happen?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Boy, so many years ago? Eighteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Actually, I was working at the Boulder Airport at a
flight school and they had this amazing hangar and I'd
always wanted to do a fundraiser. I worked with a
lot of nonprofits, and I wanted to do a fundraiser
in the hangar.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And combining that with my childhood.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I grew up with my grandparents raising me, and they
were radio performers work in the nineteen forties. They were
my grandmother was a singer and my grandfather was a
sports announcer at a radio station WCDL in Pennsylvania. And
they met at their radio station and they were very
into music and arts and culture growing up, and so
(01:33):
they raised me around a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Of civic activities.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And around a lot of music and a lot of
parties at their house. And so I just grew to
really love that environment, and I really wanted to have
a cool Christmas and nineteen forties and fifties themed party
in this hangar, and one thing led to another. I
met a lot of people involved with different cultural activities
(01:59):
that vintage things and collectors of World War two vehicles
and planes and everything just sort of came together, and
we had our first nineteen forties ball at that hangar
eighteen years ago and.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Now it's like an annual thing. And I have to
tell it looks like from the pictures and the videos
that you can see online, it looks like the people
who are going to the nineteen forties ball, they get
the memo right, They understand the assignment, and they come
with appropriate hair and dresses and it just looks so
much fun.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
They are amazing the attendies they come to this.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm always gobsmacked by how authentic their costumes are and
their hair, because this is not an easy look to
put together in comparison to you know, we can find
things a lot easier nowadays to be on trend, but
to get an authentic nineteen forties look, you have to
really search because the.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Sizings a little off. Yeah, yeah, so you have to
really search.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You have to find something that feels right and fits.
And this is not a short event. This is an
eight hour event. So people come in the middle of
the day in the summer, and we always tell people
to make sure to bring in a comfortable pair of
shoes because we are at an airport, right and the
gravel and all sorts of weird stuff out there at
the airport, and you know, we just we make sure
(03:21):
people are comfortable.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
But they do dress up.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
They wear these incredible outfits and they put so much
time and attention into the details, like everything from a
gorgeous hat that's literally eighty years old or that was
their grandmother's hat or their grandfather's uniform from World War Two.
And it's just amazing to see what folks put together
in the time they do put into it.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Are what are the age ranges here? Who comes to
this event in terms of the demographic.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So that's really interesting too, because when it first started,
I was going to like the Elks Club and like
the senior kind of places to be, like, come to
this ball, You'll have so much fun dancing literally what
goes at the dinners and invite people.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And then the swing dancers.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Of course, I'd go to the Mercury Cafe and put
little flyers on the cars of the swing dancers. So
it started out as really just swing dancers, and and
then it started to get the words started to get out,
and the demographic really changed. And now I would say
the majority of people that attend are just really nostalgic
(04:25):
about their grandparents' era.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
They want a date night out.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
That's unique and has classic music, or they're they love
the romance of the era, or their husband loves the
historical aspects of the era. So I always say it's
a place where romantics and people who love history can unite.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That is really what it is.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's a giant nerd party. It's a giant nerd party.
You can call it what they're just nerds.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Is exactly what it is. And I have my husband
there and he's a total nerd.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Oh that's fantastic, that's wonderful. Well we're having Kinsey on
today because you I have already started selling tickets. Now
I do know that this sells out most of the time. Yeah,
so it's like, if you want to go, you may
as well just go ahead and buy your tickets. When
is the event next June?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
So it's on June twentieth.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's always Father's Day, the Saturday a Father's Day weekend,
and it falls on the twentieth of June.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Okay, so how much your tickets and what exactly what
is the entire experience like, walk me through that.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
So when people arrive, we have everybody park right at
the airport on the lots around the airport. They walk
into the front gates and it's literally like walking into
another world, like taking a time machine and stepping into
a different era. I mean, we are purest to the
details that we put into the authenticity of everything. We
(05:47):
have the World War Two planes there that are on
point with the outfits, and we have these photo setups
where people can like pose with their husband or their
partner or their friends in front of these World War
two planes. And then we have a real authentic World
War two base camp with living history re enactors that
(06:07):
will tell you about what they were doing in World
War Two. We have the Tenth Mountain Division that's out
there and they bring artifacts that the gentlemen that we're
in World War two use to train up at the
Ville Resorts and they have their actual skis and they'll
tell people the history of the Colorado Ski Resorts and
how that was originally where these gentlemen trained for World
(06:31):
War Two. It's just the history there is absolutely fascinating.
Planes are flying overhead. We actually have World War two planes.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
We have a Mustang let. These guys love it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
These guys who fly these planes and collect them, they
just they're exciting to come out.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We have a guy that brings the DC three.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Oh my gosh, that is fantastic. So this isn't just hey,
come and dance and dine, and this is like immerse yourself.
So this is like this is like World War two cosplay.
I mean, is that we're talking about to a certain extent.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
That's one aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And it's interesting because I'm more My husband's the historian,
and I'm the cultural person because of my grandparents, and
so I bring the musical element and the dancing element.
I book all the bands, and we bring in the
Glen Millar Orchestra from New York City and they they're
absolutely the best big band of the era and they
still tour. I mean, they've been touring since the forties.
(07:26):
They're incredible.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
And so they're.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Playing their music and the songs that everyone knows in
the mood is playing and people are dancing, and the
sun is setting with these red and gold hues along
the flat irons the rocky mountains in the background. Because
Boulder Airport has this amazing backdrop, it's absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So that's happening.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You're dancing, you're hearing Glen Millow Orchestra, and you're surrounded
by these planes and.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
The space camp.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
There's actors portraying different movie stars from the era that
arend and they interact with guests and everybody's dressed up
and it's just it's really a magical night. Oh and
one of My favorite part is the lighting. My husband's
always saying that lighting makes an event. So we're sticklers
for the lighting. And we have these beautiful Vietnamese lanterns
(08:17):
that are all sorts of colors hanging over the dance
floor and it looks just.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Like a movie set.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
It's really really magical to hear and see and feel
all of that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
This sounds I mean, do people if they just want
to wear like normal, nice clothes, do they have to
lean into the vibe or can they just show up
in their Sunday best or whatever and you know, not
necessarily on theme.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, we try to encourage people.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
We always send out a little note before you go
and give people tips on how to dress, even if
it's just where your modern dress with some with a
hair flower and some gloves or a fascinator, just to
kind of connect the dots with like, here's here's something
that will work, because a lot of modern dresses work.
It's all about the accessories. But no, we will never
turn anybody away that wants to wear their Sunday best
(09:02):
and doesn't have any sort of accouterments that could work.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
For the forties.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Kensey George I put a link on the blog again.
The event isn't until next June, but the early bird
tickets are on sale, so if you really want to
make sure you're gonna go, because there have been a
couple of times where I looked and it was already
sold out, so I was like, well, dang, yeah, but
you have a chance.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Kensey.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
This just sounds so so so incredibly good. And if
I am in this country in June of next year,
I am coming to this event. So fingers crossed the dip.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Can Mandy will give you the best seats in the house. Yah,
all right, I'd love to see you.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, I think it's it just sounds like an absolute blast.
And we'll talk again before to remind people or maybe
as the event gets closer, because I just think this
is super cool.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, I think I think you really enjoyed it, and
I hope lots of people come to at the tickets
usually sell out about a month or two in advance.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
That's why we get started really early.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Got it all right, Kensey George, thank you so much
for your time to day.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
All Right, I'm a good one. That just sounds like
so much fun.
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