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50 TIGER BALL ROARS CATHERINE D. ANSPON LOOKS EAST. PHOTOGRAPHY JENNY ANTILL CLIFTON, DANIEL ORTIZ. T iger Ball's crowd of nearly 700 was seeing ruby — a jewel tone appropriate for a 40-year anniversary and for breaking a record that had stood for more than 25 years. So it was when Asia Society Texas Center unfurled a diverse black-tie bash with dazzling details, beginning with the personages. Paying homage to its late founding member, the beloved Barbara Bush (memorialized in a candle-lighting ceremony), the evening also honored one of Houston's most munificent couples: Phoebe and Bobby Tudor (she in bold red Angel Sanchez). Co-chairing the celebration were Y. Ping Sun and David Leebron, Rice University's first couple, and Michelle and Hector Herrera, with honorary chairs Molly and Jim Crownover and, in absentia, The Honorable Hushang and Shahla Ansary, and Maria and Neil Bush. A GLOBAL EVENING The evening departed from tradition with a splendidly decorated tent for the seated dinner, with performance art during cocktail hour at the Taniguchi building. Act two took place in the Chevron Gala Pavilion, where buoyant persimmon-colored wishing lanterns were suspended from the ceiling. Decor company Prashe devised the enchanting environment, arrayed around nature's party props: 13 live oak and Shumard red oak trees, festooned in lights with ikebana arrangements on the tabletops. City Kitchen's menu delivered on the promise of Asian-fusion cuisine, with a main course of miso-glazed Chilean sea bass. Besides the magnificent red palette, the night was accented by green: $1.418 million was raised, topping every previous record, including its own ambitious goal by more than $100,000. Stay tuned: Tiger Ball 2020 will honor the luminous Lynn Wyatt, who was at this gala's head table. GAZING EAST: Houston's consular corps in ceremonial regalia were joined by Asia Society's grand patroness Nancy Allen; Allen's son, board chair Eddie Allen and wife Chinhui Juhn; Asia Society Texas Center executive director Bonna Kol; Lily and Charles Foster; Sultana and Moez Mangalji; Kathy and Glen Gondo; Nancy and Erik Littlejohn; collectors Leslie and Brad Bucher, and Leigh and Reggie Smith; Mayor Sylvester Turner; Divya and Chris Brown; Duyen and Marc Nguyen; Anne and Charles Duncan; top heart doc Bud Frazier and wife Rachel; Anne and Albert Chao; Janae and Ken Tsai; and Diane Lokey Farb. ASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER CELEBRATES 40 YEARS. Guests walk under an array of lighted lanterns on their way to the dinner tent. Davana Petree, Trammell Crow Angel Bryant, Isabella Crow Robert Gondo & Jaewon Kang Kathy & Glen Gondo Tripp Carter, Nancy Allen Bonna Kol Roger & Mary Wallace Kaori Fukushima & Consul General of Japan Hideo Fukushima Co-chairs Hector & Michelle Herrera Lynn Wyatt Co-chairs David Leebron & Y. Ping Sun Honorary co-chairs Jim & Molly Crownover Honorees Phoebe & Bobby Tudor Margaret Alkek Williams Bill Stubbs Diane & Mike Cannon Chinhui Juhn & Eddie Allen Mathew & Ann Wolf Michael & Susan Jhin