This video was made possible by Raycon.
Get top-quality, super-comfortable, and surprisingly affordable wireless earbuds for 15% off at
buyraycon.com/hai.
So, you know how sometimes as a kid you would throw a big party and then your parents would
get angry and ground you?
I definitely do because I threw tons of super insane parties in high school with my hundreds
of friends who all said I was the coolest.
Well today’s story is kind of like that, except instead of me throwing a super-real
party it was the Shah of Iran, and instead of my parents getting mad it was the people
of Iran, and instead of grounding him, they deposed him and replaced his government.
This is the story of the world’s most expensive party.
Back in 1971, the Shah of Iran thought to himself, “hey, we should do something nice
for the people of Iran, like throw a big party for me.”
And then some other people, probably, were like, “can the people of Iran go to the
party?” and then the Shah was like “no.”
And then people were like “how much will this party for you cost?”
And the Shah was like, “$22 million.”
And then people were like “what if instead of doing that, you spent that $22 million
helping the people of Iran.”
And then the Shah was like, “but the party will have cake.”
And so the Shah decided to throw the party.
They decided to call the party دوهزار و پانصدمین سال بنیانگذاری
شاهنشاهی ایران, which I can’t read, but which I assumed translates to “Spending
$22 Million on a Party For Yourself When Your Economy Isn’t Doing Great Seems Like A Bad
Idea,” but Google tells me it actually means “2,500th Year of Foundation of Imperial
State of Iran,” a reference to the founding of the First Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great
in 550 BC.
Now if you’re a math whiz, you may have realized that 1971 was actually 2,521 years
after 550 BC, but shh, shh, shh.
This is the kind of leader nitpicking that leads to you accidentally tripping and falling
out of a fifth story window, so shush it.
So, the party took place here, at the ruins of the ancient city of Persepolis and you
might be thinking, “how are you going to have a party in the middle of ruins?
What are you going to do, build an entire temporary miniature city luxurious enough
to host the leaders of the world?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” said the Shah, and so, in addition
to significant improvements to the local airport and highway, a city was built.
It was called a tent city, but the tents were tents in the same way that Shake Shacks are
shacks—they weren’t.
They were more like little luxury apartments, and 50 of them were built, arranged in a star
around a fountain and complete with telephones which each provided direct lines to the home
country of each guest because that was something you needed 90 or 200 or however many years
back 1971 was.
The village also included a “Tent of Honor” for receiving the guests, and a 68 by 24 meter
Banquet Hall, and the whole thing was designed by a Parisian interior design firm called
Maison Jansen—in fact, a decent amount of the event’s cost came from the Shah’s
penchant for having high-end Parisian designers create nearly everything for the event.
There was dinnerware from Limoges, linens by Porthault, and uniforms by Lanvin—all
brands that are so fancy that you’ve likely never even heard of because you aren’t a
soon-to-be-deposed Iranian Shah.
The festivities began on October 12, 1971, when the Shah visited Cyrus the Great’s
tomb here, in Pasargadae, followed by two days spent greeting dignitaries from around
the world, including royalty, presidents, and Prime ministers from nearly all of the
world’s major nations.
Among the few nations who didn’t send their very tippy-top people was the US, who sent
Vice President Spiro Agnew instead of Nixon, because he was busy being about to do Watergate,
and the UK who, for security reasons, didn’t send Queen Elizabeth and instead sent Prince
Philip and Princess Anne.
In case you were worried about Prince Philip having to walk around on his bad knee, don’t
be: the Shah had arranged for 250 red Mercedes-Benz limousines to be around at all times to transport
the guests.
That’s so many more red Mercedes-Benz limousines than the average person has, which makes this
interesting.
The big kickoff came at the grand gala dinner, which took place in the Banqueting Hall, and
consisted of 600 guests eating and drinking over 5.5 hours, which set a Guinness World
Record for “the most lavish official banquet in modern history,” which I absolutely promise
is a real record that I did not make up.
Seriously, the food was provided by the Paris restaurant Maxim’s, which shut down for
two weeks in order to cater the event, because after all, what better way to celebrate Iran
than with Parisian food, and it was followed by a “Son et Lumiere” show, which you
might assume was a show done by Lumiere’s son, but is actually a lights and music show,
which was called Polytope of Persepolis.
It was designed by a very fancy man named Iannis Xenakis, and was accompanied by a very
fancy electronic music piece composed just for the occasion.
The next day began with a parade showcasing the 2,500 year history of the Iranian military,
with 1,724 soldiers dressed in gear from various periods, while the evening was occupied by
a “traditional Persian party.”
The final day saw the Shah inaugurate the Shahvad Tower in Tehran, in which was displayed
the ancient Cyrus Cylinder, which also served as the party’s logo—because ancient cylinders
covered in cuneiform script look great on commemorative t-shirts—and finally, the
festivities were capped off by a ceremony at the mausoleum of the Shah’s father, who
was not-at-all coincidentally also known as the Shah.
In the end, the Shah’s $22 million bash’s legacy was not its awesome gift bags, but
the Iranian Revolution.
In 1979, for reasons that many historians attribute in part to the anger caused by the
party’s extravagance, the Shah was overthrown by a popular revolution that replaced his
government with an Islamic Republic led by the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and
since then, things in the Middle East have, as we all know, been super duper calm and
uneventful.
So the $22 million party might not have been a great value, but you know what are: Raycon
earbuds.
They cost about half as much as the big-name earbuds, but they sound just as good.
They sent me a pair of their Everyday E25’s to try and I’ve been super impressed with
the audio quality.
They’re also so comfortable you could forget they’re there yet I found them plenty secure
enough for running.
In fact, they come with six different sized gel tips to be sure they fit great.
Plus, they’re water resistant, can make calls, and have great battery life.
Best of all, by heading to buyraycon.com/hai, you’ll get 15% off their already affordable
prices.