HELLo! Just out of curiosity, I remember reading in some websites that by the time the CoS had just been recently founded a few public 'rituals' took place (a funeral of somebody who was part of the US navy, a marriage of two New York based reporters, and a baptism). If I remember correctly all of these events took place in a relatively short period of time, and were all performed by Anton LaVey himself. My question: how much of that is true? I mean, now that the Black Mass took place last summer, I recalled some websites (perhaps the CoS itself) said that the Black Mass had been the only public Satanist ceremony in history, or is it more like the only ceremony where members were invited, and the general public was aware of that?

Anton LaVey wasn't performing public rituals -- he was publicizing these invitation-only rituals to garner media attention for his new organization.

The ritual in Los Angeles was a Satanic High Mass, not a Black Mass.