| George
Abbott; Frances Beatty Adler; Prince Amyn Aga Khan; Judith
Agisim; Irene Aitken; Rufus Albemarle;
Sally Albemarle; Herb Allen; Joe Allen. |
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Frances
Beatty Adler and Allan Adler
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Prince
Amyn Aga Khan
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Irene
Aitken
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George
Abbott. One of
the greatest showmen in the history of Broadway. Playwright,
actor, director and producer
known as “Mr. Abbott” whose career paralled the
development of modern theater. His first play was performed
in 1911. He was involved in more than 120 productions. Born
in 1887 in Forestville, New York, he first appeared on Broadway
in 1913. His most notable directorial efforts were Jumbo,
On Your Toes, The Boys From Syracuse, Pal Joey, Twentieth Century,
On The Town, Where’s Charley? Call Me Madam, A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn, Three Men on a Horse, Best Foot Forward, Out of
This World, Me and Juliet, Wonderful Town, Pajama Game, Damn
Yankees, Fiorello, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the
Forum, Flora the Red Menace, Take Her She’s Mine, How
Now, Dow Jones? Mr. Abbott’s career spanned eighty
years. He won five Tonys, a Pulitzer, was nominated for an
Oscar (for All Quiet on the Western Front), was honored
with a Kennedy Center Award in 1982 (when he was 95), and died
in 1995 at 107. His most famous protégé of our
time is the distinguished Broadway producer and director Harold
Prince.
Frances
Beatty Adler. New Yorker, art dealer (executive
with Richard Feigen Gallery), active in cultural and philanthropic
endeavors; chairwoman of the Drawing Center.
Prince
Amyn Aga Khan. Brother of
Karim, the Aga Khan, son of Aly Khan, and uncle of Princess Yasmin
Aga Khan, daughter
of Rita Hayworth.
Judith
Agisim. New York public relations woman specializing
in fashion.
Irene Aitken. Widow
of Russell Aitken, stepfather of the tragic Sunny von Bulow;
previously married to the late John Roosevelt, son of Franklin
and Eleanor; frequent supporter of New York charities,
major collector of 18th-century French furniture and art.
Former resident of Newport; currently resides in New York.
Rufus Albemarle. One
New York’s finer, he was born Rufus Arnold Alexis
Keppel, grandson of the then 9th Earl of Albemarle on
his father’s side and Count Serge Orloff-Davidoff on
his mother’s side. When he was three years old, his
father, whose official English title was Viscount
Bury, died at age 77, with Rufus succeeding to
the title. When his grandfather died in 1979 (at 97!) Rufus,
at age 14, became the 10th Earl of Albemarle and eventually
the youngest member of the House of Lords.
This
family of Albemarles (the title died out and was revived
more than once since the 11th Century) has had a prominence
since the first Keppel – Arnold
Joost van Keppel accompanied William, Prince of Orange to
the throne of England in 1688, leading a rebellion against James II,
father of his wife Mary. James II was exiled to France and William
and Mary succeeded to the throne.
Arnold van Keppel, being a “favorite” of William, was given the then
defunct title of Earl of Albemarle and quite a bit of land in Ireland – which
was later denied him by Parliament. Arnold’s son, the 2nd Earl was the
governor of the Virginia Colony in the early 18th Century, hence the prominence
of the Albemarle name in the state (Charlottesville is in Albemarle County).
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Rufus
and Sally Albemarle
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The
3rd Earl and two of his brothers conquered Havana in the
1760s making it briefly another colony of the crown of
George III. The second son of the 8th Earl, George
Keppel had a wife, Alice, who
became famous as the mistress of King Edward VII.
The Keppels’ great-granddaughter is well-known in
the world as the mistress of Edward VII’s great-great-grandson, Charles,
the Prince of Wales – Camilla Parker-Bowles.
That
said, the young Earl known as Rufus, who grew up with his
Russian-born mother, mainly in Italy, came to New York
in the late 1990s, as an industrial designer to seek his
fortune (the Albemarles, as Rufus has described his family,
are “land-rich and cash poor”). In 2000 at
a wedding in Mexico, Rufus met a young sculptress named Sally
Tadayon (pictured left). From the sound
of it, it was love at first sight. They were married in
a big international wedding in Havana, the Albemarle’s
(very) old stomping ground in May 2001.
They live comfortably (if modestly for the image of an English noble) in a loft
in the Chelsea/Clinton section of Manhattan, eschewing, as Rufus intended, the
sleeker Upper East Side where many of their friends do live. Last year, an heir, Augustus,
was born to the couple.
The Albemarles are a very popular couple in Manhattan and with the international
set. On weekends, if not invited to stay with friends out of town, they, especially
Sally, like to haunt the flea markets. She of the current Best Dressed List,
and he, tall and handsome as laid-back a movie star (without the accompanying
vanity or ego), mix well in any company and are invited everywhere. I’ve
never heard of him referred to by his title here which, although it may be impressive
to a certain set in New York, means nothing to the American ear anyway. Rufus
seems to like it just like that and whatever long term prominence may come to
him, it will likely come through his professional life.
Countess Sally Albemarle. Married to Rufus, Earl
of Albemarle; the couple reside in Manhattan where they
are popular in society and are great weekend aficionados
of flea markets.
Herb Allen. New York investment
banker (Allen & Company); founder of the highly publicized
annual Sun Valley retreat highlighted every year by Vanity
Fair, principal in the Global Education Network, a private,
for-profit company established to distribute online versions of
college courses over the Internet. Peripatetic, a natural-born
organizer, Mr. Allen was once married to Broadway dancer and director
Ann Reinking.
Joe Allen. Businessman; longer partnership
in pulp business with Peter Brant, married to writer Annette Tapert. |
Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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