Looking south along Madison Avenue from 80th Street. 5:40 PM. Photo: JH.

July 20, 2010. Very warm days in New York. Yesterday’s came with a forecast (promise) from the weatherman for some rain to cool us down. Not really.

Down at Michael’s: Kathy Lacey was hosting a small luncheon in the garden room for Gillian Tett, the new US Managing Editor of the Financial Times (FT). If you’re an FT reader you’re already familiar with Ms. Tett whose byline and reports have graced the salmon pink sheet’s pages for sometime. Gillian Tett I don’t know her, only to have read her articles. She’s very smart, sharp witted and very attractive in person. I went to their table to introduce myself but only to get a picture of the group. I was having lunch with Christopher Hyland whose ads (Christopher Hyland Textiles) you may have seen on these pages. He and I always talk about politics with so much enthusiasm it almost seems compulsive. A Republican (from old Massachusetts), he worked in Bill Clinton’s first campaign when he ran for Student Government at Georgetown. Then he worked in the man’s first or second campaign for President of the United States. Christopher had just returned from a trip up to the Cape visiting friends in Wianno and a tribute to a show of his photographic collection at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. The museum’s director Elizabeth Ives Hunter as well as President Thomas Lucey, Vice President Thomas George, and also US Trust Bank of America hosted a cocktail reception for the collector and the collection. The exhibit is called “By Way of These Eyes: The Sublime, Exotic and Familiar.”

Seated (L-R): Gillian Tett, Lally Weymouth, Jane Hartley, and Shirley Lord. Standing (L-R): Patty Tobin, Mary Boies, Kathleen Lacey, Jennifer McClellan, Ann Sommerlath, and Nina Devlin.

Mandala #450 by Bill Armstrong. This photograph was given by Christopher Hyland in honor of Mr. & Mrs. George Phippen Edmonds. The presentation of this gift was made at the U.S. Trust/Bank of America party at The Cape Cod Museum of Art honoring The Christopher Hyland Collection of Photography.

The curator was Michael Giaquinto and the exhibition features works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Edward Weston, Sally Man, Paul Strand, Mario Neto, Michael Wolf, Bill Armstrong, David Sitbon, Herb Ritts, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sarah Hart, Andre Kertesz, Marcus Leatherdale and Edward Steichen. Also at Michael’s: Sugar Rautbord, in from Chicago; Jesse Kornbluth with his old friend (the other) Wendy Goldberg; Judy Price, Elizabeth Harrison; Silda Wall Spitzer, whom my lunch partner feels should run for Governor (and he told her so). Michael’s was hopping for a hot summer Monday. Today we have a new contributor to the NYSD on today’s Homepage – Maria Melmotte’s Mommy World [1]. Mommy World is that domain inhabited by energetically competitive young mothers from that demographic known to all as the Upper East Side -- but especially the avenues Park and Fifth from the low 60s to the high 90s, as well as the blocks, between where Having It All is an ongoing given, and a matter of entitlement. As you may notice.

Guests at the Frick Garden Party.

Last Thursday night the Frick Collection held is 3rd annual Garden Party where guests gathered to enjoy a warm summer evening of cocktails and jazz. It was a big hit. They expected 300, 400 attended. It’s a great evening in New York in a rare setting – the mansion surrounded on two sides by elevated gardens. On the western side overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park, you can feel as if you are in the Park but at the same time on the grounds of Mr. Frick’s mansion.

Event Chairmen Alexandra Porter, Lisa Morse, Fiona Benenson, Caroline Milbank, Deborah Royce, Emily T. Frick, Barbara Reibel, Clare McKeon, and Jennifer Wright.

Henry Clay Frick’s house was completed in 1913-1914 to house his extraordinary private collection of paintings and sculpture, and he moved in with his family. Elsie de Wolfe, the leading interior decorator in the nation, did the private quarters on the second floor of the house. Many of her touches are still intact. Mr. Frick died five years later, and as according to plan a little more than 16 years after, on December 11, 1935, 700 were invited to a private unveiling of the mansion transformed into a museum under the design and direction of John Russell Pope.

Terry Elsberry, Missy Renwick, Margot Bogert, Nancy Elsberry, and Jim Renwick.

Meanwhile back at the Garden Party. Bold pink was the dominant color of the evening, from dresses, to ties, to painted chairs. Many of the ladies wore hats and many carried colorful parasols. Guests also got to visit the new display in the Cabinet Gallery created to mark the museum’s transition anniversary: From Mansion to Museum: The Frick Collection Celebrates Seventy-Five Years. All of us living today have been around since long after the Frick became a museum, and one of the greatest in the city. Its transformation from private to public was well thought out in advance beginning with Mr. Frick himself. He had the vision but even more, he had the daughter Helen who devoted her life to her father’s wishes and presided over the perfecting of that vision and those wishes throughout her lifetime. The Frick was really the Fricks.

Marianne Wyman, Deborah Royce, and Myrna Haft.

Suzanne Bullock, Craig Starr, Agnes Gund, William Bernard and Catherine Cahill, and Charles Bullock.

Reverend John C. Smith and Zita Davisson.

Chair of the Frick Board of Trustees Margot Bogert and Jisoo Kim.

Event Chairmen Alexandra Porter and Deborah Royce.

Ryan Benson and Allison M. Ecung.

Laura Pels, Frick Director Anne L. Poulet, and Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart.

Joanna L. Lico, Tess Rafferty, Alice Francis, and Andrew Chatham.

Nina W. Wainwright, Thayer Joyce, Saara Pritchard, Lisa Morse, and Austin Varner.

Annika Connor, Lin Gao, and Marta Abbott.

Event Chairmen Lisa Morse, Fiona Benenson, Jennifer Wright, and Clare McKeon.

Shawn Kirschner, Brian Vetter, Alyson Gerken, Jeffrey C. Caldwell, and friend.

Event Chairmen Caroline Milbank and Lisa Morse.

Donald and Susan Newhouse.

Lucy Jane Lang, Scott Asher, Megan E. Kulten, and Sean M. Daley.

Anne S. and Alain Goldrach with Frick Director Anne L. Poulet.

Sharon Kim, Elisabeth Saint-Amand, and Clare McKeon.

Attosa M. Vakil, Read McKendree, and Liz Corbin.

Van Fleet Bloys, Amparo Brookfield, Lansing Moore, and Eliza C. McKendree.

Linda Pratka, Sofia Emarsson, and David M. Darst.

Clare McKeon, Frick Director Anne L. Poulet, and Elisabeth Saint-Amand.

Amanda Maple-Brown, Jeremy Clarke, and James and Sally Bertouch.

Jerold D. Fessenden and Heather Peavey.

Natoya Green and Frederick Mwangaguhunga.

William FitzGerald and Anna K. Curry.

As dusk falls the Fifth Avenue Garden remains full of guests.

Alice Francis dancing with Andrew Chatham.

Chris and Jennie T. Coyne.

Jazz at the Frick.

Guests linger as dusk falls at the Frick Garden.

Michael Davis, Lydia W. Fenet, and Caitlin Davis.

Alexander Overstrom and Jeffrey C. Caldwell.

Cater Sparks and Linnea Wilson.

And now for something completely different. We received this yesterday from Ann Watt whose photo credit you’ve seen on these pages many times. After losing his parents, this three-year-old orangutan was so depressed he wouldn't eat and didn't respond to any medical treatments. The veterinarians thought he would surely die from sadness. The zoo keepers found an old, sick dog on the grounds in the park at the zoo where the orangutan lived and took the dog to the animal treatment center. The dog arrived at the same time the orangutan was there being treated. The two lost souls met and have been inseparable ever since.

The orangutan found a new reason to live and each always tries his best to be a good companion to his new found friend. They are together 24 hours a day in all their activities.

They live in Northern California where swimming is their favorite past time, although Roscoe (the orangutan) is a little afraid of the water and needs his friend's help to swim. Together they have discovered the joy and laughter in life and the value of friendship. They have found more than a friendly shoulder to lean on.

Long Live Friendship!!!!

Enter your email address below to subscribe to NYSD's newsletter. It's free!

Email:

Photographs by Christine A. Butler (Frick)

Comments? Contact DPC here. [2]