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 A busy autumn day
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| Allison Aston, Jamee Gregory, Sigourney Weaver, Eleanora Kennedy, Anna Haughton, Charlotte Moss, Dr. Annette Rickel, Kamie Lightburn, Pamela Fiori, Mary Davidson, Sloan Overstrom at last night's opening of The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's 24th Annual Preview Party for The International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show. Photo: Annie Watt. |
Friday, October 19, 2012. Fair weather yesterday with grey clouds moving over the city but no rain. Rain forecast for early this morning through the weekend.
I went down to Michael’s to lunch with Vanessa Friedman, the fashion commentator/columnist for the FT. Vanessa and I have known each other for some time but have never had the opportunity to sit down tete-a-tete.
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| Front and center: FT's Vanessa Friedman |
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Fashion’s interest for me, as I’ve written here before, is its portentousness and its significance from a historical perspective. I know that sounds a bit lofty but I’m always looking for what we’re saying about ourselves. I tend to believe that all fashion presages. Vanessa happens to be one of those rare journalists who understands this, although I’m not sure she sees it quite as cut-and-dried as I do.
Her column in the Saturday FT is one of the best in all fashion journalism. Maybe the most significant. Have a look; she’s sharp and snappy and a pleasure to read.
After lunch I went with a friend over to Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center where the Hearst Corporation was hosting a Memorial for Helen Gurley Brown, the founder of Cosmopolitan as it exists today, who died this past August at the great age of 90 and a half.
There were about a thousand people attending. There were nine speakers, as you can see from the program. Kelli O’Hara and Matthew Broderick performed. Both were favorites of Helen who was an avid theatre-goer right up until a month before she died. O’Hara started with a song she sang in the most recent revival of “South Pacific,” “I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy,” and then she and Broderick sang “S’Wonderful.”
The magazine that Helen created (with valuable advice from David Brown) for Hearst was, still is, one of the great moneymakers in the magazine business (fifty years later). She was greatly admired, very well liked, empathic, loyal, hardworking, conscientious and it all, remarkably, never went to her head.
So the five-minute speeches were full of sweet and amusing and insightful anecdotes about this woman who was a friend to many. Just a little girl from Little Rock, she never lost contact with that girl who had to go to work to support her family while still dreaming of the big time. |
Among her foibles, if you want to think of it that way was she was notoriously skinflinty. Or, as Barbara Walters admitted in reverie: “cheap.” “She could throw nickels like manhole covers,” recalled her boss and long time colleague Frank Bennack. Once when the company gave her a car driver to get around, she sent the driver home and took the bus – she lived about 25 blocks up Central Park West. Asked why the bus? She said it was a chance to “see my girls,” the women she was making the magazine for. What were they wearing, reading, thinking.
In the program there are a number of quotes of friends and associates about her. Helen was a great letter writer – thank you’s, congratulatory letters, reminders, occasonials.
One which defines Helen is that of a long time friend Charlotte Veal, whom Helen called Carlotta. They met back in the '50s in Los Angeles when Helen, working as a private secretary, hired Charlotte (then Kelly) as a file clerk for the advertising firm of Foote, Cone and Belding. Although their paths diverged professionally and Helen went on to “fame and fortune,” the two women made a friendship that lasted for the rest of their long lives.
Charlotte’s memory:
Helen was a woman who was fascinating to men, many of whom continued to correspond with her throughout her life. She would send their letters over to me with quirky, funny notes attached and we laughed over them like we were still those two girls at Foote, Cone & Belding. Helen loved being admired and admired she was.
After all her delightful adventures with men – and there were countless – Helen found the MAN, David Brown, and never looked back. He was her partner, soul mate and creative muse.
Helen wrote a poem for me years ago on Valentine’s Day. It is a long, racy and intimate send-up of the lives we shared. It ends:
Carlotta, creature divine,
Will you be my Valentine?
Some people have trouble calling one friend best.
Not my problem, you passed every test!
Last night, busy night again. I stopped by Archivia where Tino Zervudachi and Natasha Fraser were having another booksigning of their book shown on the NYSD yesterday. For a whole new group of friends. |
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| Lars Bolander phoning in his new book, held by Cynthia Conigliaro. |
Geoffrey Thomas and Sharon Sondes. |
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| A close up Sharon's new purse. |
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| Andrea Cicognani and Bettina Zikha. |
The scene. Top, Judy Auchincloss talking to Tito; Ann Dexter Jones talking to her friend Natasha, Louis Charles de Remuset peruses. |
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From Archivia, I moved on down to the Park Avenue Armory for the opening night preview of the annual autumn International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, which is a gala benefit for the the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. This year they raised a record $1 million under the co-chairmanship of Mary Davidson, Jamee Gregory, Kamie Lightburn, Pamela Fiori and Eleanora Kennedy, .
I got in there late and was pressed for time because I had a dinner ahead. But it was crowded and I ran into a lot of familiar faces as I made my way to the back of the Drill Room where a bar/café designed by Charlotte Moss was set up. Jammed. This show, which opens today and runs through the next week is a great way to spend an afternoon in New York. An especially good idea for this rainy weekend that is predicted. The dealers’ booths are full of wonders and beauty, the Charlotte Moss café is perfect for some leisurely people watching over a glass of wine or a cappuccino. You will be happily amazed. |
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Sigourney Weaver, Eleanora Kennedy, Candice Bergen, and Marshall Rose. |
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Gigi and Shafik Gabr. |
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Eleanora Kennedy, Roman Martinez, Helene Martinez, Boaz Mazor, Dr. Annette Rickle, and Mary Davidson. |
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And the reprise ... |
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| Lisa Klein, Paul Raps, and David Klein. |
Eleanora Kennedy and Hilary Geary Ross. |
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Jo Hallingby, Mario Buatta, Pat Altschul, and Larry Kaiser. |
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| Caroline Dean, George Farias, and Mark Gilbertson. |
Bob and Beth Hardwick |
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Ian Wardropper, the new Director of the Frick, with Brian and Anna Haughton. |
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| Anki Leeds and Susan Calhoun. |
Emily Eerdman and Louis Bofferding. |
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Mary Hilliard, Marilyn White, Chris Spitzmiller, and Sam Allen |
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| Megan capturing the opening night crowd. |
Robert Couturier. |
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The Charlotte Moss Garden Cafe. |
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| Penny Grant with Linette and Matt Semino. |
Polly Onet and Martha Glass. |
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Business was brisk. |
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| Ann Nitze and George Farias. |
Cheri Kaufman. |
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| Leaving the Armory, I walked across the avenue and up a block to the Council on Foreign Relations, the old Harold Pratt mansion, where Diahn McGrath was giving a birthday celebration for Tom McGrath who just ran into his 80th. The McGraths are a popular couple here in New York. I’ve written about their dinner parties on these pages because they are what you think interesting New York dinner parties might be like. Twelve or fourteen guests of various interests, often prominent, often authorities in their fields, the McGrath is one of those rare ones where conversation runs across and the length of the table, led by the host at one end and the hostess at the other. |
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| The Park Avenue Armory at 67th and Park last night, 7:55 PM. |
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| Begonias blooming autumn. The Council on Foreign Relations is on the left (with the blue window lights). |
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Tom McGrath is of Irish descent and has an affinity for what could be called blarney in some sectors. However he’s a deeply curious fellow with a turn of laughter always nearby. I told him last night that I liked his laugh with my asinine comments which were a guise from getting good stories out of him. He’s had a long experience of dealing with the human condition when it comes to money. The complexities, the webs we weave never fail to astonish and intrigue.
There were four speeches of affection and amusement (Tom likes to laugh) and toasts and camaraderie in the room or six or seven tables of ten. I don’t recall our singing “Happy Birthday” or any candle-blowing, but the dessert was very subtle and delicious creamy-ice creamy layer cake. A nice way to end a long day in little old New York. |
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| Tom McGrath thanking his guests and speakers for celebrating the day with him. |
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| Toasting the birthday boy. |
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| Tom with daughters Maura and Courtney. |
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