History, philanthropy, and greenery

Tulips on Central Park West and 64th Street. 2:30 PM. Photo: JH.

May 13, 2009. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in New York with temperatures in the mid-60s.

There is a frequent measure-taking of the financial atmosphere among the very rich these days. The other night someone was telling me about a family with a net worth of $80 million and all with Madoff. This is a family, I was told, where two generations together have lived very well off the multimillion dollar annual income they reaped. Now they don’t know what to do.

Someone else told me the night before last about the famous tycoon who had “lost” $885 million (don’t worry, there was still a lot left) in one of his business deals. And the investment banker who has put his yacht on the market. And a family who have “quietly” put their Southampton estate on the market. And the businessman who has “quietly” put his Fifth Avenue floor-through on the market. Not to mention several cases I know of where the market has got in the way of the divorce settlement.

Aside from the personal matter of great losses; and aside from the more “positive” news finding its way into print and television media, and aside from the fact that the very rich even with their losses are mainly a helluva lot better off than the average Jane or Joe who’s lost a job and is now worried about feeding the family, all of it registers as “change” and adjustment, and not easily. That is what New York is embarking on at this point.

Nevertheless, the gala benefits are in full swing, just a couple of weeks away from the end of the season, and despite all the “bad” news, people are still coming through. Literacy raised $1.1 million on Monday night. There were several other benefits that night and I don’t have the figures but I know they were doing business. Evelyn Lauder raised about $4 million a couple of weeks ago for her Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Cancer Research Institute’s “Through the Kitchen” at the Four Seasons brought in just a tad over a half million. Last week, the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy took in well over a million at its famous hat luncheon, and the New York Public Library’s Children’s reading program raised more than $400,000 (a goal which made many very nervous at the outset). And last night the American Cancer Society’s gala at the St. Regis brought in a little more than that.

The times they are a-changin’ in New York, as it is everywhere else, and while the end appears to be not in sight, New York will be energized by these changes. Life goes on.

Guests at Ann Nitze's annual Spring luncheon at her East Side penthhouse.

Yesterday noontime Ann Nitze held her annual Spring luncheon at her Upper East Side apartment with all her terrace doors opened for the sun to come pouring in. Many took to the terraces to visit with friends and watch the passing parade. The waitstaff kept a steady supply of bite-sized morsels and guests were drinking white wine or water or champagne.

On the terrace ...

Charles Whitman, Anne, Julia and Bernard Gray

Ann NItze and Ambassador Paul Cejas with friends

Stephanie Stokes and James Reginato

Virginia Coleman, Prince Dimitri, and Evelyn Lauder

Mark Gilbertson and Clay Tompkins

Carlos Picon, Mary Van Pelt, and Michel Langlais de Langlade

French Ambassador Pierre Vimont and Elizabeth Fondaras

Dame Jill Sackler, Christopher Walling, Victoria Smith, and Sharon Hoffman

Marife Hernandez

Sarah and George King

From the terrace I noticed how many buildings were showing the green decorating their terraces and rooftops. The views are from 74th Street looking south. The tallest building at the center sporting some green at the top is 740 Park Avenue.

Seeing green from Ann Nitze's terrace ...

Last night at the St. Regis Roof, the American Cancer Society honored Scott Hamilton and Ambassador Brenda LaGrange Johnson for the 2009 Man of Achievement and the 2009 Humanitarian Award respectively. Nikki Haskell was Mistress of Ceremonies and Diana Feldman gave the welcoming speech.

There is good news there. The early detection and recovery rates for cancers is increasing measurably. What is especially worrying for a lot of charities now is the obvious: the need for funds to stay on course in their individual pursuits of medical progress and cure. And food, shelter and education; the basics for a healthy society.

Diana Feldman, Serena Stewart, and Charlotte Ford

Amb. Brenda LaGrange Johnson, Scott Hamilton, and Diana Feldman

This particular annual evening draws several hundred but it’s a cozy event. There are a lot of people who’ve been involved with ACS for years now. Diana Feldman has been a very active supporter for a long time. She has lost of family to cancer over the years also. Last night she introduced three young people to tell the guests about Camp Adventure out in Shelter Island where every summer kids with cancer go to have fun.

One young woman, a very self-possessed 17-year-old, told us how as a three-year-old she contracted a rare form of sarcoma – a one in million – that required years of treatment. She explained to us in detail how the disease and its treatment automatically separates you from the other kids, only adding to the pain.

Camp Adventure was her first experience in life where she didn’t feel alone and isolated from her contemporaries and the tears were flowing all over the room.

She was followed by a very dynamic young man who was first diagnosed with cancer when he was having a physical in preparation for joining the school football team. Camp Adventure rescued him also.

Afterwards guests were asked to buy balloons to raise money to send kids to this camp made especially for kids with cancer. A thousand dollars a week is the cost. Any sized donation toward that goal will have a life-giving effect on a child somewhere. Something to bear in mind.

Then Donald Trump introduced Scott Hamilton. Mr. Trump is just off of his Celebrity Apprentice Show which Nikki Haskell told us had got the highest ratings of anything of its kind. Coincidence: Donald and his first wife Ivana made their very first appearances on television in the early 1980s on Nikki Haskell’s cable television talk show.

Amb. Brenda LaGrange Johnson, Betsy Bartlett, and Jones York

Donald Trump and Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton had been on Donald’s new show and evidently was let go. So there was a lot of funny back and forth about that between the two men. Before Scott came up to the podium Donald told the audience how when he first knew the champion figure skater, he noticed he was already losing his hair and he pointed it out to him. Scott, he said, was unfazed about it; unlike himself, which he confessed, who would have been very bothered. All New Yorkers know about The Donald and his hair. And how he still has it.

Brenda La Grange Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica was diagnosed with colon cancer in her forties. Twenty-five years have passed since that successful surgery and treatment. Her husband Howard has successfully survived three cancer operations in six months just last year.

After the Awards, Neil Sedaka, the Irving Berlin of American Rock gave a special performance. Bob Hardwick and Orchestra kept the music playing before and after and throughout the evening.

Christine and Carl Bernstein

Martha Kramer

Nikki Haskell and Neil Sedaka

Leba Sedaka and Nikki Haskell

Richard Feldman

This past Monday night while I was over at Lincoln Center for the Literacy Partners gala, over yonder east on 72nd Street and York Avenue at Sotheby’s there was a gala dinner to benefit the Blenheim Foundation. The Foundation raises funds for the restoration of Blenheim Palace’s two centuries-old interiors and gardens.


	The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough

The birthplace of Winston Churchill, and the country seat of the dukes of Marlborough since the 18th century, Blenheim is one of the greatest monuments of the Queen Anne era. That is principally because Sarah, the first duchess of Marlborough was a great friend of Queen Anne.

More than just a great friend was probably more like it, as Sarah Jennings Churchill was as dynamic and politically astute as could be (you might say Machiavellian) when it came to her relationship with the Queen. Then there was John, the first duke who won the battle of Blenheim against the forces of Louis XIV and became one of England’s greatest military heroes. Hence the palace built for a hero, also politically astute.

The present duke’s daughter, Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill , has written a great book about the house and the family. It is full of archival details about the Churchills, who actually became Spencers in the generation following the first duke and duchess because the male heir died before succeeding ... and so his eldest sister Henrietta Churchill Spencer (same family as Princess Diana) became the second duchess of Marlborough.

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Powerful and rich women play an important role in the family heritage. The first Sarah (who also built Marlborough House in London) died the richest woman in the world in 1744. She’d long before fallen out of favor with Queen Anne, but after the queen’s death, the duchess regained favor with the Hanoverians (George I) from whom today’s British royals are directly descended.

There were a few American women who married into the family. Winston Churchill’s mother was Jenny Jerome of New York. And the present duke’s grandmother was Consuelo Vanderbilt whose marriage to the 9th duke brought millions into the family and the palace repair and refurbishment.

Monday night’s benefit brought out the duke of Marlborough and his new duchess, along with Lady Henrietta, Hilary and Wilbur Ross, Arianna and Dixon Boardman, Peter Lyden, Freddie and Ginnie Melhado, Jamie and Lee Niven, Tom Quick, Peder Monsen, Gigi and Harry Benson, Emilia and Pepe Fanjul, Kip Forbes, Cella and Silas Chou, Deborah Norville and Karl Wellner, Blaine Trump, Adrienne and Gigi Vittadini, Lally Weymouth, Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman whose grandfather Alfred Vanderbilt was a first cousin of the duke’s grandmother Consuelo; Jamee and Peter Gregory, and many more.