A perfect night for a good old fashioned cocktail party

Looking north towards the Empire State Building from 23rd Street between 5th and 6th. 5:25 PM. Photo: JH.

June 3, 2009. A sunny yesterday in New York with dark grey storm clouds in the distance that never quite made it to the Big Town.

It was a perfect night for a good old fashioned cocktail party and Mark Gilbertson, the social impresario of what used to be called the Junior Set in New York (now expanded with their own little juniors growing up) gave one of his semi-annual cocktail parties at a great big clubhouse that likes to go unidentified in public, and it was a smash.

I’d guess 250 – 300 of his closest intimates were there. His rolodex is voluminous so this was just a handful. Just a plain old cocktail party where the girls are in summer dresses, a lot of the men are in their lightweight summer grey suits and ties, the hors d’oeuvres are a streaming of trays of pig-in-a-blankets, Southern fried shrimp, sushi, junior crabcakes; a four-sided bar set up in the middle of the room with lots of booze and LOTS of water and Cokes. And lots of talk.

Manhattan goes Masai. Phoebe Eaton eatin' her faves at Mark Gilbertson's cocktail party. The bracelet she bought from a Masai warrior in Kenya a few months ago. He was selling his wares and she said, I want what's on your arm. Sold.

I went through quickly with my camera but I saw Bill and Kitty McKnight, Leo Peraino and Nina Griscom, Polly Onet, John and Nina Richter, Bill Manger, Lise Arliss, Frances Schultz and Tom Ditmer, Duane Hampton, Marjorie Gubelman, Wendy Carduner, Roger Webster, Katherine Bryan, Josh and Shoshanna Gruss, Bettina Zilkha, Todd Romano, Eric Javits, Peter and Allison Rockefeller, Bettina Prentice, Kate Allen, Phoebe Eaton, Celerie Kemble, Chris and Grace Meigher, Martha Glass, Bruce Addison, Couri Hay, Janna Bullock, Jeff Sharp and Dr. Doug Steinhart, Doug Hannant and Fred Anderson, Tory Burch, Fred Krimendahl and Emilia Saint-Amand, Ann Nitze, Suzette deMarigny Smith, Tom McCarter and Frannie Scaife, Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman, Dennis Basso and Michael Cominotto, Michael Foster, Terry Allen Kramer and Nick Simunek, Zibby Tozer, Cricket Burns, Julie Dannenberg, Michael Wayne, Dana Hammond and Dr. Patrick Stubgen, Debbie Bancroft, of course; Georgina Schaeffer, Elizabeth Meigher, Tara and Michael Rockefeller, Muffie Potter Aston, Fernanda Kellogg and Kirk Henckels, Cynthia Lufkin, Jonathan and Somers Farkas, Peter Pennoyer, and thousands more just like ‘em.

The scene at Mark's good old fashioned cocktail party.

New Yorkers love these cocktail parties. They’re few and far between. Usually cocktail parties are in a store pushing some merch or in a museum pushing some culture, or in a quiet apartment where the noise level is so low people tend keep it that way. Mark’s parties are for old friends, yakkers and their kind. And although it was called for 6 to 8:30 and I left about ten to eight, I’m sure they were there till well after nine, keeping the drinks filled and the trays of hors d’oeuvres cleaned. We'll have even more photos to show you tomorrow ...

Dana Hammond Stubgen and Patricia Duff.

Bettina Prentice and Gordon Faux.

Tory Burch and Sandy Golinkin.

Fred Krimendahl and Emilia Saint-Amand.

Polly Onet and pal.

Mark Gilbertson with mom, Ellen.

Felicia Taylor.

Leonel Piraino and Tom Ditmar.

Terry Allen Kramer and Zibby Tozer.

Bruce Addison, Martha Glass, and Jay Sharp.

Bruce Colley and Somers Farkas.

Around the town: This past Monday night at the Cinema Village Cinema on 22 East 12th Street, they screened the New York premiere of the award-winning documentary “Herb & Dorothy.”

The Herb and Dorothy in this story are Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a postal clerk and his wife, a librarian who, over forty years, acquired what is now one of the most important contemporary art collections in history. They did this on their not-so-enormous salaries also.

Dorothy Vogel, Herbert Vogel, Megumi Sasaki, Lucio Pozzi, Sylvia Plimack-Mangold, Will Barnet, Robert Mangold, and Robert Barry

Andie MacDowell with Dorothy and Herbert Vogel.

Richard Tuttle.

They began in the 1960s buying Minimalist and Conceptual Art when few were interested in it and the artists were “unknown.” All of Herb’s salary at the Post Office went for the Art. Dorothy’s paid the bills. They had two rules for their collecting: 1. The price of the piece had to be affordable, and 2. it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom apartment which was a small one-bedroom apartment.

Jeanne-Claude and Christo with Dorothy and Herbert Vogel and Megumi Sasaki.

So while the rich, the chic and the shameless were lighting up the galleries of SoHo and Chelsea and the Upper East Side, and while the names falling from the mouths of the awed and the awesome in the art world, the Vogels were just doing their thing, quietly and even as unknown as a lot of the artists. And the lot of the artists eventually became “known,” such as Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jean-Claude, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, Lawrence Weiner, Richard Tuttle.

Sweet, all around; that’s the story. That’s New York. The film opens tomorrow at the Cinema Village. Megumi Sasaki directed it. It’s won the Golden Starfish award for Best Documentary and Audience Award from last year’s Hamptons International Film Festival, and several others. “Herb and Dorothy.”

Chuck Close, Dorothy Vogel, Megumi Sasaki, Herbert Vogel, and Charlie Clough.

Meanwhile, down Savannha way, SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) topped off their month-long SCAD Style celebration with a fashion show featuring more than 70 undergraduate and graduate students showing nearly 170 garments selected through a rigorous jury process.

At the fashion show, the Andre Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Isobel Toledo and Ruben Toledo by SCAD co-founder and president, Paula S Wallace.

The Andre Leon Talle Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Isobel Toledo and Ruben Toledo by SCAD co-founder and president Paula S Wallace.

Andre was there. Isobel and Ruben were there. Lars Nilsson, Yigal Azrouel, Domenico del Sole, J. Alexander and Catherine Baba were there. Andre hosted an “intimate” dinner ate Magnolia Hall, the Victorian mansion where SCAD houses its distinguished guests. They drank lemonade and iced tea by the gallon. Spiked. And of course bourbon and beer. All graduations should be like this. And have such passionate grads ready to make the leap out into the big bad world out there, and into the Big Time. Am I saying the BBW and the BT are the same thing? Depends entirely on your attitude.

Lars Nillson with Michael Fink.

Chair of the SCAD Fashion Department Anthony Miller with Yigal Azrouel.

SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) topped off their month-long SCAD Style celebration with a fashion show featuring more than 70 undergraduate and graduate students showed nearly 170 garments selected through a rigorous jury process.

This past Monday night Aldon James, President of the National Arts Club, hosted an exceptional one woman play "Formerly Known as Sarah" — the inspirational true story of Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919). The first free child of slave parents, through great resolve, hard work, and a vision of a better life, Madam arose to become the first African-American female millionaire and significant philanthropist (leaving two thirds of her estate to educational institutions and charities — including the NAACP and Tuskogee Institute).

John James, Carmen de Lavallade, Aldon James, and Dianne Bernhard.

Playwright Rosary O'Neill and Aldon James.

Madam C.J. Walker founded the celebrated hair care and cosmetics company for black women, (bearing her name) employing thousands as commissioned agents. Her estate "Villa Lewaro," built in Irvington on the Hudson (close to the Rockefellers) hosted many VIPS (as well as her collection of fast fabulous cars), while her townhouse on 135th Street became an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance.

The play was produced by Robin Lane-Krauss, Directed by Joyce Griffen, and brilliantly written and acted by Joyce Griffen.

— Jill Lynne for NYSD

Comments? Contact DPC here. [1]