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Looking
east from within Central Park at 79th Street. Photo: JH.
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A
cooling warm Monday night in New York. Andrew
Rosen and his Theory boutiques hosted a screening
at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center of “Seabiscuit.”
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Tobey
Maguire
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The long awaited
movie version of the best-selling book. What to expect if you’ve
read the book? Or if you haven’t read the book? A confirmation
that a great, heartrending, thrilling story about winning against
all odds, will always be thrilling, heartrending and, at least
in this case, even more.
No matter how well you know the story of this horse which captured
the nation’s fascination in the 1930s and 40s, this movie will
do it to you all over again. You laugh, you cry, you’re on
the edge of your seat, your heart is in your throat, and you care
for all the (principal) characters as if they were your own, including
the horse.
There
were about two hundred and fifty guests for this, the first screening
of the film which stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris
Cooper. Although I don’t think she was present tonight, Wendy
Vanderbilt’s father, the late Alfred Gwynne
Vanderbilt, himself a great racehorse owner (Native Dancer),
was the man who arranged the race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral
at Pimlico in 1938 which established the horse’s ultimate
championship in the annals of horseracing. Not so coincidentally,
Wendy’s mother was a cousin of Marcela Howard,
wife of Charles Howard (played by Jeff Bridges)
who owned Seabiscuit.
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"Seabiscuit
beats War Admiral." November 1938.
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Among the guests
cheering the screen at the end were, Governor and Mrs.
Pataki, Barbara Bancroft, Cornelia Guest with Mark Badgley and
James Mischka, Bill and Wendy Luers, Dixon Boardman, Boaty Boatwright,
David and Helen Gurley Brown, Eleanor Clift, lots of di
Kwiatkowskis – Barbara, Conrad, Nicholas, on whose
Calumet Farms much of the film was shot; Ron and Ellin
Delsener, Vincent and Shelly Fremont, Michael Fuchs, Arne and Milly
Glimcher, Bette-Ann and Charles Gwathmey, Candice Bergen and Marshall
Rose, Wilbur Ross and Hilary Geary, Chris and Grace Meigher, Jeff
and Dena Greenfield, Lara and David Haffenreffer, Veronica Hearst; the
producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Mort and
Linda Janklow, Jim and Kathy Hoge, Ashley and Rusty Holzer, Ralph
and Ala Isham, Lynn Nesbit, Earl and Carol Mack, Carole and George
McFadden, Betsy and Andy Lack, Michael and Ninah Lynne, Regis and
Joy Philbin, Steven Rattner and Maureen White, lots of Rosens – Andrew,
Ashley, Mr. and Mrs. Austen, David, and Oliver Rosen. Also Shirley
Lord and Abe Rosenthal, Ellin Saltzman, Lisa and Richard Plepler,
Al and Jeannine Pirro, Jonathan Schwartz, Bob and Eva Shaye, Steven
Soderbergh, Jann Wenner, Mimi Strong, Paula Zahn and Richard Cohen.
One of those times when it makes you glad you went to the movies. |
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The
legendary Red Pollard on Seabiscuit.
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