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Refuge
from the rain on 3rd Avenue.
8:30 PM. Photo: JH.
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The
Wall Street Journal’s Monday
edition had a long first page left hand column on
the trials and tribulations of Conrad
Black, the erstwhile newspaper publisher of the Daily
Telegraph of London, the Jerusalem Post and the Chicago
Sun-Times, and his "acquiescent" Board of Directors,
several of whom are well known New Yorkers.
Mr. Black, a Canadian
who forsook his native citizenship to accept a British peerage
and become Lord Black of Crossharbour, cut quite a figure here
in New York for several years as a friend of the smartest of the
smart set — those who dwell in halls perhaps not so hallowed
but most definitely paved in marble and lined with silk and gold. Mrs.
Black, Lady Black, second or third wife (he the third
husband) was also Canadian, a journalist and political commentator
who writes professionally
under the name Barbara Amiel. She is regarded,
as is the fashion these days, as right-wing, or oxymoronically,
conservative.
Whatever one's political persuasion, her columns demonstrated a
trenchant and articulate intellect.
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Conrad
Black
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Lady
Black and Lady Rothschild |
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The “conserve” in
this brand of conservativism, if
you look closely at their portfolios of newly acquired possessions
and lifestyles, has more to do with the getting and spending of
money
for the conserving
of
personal privilege and self-aggrandizement than it does for anything
else. After his lordship and her ladyship became entitled, as it
were, they went whole hog, as the Breeden Report for the
SEC has revealed, living it up, high, wide and handsome and entertaining
the most exclusive people. I do not use those last three words
loosely; in these cases such as the Blacks’, that is how
many of their set like to regard themselves in relationship to
others. And although their assumed social rankings seem lofty at
present, most, if not all, are out-of-towners who three or even
two decades ago were if anything, only arrivistes in New York.
That is not to say people don’t have a right to their fortunes,
their money, to live it up, high, wide and handsome and stake their
claims at accepted status. I certainly have/would, albeit meagerly
compared to most, when I
had the chance,
and might even more, had I the opportunity. The problem is whence
it comes and who owns the store that provides the moola that moves
the engine that mines these hills.
During his ascent, Mr. Lord Black made sure to surround
himself with social relationships that could adorn his board of
directors
while he was adorning his wife and his halls of living and leisure
using the dough provided by the company treasury and approved of
by his “distinguished” board of directors, who were
often considered by their peers to be “brilliant,” in
case you’re
wondering what passes for brilliant in this set. No one seemed
to mind at least partly because we live in an age where the rich
getting richer by
helping
themselves
to the company larder has become commonplace, and even,
to some people’s way of thinking, legitimate. The young (thirty-five
and under) may not even be aware that it wasn’t always like
this.
For years everything
went swimmingly for Mr. Lord Black until another very wealthy man
of a different ilk and strain, a more centered traditional type, Christopher
Browne, an owner and manager of mutual funds which had
owned shares in Mr. Black’s company, Hollinger International,
became alarmed by the less than stellar results in the company’s
annual reports and its effect on the price of the shares his funds
owned.
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Christopher
Browne
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Little is said or known about Mr. Browne, whom I do
know, as
far as the public is concerned, because although he too is very
wealthy – and
now possibly much wealthier than Mr. Lord Black – he lives
his life under the social radar, here in New York, in the Hamptons
and in Bel Air, California where he owns prime residential real
estate. He loves buying and/or building houses as an avocation
as well as the art of landscaping and gardens and also conserving – nature,
that is; and, it goes without saying, conserving his clients’ money.
Mr. Browne is rich enough that several years ago he paid a record
price for some land on the ocean in the Hamptons and let the seller
continue to live there for five more years because he was devoting
his attention at the time to the garden design and landscaping
of his other property in the same town. When he’s not pursuing
his material pleasures, or socializing with a small circle of friends,
or giving his time to the Nature Conservancy in the Hamptons, he’s
working ... checking out those columns of numbers that reveal
the unimaginable for some people.
A little, not even a lot, of attention to details on Mr. Browne’s
part turned up some less than stellar information about the company
store and who’s large and eager hands were taking too much
off the company’s shelves for whom (and a couple others).
Mr. Browne’s concern for his fund shareholder’s equity
led to Mr. Lord Black’s downfall.
For awhile there, because of Mr. Lord Black’s highly influential
and sometimes very rich British and American friends of grand standing
in London, New York and Washington circles, it looked as if all
the king’s horses and all the king’s men could indeed
... put Mr. Lord Black back together again. The defense heard again
and again
was that Lord and Lady Black were two brilliant, charming, wonderful
people, wonderful hosts who had every right to the good life they’d
made for themselves.
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Al
Capone
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Although I do
not know and have never met Lord and Lady Black, I don’t
doubt their defense, coming as it has from many whom I do know
who know them. What, it seems, is really indefensible,
as it is for the rest of us, is where the gelt for the good life
comes from, even if Al Capone he isn’t.
(The
Wall Street Journal article noted that he had a portrait of
Capone on the wall of his directors’ room in New York — Reading
it, I was reminded of that line in the film The Freshman where
the fresh-faced Matthew Broderick meeting with Marlon
Brando’s “godfather” spots
a picture of Capone on the wall and asks “is that Al Capone,” to
which Brando cracks: “it ain’t Il Duce.”)
About ten months ago, when the man was forced to resign as chief
executive officer of Hollinger International, the Globe and
Mail,
Canada’s leading newspaper called to ask me what I thought
would happen to the man’s social standing.
My response was simple: "If he loses his money, he will
be a forgotten man. But if he still has his money, he will be remembered
by people who will want to be in his company."
The tragedy of Mr. Lord Black is that, one can see from his C.V.,
he is a dynamically smart man, full of big ambition, with the ability
and talent for building big things. That kind of dynamism can be
very rewarding in life, not only for its possessor but even for
many others, and even, at times, for the world. But then
there’s
the business of the money. “Money changes people,” as
my late and wise friend Dorothy Hirshon used to
say, in commenting on the state of things in the late 20th century, “immediately,
and very often not for the good.” |
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Next Monday night between 6 and 9 PM is the first annual
Fete de Swifty to be held on the entirely tented over block of East 73rd
Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. It's going to be the chicest
block party in town and everyone's welcome.
Proceeds will benefit the Parks AfterSchool Program of the Mayor's Fund
to Advance New York City. This free program serves 3000 kids ages six to
thriteen, 80% of whom receive public assistance, in 33 recreation centers
in all five boroughs.
The kids stage plays, build web sites, and warm up with their soccer teams.
With a staff ratio of ten to one, the Program gives every child quality
attention for as many as three hours a day, five days a week, all year
long. For any of us who've ever had a working mother and nobody home after
school, we know how important this is. And in New York City, where day
to day life can be even tougher for kids than adults, this Program is a
gift.
It's going to be a big rousing cocktail party with hors d'oeurves, entertainment,
music, celebrities and auction both Silent and Live (conducted by Sotheby's Jamie
Niven) with all kinds of interesting items including spending
a day with Bette Midler helping clean a park her Restoration
Project is fixing up, Dishy dinner at Le Cirque with Liz Smith,
Billy Norwich, Linda Stasi and Jess Cagel, another
dishy dinner at Swifty's with Dominick Dunne, Dinner with Victoria
Gotti at Rao's, a Sports package — golf with Ray
Floyd, fishing with Peter Duchin, an appearance
on Law & Order and many many more unique items.
Donor tickets are $1000, Friend Tickets $500, and regular tickets are $350.
There are specially priced tickets for those 35 and under $125 in advance
and $150 at the door.
For information and to purchase tickets call 212-573-6933. |
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