Friday, May 31, 2019. Cooler, often cloudy, mid-to high-60s by day. Unbelievably heavy traffic, a horrific combination of more cars and bad planning. Not to mention the increase in deliveries in this new age of Press Enter and do whatever else you’re doing. The double parked delivery trucks with the road space behind them covered (I was going to write “littered”) with cardboard boxes of every size and shape. Money talks and nobody walks. It was that kind of weather in New York yesterday, if you catch my drift.
However, Long ago and Far away, but seems like only yesterday, JH was working on something to do with our archives and he came across some of his photos from a Diary in February 2003. Only sixteen years ago, although it does seem like a long time ago in some ways.
The first item was the Young Fellows of the Frick Collection’s An Evening of Nouveau Glamour. We’ve covered this particular annual event several times although I have no memory whatsoever of this particular evening though almost everyone is familiar to these eyes.
It was a sold-out benefit. To give you an idea of the crowd:
Tory Burch, Lauren Bush, Cynthia and Dan Lufkin, Tamara and Matthew Mellon, Tinsley Mortimer, Amy Fine Collins, Glenda Bailey, Lauren Davis, Anna Wintour, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Lisa Airan, Renee and Mark Rockefeller, Lisa Anastos, Judy Auchincloss, Manuel and Corina Balbontin, Susan Fales-Hill, Marina Rust Connor, Hunter Cushing, Linda Evangelista, Whitney and James Fairchild, Pam Fiori, Amber and Timothy Frumkes, Jacqueline and Mortimer Sackler, Anne Buford, Charles de Viel Castel, Lauren du Pont, Jennifer Creel, Nina Garcia, Vanessa von Bismarck, Mark F. Gilbertson, Anne and Mario Grauso, Paige and Tripp Hardy, Karla and Peter Harwich, Kim Hicks, Dayssi Kanavos, Nathalie Kaplan, Jason Kaselman, Greg Kwiat, Lauren Bush, David Lauren, Robert and Victoria Lindgren, Martha Loring, Prince Rudolf Knaise Melikoff, Sheila Parham, Justin Portman, Robert Rufino, Marianna Sabater, Amy Sacco, Samuel Sachs II, Timothy & Helen Lee Schifter, Louise and Benjamin Schliemann, Christine Scornavacca, Natalia Vodianova, Lillian von Stauffenberg, Alek Wek, Genevieve Wheeler. Looking over this list sixteen years later is rife with nostalgia and tall memory.
Then there’s another … Christian Dior Couture co-hosted the event which raises money for educational programs for school children and students. Several of the committee members and others wore dresses created by John Galliano in Paris, including Marina Rust Connor in a taupe satin bias-cut gown. Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer wearing a white chiffon halter gown with silver appliqué; Lauren du Pont in a black silk chiffon gown with hand-embroidered coat, and Nathalie Kaplan wearing a black chiffon gown with hand-beading.
Two nights before the Frick, over at the Waldorf-Astoria, the Museum of Television & Radio held its annual gala honoring Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews.
This night’s event was one of many that were held in the hotels ballrooms every year. The hotel was the home to Herbert Hoover after he left the White House, General Douglas MacArthur after he retired, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Cole Porter, and the US Ambassadors to the United Nations. Its history reaches back to the last quarter of the 19th century when two as Astor cousins took their family’s residences occupying the western block of Fifth Avenue on 33rd and 34th Streets, and built hotels. They were the Waldorf, built by William Waldorf Astor and the Astoria built his cousin John Jacob Astor IV. The hotels were the upshot of a family feud that eventually led Waldorf Astor to abandon New York for London where he eventually became Lord Astor. His cousin lost his life on the sinking of the Titanic. When the original Waldorf-Astoria was razed, it was replaced by the Empire State Building, long the classic beacon of the Manhattan skyline.
