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Riverside
Drive and 83rd Street. 3:45 PM. Photo: JH.
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Mother
Nature bestowed on us a light and beautiful blanket of snow in the very
early Sunday morning hours, which came as a magical surprise to
those of us who hadn’t tuned into the weather report the
night before. A couple of hours later, while having my coffee,
streaming KUSC-FM from Los Angeles, the picture was completed with
an operatic baritone singing Irving Berlin’s
classic “(I’m
Dreaming Of A) White Christmas.”
All kinds of holiday happenings all over town too. They closed
off Madison Avenue from the 60s to 86th for the 19th annual Miracle
on Madison Avenue benefit, a shopping charity event that benefits
The Children’s Aid Society. More than 125 leading luxury
retailers, restaurants and galleries in support of New York’s
neediest children donated 20% of the day’s sales to the Society’s
health care programs. Shoppers were treated to specialty tents
lining the avenue from noon to 5.
Then, last night over at the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf, the
Museum of the Moving Image, they saluted Ron Howard. The former
child/teenage star and now distinguished film director who makes
his home with his family here on the East Coast is one of the nicest
and most accomplished men in the film business, so there was much
love in the room.
Meanwhile just a couple of blocks up the avenue, from
6 to 10 pm at The Four Seasons restaurant, Volunteers of America
hosted its
10th annual “A New York Christmas” gala featuring culinary
sampling from some of the city’s best restaurants. Co-chaired
this year by Michael Clinton of Hearst Magazines, Ronald
Frasch
of Saks, Scott Conant, chef of L’Impero and Alto was chair
of the Chefs’ Committee. The Volunteers benefits its Hope & Hearth
Food Voucher program for the working poor, homebound elderly and
families affected by AIDS or domestic violence.
And then two miles farther up Park Avenue at 6:30 pm at 91st Street,
the supporters of the Fund for Park Avenue Memorial Tree Lighting
Celebration congregated for their 60th annual benefit cocktail
reception (with music provided by Alex Donner’s orchestra)
for the lighting of the trees along the avenue. |
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Looking
south from Park
Avenue at 92nd Street. 8:45 PM.
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This
tradition was begun in 1945 by Mrs. Stephen C. Clark in
honor of her son and all of those who lost their lives in World
War II. Since then, on the first Sunday in December, many New
Yorkers come to see the dedication and the lighting of sixty
blocks of the Memorial Trees. Afterwards there was a reception
for Contributors at the Italian Consulate at 69th and Park. You
can always contribute, any amount you can give will help. Make
your check payable to The Fund For Park Avenue Charity, and mail
it to 110 East 42nd Street, Room 1300, New York 10017.
Last
Thursday night at the Seventh Regiment Armory (between
66th and 67th on Park) the Municipal Art Society held its
annual dinner. Each year they honor a New Yorker for his
or her distinguished contributions to the betterment of the
city with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award.
This year it went for the first time to an organization – Thirteen/WNET.
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Kinshasha
Holman Conwill and Kitty Hawks
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Honorary Chairs
were Walter Cronkite and Bill and Judith
Moyers. Dinner Chairs were Lewis Cullman and Marian
S. Heiskell. Dinner co-Chairs were Elihu Rose and Wade
F. B. Thompson and the Master of Ceremonies was that inimitable
Texas girl-turned-Toastmaster General of little ole New York, Liz
Smith. Vice Chairs for the evening were Kitty
Hawks and Larry Lederman, Tony Kiser, Abby and
George O’Neill, Diane and Fred Papert, Janet and Arthur Ross,
Katherine Sailor and Kenneth B. Lerer, and Helen
Sonnenberg Tucker. Speakers included Kent Barwick, President
of the Society, Philip K. Howard Esq., Chairman; Bill
Moyers, Jane Pauley, Governor Pataki, and Steven
Rattner who accepted the award
for Thirteen/WNET.
The Municipal Art Society is a private nonprofit which has been in existence
for more than century. Its founder, the great architect of the Gilded Age, Richard
Morris Hunt himself is memorialized in a statue on the edge of Central
Park on Fifth Avenue across from The Frick Collection.
The Society’s charter is to protect the best of New York’s existing
landscape from landmarks. It fostered the creation of the New York City Art Commission
and the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and served as incubator for the Public
Art Fund, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, P.S. 1 and the Historic Districts
Council. It was the MAS that in 2002 led the creation of the temporary 9/11 memorial,
Tribute in Light. They have now secured the equipment and funding to ensure that
the two beams of light shine annually through 2008.
It was the MAS that led the crusade to landmark the priceless Broadway theaters
and protect the historic bright lights that energize Times Square. Currently
they are fighting to save Civil War-era buldings and a historic dry dock in Red
Hook, as well as urging the preservation of historic structure along both sides
of the East River. The MAS is also responsible for the current plans to transform
the old James A. Farley Post Office into a transportation gateway – (Daniel
Patrick) Moynihan Station.
The late Brendan Gill was an important leader in the organization.
Many New Yorkers unfamiliar with its activity nevertheless remember Jacqueline
Onassis participating in the successful protests to prevent Grand Central Terminal
from vanishing under a skyscraper. The current influence of the Municipal Arts
Society is one of her legacies.
With that kind of responsibility, the Municipal Art Society has a natural appeal
to the civic minded, including the powerful with a strong sense of the history
and the value of the community. These people are frequently engaged in often
unseen but profoundly influential activities that maintain the city’s stature
and its livability. It brings out the best, high-minded motivations.
They held it in the century old Armory not only because it could accommodate
the large crowd of several hundred (with tables of eight and ten going for $50,000,
$25,000 and $12,000), but because it is supporting the Seventh Regiment Armory
Conservancy which was created eight years ago to restore this deteriorating National
Historic Landmark and make it into a center for world-class visual and performing
arts. Covering more than an acre, the Armory has rooms designed by Stanford
White, Louis Comfort Tiffany, the Herter Brothers and
many others. The cost of the restoration is estimated at $150 million. Thursday
night, Governor Pataki, attending the dinner, announced that
the State of New York will contribute $30 million toward the project, adding
to the $20 million that has already been raised by the members of the Society. |
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Cocktails
in the Armory
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Ernie
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Digit
summoning the guests to dinner
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Dinner
in the Armory
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Bill
Moyers and Philip Howard
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Judith
Moyers and Jean-Marie Baker
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Jill
Kargman with mom Coco Kopelman
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Giovanni
LoFaro, Bill Rondina, and
Liz Smith
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Kitty
Hawks and Iris Love
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Betsy
Bartlett and Jones Yorke with Ellen Marcus
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Duane
Hampton and Arie Kopelman
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Duane
Hampton
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Lewis
Cullman, Bruce Levingston, and Justin Rockefeller
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Frances
Resheske, Robert Tierney, and Diane Coffey
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Jane
Gullong, Paul Gunther, and Gloria Troy
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Ronay
Menschel and Mark
di Suvero
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Anita
Contini and Gordon
Davis
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Edwina
Sandys and Richard Kaplan
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Ashton
Hawkins and John J. Iselin
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Wade
Thompson and Charles
Gargano
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Tinsley
Mortimer is the new Paris Hilton. Oh no, not
really, you say? Oh yes, really. A girl with a high profile
social name in New York (acquired, in this case, through
marriage), who has come into celebrity via the party picture/celebrity
photograph. It is only a question of time before the celebrity
becomes international – just like her predecessor – and
maybe even hits television or the movies. Really? That is
exactly how Ms. Hilton (and her sister Nicky)
began, unwittingly paving the way for other pretty young
blondes who love the camera and vice versa.
When Tatiana Boncompagni from the New
York Times called
me a couple of weeks ago about young social women in New York who are lent
clothes by fashion designers, she had a number of women in mind. But when
the piece came out in yesterday’s Styles section, it was all (or
practically) Tinsley. Why, do you wonder? Simple: because she’s got
the tinsel (pardon the pun, but it couldn’t be more perfect).
We’ve been photographing Mrs. Mortimer for the past
couple of years because: 1. she’s there (in front of the camera);
and 2. because she’s good to look at. All-American blue-eyed blonde
with a feminine aura right out of Scott Fitzgerald, or Ernest
Hemingway, or John O’Hara — there’s
a story there, whether there is or not. Maybe even a movie. Or a book and
a movie. I’m not saying that’s her story per se; merely
that the photo image supplies the thought. Same with Paris; different story
of course, but nevertheless.
Oh there are differences. Mrs. Mortimer tends not to show as much flesh
as Ms. Hilton. And although she looks more like a rich girl, the lifestyle
is not as luxuriously flamboyant (i.e., Mrs. Mortimer Yellow Cabs it while
Paris travels by Bentley or her parents’ SUV). And Mrs. Mortimer
comes without the mystique of being an actual “heiress” (quotes
intended). Although on the social scale in New York, with the name Mortimer,
she’s up there. And on some social scales, way up there, far above
her predecessor who, after all, is a California girl.
Fashion designers have picked up on this (just as retailers had done with
Paris Hilton), and one of them jumped at the chance to cash in on it. Recently
she became the face, the image, the spokesmodel for a new line of furs
by designer Douglas Hannant, also replacing another frequently
photographed blonde socialite Debbie Bancroft as his “muse.” And
it all began here ... |
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