There was a very famous actress who occupied a large apartment there with her husband in the early days of the building. Very famous. The story went around that the lady had to go to the Coast for a television or film job, and on the day of departure she got to the airport only to find that her flight to L.A. had been canceled.
So she turned around and came back home to her lovely new apartment in the brand new Tower East. And when she arrived home, two or three hours later, she found her husband and the father of her children there entertaining an unknown female a few (maybe more) years younger and of incomparable pulchritude.
Said actress was said to have been so livid with rage that she went and got a gun and chased the man of the house down the hall, out into the hallway (and maybe down the fire stair – I’m making that part up), taking a couple of shots at him. Said actress doesn’t live there any more. Hasn’t lived there in years. Oh, they lived presumably happy ever after.
Last night I went over to Lincoln Center to the School of American Ballet’s annual Winter Ball on the Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater. The parties, dinners, galas at Lincoln Center are all special. They usually occur after or during something wonderful. Everyone’s spiffed up for it. The places are set up to look beautiful and partake of the atmosphere of this great cultural complex. Last night was no exception. Cocktails began at 7 and ran till 8.
I arrived late into the cocktail hour. Paul McCartney was leaving, with his girlfriend. I never saw the guy in the flesh before. That connection he made as a performer, he makes on site. He evidently had come for the cocktail reception and was dashing off somewhere with his very pretty girlfriend who sort of looks like she’s watching him “happen” also. It was a pleasure seeing him in exactly the same way all those years of his and the Beatles work enhanced our attitudes. Would that he could do that now, no?
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| Pamela Joyner wearing the Aga Khan's emeralds. |
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There was a big crowd. I went around with my camera. The woman in black with the black hair, someone told me, was a princess. I never found out her name but she looked like a princess and she conducted herself with a kind of royal grace. Was I imagining it? Perhaps; but it fit.
It was crowded which is a good sign. Where the performing arts are concerned, like athletic events, the more the merrier. This year’s success I was told was because of Pamela Joyner who lives here and in San Francisco. Ms. Joyner is a dynamo and a big supporter of the ballet. I introduced myself and took her picture. She was wearing an amazing emerald and diamond necklace. The kind where you want to say: “is that real?” So I did.
She told me the emeralds had originally belonged to an Indian maharajah and were acquired later by the Aga Khan (grandfather of the present Aga Khan). It was later made into a necklace at his request by Claude Arpels. I could be wrong but I think that Ms. Joyner was wearing it for the occasion thanks to Van Cleef and Arpels who was the sponsor of the event.
About eight o’clock guests moved up the staircase to the Promenade. Dinner was scheduled for 8 but there were hundreds of guests and they take awhile to find their tables as well as socialize and visit with friends. It was a goodlooking scene with the women dressed for the occasion and men in black tie. I once asked my late friend Johnny Galliher why a tuxedo seemed to make anyone look good no matter the shape or the age? He replied the obvious: the color black with a dash of white is an elegant uniform and people almost always look good in uniforms. I think last night they felt good too.
It was for the School of American Ballet where they start training and learning as children. I’ve written about the SAB here several times. It is very impressive. Witnessing it you can see what a wonderful education and preparation for life the children/youth get there. They learn to work and focus and commit and self-discipline. Not to mention passion. I always think it’s unfortunate that all children in this country can’t have that kind of education. We’d have more industry in this country if that were so. |
