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148

118

CONTENTS The 30 Th A nniversAry i ssue 118

30 On its 30th anniversary, Quest looks back—year by year—at the people, events, and institutions that have best represented it, as told by writers who knew them.

148

THE HEART OF THE CITY A

history of and guide to some of New York City’s greatest

landmarks, organizations, charities, and worthy causes.

by

brooke kelly

156

THE INSIDER CAFÉS OF NEW YORK'S CAFÉ SOCIETY, 1987–2017 From

160

FROM THE RESERVATION BOOK AT SWIFTY'S, DECEMBER 2001 A peek at who dined at Swifty’s back in 2001 proves it was society’s definitive gathering spot.

Mortimer’s to Elaine’s, La Côte Basque to La Grenouille, our scribe journeys inside the insider boîtes that in-the-know New Yorkers have flocked to over the past 30 years. by Alex hiTz

162 THE LIFE OF THE PARTY Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball was the party of the 20th century, but there were other great ones as well.

by

DAviD PATrick columbiA

156


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176

CONTENTS 104

C olumns 30

SOCIAL DIARY The story of how it all began, from the one who started it all, with notes on how social life in New York has changed over the years. by DaviD PatriCk Columbia

102

ON LYING

104

FRESH FINDS The latest things for spring, from gray-on-gray looks for him to bracelets that stack and the latest must-have fashions for her. by Daniel CaPPello anD elizabeth meigher

112

CANINE COUTURE Canine Styles announced the official opening of its newly designed Manhattan flagship store, offering pet fashion and accessories for everyone’s best friend. by s Cott Currie

114

SOCIAL CALENDAR

168

ON NEVER HAVING MET MRS. ONASSIS

170

YOUNG & THE GUEST LIST A look back at the beginning and evolution of this column and its writers—Andrew Black, Jack Bryan, Elizabeth Quinn Brown, and Alex Travers—and their nighttime chronicles of all the best parties, from the early 2000s to today.

176

SNAPSHOT

Our columnist takes a look at what “truth” means in today’s political climate, and who he thinks needs a refresher course in ethics. by taki theoDoraCoPulos

Our monthly guide to benefits, galas, special events, and goings-on about town.

A reflection on the life and grace of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, originally published after her passing in 1994. by DaviD PatriCk Columbia

Quest’s founding editor explains how the magazine came to be.

by

heather Cohane


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WILLIAM LIE ZECKENDORF © QUEST MEDIA, LLC 2017. All rights reserved. Vol. 31, No. 5. Quest—New York From The Inside is published monthly, 12 times a year. Yearly subscription rate: $96.00. Quest, 420 Madison Avenue, Penthouse, 16th floor, New York, NY 10017. 646.840.3404

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EDITOR’S LETTER

This page, clockwise top left: Photo of old New York by Bill Cunningham; our fashion shoot in Times Square, September 2013; Quest founder Heather Cohane and Sparky.

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.” —Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy THE NEW YORK OF 1987 was a different gal than she is today. Back then, she had tattooed arms in the form of graffiti-covered subway cars. Sure, Times Square was as full of felt and fur outfits as it is now, but those people were not dressed as Elmo and were not selling the same kind of hugs. In the 30 years since, the city has become glitzier, wealthier, and (as is rumored to occasionally happen when one’s circumstances in life improve) gotten a serious facelift. Nowadays, New York is booming with cultural diversity, creative and charitable spirit, and international friends. And who has been tracking the brightest lights of the big city during this time? Quest, bien sûr. Thumbing through the pages of old issues for research is like flipping through your favorite photo album, and you end up playing the best game of “Do You Remember?” “Do you remember when those two were an item? That didn’t last long.” “That dress! I loved that dress! And now of course it’s back in fashion.” “I was at that party years ago and can’t recollect who told off the hostess—though I will never forget her riposte!” Having collected our favorite moments from these issues, we came across more gems than we could possibly do justice to in 180 pages. With great difficulty—thanks to our treasure trove of characters in New York society—we chose who or what defined each of those 30 years, and how they have shaped the history of 28 QUEST

this town. From Bloomberg to Cunningham to Vreeland to LinManuel Miranda, these luminaries deserve recognition for what they have contributed to our lives. Finally, what kind of editor’s letter would this be if I didn’t also pay tribute to the editor who created the magazine: Heather Cohane. A woman with a vision, she was the one who knew three decades ago what New York needed, and begat Quest. Thank you, Heather, for this wonderful legacy, and even as many bemoan the death of society as they knew it, there are plenty of bright young things who are reshaping it in this new era…and know which magazine will always have the inside scoop. u

Lily Hoagland

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

David Patrick Columbia

NEW YORK SO CIAL DIARY LOOKING BACK on history of Quest 30 years on. What struck me most, perusing Quest issues of the past 30 years, was how much our culture and social life in New York has changed since Quest first debuted in 1987. “Nouvelle Society,” a term coined by Mr. Fairchild’s WWD, of the movers and the shakers, was reigning in New York at that moment. Glamour girls like Blaine Trump, Carolyne

Roehm, Gayfryd Steinberg, Louise Grunwald, Duane Hampton, Anne Bass, Nan Kempner, Annette de la Renta, to name only a few, were the news in fashion and society. Theirs was the image reflected in the era. Heather Cohane, a plucky Englishwoman who had spent time in this country because of her husbands, saw an opportunity at the time. She had decided to start a

magazine after her husband Jack Cohane had died, leaving her with three children still of school age. Naturally entrepreneurial and imaginative, she got the idea for a local publication focusing on advertising high-end residential real estate from Cavalcade, a magazine in London. The early issues of Quest were basically a semi-glossy focusing on residential real

QUEST, NOVEMBER 1987

30 QUEST

estate advertising for the Upper East Side. The editorial content was about the lives and the histories of families associated with the area, along with three or four pages of black and white party pictures capturing some of the leading players. I first heard of it back then when I was living in Los Angeles. Larry Ashmead, then Executive Editor of Harper & Row (now HarperCollins)



D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A sent me a copy every month, knowing I’d find the content interesting. Reading it, in passing I thought to myself: “I could do that.” It never occurred to me at the time that I’d be so closely associated with it for more than 20 years of the next 30 years. Quest soon became a popular little magazine, with the slightly eccentric editorial feel, immortalizing, as it were, Society families and their histories, including occasionally Who Made the Dough. Then eight years later, in 1995, a young imaginative magazine publisher, Chris Meigher, of the Time-

Life empire of Henry Luce, came along and made an offer to buy the magazine. He had a better idea. The deal was sealed, and Quest was taken to the best tailor, hairdresser, and jeweler in town, re-vamped with an identity of glamorous class. No longer a magazine for the nabe, but now for the world. The early Quests, (’80s through mid-’90s) reflected a clubby sensibility, ironically a kind of innocence that has evaporated today, a social atmosphere that is no longer in style. There were lots of private cocktail parties, given for no reason other than

to entertain friends, as well as occasional charity galas. Heather would be there with her camera, casually snap a few of the guests and put it on a page in the magazine. She didn’t know it at the time but she was documenting a time and an era in New York—which Quest has been doing ever since. People often ask: Is there a “Society” today? If comparing our socializing habits and rules to a century, or even a half-century ago, the answer is “No.” Society as it functioned back then was an opportunity for women to gather and exercise pow-

er. Caroline Astor, the lady who ruled Society in New York in the last quarter of the 19th century, had power, and all power is political. It may have seemed like frippery to those outside her realm, but she exercised it in a way that gave her influence in the community. Her strong card at the outset was her birthright—she was a member of a prominent (and wealthy) New York family that traced its roots back to the early Dutch settlers. She also had a very rich husband to enable her pursuits. Eventually competition outlived her and gained their own power. By

“ H A R R Y B E N S O N : S H O OT F I R S T ” S C R E E N I N G AT T H E S O C I E T Y O F T H E F O U R A R T S I N PA L M B E A C H

Georgeann Ballou 32 QUEST

Martin and Audrey Gruss

Bob Nederlander, Gil Maurer and Harry Benson

Jeanne Chisholm

Kit Pannill

John Loring, Scott Huston and Val Selleck

AU G U S T U S M AY H E W

Vera Serrano and Anne Fischer



D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A T H E C O N S E R VATO R Y G A R D E N L U N C H EO N I N C E N T R A L PA R K Q U E S T , J U LY / A U G U S T 1 9 8 8

Amber Walker, Jan Cowles, and Lil Groueff

Mark Hampton

then her world had changed anyway. The new leaders were on the threshold of a world of speed and communication. Interestingly, one of the succeeding generation was Alva Vanderbilt Belmont who by age 50 turned her attentions from grand masked balls in her Fifth Avenue mansion to women’s rights: she joined the the Suffragette movement. Today’s women, no matter their place on the social ladder, are liberated enough to seek power over their own lives and the lives of others in professional and business life. Although “connections” are always desirable, the social life of today’s woman is imbued with greater purpose. The late Evelyn Lauder who created the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and raised hundreds of millions for the cause, set the course that many women now follow. Today the social life of 34 QUEST

Barbara Uzielli

Nina Griscom

Thorunn, Soffia and Berge Wathne

Mr and Mrs Deane Johnson and Viginia Soloman

prominent New Yorkers is dominated mainly by charity benefit dinners and other such events that raise hundreds of millions for charitable causes. Pay as you go. The appeal is great because some organization or institution is benefitting financially. As a result of the efforts of these (mainly) women, the charity event business in New York is a billion dollar industry with many sponsors both corporate and philanthropic. This was accompanied during this same period (the last decade of the 20th century) with the arrival of the internet and the cell phone in our lives. That changed everything in many ways still unimaginable, and apparently forever. In late ’92 I came to New York on an assignment and happened to meet Heather Cohane one night at a cocktail party at Chanel. Learning

that we had a mutual friend in common, Gloria Etting of Philadelphia, she asked if I’d like to write a profile of her. Soon I was writing a couple of features a month for Quest, and the following year Heather asked if I’d like to write a social column too. It was an idea that had fascinated me since I was a kid growing up in Massachusetts where my New York bornand-bred father got the two tabloids everyday—the Daily News and the Daily Mirror. In a very real way I was weaned on Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan, Suzy, Dorothy Kilgallen, and any other columnist writing about life in the Big Town. It was that very early exposure to New York that drew me to the Big Town when I left college. Before writing this issue’s Diary, I was looking through the Quests (there are more than 320 issues) to jog my

Jamie Niven

memory. Two things struck me: how vast is this “small” world was and is, and yet how it has changed so dramatically in those three decades. Much of that change is natural. We get older every day, every year, and the dynamic of city life, so ongoing, so fast-moving, leaves little time to notice. When I began down this road in the early ’90s, New York was in flux. The Baby Boomers had matured to middle age. The social structures for the achievers and the successful ones had changed. The previous generation was the last to have known the old world where Society was documented in the Social Register and at certain social organizations—private clubs, country clubs, beach clubs. The last hurrah of that world and way of life was a reconstruction of the sensibilities. Cleveland Amo-



D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A ry had written a famous best-selling book in the late 1950s called Who Killed Society which marked the beginning of the end of that Age. In 1987, I had the pleasure of interviewing the man when he was in Los Angeles publicizing a new book The Cat Who Came for Christmas (which turned out to be the biggest selling book he ever wrote). We met for lunch at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills

Hotel. I asked him the most frequently asked question by anyone who ever interviewed him: Who killed “Society”? Being a child of a socially prominent Boston family, he first told me about a time when he was in prep school and was invited to spend part of his Christmas vacation with the family of his roommate from New York. His mother, he recounted, did not like the idea of her son being “exposed” to “those

New Yorkers” whom she, a proper Bostonian, regarded as déclassé. Nevertheless he was allowed to go and be “exposed” to it all. He told me that story about Boston versus New York to preface his answer to my question. He then ticked off a list of several prominent people of that era in New York including the Cushing Sisters: Babe Paley, Minnie Astor, and Betsey Whitney. He said that unlike Boston

or Philadelphia, these New Yorkers were in their “social positions” because they were publicity seekers. And society had become what he called—coining a new word—“publiciety.” The new word didn’t catch on but the idea took hold and in today’s media circus, remains. The Cushing Sisters, Amory observed, had grown up in Boston where their father, the world famous brain surgeon Harvey Cushing

T H E H A N L E Y FO U N D AT I O N H O ST E D A D I N N E R AT T H E B E AC H C L U B I N PA L M B E AC H

Kendall and Mary Brittain Cheatham 36 QUEST

Rachel Docekal and Liza Pulitzer Calhoun

Dan and Denise Hanley

Blake Hanley and Nellie Benoit

Meghan and Carter Taylor

Nancy Hooker and Mark Ferris

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Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee

Ann and Keith Barish with Don Johnson and Ronald Perelman

Jenny Conant and Steve Kroft

practiced. But, he added, the sisters could never have made it in Boston unless they married a Cabot or a Lodge, etc. In 1931, Betsey, the second oldest sister married James Roosevelt son of (at the time) Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Two years later the governor became the President of the United States. Betsey’s elder sister Mary (known as Minnie) subsequently met a Roosevelt cousin, Vincent Astor, who was married although long separated from his wife. Minnie became his mistress and eventually his wife. By the time Betsey Roosevelt divorced her gallivanting husband, the President’s son, she now lived in a different world, The New York world – a world of power and money and “Society.” 38 QUEST

Jack and Hilary Geary

All three sisters were comfortable in their roles because of their upbringing by their mother who groomed them to marry The Money. Kate Cushing and her husband shared an ambitious point of view about life. Kate’s was about marriage – the woman’s only acceptably successful pursuit. Her daughters were courtesans, legalized, so to speak, well aware of their responsibilities and requirements. “Those girls did what they had to do,” a very close from childhood friend of Mrs. Whitney once told me. She implied and inferred nothing more except to point out that marrying money, as Eppie Lederer (Ann Landers) used to say, “is a hard way to make a living.” This “social history” was supremely evident in the

Quest issues from the beginning of the magazine’s life right up through the beginning of the 21st century. In my research of those early issues, I found myself reminded again of those times when “get the money” wasn’t about the serious philanthropy that enthralls the ambitions of New Yorkers today, but about those individuals pursuing their desires and pursuits. Sometimes witty, sometimes wise, sometimes amusing, making their way in the land of unlimited possibilities. The following are four examples of stories I came upon in some earlier Social Diaries. Aside from the names therein, I found the “blind items” as blind today as they were to the reader yesterday: I had forgotten these stories as well as “who”

Clifford Klenk and Elizabeth Polster

they were about. As Mr. Shakespeare noted long long ago, “The play’s the thing…” From Quest April 1995. This is New York. A scene. The woman at the party. It was a big apartment above Fifth Avenue. Long, wide rooms of pale green and rose, with 14 or 16 foot ceilings. Gilded 18th-century fauteuil, faded boiserie, Aubusson carpets, Savonnerie tapestries, chandeliers of rock crystal (antique and very expensive), candlesticks of gold. Very grand, very Mittel-europe. It was a cocktail party. Forty or fifty milled comfortably about the drawing room. She was perfectly dressed for the room (everyone else was underdressed), especially if it were being photographed for a liquor ad. Or the cov-


CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FRIENDS AT QUEST MAGAZINE ON 30 YEARS OF CAPTURING UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS OF STYLE, CELEBRATIONS AND GREAT TASTE.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A OPENING RECEPTION FOR JUDY GLICKMAN L AUDER’S “UPON REFLECTION” AT H O W A R D G R E E N B E R G G A L L E R Y

Magda and Ed Bleier

er of Judith Krantz novel. She stood off to the side with glass of champagne, her face peering out from under a hat with two long shiny metallic-looking gold feathers all covering a bundle of blonde. Never moving, as if it were her public passing by, as if she were making an appearance. She was wearing a Mary McFadden suit (someone told me) in a mauve-ish fabric with gold threads that gave it a soft but glinting texture, and around her neck a three-tiered choker of large square cut canary yellow di40 QUEST

Meghan Horstmann and Peter Kunhardt, Jr.

Marigay McKee

Liz Robins with Donald and Vera Blinken

amonds, each in a frame of large white baguettes. She was standing in all her splendor next to a tall and willowy-looking man with salt-and-pepper hair that started with a roll at the top of the forehead the way a lot of toupees do. He did not look like he was her husband, and this woman had a husband. There was something fascinating about the look of her. Like a picture. It was a sweet face but one that looked perfectly sculpted like the smooth, angular perfection of a Leyendecker

drawing. It was extremely lifted, yet not an old face. I stood on the other side of the crowd, inconspicuous, so that I could just look. She stood there, never moving, rarely talking but just listening. She was a rara avis, like no other woman in the room. In some other room, she might have been a dame or a broad or a babe, but here under the gilded cornices she had somehow finally arrived at the right place. When the party was breaking up I happened to be near her as she was getting her

Gale Hayman and Sophie Coumantaros

Bonnie Pfeifer Evans and Mary Letz

coat. A small man, bald with glasses, looking like Swifty Lazar’s thinner brother, and wearing a black leather overcoat, helped her on with a billowy sable with pelts that ran on the bias and reached to the floor. It seemed more like a temporary shelter than a coat. The collar reached up to the brim of her hat and her sweet face was no almost hidden. She entered the elevator with the small man in the black leather, the tall man who had been chatting her up, and another small man, roundish, baldish, dark

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A haired, and thoroughly acquiescent looking. According to a friend I was with, the woman had just bought an enormous house on Long Island. They’re adding on to it and making it better. Her name another said was Vicki, or Cherie or Bobbi. My friend who’d met her said she was very nice – sweet, like the face – and she had a voice like Billie Dawn in “Born Yesterday.” Except she wasn’t. And in the same issue… …They’re talking about Jim Reginato’s piece in the last W, an interview with Rosemarie Kanzler at her estancia on the pampas down Argentine way. Reginato has a talent for getting his subjects to let loose. There was the photo layout including a picture of

our girl reclining in a happy, come hither pose on one of her deep and ample sofas. dressed’ in the proper duds of a rancheras or whatever they call them – the jodhpurs, the boots, etc. With a few less clothes and a few less years, she could have been a subject for Gauguin. Not a young woman but obviously still a game girl. She’s had quite a life and most of it gilt-edged. Mr. Kanzler was the husband before last, an associate of Henry Ford II, and rolling in it. The last one was around for sixteen years, and it’s been said that he did not go gently into that good night, so forget him. She didn’t talk about that. After the rundown on her life and loves and houses and apartments and luncheons and dinner parties, she gives

us her view of some of the other girls who’ve breakfasted at Tiffany’s. Unfortunately she comes off as sniping.Which is a big bad habit of a lot of people in New York society. She gives it to Jayne Wrightsman, for example, innocently sitting up there in her 18th century French imbued ivory tower. Wrightsman gets it right between the eyes for being too formal, to la-dee-dah. Which may be so, but who cares? Next comes Sao Schlumberger. Mme. S. overdecorates and overdresses and overdoes until Kanzler can’t take it anymore. Poor Sao Schulumberger. Can’t a girl have any fun? Then comes Mercedes Bass. Kanzler knew her when. When what? Is what I’m always curious to know. When nothing.

Bass passes with Madame K. on the spending too-muchmoney harangue, because after all it’s there and that’s what it’s for. Kanzler would know. So would the guy sleeping under the cardboard box on the steps of St. James each night. According to Kanzler, Bass fails, however, on the can’t-keep-her-eyes-offher-husband-at-dinner parties test. She’s either glaring daggers at the woman talking to him or telling him what to eat and not to eat. So? She did know him when there was another Mrs. Bass. It’s not like any of these girls can’t defend themselves. We’re not talking Little Miss Muffet on her tuffet. But where’s the beef? Or even the curds and whey? What separates these women from the girl next door, or the

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lady down the hall, is their irrepressible ambition and/ or their excellent powers of charm and, in some instances, their remarkable beauty. They really are different, often living on their own little planets with their own little agendas. Like the very well known Fifth Avenue hostess renowned for her bronze doree ascendency, who had 44 QUEST

Romain Dauriac and Scarlett Johansson

Kathryn Cleaver and Sophia Alexandrov

a brother who was always threatening to kill himself. Dozens, maybe scores, maybe hundreds of times, she’d been confronted with this disturbing threat. One night when he called to tell her he was doing it, he caught her between the salade and the dessert. The dinner that night was for some English lord or French count. I

Megan Flynn and James Lansill

Olivia Luccardi and Craig Johnson

Cindy Gracely, George Lancaster and Laura Childress

can’t talk, she tersely informed bro. I’m in the middle of a Dinner. But-but-but… She hung up. He killed himself. From Quest, November 1994. Dinner at “21”. Table talk: about the famous heiress who gifted an aging movie star with a check (7 figures) for her pet charity. Heiress died. Star kept the check.

Charity begins at home. Talk of Teddy Forstmann’s five or six dates” with Princess Di, the two introduced by Jacob Rothschild. Talk of the memorial service for “Sister” Parish during which the church bells reang 84 times, prompting one local wit to quip, “for whom the bells told.” More intense talk of the

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Ryan Johnson and Victoria Allen



D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A late Slim Keith’s auction. In the later years after Leland Hayward and after Sir Kenneth, Slim had a close friendship with Bill Blass, a confirmed bachelor if there ever was one. Thick as thieves, she became his hostess. She came to herself as indispensible. He had no taste, so went the story; his houses were so-so. Until Slim. They went everywhere together. Slim thought they were ripe for a mariage de convenance or otherwise. She said so. Quite publicly, much to her friend’s distress. They planned a trip

together, to someplace chic and quiet, where they could eat well and lose a few of the avoirdupois. Nantucket. She would drive Her big old station wagon. She brought her dogs; he his. From the getgo he seemed displeased about something. What? She couldn’t tell. The car; not chic enough? The dogs? The driver? They arrived. She took the main house, he the guest cottage. Dinner time. Candlelight; table perfectly set, perfectly chic, perfectly rustic. He came over and took his place. The perfect meal seemed less than. He

went back to his guesthouse. The next day she discovered he had -- with dog, and nary a word -- departed in the night. They never spoke again. At a public affair or a private party, there might be a perfunctory nod. But whatever happened was never explained. The lady went to her grave never knowing. Not everyone concurred. “She was the sort of woman who could not see what everybody else saw, “ said another at the table. Hers was a reich life, romantic, good, bad, glad, sad. There were the love letters.

Two thick packets entrusted to a friend before she died, with instructions to put them in the right hands posthumously. One packet was from Ernest Hemingway. The other was from a man with whom she had a passionate affair when still married to Keith, an affair fraught with scandalous implications and never mentioned in her memoir where, as it is with most of us, candor was reserved for those she disliked more than for herself. It was also a life full of irony. What happened between her and the confirmed

J.O.B. DINNER DANCE TO BENEFIT JUST ONE BREAK, INC. QUEST, JANUARY 1993

Lee Thaw and John Galliher

Kitty Carlisle Hart

46 QUEST

Sage Lehman and Orin Lehman with Susan and Trent Carmichael

Anne Slater and Stephen Stempler

Jane Dudley, Barbara Bancroft, Norma Dana and Wendy Lehman


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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A bachelor Blass also happened between Truman Capote and her. She’d shut him out after “Cote Basque 1965.” He went to his greave never really knowing. After all, he had known her well, including the depth of her various loyalties. “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” From Quest, September 2001. The Beauty and the CyberBeast. Way past middle age. A lifetime of wealth, glamour, celebrity. And now, a newcomer, like most of us, to the World Wide Web and its infinite variety. She likes surfing the web, looking for bargains, visiting chat rooms, and as it

happened, even looking for, well…love…or something along those lines. One day in her explorations, bingo! She met someone. A very interesting man. Not a New Yorker, a bit younger than she, and according to the photo he posted) handsome, hale and from way out there in the heartland. “Not a man who belongs to a club but the kind of a man who has a club that belongs to him,” as Cole Porter put it in “Find me A Primitive Man.” A correspondence cyber-wise ensued. Almost instantly, she liked what she saw – or, more accurately, read. And he evidently he did too. Not spring chick-

ens, true, but time had been unusually kind to both. At least in the photos. Since he’d posted his picture, why hadn’t she? He wanted to know. (For the very simple reason that millions would recognize her.) Nevertheless, delighted that he seemed unaware of her social status, she sent him a picture of herself. Anything’s possible. Their correspondence intensified. Soon, they somehow came to believe they were perfect for traveling to exotic (and romantic) places together. Places she’d always dreamed of visiting -- actually she’d already been but didn’t tell him; and places he’d always dreamed of visit-

ing (or said he had, when she mentioned them). Finally, some best-laid plans: a trip to a faraway isle where travelers can find love in bloom. The Far East. Dandy. She made the reservations (since she was paying for them anyway). He would come to New York so they could travel together from Day One. In her excitement about what was beginning to seem like a fresh and passionate affair, she organized a dinner in honor of his arrival in the City. That way her friends could meet her dreamboat the same time she met him. The appointed day came: great excitement, great, ex-

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

citement. The doorbell rang and loverboy materialized out of cyberspace on her New York doorstep. Her first thought when she laid eyes on him was: Ohhh. Or, uhhggg. For one thing he didn’t really look like his picture. Maybe 30 years ago, but not today. Time hadn’t been nearly as kind as the photograph he sent had led her to believe. On top of that, he could have been younger, but not so’s you’d notice. Actually she looked like a teenager compared to him. Okay. Then there was his, well…manner. He was a real hayseed, the kind of guy who’d probably never made it to a town bigger than Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She, on the other hand is famously cos50 QUEST

mopolitan and sophisticated. Nonetheless, our Beauty, being a trouper, decided the show must go on. And go on it did, to dinner with friends anxiously waiting to meet The Man. On first meeting, they too, all thought….uhhggg. And then they thought: Is she really going to go halfway across the world with this? Answer: apparently. The following day, they were up up and away. On arrival in the appointed Loveland, she immediately made some alterations in their accommodations,: separate rooms, not the honeymoon suite. In her pre-travel planning enthusiasm she had also arranged for them to be feted by the local swells, some of whom she knew from New

York. Her hosts were, like her, rich and sophisticated and worldly. The dinner was grand and beautifully laid out. The conversation was smart and witty, although the guest of honor was noticeably not in his element. He seemed to be having the time of his life, however. Maybe it was the champagne. Maybe it was getting out of Cedar Rapids, but the fellow couldn’t contain his cornpone excitement at dining with such a svelte crowd, especially when they toasted the newly acquainted “lovers.” Finally in his (inebriated) innocence, he stood up to speak to his hosts. Boisterously, giddily, he expressed how happy he was to be there, and dining at their

fancy table; how wonderful it was to be traveling with “such a beautiful girl.” He then innocently inquired “Are you people what they call real “aristy-crats?” Huh? Thud: the sound of how he went over. The Lady of the Hour, the nouvelle cyber-princess, was horrified. Really, she thought. The man had made an ass out of himself. Because he was an ass. The whole time. Horrible, just horrible. All she wanted to do was get out of there. Later that night, back in the separate five star lodgings, she decided that the best thing for her was: “LEAVE. Immediately. She changed her reservation to the following morning’s flight back to New York, and packed her bags before she went to bed.

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A Up at the crack of dawn, she settled their hotel bill, making good for him the several more days they had originally planned. Then, feeling a little guilty about the suddenness of her departure, she went out and bought him a beautiful silk robe. Writing a brief but gentle note of explanation, she slipped it into the box, left it with the concierge, and headed for the airport. Great relief came over her as soon as the 747 was airborne. Mistakes made and rectified. Life goes on. Back in New York only 72 hours after her original departure, she decided to lay low for a few days to avoid having to explain her gaffe.

A few days later, she got a call from the hotel. There was a problem. Her guest had stayed all the days she’d paid for, but before he checked out, he’d trashed the room and taken with him just about everything that wasn’t nailed down -- sheets, pillowcases, towels, booze, even a lamp; just cleaned it out. So the hotel would be sending her a bill for the damage. Horrified, doubly embarrassed, she gave them her credit card account number. “Oh,” the hotel manager interjected, almost as aside: “Your guest did leave something behind” that perhaps she would like sent to her: a beautiful silk robe. Still in the box. u

QUEST, MARCH 1996


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MO N T B L A N C A N D Q U E ST C E L E B R AT E D T H E FO U R T H A N N I V E R S A R Y O F “ N E W YO R K E R S W H O M A K E A D I F F E R E N C E ” QUEST, NOVEMBER 2005

66 QUEST


BARONS LANE OCEANFRONT

Web0057247 | Offered at $55,000,000

HARALD GRANT ASSOCIATE BROKER | 516.527.7712

SOUTHAMPTON BROKERAGE | 50 NUGENT ST., SOUTHAMPTON, NY 11968 | 631.283.0600 | SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM/HAMPTONS Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Real estate agents affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

J U LY / A U G U S T 1 9 9 7

68 QUEST


Next to nothing.

Close That Matters. Matters. Close To To Everything Everything That Congratulations Quest for 30 amazing years!

2,400acres. acres.Only Only 67 67 homes. homes. Your family’s 2,400 family’s private privateplantation. plantation.

F

ew things passed along are are of more more value than than devotion to to outdoorsmanship. ew things things passed passed along ew along are of of more value value thandevotion devotion tooutdoorsmanship. outdoorsmanship. And few places are as majestic as the Pine Creek Sporting Club. Where great stretches And few places are as majestic as the Pine Creek Sporting Club. Where great stretches And few places are as majestic as the Pine Creek Sporting Club. Where great stretches of Florida wilderness set the stage for days filled with wildlife and life lessons. Nearly of Florida wilderness set the stage for days filled with wildlife and life lessons. Nearly every every of Florida wilderness set the stage for days filled with wildlife and life lessons. Nearly every second second spent spent here here is is aa celebration celebration of of simpler simpler times, times, when when sturdy sturdy boots boots and and aa trusty trusty gun gun could could second spentfar, here isata celebration of simpler times, when he sturdy boots and a trusty gunpiece could take aa man man far, and at the same same time, time, closer closer to to everything everything he loves about about living. living. Own Own aa piece take and the loves take a man far, visit and at the same time, closer to everything he lovesprivate about living. Own a piece of of old old Florida, Florida, visit PineCreekSportingClub.com PineCreekSportingClub.com to to schedule schedule your your private tour. tour. of old Florida, visit PineCreekSportingClub.com to schedule your private tour.

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A A N N N O R TO N S C U L P T U R E G A R D E N S W E LC OM E PA R T Y I N PA L M B E AC H

Theo and Stephen Hayes

Iris Apfel and Chuck Close

Jeffrey and Frances Fisher with Roger Ward

Julie Fisher Cummings and Jorge Sanchez

Heidi and John Niblack

Karyn Lamb and Amanda Schumacher

Patt and Bill Sned

“ C E L E B R AT E S P R I N G ” B E N E F I T I N G T H E PA R K I N S O N ’ S FO U N D AT I O N AT L AVO N E W YO R K

Katey Beidi, Jonathan Romero and Randy Adler 70 QUEST

Jonathan Romero and Katy Rigley

Marc Lewinstein, Elizabeth Belfer and Edward Vietor

Penn Egbert and Robin Elliott

Caroline McCabe, Jessica Griffith and Holly Colehower

C A P E H A RT ( A N N N O RTO N )

Sam and Phoebe Polk


A multi-million dollar facelift gives new life to luxury

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experience our brand new guest rooms at your favorite seaside destination. Elegant accommodations, impeccable cuisine and unforgettable experiences await you three hours from New York or less than two hours from Boston. Private white sand beaches lead to blissful relaxation in the OH! Spa; rich historic charm intertwines with chic design; thoughtful luxury amenities meet coastal elegance. Indulge, savor and fall in love with every moment of summer with us.

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D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUEST, JUNE 1995

72 QUEST


PA L M B E AC H O C E A N F RO N T E STAT E S

MAGNIFICENT OCEAN TO LAKE MEDITERRANEAN ESTATE Price Upon Request | Web: 0076855 magnificientmediterranean.com

OCEANFRONT MIZNER VILLA TRANQUILLA

$42,900,000 | Web: 0076748 mizneroceanfront.com

CERTIFIED “GREEN” DIRECT OCEAN-TO -LAKE ESTATE

$23,850,000 | Web: 0076859 acqua-liana.com

C R ISTI NA CO N D O N |5 61 . 3 01 . 221 1 CRISTINA.CONDON@SOTHEBYSHOMES.COM CRISTINACONDON.COM

PAL M BE AC H BROKERAGE 3 40 Royal Poinc iana Way, Palm B e a ch, FL 33480

Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Real estate agents affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUE ST, OCTOBER 1993

74 Q U E S T


WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Owning a penthouse at the top of Miami’s magnificent Biscayne Beach is a rarified experience. With an exhilarating sense of expansiveness, breathtaking views that stretch from the ocean’s horizon to Miami’s skyline, and world class design, Biscayne Beach residences feature a level of luxury unlike anything anywhere.

FINAL TWO PENTHOUSES DELIVERING FEBRUARY 2017 PRIVATE PRESENTATIONS AVAIL ABLE UPON REQUEST VISIT OUR SALES GALLERY 254 NE 30TH STREET MIAMI, FLORIDA Developed by: TWO ROADS DEVELOPMENT & GTIS PARTNERS

EXCLUSIVE SALES AND MARKETING BY

Interiors by: THOM FILICIA INC.

305.767.1414 BISCAYNEBEACHRESIDENCES .COM

Exclusive Sales & Marketing by: CERVERA REAL ESTATE

ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO THE BROCHURE AND TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. OBTAIN THE PROPERTY REPORT REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW AND READ IT BEFORE SIGNING ANYTHING. NO FEDERAL AGENCY HAS JUDGED THE MERITS OR VALUE, IF ANY, OF THIS PROPERTY. Restaurants or any operators are subject to change at any time and no representation is made hereby for reliance and except as the offering materials provide the use of the commercial spaces will be in discretion of their purchasers and there is no assurance that they will be used for any specific purpose or with such operators. These materials are not intended to be an offer to sell, or solicitation to buy, a unit in the condominium. Such an offering shall only be made pursuant to the prospectus (offering circular) for the condominium and no statements should be relied upon unless not made in the prospectus or in the applicable purchase agreement. In no event shall any solicitation, offer or sale of a unit in the condominium be made in, or to residents of, any state or country in which such activity would be unlawful. We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing throughout the Nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising, marketing and sales program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, sex, religion, handicap, familial status,or national origin.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A T H E J U N I O R S E T AT D O U B L E S QUEST, AUGUST 2003

A N N E H E A R ST ’ S PA R T Y AT MO R T I M E R ’ S H O N O R I N G T H E H U D S O N R I V E R K E E P E R QUEST, APRIL 1994

Chuck Scarborough and Anne Hearst

Helen Brandford 76 QUEST

Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Patricia Burnham

Christine Hearst

Milly de Cabrol

Peggy Siegal and Steve Benson


ANYONE CAN SHOW HOMES, IT’S OUR JOB TO KNOW HOMES.

845 United Nations Plaza, 44C • $3,750,000

It’s easy to find the right place when you know the right people. Find experienced agents and expectional properties. bhhsnyproperties.com

New York Properties

212.710.1900 • contact@bhhsnyp.com • 590 Madison Avenue, New York, New York © 2017 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity. Information not verified or guaranteed. If your home is currently listed with a Broker, this is not intended as a solicitation.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A A E R I N L AU D E R H E L D A B R E A K FA ST AT W I L L I A M S - S O N OM A N E W YO R K C I T Y

Daphne Oz and Jean Armstrong

Patrick Ramsey and Janet Hayes

Jane Keltner de Valle and Athena Calderone

Olivia Palermo

Tabitha Simmons and Monica Bhargava

Adam Glassman and Aerin Lauder

N E W YO R K L A N D M A R K S P R E S E R VAT I O N FO U N D AT I O N ’ S A N N UA L FO R U M

Christian Rinck and Basil Walter 78 QUEST

Barbara Robinson and Anne Smithers

Michèle Gerber Klein and Christine Goppel

Gail Hilson and Christina Davis

Lea Richard Nagle and Helene Muron

Justin Davidson and Amale Andraos

PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N ( A E R I N ) ; S TA R B L AC K ( L A N DM A R K S )

Lou Nowikas and Richard Farley


Let’s Talk Business...

The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County offers more than just talk – we know your business focuses on the business of increasing returns, investing, and financial services. In Palm Beach County, we offer dividends including an educated workforce specific to your industry, multilingual skilled labor, training programs, plentiful incentives, intelligent infrastructure, appealing corporate tax structures – and an unparalleled lifestyle. We’re ready to show you it is a pleasure to do business here. For a personalized, confidential look at our competitive assets, call Kelly Smallridge, President & CEO, at 561.835.1008 or visit www.bdb.org/ letstalkbusiness Because talking business is just the beginning…

310 Evernia Street West Palm Beach FL 33401 561.835.1008 www.bdb.org/LetsTalkBusiness

Photo location: Florida Atlantic University [FAU] College of Business, trading room, Boca Raton FL


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

Q U E S T , J U LY / A U G U S T 1 9 9 6

80 QUEST


CONGRATULATES

ON THEIR

30TH ANNIVERSARY These and many more of our iconic pieces available at www.kennethjaylane.com


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A S C OT L A N D ’ S T R E A S U R E G A L A AT T H E M E T R O P O L I TA N C L U B

Vic and Kirstan Zimmerman

Tom Savage and Tara Theune

Mark Bishop and Simon Skinner

Victoria Cummock and Naoma Tate

Wilson and Eliot Nolen

Greg and Lysa Rohan

Charlie Whitfield and Kay Foster

G A R D E N S C O N S E R V A N C Y H O N O R E D S A L LY S O T E R W I T H T H E A N N N O R T O N A W A R D I N P A L M B E A C H

Jennifer Garrigues and Karyn Lamb 82 QUEST

Becky and David Gochman

Chuck and Amanda Schumacher

Walter Ross and Mieke van Waveren

Steven Green and Cindy Sulzberger

Helene and Matt Lorentzen

A N N I E WAT T ( T R E A S U R E ) ; C A P E H A RT P H OTO G R A P H Y ( G A R D E N S )

Frances Fisher, Roger Ward and Sally Soter



D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A

Q U E S T , J U LY / A U G U S T 1 9 9 9

84 QUEST


NA N T UC K ET

ISL A N D

HARBOR HILL ESTATE | SHIMMO WATERFRONT

Hugh Newell Jacobsen & Simon Jacobsen, Architects Private access to beach, 4+ acres, 10 bedrooms, 11.5+ baths, pool, tennis, spa Unsurpassed luxury and 180 degree water views of Nantucket Harbor $42,500,000

EXC LU SI V E LY

SHOWCASE D

B Y

DONNA BARNETT, BROKER 508.221.8995 donna@maurypeople.com MAURY PEOPLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY | 37 MAIN STREET, NANTUCKET, MA 02554 | 508.228.1881 | MAURYPEOPLE.COM Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated. Equal Housing Opportunity.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUE ST, OCTOBER 1990

86 QUEST


2345 SOUTH OCEAN BLVD. AT THE PAR 3 GOLF COURSE PALM BEACH 561.273.4130 • ALFRESCOPB.COM

BEACH

561- 655 - 9752 • RENATOSPB.COM

87 VIA MIZNER • WORTH AVENUE

PALM

Renato’ s

14 VIA MIZNER • WORTH AVENUE 561.832.0032 • PIZZAALFRESCO.COM


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A C O C K TA I L S FO R T H E U P C OM I N G K I P S B AY PA L M B E AC H S H O W H O U S E AT V I L L A B E L MO N T E

Jeffrey Caldwell, Liz Davoll, Nilani Trent and Robert Hughes

Rory and Francie McKay

Pauline Pitt and Jane Churchill

Gil Walsh, Stephen Mooney and Ginny Simmons

Carol Kirchhoff and Leta Austin Foster

Jaene Miranda and Daniel Quintero

Renee Morrison and Ian Ruddle

Sharon Bush and Nancy Brown

Steve and Deana Hanson with Christine Pressman 88 QUEST

Pamela O’Connor and Leonard Lauren

Ashley Chase and Vincent Andrews

Christopher Bickford and Christine Schott Ledes

Lisa and Mehmet Oz with Lisa Fayne Cohen

C A P E H A RT P H OTO G R A H P Y ( K I P S B AY ) ; PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N ( S H A RO N B U S H )

S H A R O N B U S H H E LD A B E N E F I T D I N N E R FO R C R I STO R E Y H I G H S C H O O L I N PA L M B E AC H


EXCEPTIONAL EXCEPTIONALLIVING LIVING EXCEPTIONAL LIVING EXCEPTIONAL LIVING

presented by The Roger Erickson Team at Douglas Elliman Real Estate presentedbybyThe TheRoger RogerErickson EricksonTeam Teamatat Douglas Elliman Real Estate presented Douglas Elliman Real Estate

presented by The Roger Erickson Team at Douglas Elliman Real Estate

NEW FULL-FLOOR AT THE BACCARAT HOTEL AND RESIDENCES NEW YORK NEW NEW FULL-FLOOR FULL-FLOOR AT THE THE BACCARAT HOTEL AND AND RESIDENCES RESIDENCES NEW NEW YORK YORK 20 West 53rdAT St, 44 | 4BACCARAT beds, 4.5 baths |HOTEL $21.5M | Web# 2724813 NEW FULL-FLOOR AT THE BACCARAT HOTEL AND RESIDENCES NEW YORK rd 20 20 West West 53rd53 St, St, 44 44 | 4 |beds, 4 beds, 4.54.5 baths baths | $21.5M | $21.5M | Web# | Web# 2724813 2724813 20 WestAT 53rdTHE St, 44 | 4 beds, 4.5HOTEL baths | AND $21.5M | Web# 2724813 NEW FULL-FLOOR BACCARAT RESIDENCES NEW YORK 20 West 53rd St, 44 | 4 beds, 4.5 baths | $21.5M | Web# 2724813

ONE-OF-A-KIND PENTHOUSE WITH 3 DRAMATIC TERRACES ONE-OF-A-KIND ONE-OF-A-KIND PENTHOUSE WITH WITH 3 DRAMATIC 3 DRAMATIC TERRACES TERRACES 140 East 63rd St, PH3 |PENTHOUSE 2 beds, 2.5 baths | $8.5M | Web# 2388082 rd ONE-OF-A-KIND PENTHOUSE 3| $8.5M DRAMATIC TERRACES 140140 East East 63rd63St, St, PH3 PH3 | 2 |beds, 2 beds, 2.5WITH 2.5 baths baths | $8.5M | Web# | Web# 2388082 2388082 ONE-OF-A-KIND PENTHOUSE WITH 3 DRAMATIC TERRACES rd 140 East 63 St, PH3 | 2 beds, 2.5 baths | $8.5M | Web# 2388082 140 East 63rd St, PH3 | 2 beds, 2.5 baths | $8.5M | Web# 2388082

GRAND PREWAR WITH BEAUTIFULLY PROPORTIONED ROOMS GRAND GRAND PREWAR PREWAR WITH BEAUTIFULLY BEAUTIFULLY PROPORTIONED PROPORTIONED ROOMS 941 Park Avenue, 6C |WITH 4 beds, 4.5 baths | $8.5M | Web# 2424309ROOMS GRAND PREWAR WITH PROPORTIONED ROOMS 941941 Park Park Avenue, Avenue, 6C 6C | 4 |beds, 4BEAUTIFULLY beds, 4.54.5 baths baths | $8.5M | $8.5M | Web# | Web# 2424309 2424309 GRAND941 PREWAR WITH BEAUTIFULLY PROPORTIONED ROOMS Park Avenue, 6C | 4 beds, 4.5 baths | $8.5M | Web# 2424309 941 Park Avenue, 6C | 4 beds, 4.5 baths | $8.5M | Web# 2424309

J. ROGER ERICKSON J. ROGER ROGER ERICKSON Lic.J. Assoc. R. E. ERICKSON Broker Lic. Assoc. Assoc. R. E. R. Broker E. Broker O: 212.303.5353 J.Lic. ROGER ERICKSON J. ROGER ERICKSON O: 212.303.5353 212.303.5353 roger.erickson@elliman.com Lic.O: Assoc. R. E. Broker

Lic. Assoc. R. E. Broker roger.erickson@elliman.com therogerericksonteam.elliman.com O:roger.erickson@elliman.com 212.303.5353 O: 212.303.5353 therogerericksonteam.elliman.com therogerericksonteam.elliman.com roger.erickson@elliman.com roger.erickson@elliman.com therogerericksonteam.elliman.com therogerericksonteam.elliman.com

575 MADISON AVENUE, NY, NY 10022. 212.891.7000 © 2017 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY. 575 MADISON 575 MADISON AVENUE, AVENUE, NY, NYNY, 10022. NY 10022. 212.891.7000 212.891.7000 © 2017 ©DOUGLAS 2017 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED PRESENTED HEREINHEREIN IS INTENDED IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED IS BELIEVED TO BE TO CORRECT, BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT SUBJECT TO ERRORS, TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT WITHOUT NOTICE. NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INFORMATION, INCLUDING, INCLUDING, BUT NOT BUT NOT LIMITED LIMITED TO SQUARE TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, FOOTAGE, ROOM ROOM COUNT,COUNT, NUMBER NUMBER OF BEDROOMS OF BEDROOMS AND THE ANDSCHOOL THE SCHOOL DISTRICT DISTRICT IN PROPERTY IN PROPERTY LISTINGS LISTINGS SHOULD SHOULD BE VERIFIED BE VERIFIED BY YOUR BY OWN YOURATTORNEY, OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT ARCHITECT OR ZONING OR ZONING EXPERT. EXPERT. EQUALEQUAL HOUSING HOUSING OPPORTUNITY. OPPORTUNITY.

575 MADISON AVENUE, NY, NY 10022. 212.891.7000 © 2017 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT 575 MADISON AVENUE, NY, NY 10022. © 2017 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED IS INTENDED FOR PURPOSESARCHITECT ONLY. WHILE, INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TOOPPORTUNITY. BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM 212.891.7000 COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE REAL SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGSHEREIN SHOULD BE VERIFIED BYINFORMATION YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, OR THIS ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUE ST, OCTOBER 1990

90 QUEST


the moSt iConiC handbagS in the worLd.

Judith Leiber: Crafting a new York StorY through august 6, 2017

museum of arts and design Jerome and Simona Chazen buiLding | 2 CoLumbuS CirCLe, nYC | madmuSeum.org Leading support for Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story is provided by Marian and Rusty Burke, and Michele and Marty Cohen. This exhibition was also made possible by the major support of the Marcy Syms and the Sy Syms Foundation, and Barbara and Donald Tober. The Museum of Arts and Design gratefully acknowledges the support of Anita Durst, Alexandra Fairweather, the Hungary Initiatives Foundation, Sharon Karmazin, the Leonard and Judy Lauder Fund, The Magyar Foundation of North America, and Melissa Urfirer.

Photo by Jenna Bascom

judith leiber


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUEST, SEPTEMBER 1998

92 QUEST


Michael A. Kovner AND

Jean Doyen de Montaillou WITH THEIR GOOD FRIEND

Mark Gilbertson TOAST

ON ITS

30-Year Anniversary AND THANK THEM FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT OF

many worthy charitable organizations OVER THE YEARS.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A A PA R T Y FO R J E A N H A N N O N D O U G L A S AT ST U B B S B O O K S & P R I N TS QUE ST, MAY 1995

Freddie Eberstadt

Carol and Frederick Guest and Robert Power

Orin Lehman and Eileen Finlater

Nenna Ebertadt

K-K Auchincloss

Lil and Stphane Groueff

G E R A L D I N E S H E P H A R D ’ S D I N N E R D A N C E FO R H E R N I EC E W E N DY ’ S B I R T H D AY AT S H I N N EC O C K QUE ST, OCTOBER 1992

The Hostess, Geraldine Shephard

Wendy Norris Grant 94 QUEST

Pat Patterson and Paul Hallingby

Henry Koehler and Bill Becker

Jack Carley and Mary McFadden


The True Home Field Advantage

Halstead is the Official Luxury Real Estate Firm of the New York Yankees

All New York Yankees trademarks and copyrights are owned by the New York Yankees and used with the permission of the New York Yankees.


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A D A V I D H O C K N E Y O P E N I N G AT PA C E G A L L E R Y PA L O A LTO

Robin Bogott and Maureen Kirchner

Liz Sullivan with Sarah and Peter Plaustein

Richard Benefield

Aaron Shifflett and Courtney Rabideau

Linda Fenney and Gretchen Frank

Michelle Azout, Courtney Kass and Maria haber

Mariah Kennedy Cuomo, Ethel Kennedy and Kick Kennedy

Howard Schultz 96 QUEST

Danny DeVito and Meera Gandhi

Rosie Perez and Harry Belafonte

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Alec Baldwin

Joe Biden

D R E W A LT I Z E R ( H O C K N E Y ) ; CO U RTE S Y O F M E E R A G A N D H I ( R F K )

T H E R O B E R T F . K E N N E DY R I P P L E O F H O P E A W A R D S I N N E W YO R K


QUEST SALUTES

NANCY ELLISON / POLARIS

LOLA ASTANOVA

“A TRANSFIXING PERFORMANCE BY PIANIST LOLA ASTANOVA…”

“ONE OF THE MOST TALENTED PIANISTS IN THE WORLD”

“ALICE TULLY HALL IS STILL RESOUNDING TO HER MUSIC”


D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUEST, NOVEMBER 1991

98 QUEST


INTRODUCING… Fox Residential Group’s Concierge Service At Fox, there’s a lot more to the sales effort than just listing a property on a few websites and holding open houses. That’s why we created the Fox Concierge Service -- to utilize the newest and best techniques, tailored to each client’s needs, to help sell your property.

900 FIFTH AVENUE, APT. 2B

Our hands-on service begins before the property is put on the market and only ends when the sale closes. Pre-listing, we are available to interview, hire and direct the work of stagers, interior designers, painters, floor refinishers, refuse haulers, and others – all geared to putting the property in the best possible condition so as to attain the highest sale price.

67 PARK AVENUE, PH

Highly skilled in handling estate sales, Fox has deaccession experts to manage the nuances of this unique type of transaction. With the Fox Concierge Service, the seller has our undivided attention with the object of completing a sale as quickly, painlessly, and profitably as possible. We make sure that every request to view the property is promptly fulfilled. Only skilled and experienced agents back up our brokers – not assistants and novices.

180 EAST 79TH STREET, APT. 10B

Your Fox broker undertakes a full vetting of a buyer prior to the beginning of negotiations, to assure the purchaser’s ability to close on the property and to gain co-op or condo board approval. This is just part of our Fox Concierge Service and the many ways that your Fox broker will market and sell your property.

425 EAST 58TH STREET, APT. 10C

Barbara Fox, President

Please call us for all your real estate needs.

212.772.2666

FOX RESIDENTIAL GROUP

bfox@foxresidential.com

www.foxresidential.com

14 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022


’ IA S RY

T

D

PC RS

D

FI 100 QUEST

D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A QUE ST, OCTOBER 1994


Leslie Priggen

Since 1904…

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK Clinic and Adoption Center 306 E. 59 St., New York, NY 10022 (212) 752-4842

For a needy animal, your donation to us means food, shelter, and lifesaving medical care. Please send all you humanely can.

If You Abandon Us, You Abandon Them


TA K I

ON LYING

IF THE CLINTONS were not as downmarket as they are, they would have fit perfectly into 15th century Florence, the city that gave us Botticelli and Cellini, and also the Medicis, the Borgias and, of course, Machiavelli. Renaissance Florence was not confined to painting and literature; quite the opposite, in fact. Doublespeak, or lying, was as prevalent in the city as art and making money, and the greatest exponent of lying was the flattering favorite son of the city, Niccolò Machiavelli himself. I know I sound a like bit of a flatterer 102 QUEST

by mentioning the Clintons in the same breath as those great—if blood-soaked —Florentines, but it is for a purpose. The Clintons lied and lied with one goal in mind: power. They were not the first, nor the last, to prefer lying when the truth was more beneficial to them. Invention, the withholding of information, fabrication of fact, or whatever one chooses to call it, makes the object of that deceit more comfortable. Words were invented in order to veil one’s true thoughts, or so the cynics say. Which brings me to the 45th American president.

I began this column with a Clinton reference in order to compel a gasp of outrage by any member of the mainstream media who happens to read it. The media minions are in a very irritable state right now, outraged at what they see as egregious lies by The Donald. And as usually, they’re wrong. The Donald is an embellisher par excellence, a man who became the consummate exaggerator in order to advance his business. He flourished by hyperbole, which is a totally different thing than the outright lies of the Clintons. (I did not have sex with that


TA K I

This page, clockwise from top left: Niccolò Machiavelli; the New York Times and the Washington Post condemn this administration. Opposite page: Free Speech Movement protestors, University of California, Berkeley, 1964.

woman; the Benghazi massacre was due to a video etc.) Lying, needless to say, has been hogging the headlines since Trump declared his candidacy, dominating the headlines in newspapers that have been known to lie consistently via false data and by suggestion: Step forward and take a bow the New York Times and the Washington Post, two papers that view whites, heterosexuals, Christians, and the police as the main dangers to this country. Take, for example, the Russian nonsense. Suggesting that false rumors— picked up in the cesspool of the Internet— are real is, in my book, as big a lie as it gets. Publishing stories of “Americans fleeing to Canada” to escape Trump is an obvious exaggeration (a few have actually gone through with it, although many, especially in show business, have threatened) but in reality it’s a very big whopper of a lie. The Times reporting that transgender women “walk with fear” because of Trump (the Times mentioned two women who had complained that cops who helped them after a harassment did not speak Spanish) is, for lack of a better word, Machiavellian. Data was used by one Charles Blow, a Times columnist who produced his own, and the lie turns into scientific proof. I could go on. Nietzsche famously declared that there are no truths, only interpretations. (Where Trump is concerned, the media considers only strict truth, hence he’s a liar. The

same can be said about me where the Clintons are concerned.) This led to a lot of charlatans called deconstructionists and post-modernists who delighted in the idea that there is no truth. Communist ideology considered truth a bourgeois construct. Our universities are no better. They pretend and advertize that they stand for free speech, but only as long as free speech does not involve anything that is in favor of conservatism. How that differs from communist oppression of free speech is a mystery to me. Yet try and find a conservative speaker that is not violently evicted from the podium in places like Harvard, Yale, or Columbia, and I will make my boat available to the Clintons. Let’s face it. The biggest lie of all is that we here in America enjoy free speech. When Trump told a black Congressman that he should worry about what has happened to the black family, rather than complain about presidential antics, the media reacted like an outraged duchess that had walked into a brothel by mistake. One cannot speak the truth about black crime, about gay promiscuity, about violent Hispanics illegally in the country, and God forbid if one mentions Trump in a favorable way.

Back in Florence in 1497, Girolamo Savonarola tried to purify the city by burning everyone who didn’t agree with him at the stake. But old Savo ended up being fried himself when he took it too far. No wonder Machiavelli wrote that “If sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find.” Machiavelli survived and died in his bed. So, too, will the liars in the media and in the academy who are Savonarola’s successors. I accept this as a way of life in modern America, but don’t pick on The Donald as someone in need of truth serum. The media needs it more than he does. u For more Taki, visit takimag.com. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 0 3


QUEST

Fresh Finds BY D A N I E L C A P P E L LO A N D E L I Z A B E T H M E I G H E R MAY FLOWERS are certainly worth all those April

showers we experienced this year. Now that spring’s in full bloom, catch a butterfly in the form of Wempe’s new Butterfly diamond ring. Or stock up on warm-weather staples from J.McLaughlin and Lilly Pulitzer. However you wish to embrace it, springtime is here—and so are these new finds, fresh for the taking. Don’t let Wempe’s Butterflies diamond ring in 18-kt. white gold and 69 brilliant-cut diamonds flutter by. Grab one while you can. $3,275. Wempe: 700 Fifth Ave., 212.397.9000.

Can’t decide? Pick up one in red, white, and blue: the chervocalf leather Nano Ai bags by Akris. $375 each at Akris boutiques, 877.700.1922, or akris.ch.

Looking for an edge on spring fashion? Then slip into Stuart Weitzman’s EDGEDOUT flat in sky crayon nappa. $375. Stuart Weitzman: 625 Madison Ave., 212.750.2555.

Accentuate your shoulders in J.McLaughlin’s Ellin halter dress in coco plum, a true warm-weather essential. $198 at jmclaughlin.com. 104 QUEST


®

M a d e

i n

B e l g i u m

1 1 0 E a s t 5 5 S t r e e t • N e w Y o r k, N Y 1 0 0 2 2 2 1 2 .7 5 5 .7 3 7 2 • b e l g i a n s h o e s .c o m


Fresh Finds

Start stacking! Vhernier’s Pan di Zucchero bracelets in 18-kt. rose

These lightweight and flexible cascade

gold and cornelian, turquoise,

earrings by Nirav Modi depict the

jade, white mother of pearl, and

luxurious sheen of brocade in gold

smokey quartz. $19,600 each.

and brilliant-cut diamonds.

Vhernier: 783 Madison Ave.,

$12,000. Nirav Modi:

646.343.9551.

727 Madison Ave., 212.603.0000.

Now on view through the end of the month at Wally Findlay Galleries: Carolina Herrera’s jacket

Ronnie Landfield’s

dress is a fashionably

We Walked All the Way

good take on a simple

(1997), acrylic on

black dress. $2,490.

canvas. For more infor-

Carolina Herrera:

mation or further

954 Madison Ave.,

details, please call

212.249.6552.

212.421.5390.

Roberto Coin’s New Barocco rings in 18-kt. yellow and white gold with round, marquis, or cushion diamonds. $1,500–1,900 each. At select retailers or by calling 212.486.4545.

Charlotte Kellogg’s brocade evening jacket in 100% silk is perfect for mild evenings out on the town. $750 at Charlotte Kellogg boutiques and charlottekellogg.com.

The women’s Original Tour Short Rain Boots by Hunter in military red, constructed from lightweight, foldable rubber, which makes them a breeze to pack for trips. $140 at us.hunterboots.com. 106 QUEST



Fresh Finds

Buckle this on for size: the Betteridge Collection silver engine-turned slide belt buckle, perfect for engraving. $200 at betteridge.com.

Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual 39 in 904L stainless steel with dark rhodium dial and caliber-3132 movement is timeless for all time. $5,700. Visit rolex.com

Go for gray in Ralph

for retailers.

Lauren’s gray cashmere crewneck sweater ($1,195) and dark gray twill trouser ($595), at select Ralph Lauren stores. Select resale cabins are move-in ready at Pine Creek Sporting Club in Okeechobee, Fla. Or sign up for one of the limited Medallion Memberships, which don’t require property ownership. For details, call John Reynolds at 561.346.9365.

Add some life to your home office with this small alligator stapler handcrafted in metal with silver finish. $60 at Linda Horn: 1327 Madison Ave., 212.772.1122.

The perfect gift for any host this summer comes in the form of personalized traditional nautical stripe playing cards from Pickett’s Press. $75 at pickettspress.com.

You can skip the links but still get your golf game on, thanks to Stubbs & Wootton’s classic slipper with golf motif in drab green linen. $495. Stubbs & Wootton: 340 Worth Ave., Palm Beach, Fla., 561.655.6857. 108 QUEST



Fresh Finds

Turn back the hands of time with Image Skincare’s Biomolecular Anti-Aging Radiance Mask and Biomolecular Hydrating Recovery Mask. For more, call 800.796.7546 or visit

We’re over the moon

imageskincare.com.

for Verdura’s moonstone, emerald, sapphire, diamond, gold, and sterling silver Byzantine Bead necklace. $16,500. Verdura: 745 Fifth Ave.,

Mikimoto

Suite 1205,

Aquamarine

212.758.3388.

Earrings feature two aquamarines and 54 diamonds set in 18-kt. white gold. $33,000. Mikimoto: 730 Fifth Ave., 212.457.4600. Polish off your look with Kenneth Jay Lane’s multipastel Cluster Stone polished-gold ring. $150 at kennethjaylane.com.

Make weekend getaways easy with Lilly Pulitzer’s Amisha tunic dress in sparkling blue. $198. Lilly Pulitzer: 1020 Madison Ave. or lillypulitzer.com. Dennis Basso’s French hand-beaded lace and silk chiffon gown in tan is the simply sophisticated choice for spring galas. $8,500. Dennis Basso: 825 Madison Ave., 212.794.4500.

This bit of luxury just landed at Scully & Scully: the Herend Reserve Great Blue Heron Figurine, Book now for a “Stay 4 Nights, Pay For 3” Villa Special Offer and discover the tranquility and relaxation of Casa de Campo in La Romana, Dominican Republic: 800.877.3643 or casadecampo.com.do. 110 QUEST

measuring 8 1/4” high. Limited edition of 150. $1,495 at scullyandscully.com.


Riverfront Estate - Stone bridge over the Beaver Dam! Over six, private, peaceful acres with Pool and Tennis. Stunning Stone and Shingle Colonial just completed! 8780 square feet of finely finished living space. Beautifully proportioned and impeccably detailed rooms with a modern aesthetic. Two-Story Entrance Hall with herringbone floor. Living Room with Fireplace and coffered ceiling. Sleek Kitchen. Family Room with stone Fireplace and French doors to rear porch. Six Bedrooms. $3,295,000

Willow Green Farm - The quintessential country estate just 50 minutes from midtown NYC. Absolutely breathtaking ten acres protected by hundreds of acres of adjoining conservancy. Stunning 19th Century Colonial perfectly restored and carefully expanded. Visually stunning living space with quarter-sawn oak floors, incredible millwork, wide crown moldings and raised paneling. Separate Guest/Staff Quarters. Tennis Court. Salt-water Swimming Pool. Pool House. Antique six stall barn. $5,395,000

Dramatic Converted Barn - On desirable Honey Hollow Road. Willow Ponds Stunning renovation of an antique bank barn. Exposed Chestnut beams, flagstone and hardwood floors, stone fireplace and French doors. Great Room with Fireplace and Dining Area. Crisp, clean Kitchen. Spacious Family Room with built-ins. Four Bedrooms. Over two spectacularly landscaped acres near the Pound Ridge Reservation. Sparkling Swimming Pool. Garage with Party Room. Katonah Elementary School. $1,199,000

Stunning Shingle Farmhouse on over 11 picturebook acres overlooking two ponds that are part of the Mill River. Originally built in 1840, completely re-built using period details and old world craftsmanship. Meticulously detailed rooms with 9’ ceilings, wide moldings, random-width wide board floors and three fireplaces. Five Bedrooms. Incredible setting with stonewalls, open meadows, specimen trees, level lawns and mature plantings. Wisteria arbor near the Pool. Old tennis court. $2,195,000

Impressive 1840’s Italianate -

English Cotswold -

Beautifully situated on nearly four pastoral acres with seasonal views of the Titicus Reservoir. Wraparound porch, emphatic eaves and low-pitched roof with cupola. 3900 square feet of meticulously appointed living space with great ceiling height, period hardwood floors, restored plaster walls, French doors and five fireplaces with Chesney mantles. Swimming Pool. Pool House with Fireplace. $2,195,000

(914) 234-9234

Reminiscent of old Europe. Stone and Stucco Country House surrounded by stone walls, terraces and tiered gardens. Over 4500 square feet of impeccable living space. Sun-filled rooms with an easy floorplan. Four Bedrooms. Nearly three park-like acres with rolling lawns, water feature and firepit. Cut-leaf Maple, Iris, Ornamental grasses, Crabapple and Birch. Fish in the nearby Titicus Reservoir. $995,000

493 BEDFORD CENTER RD, BEDFORD HILLS, NY SPECIALIZING IN THE UNUSUAL FOR OVER 65 YEARS

WWW.GINNEL.COM


PROFILE

CANINE COUTURE THIS PAST FEBRUARY, Canine Styles announced the official opening of its newly designed Manhattan flagship store located at 830 Lexington Avenue. Designed by acclaimed interior designer David Kleinberg, the store is the world’s only Dog Lifestyle brand featuring couture petwear, bespoke dog carriers in luxury fabrics, organic treats, accessories, grooming and more. The store is inspired by an English country home, embellished with oak cabinetry, brass fixtures, and an old-world feel to evoke charm and comfort. Proprietors Mark Drendel and Chad Conway expanded the previous store from 400 to 1000 square feet, and completely redesigned the interiors. “We wanted our customers to feel at home when shopping with us because they are like family to us. We love our dogs and believe they should be 112 QUEST

dressed in style, just as their fashionable counterparts are. This new flagship allows us to showcase even more incredible designs and luxury goods for their loving companions,” says Drendel. Canine Styles is known for providing the doggy fashion elite with the most luxurious and stylish pet fashion and accessories in the world. Collections are presented in Spring and Fall, all created in-house with the New York design team whose attention to detail and painstaking focus on fit and usefulness add flair to traditional and classic design. Highlights from the current winter collection include puffer coats made of insulating microfiber and filled with goose down, and the Barn coat, featuring quilted nylon with colored fleece lining and corduroy pockets. The

M A R G E AUX “ M U G G S ” Z A B L A N

BY SCOTT CURRIE


This page, clockwise from left: Canine Styles’ “Chewnel” bag; the flagship store at 830 Lexington Avenue; brightly colored petwear displayed in the store. Opposite page, top to bottom; the interior of Canine Styles’ flagship store; Canine Styles’ wool plaid dog coat

M A R G E AUX “ M U G G S ” Z A B L A N

and matching dog carrier with leather straps (both available at caninestyles.com).

signature Horse Blanket coats, designed from original waxed water resistant cotton fabric, come in signature plaids and are Sherpa lined. They have built-in D rings and matching leads attached to the coat in 5 different plaid color ways, with 8 other solid color options. All fashion outwear is fitted with signature snaps and buttons branded with the Canine Styles logo. Prices range from $85 to $125 for the main collection. Canine style couture coats are created in shearling and wool cashmere with faux fur lining—they are custom fit in the bespoke tradition with multiple fittings and command $300 and up for the most discerning clients. Additional accessories include cashmere sweaters, airline approved travel bags and carriers (in five different sizes and 15 different colors) in materials such as wool, cashmere, and cotton canvas for every season. All have zipper pockets for easy storage on the outside and nylon lining and a custom pillow in the cozy interior (retail $275). All styles are available in a range of sizes to fit every breed: from a three-pound Toy Yorkie to a 120-pound Great

Dane —and everything in between. Established in 1959, Canine Styles is New York’s oldest and finest dog emporium with world-class grooming and an exclusive line of products manufactured for and by Canine Styles to bring you the benefit of over 50 years serving dogs and their owners. All of Canine Styles’ signature items have been designed with unrivaled attention to detail, painstaking focus on fit and usefulness, and a flair for traditional, classic, but up-to-date design. Now with three locations in New York City (the fashion capital of the world!), Canine Styles produces two new collections a year and offers a constantly updated website to bring you the very best selection of dog toys, clothing, coats sweaters, collars, leashes, harnesses, dog beds, carriers, bowls, dog ID tags, and every conceivable necessity and luxury for any and every dog. Welcome to the world of Canine Styles—the world’s only Dog Lifestyle Brand. u For more information please visit www.caninestyles.com. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 1 3


CALENDAR

MAY

On May 22, American Ballet Theatre will host its Spring Gala to celebrate the start of the season. The event will begin with a champagne reception, followed by a performance and dinner and dancing.

1

6

Fountain House will host its annual Symposium and Luncheon for Borderline Personality Disorder. The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at The Pierre. For more information, call 212.582.0341.

Pacific House will be holding its annual gala in order to achieve its commitment to end homelessness in Fairfield County. The event will take place at the Italian Center of Stamford. For more information, call 203.406.0017.

EVENING TO REMEMBER

A HOME FOR ALL

GOOD INTENTIONS

The Gala for Good will be raising money for orphan care in Malawi. There will be tasting stations from several of NYC’s top restaurants! For more information, call 917.244.5351.

DERBY PARTY

A Kentucky-themed fundraiser will be held in Saratoga Springs, featuring signature dishes from

the state and local brews and spirits. For more information, call 518.584.0400.

ue to fund research to conquer Alzheimer’s. For more information, call 917.375.0235.

10

11

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation will hold its 11th Annual Connoisseur’s Dinner. Guests will enjoy an exclusive preview of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art and Contemporary Art exhibition. The Foundation wants to contin-

El Museo will be hosting its annual gala at the Plaza Hotel. In attendance will be luminaries in worlds of fashion, entertainment, business, society, and politics. In addition to helping keep open their acclaimed exhibitions, El Museo uses the fundraiser to continue public and educational programs. For more information, call 212.868.8450.

A GOOD CAUSE

4

MUSICAL EVENING

InterSchool Orchestras of New York will be presenting the Edward and Elaine Altman Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall. There will also be a dinner held beforehand at Le Parker Meridien. For more information, call 212.410.0370.

CHOCOLATE ENTHUSIASTS

Find out what Alexander Hamilton drank at the Newport Historical Society. The organization will be discussing chocolate and other goodies in the American Colonial period. For more information, call 401.841.8770.

13

BOUTIQUE EVENT

The annual Gala for Child Protection will be held at Gotham Hall in New York City to raise awareness about missing children. For more information, call 212.921.9070. 114 QUEST

ATTRACTIVE AFFAIR

EXCITING EVENING

On May 6, a Kentucky-themed fundraiser will be held in Saratoga Springs, featuring signature dishes from the state in addition to local brews and spirits.

The Bruce Museum will be hosting A Pop! Experience at the Greenwich Country Club beginning at 6p.m. For more information, call 203.869.1000.



CALENDAR

MAY Gardens in New York. The event will benefit the foundations goal of a world without Parkinson’s. For more information, call 800.457.6676.

JUNE 1

FILM FESTIVAL

The Greenwich International Film Festival will be showcasing many films while also highlighting an important cause each year. The Festival is entirely run by women who want to bring important artists to people’s attention. For more information, call 212.445.7100.

5

DINNER OF TRIBUTE

On May 11, InterSchool Orchestras of New York will be presenting the Edward and Elaine Altman Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall. There will also be a dinner held beforehand at Le Parker Meridien.

16

22

24

The Flower and Fruit Mission’s Luncheon in Saratoga will help benefit Women’s Health Services at the Saratoga Hospital. For more information, email silverb65@ gmail.com.

The Bideawee Ball will take place this year at The Pierre Hotel. The event will include cocktails, dinner, dancing, and awards to those who have made a difference in the lives of pets. The organization aims to place homeless cats and dogs with loving new owners. For more information, call 866.262.8133.

Cantina Kids Fun Run will be hosting their kickoff party ‘Cantina Cocktails for a Cause’ in Saratoga Springs. For more information, call 518.583.8765.

WOMEN’S LUNCHEON

SALUTE TO STYLE

The Madison Square Boys and Girls Club will be hosting its Salute to Style Luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in NYC to provide support to the youth of the city. For more information, call 212.760.0073.

17

CLEAN WATER

Riverkeeper will be hosting its Annual Fishermen’s Ball at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers. The organization aims to provide clean and drinkable water to all 9 million New Yorkers. The event acknowledges the efforts of those who have done so much for the environmental protection of NYC. For more information, call 212.763.8593. COMMUNITY BUILDING

HSBC will be hosting its annual Leadership Dinner at the American Museum of Natual History. The contributions from this event go towards helping support the local community. For more information, call 212.763.8594. 116 QUEST

DOG’S NIGHT OUT

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

COCKTAILS PRE-RUN

31

FORGET ME NOT

The 60th Anniversary Gala to benefit Parkinson’s Foundation will be held at the Botanical

The Hospital for Special Surgery will host its 34th Annual Tribute Dinner at the American Museum of Natural History. The event will present the Lifetime achievement award to Thomas P. Sculco. For more information, call 212.245.6570.

7

INSPIRATIONAL LUNCHEON

K.I.D.S./ Fashion Delivers will be holding its 11th annual Women of Inspiration Luncheon to assist families and individuals affected by disaster. The organization offers them clothing, accessories, shoes, home furnishings, and other necessities. For more information, call 212.279.5343.

American Ballet Theatre will host its Spring Gala to celebrate the Spring Season. The event will begin with a champagne reception, then a gala performance immediately followed by dinner and dancing. The dancers will present Whipped Cream. The performance will open with remarks from Misty Copeland and Caroline Kennedy. For more information, call 212.362.6000.

23

FREE SPEECH

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press will host their annual awards dinner at the Pierre. A special tribute will be given to the Gwen Ifill, Dacid McCraw, and the New York Times. This committee aims to advocate and support first amendment rights regardless of what medium it appears in. For more information, call 212.254.6677.

On May 10, the Alzheimer’s Drug Foundation will hold its 11th Annual Connoisseur’s Dinner. Guests will enjoy an exclusive preview of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern and Contemporary Art exhibition.


questmag.com That’s right, we’re going bigger and better, more than doubling our online coverage of the socially prominent and their dynamic lifestyles. Now the rich content of Quest is available both in print and on your desktop, laptop, tablet, and phone.

And don’t forget to follow QuestMag on social media for the latest happenings around town.

QUESTMAG

@QUESTMAG

@QUESTMAG


30 How does a magazine mark its

30th anniversary? We say, with a look

at the people, personalities, and institutions that have represented and defined Quest over the past three decades—as told by the writers who know them.


1987

GETT Y IMAGES

Slim Aarons by Chris Meigher Over the last three decades, Quest has been blessed with an exclusive tribe of revered and renowned columnists, several of whom still contribute brilliantly to our issues. Many of these “ink-drenched quill drivers” have penned profiles in the forthcoming pages that celebrate another bunch of boldfaced New Yorkers from our past 30 years. Our columnists’ ever-grateful-and-proud publisher tips his cap to each of his noble scriveners, including the iconic photojournalist and Fleet Street renegade, Harry Benson; the doyenne and queen of all New York columnists, and the pride of Galveston, Texas, Liz Smith; the erudite, irreverent, and much-envied scoundrel, Taki Theodoracopulos; the ever-glamorous, kind, and generous society scribe, Hilary Geary; the Midas-minded Renaissance man, Michael Thomas; the late Corinthian scholar and decorated sportsman, Eddie Ulmann; the Audaxian reminder of people and places past, Jamie McGuire; and our own beloved, best-read, loyal, and most-respected edi-

tor-in-chief, David Patrick “D.P.C.” Columbia. One Quest columnist no longer among us is a pal from my TIME LIFE days, Slim Aarons. Slim’s photos captured the sensibility of timeless and casual elegance so embedded in Quest’s understated voice and innately chic style. He was an authentic New England Yankee who saw our world as “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” Slim’s column, “Once Upon A Time,” ran in Quest from 1998 until his death in 2006. We salute—and very much miss—him. Godspeed, old friend. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 1 9


1988 Central Park by Suzie Aijala From the time I was a little girl growing up in New York City in the ’70s, Central Park has been my oasis in one of the busiest cities in the world. It’s where I learned to roller-skate and ride a bike. It’s where I saw my first concert (Beach Boys and Chicago in Sheep Meadow), and walked with my first boyfriend through the Great Lawn. But the Central Park of my childhood wasn’t what it is today; back then, the grass was dead, the benches were falling apart, and there was broken glass and garbage everywhere. We were actually afraid to go in after a certain hour. The Central Park Conservancy changed all of this when it was founded in 1980. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Conservancy and its Women’s Committee, for which I serve as president, Central Park has been transformed into a jewel. The Conservancy now welcomes over 42 million visitors to Central Park each year and raises an incredible 75% of the annual $67-million operating budget from private donations. I get inspired every day knowing there are so many wonderful people willing to contribute their time and money so we can all enjoy the best park in the world. The Women’s Committee, which has raised over $150 million since 1983, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year and has committed to raise at least $5 million of the $10 million needed to restore the historic Conservatory Gardens, home of the Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon. I am so passionate about Central Park, having enjoyed its many benefits my entire life, and am so proud to be supporting the gold standard that the Conservancy has created. 120 QUEST


1989

Diana Vreeland by Amy Fine Collins

P H OTO C R E D I T G O E S H E R E

Diana Vreeland invented the fashion world as we know it—the glitzy, hyperbolic, personality-driven, social, high-low international glamour spectacle, in which appearances are reality, and surface is substance. She understood the need for neophilia—by which I mean the love of change for change’s sake. Vreeland’s Vogue uprooted editorial from reality and even from aspiration. It was dream-driven, a fantasia, and a cornucopia. Paradoxically, she herself was very disciplined in how she dressed, ate, worked, and lived. She really believed that there was no beauty without strangeness, and that truth could be found only through exaggeration. So she was an oracle, but one with detractors. Geoffrey Beene and Eleanor Lambert, for example, objected to her essential indifference to American fashion designers. It was her more self-effacing colleague, Baron Niki de Gunzburg, who championed American fashion. Vreeland’s ever-present revival—in addition to a new biography, the past few years have witnessed the publication of her famous memos and a biopic—shows how much the fashion world is in search of an ancestral totem.

M AY 2 0 1 7 0 0


Metropolitan by Charlie McSpadden “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” asked Whit Stillman, blazer-clad despite the summer heat, on a West Village street corner in July of 2010. Though we hadn’t—that day marked my first as an assistant on his recently released film, Damsels in Distress—it certainly felt like I knew him from his wry and deeply personal films: Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco. Though he’ll be the first to denote the separation between his opinions and those of his characters, one can’t help but note that (more than) a few of his traits inform his endearing fictional creations. I was fortunate to experience this firsthand, when, in the middle of the Damsels shoot, an unexpected surgery left me apartment-bound for a week,

1990 immobile, recovering, and aching to return to set. A buzz at my door brought a care package of books and films, with a handwritten note from Whit wishing swift improvement. Much like the sentiments of Metropolitan’s Tom Townsend and Damsels’ Violet, I agree that handwritten notes are rare and to be cherished. And the same goes for Whit’s exceptional and distinct voice in film. Whit brings welcome honesty and nuance to a world prone to caricature, and rewards his audience with deft insights on the vulnerability and social discomfort of youth. Luckily, I felt neither of these adolescent afflictions upon returning to Whit’s set, but instead, refreshed and grateful for his words and generosity.


1991 Brooke Astor by David Patrick Columbia She was a child of Victorians who came into young womanhood at the end of the Edwardian era, which had great influence on the American men and women of a certain socioeconomic stratum. This was a woman whose example was contrary to the popular notion of womanhood. Without the physical trappings of youth, she was a lady who often wore a hat and gloves, white gloves, a lady who wrote a memoir and put it all out on the table, and with grace and style, as well as discretion. She slowly but steadily became the grande dame of a New York that had not seen much of grandes dames since her husband’s grandmother reigned a century before. She became the right person for the right moment. She had an abiding interest in philanthropy; her choices for assistance were followed up by personal experiences. She walked among the kings, a tiara nearby for her, and had the common touch. By the time she was in her eighties, she was a legend. She was a writer, an artist, an actress. When she lost her love, Fate presented her with the task of giving away the American Astor fortune. She made it her mission and her mission made her. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 2 3


Michael’s by Joe Armstrong

1992

I knew about the original Michael’s restaurant in Santa Monica in the late ’70s, when I ran New York and New West magazines and sent Ruth Reichl to do the first review (a rave). When Michael McCarty ventured to New York City, it was at a time when the media gathered at the Four Seasons restaurant, which was getting expensive. I had done a lot of charity work with Robin Williams in the ’80s, and when 9/11 happened, he put his film career on hold to try to make America laugh again. I gave him a lunch the day his national tour hit Carnegie Hall; coincidentally, there was this beautiful café on West 55th Street, so I did it there because it was quiet, wasn’t crowded, and, best of all, had one big round table in a bay window. It was Michael’s. Robin said, “Have anyone you want, Joe, but please invite Bill Clinton and Billy Crystal.” So I added the great Texas governor Ann Richards, Liz Smith, and Diane Sawyer (Barbara Walters was furious with me about that!). A New York Post photographer in the back room snuck past the Secret Service and took a photo that was big in the paper the next day. Robin went on “The David Letterman Show” and Letterman said, “Tell me about this amazing lunch and how it happened.” The New York Times and Newsweek followed, so it became the lunch heard round the world. Soon after, Michael’s evolved into a media hangout and its business boomed. Michael himself and Steve Millington were the great conductors of a symphony staff, with the amazing L’Oreal in the control tower doing the greeting and seating. And the Cobb salad was never better anywhere. It was such a warm atmosphere and it was THE media club. It still is. I gave a few more lunches for longtime friends: Elton John the day Billy Elliot opened on Broadway, Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman for the opening of Young Frankenstein, and for Ken Burns and Meryl Streep with the launch of “The Roosevelts.” Since then, other historic lunches have been hosted by others at that great round table isolated in the big bay window. Michael’s—such a happy place. 124 QUEST


PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N

1993

David Patrick Columbia’s Social Diary by Mark Gilbertson Raconteur, historian, writer, editor, and popular gentleman, David Patrick Columbia has been an integral and vital part of Quest magazine for 30 years now. Since 1987, David has guided his readers through countless tales of New York society, intertwined with its rich heritage, making his readers aware of the past and present social world of the city and its outposts. Very well informed and often amusing, he is quite the expert on what’s proper and what’s not, and isn’t afraid to point out the difference! However, much to the relief of many a well-known New Yorker, David is the consummate gentleman both in his writings and in person. Everyone always seems so happy to see David on his daily rounds, whether it be at Michael’s, a dinner party, or one of the myriad of charity events he is so proficient at covering in his online New York Social Diary or in Quest. When out-of-towners and news stations are looking for the inside scoop on life amongst New York’s upper echelon, it’s David they seek to interview. David is inclusive in his coverage of society and philanthropy, which in New York go practically hand in hand. Charities clamor to get the photos of their benefits into Social Diary and Quest, and he accommodates them if possible. Informed and in demand, fair and entertaining—he’s had a positive effect on Quest and New York. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 2 5


126 QUEST

London, 1961: The minute she stepped off the plane she caused a sensation. This wasn’t Mamie Eisenhower—a perfectly nice woman in her own right. But Jackie was beautiful and chic, well educated and instinctively elegant. People screamed, “Jackie! Jackie! Jackie!” everywhere she went. She took it all in her stride. By the time I moved to New York in 1964, Jackie owned the city. John Fairchild of WWD would later christen her “Jackie O.” She stopped all conversation when she walked into a restaurant. When I asked Liz Smith what she remembered most about Jackie, she told me, “Re-reading all the recent books about the Kennedy years, I am struck once again with what an influence Jackie had on her adoring and, even later, speculative public. Jackie was in a class by herself. When you first photographed her in London in 1961, I loved her from afar. You caught her essence, right up through Caroline’s wedding and after. When I finally met her she was ever intellectually intrigued, adoring gossip and fun and living through the tragedy which she tried so hard to overcome. I think it amused Jackie to be seen with a gossip columnist. She liked to make waves and she both loved and loathed being photographed. You always knew when you had a real star, and she was a real star for the ages.” I showed this photograph to my friend, design director emeritus of Tiffany & Co. John Loring. It was taken in London in 1962 as Jackie was on her way to Buckingham Palace to lunch with Queen Elizabeth. John said, “That photograph was taken before 1963.” When I asked how he knew, he replied, “She never smiled that way after 1963.”

H A R RY B E N S O N

1994

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Harry Benson


1995 H A R RY B E N S O N

Dominick Dunne by Jane Stanton Hitchcock Dominick Dunne was great company, in art and in life. He was an Irish leprechaun who spun gossip into literary gold. He was also a great friend. I first met Nick when he was emerging from the ruins of a once-glamorous life in Hollywood. He had worked his way out of a deep despondency when an even darker tragedy struck. His only daughter, Dominique, a promising young actress, was strangled by her boyfriend. Her murderer was put on trial in Los Angeles. Nick sat in the courtroom day after day, watching a travesty of justice unfold. He reported it all in a riveting series of articles for Vanity Fair. After that, he deepened. In 1985, he wrote The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, which established him as a vastly entertaining chronicler of low goings-on

in the high life. He went on to write other classics in the genre he helped create. He also became a crusader for the families of murdered children and for victims’ rights. His power was such that he got a famous murder case reopened and put the perpetrator behind bars. Success became Nick. He was generous with it, always helping others. His personality was as vibrant and colorful as his signature Turnbull & Asser shirts and ties. Nick had his share of controversy, and practically everything else this life has to offer. He wrote it all down for us to savor. He always liked to say that Dominique was watching over him. I like to think he’s watching over all of us, then giving the on dit to God at dinner. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 2 7


1996 New York Yankees by Jack DeLigter Joe Girardi’s triple in the bottom of the third, Charlie Hayes’s grab in foul ground to end it in the top of ninth, and Wade Boggs’s famous celebratory equestrian jaunt around the stadium. To say that the New York Yankees were late to the championship-winning party way back in 1996 is to underestimate just how long it had been since they had last held World Series gold. By ’96, New Yorkers had grown accustomed to winning. The New York Giants had won the Super Bowl in ’90, the Rangers had captured the Stanley Cup in ’94, and that same year the Knicks fell a three-pointer short of taking home the Walter A. Brown trophy. Hell, if you count New Jersey, the Devils won it all in ’95. For a team that has always taken great pride in its winning traditions, the New York Yankees’ last World Series appearance had been back in ’81—and they hadn’t won it since ’78. Even the lowly Mets of Flushing had managed to eke out a World Series victory since then; their miracle in ’86 had been the last time the City That Never Sleeps had witnessed a World Series triumph. By October, the listless Yankees of the past decade and a half were no longer. Led by Joe Torre, they won five comefrom-behind playoff victories as World Series underdogs. Five rollercoaster games later, the Yankees were on the verge of winning their 23rd world championship. As Boggs’s steed would agree: the Yanks were back in the saddle again.


1997

The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Michael Thomas Five years ago, for Quest’s 25th Anniversary Issue, I began a hymn to the Metropolitan Museum as follows: “Of the great arks of civilization that dot the city, one above all seems hardly to have put a toe wrong: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. . . . Even as it grows as a tourist attraction, (the Met) prospers as a fortress of high culture, an institution with a contented, motivated, challenged faculty (curatorial staff) whose head person has their backs. Thus was the Met run by Philippe de Montebello, and so is it being run by his successor, Thomas Campbell, (along with) President Emily Rafferty.” Well, how short-sighted I was. In the half-decade since I wrote that, all hell has broken out uptown. Rafferty retired; Campbell has resigned; curatorial discontent has festered in the wake of new hires, buyouts, and benefit cuts. A cottage industry of Met scandal-mongering has grown up, dangling choice tidbits of gossip before the public like cheesy ornaments on a plastic Christmas tree. Worst of all, the museum’s financial condition has been shown to be if not dire, certainly more parlous than was thought—and this suggests that the Met’s board, which flaunts some of the most glittering, self-regarding names in high finance, went into hibernation sometime around 2013. These will be fixed. Financial problems can be solved with a mix of prudence and common sense. Initiatives that seemed ill-advised to begin with—a massive push into contemporary art, for openers—have been cut back, although Met Breuer seems to be a success. Nothing good can be said about the pimpish connection to the fashion industry but that foolishness must in due course wither away. What will never wither is what the Met is really all about: the incomparable treasures it houses and the people who care for and explicate them. Ars longa, vita brevis. Truer words were never spoken.

M AY 2 0 1 7 1 2 9


130 QUEST

When the social history of the ’80s is written, Glenn Bernbaum—the cranky, funny, snobby, taste-perfect, complicated, hilarious, grouchy, generous, gossip-loving friend and owner of Mortimer’s—will be defined as the Ward McAllister of his era. Ward McAllister, in case he’s slipping your mind, was the bon-vivant dandy who created the social phenomenon known as the 400, based on the number of people Mrs. William Backhouse Astor, Jr., could fit into her ballroom. Glenn was his own version of McAllister—he created the Mortimer’s set. High society, high finance, and old money mixed with a little new money and a little Hollywood like Betsy and Nancy, plus a few actors and writers, in which category I was. Mortimer’s always seemed more of a swanky club than a restaurant. It was a hangout for a hand-picked crowd. A couple nights before his death, I went to a private party in the side room of Mortimer’s. Suddenly Glenn walked in from the main room wearing an overcoat, as if he had come in from some other place. He was walking through the domain that he had created, perhaps for the last time. His restaurant closed the day he died, never to be opened again. That’s the way he wanted it.

H A R RY B E N S O N

1998

Glenn Bernbaum by Dominick Dunne (1925–2009)


1999 Checkered Cabs Retired by Robyn Travers They were New York: those instantly recognized, immense yellow checkered cabs that once navigated the avenues with pride, their bumpers metallic grins. But in 1999, the venerated vehicles became extinct—dinosaurs of an urban jungle. Now all we have are our memories and a faint nod by a few taxis that wear two small tapered checkered decals as a black armband. Years have gone by since I sat in a checkered cab, but I remember loving the space. It made it fun and easy to go places with friends because they had fold-up stools in the back, so you could get five people in there. This was of course before everyone was hyper about seatbelts. And consider this: a clunky checker could also double as a noble hero. Fresh back from our honeymoon in France, my husband, Peter, was knocked down by a bike messenger and broke his patella. Peter’s Jimmy-Stewart-in-Rear-Window-size cast wouldn’t budge and the colossal cabs were the only cars that could get him to work. It was a very sad day indeed when they were taken off the roads for good.

2000 B E T TM A N N

Johnny Galliher by David Patrick Columbia He was a most unusual person, the likes of whom I’d never met before. Although no stranger to the world known as “Society” in the 20th century, he was the kind of character you’d read about in a novel but never think to know or meet. And yet, in his way, he was a simple man. The word “chic” is over-used and I’m not sure what it means. Though John, or Johnny, as everyone liked to call him, defined it in his completeness: always a gent, wellturned-out, never calling attention to himself, a good ear, a good laugh, a bit of mystery, and a good life well-lived, apparently doing nothing but being “chic.” Therein the mystery; he was sensible. He possessed a unique combination of characteristics and qualities—easily said but rarely found in life—and therefore difficult to define. He was naturally gentlemanly, curious, and the kind who if he didn’t have something nice to say (or amusing, which might be more like it with him) said nothing at all. As a very agreeable (a favorite word of his) man, he navigated skillfully for more than 60 years through a world where gossip, bitchery, and malice could be commonplace and even lethal. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 3 1


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September 11, Rudy Giuliani, & Michael Bloomberg by Alex Travers It’s a short video clip. No matter how many times you look at it, it seems impossible that the chain of actions and reactions—planes crashing into the World Trade Center towers and their ultimate collapse—could happen, though of course it did. Like the rest of the country, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was shocked, saddened, and angry after the September 11 attacks. Yet he was determined to rebuild. He helped put both New York and the country at ease, organizing the response of city departments and gaining the support of state and federal authorities to restore Ground Zero. In time, Giuliani became known as “America’s Mayor.” There he was, just weeks after the attacks, at a Mets–Braves game, assuring the country that life must go on. “Tomorrow New York is going to be here,” he maintained. “We’re going to rebuild. And we’re going to be stronger than we were before... 132 QUEST

BER

10/1

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I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can’t stop us.” Michael Bloomberg was sworn in as mayor of New York City by Giuliani just after midnight on January 1, 2002. Bloomberg’s emergence in the election was big news, and with Giuliani’s endorsement there was belief that the city would be in excellent hands. Over the course of Bloomberg’s three terms, neighborhoods blossomed and many parts of the city changed dramatically. Parks were refurbished and new ones have opened. His contributions to arts and culture had an enormous impact on the city. And now a new, bigger tower (One World Trade Center) has gone up, a symbol of the city’s sturdiness. Nearby, the 9/11 Memorial tells the history of that day. It shows us that freedom carries an enormous weight, but we keep proving just how strong we are.

H A R RY B E N S O N ( B LO O M B E R G )

2001

OCTO


2002 H A R RY B E N S O N

C. Z. Guest by Hilary Geary C. Z. Guest, the celebrated great American beauty, was a society icon but so much more than that. She was a Renaissance woman, a doer who embraced life with her wide range of talents. She could do anything, went everywhere, and did everything with taste, style, and enthusiasm. C. Z. was an energetic entrepreneur who never stopped creating. She wrote books, penned a gardening column, and designed sweaters, candles, and more. Her profile graced the covers of Time magazine and Slim Aarons books, amongst others. Her portrait was painted by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, and Diego Rivera, and she was photographed by all the greats. She was a horticulturist who adored her garden, an animal lover, an athlete who rode and played tennis, too. C. Z. was a fabulous hostess who entertained beautifully at her country house, Templeton. She was always dressed perfectly, never over-dressed but never, ever boring. In fact, C. Z. had a quick wit, was great fun, and, best of all, was a true-blue friend. They don’t make them like that anymore. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 3 3


Professional athlete, military man, actor, journalist, author, editor, asteroid namesake, and, yes, even Fireworks Commissioner of New York. Was there any profession or corner of the earth that George Plimpton wasn’t capable of touching? The inimitable lion of the American literary (and party) scene, his mere presence bespoke an erudite but effortless intellectualism. His was a whisky-laced wit: equal part brains to bite. I first “met” George—and his tireless sense of taunting—when I was a Harvard undergrad, working on the Ernest Hemingway Collection at the JFK Library. One day, while arms-deep in archives, the phone rang and it was George. He was calling for permission to publish a letter or some document of Hemingway’s

in The Paris Review. An archivist said we’d have to find the document and get back to him, but George insisted that he needed to know then and there. When the archivist explained that it would take some time just to track the document down, George retorted that he, in fact, already had it. Somehow, at some point in time, he managed to leave the library with it, unnoticed. And now he was playing a game of make-’em-sweat. Suddenly it wasn’t a question about permission, but whether George would be willing to return the document without a stink about how it left. I don’t remember if he ever published it, but it was George in jest, at his best. In his uncannily capable omnipotence, George—as he liked to remind the rest of us—always had the upper hand.

2003

H A R RY B E N S O N

George Plimpton by Daniel Cappello


H A R RY B E N S O N ; PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N

Liz Smith by Elizabeth Meigher I have always been an avid fan of Liz Smith, affectionately known as the “Doyenne of Dish.” Not only because she is a good person with a tremendous heart, but in this era of fake news and paid celebrity interviews, Liz has remained comfortably grounded in her long-standing principles. She is a no-BS gal who shoots straight from the hip. She probably doesn’t remember this, but we first met when I was about 10 years old at an after-party for a performance of The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. I was wearing a parentally mandated Laura Ashley dress, but with a slew of rebellious black jelly bracelets running halfway up my arm. “Hey kid, what are you doing here?” she asked in her most charming Texas twang. “Wouldn’t you rather be at a Madonna concert?” Of course she was right, and I thought to myself, “Wow—she’s cool; I like her.” And I have adored her ever since. Now at 94 years young, Smith has become a bona fide New Yorker, having moved from Texas when she was only 25 years old. During her first five years in Manhattan, she was a news producer for NBC-TV while she was also ghostwriting the Cholly Knickerbocker gossip column for the Hearst newspapers. By 1976, Liz was writing a string of self-titled gossip columns for The New York Daily News, Newsday, and The New

2004 York Post, most of which were nationally syndicated. She remains today the only columnist ever to have had their column printed in three major New York City papers at the same time. Currently Liz is focused on her five-days-a-week column for the New York Social Diary, as well as her regular “Living Legend” feature in Q (the magazine that I edit), for which she profiles a different “legend” in every issue. She has featured such icons as Natalie Wood, Elizabeth Taylor, and Lauren Hutton, as well as Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Cher. And guess what? She knows (knew) all of them. Reading Liz’s take on celebrities is especially compelling as she never relies on tired news—she always provides unique insights and anecdotes from her own personal experiences. Speaking of her personal commitments, Liz is devoted to several charities and has raised millions for Literacy Partners, AIDS, AmFAR, Lighthouse Guild, the Police Athletic League, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and so many others. Vanity Fair has called her “an unflagging standard of integrity and grace that is shamefully rare in today’s media. . . . She redeems the very institution of the Gossip Column from utter disrepute.” Having had the privilege of working with Liz for over a decade, I couldn’t agree more. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 3 5


NAN! (Kempner, of course.) New York is not the same without her. She was a “piece of work” and also a work of art. Her medium was the everyday things of life. She turned them into masterpieces. Simple things like the selection of her clothes, a meal cooked by the wonderful Sylvina, a spaghetti party given on a Sunday night, served by Bernardo…things most people think of as unimportant. She made them an art with her flair, originality, style, and attention to detail. The mundane was banished by the perfect perfectionist. Nan had the wide and diverse circle of friends she deserved with her quick wit and quips (often at her own expense); her generosity and curiosity; her love of beauty, art, and music; and her pleasure in sharing all she had. She had exciting new friends who mixed with good friends from her childhood in San Francisco. I thought she valued most those who were truly down-to-earth under their colorful coating of sophistication, style, and flair—like Nan herself.

H A R RY B E N S O N

2005

Nan Kempner by Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman (1944−2016)


A N N I E WAT T / C U T T Y M CG I LL

2006

Doubles by Lily Hoagland Doubles is like the closet to Narnia, or Madeleine L’Engle’s tesseract: breach an unassuming door inside the Sherry-Netherland hotel, descend the lushly carpeted stairs, and you will discover a more genteel world than the one you left behind. The private club has the magic of sophistication, thanks to standard-bearer and proprietor Wendy Carduner. From extravagant holiday events to impromptu latenight after-parties, members share a lifetime of memories among the shades of claret decorating the main dining room. This bastion of old New York celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2006, and has maintained its reputation as a kind of pied-à-terre for generations of high-society denizens. Its longevity proves its status as the best safe haven from the grinding city—all the more so as, situated a full story below Fifth Avenue, there is no cell phone service. For that and many more reasons, we have always RVSP’d yes to Doubles’ invitation to dine, dance, and mingle. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 3 7


2007 The New Wave of Debutantes by David Patrick Columbia In the first decade of the 21st century, the public image of the debutante evolved somewhat from its oblivion into what had become a media circus of both young women and men pursuing publicity and branding rather than marital alliances that support community and family traditions. Young women now, however, have different role models than their antecedents. They expect to advance themselves through education and careers, rather than marriage. They often want full-time careers rather than, or as well as, motherhood. They also live in a world where the word “marketing,” as much as education, is a key to accomplishment and achievement. The word debutante, aside from its social intimations, is, as it always was, an “opportunity,” but now it is for the experience of meeting people, of going out into the world, of gathering. And so it remains the ritualistic tradition that it always was, but with some major alteration. What has changed is the world, changed to suit the debutante, the young woman of tomorrow.

2008 It’s well known that Bronson van Wyck creates amazing events and has the best team around. (Shout out to Kari Bien!) I have friends throughout New York City, and elsewhere too, who have had wonderful experiences with his production and planning—from weddings and birthdays to charity dinners and benefits. Having worked with him on one of the most important evenings of my life, I can easily say what a consummate professional he is, though what Bronson is best at is people. You can have the dream setting and all the elements that go with it, but the elusive piece to any event is an authenticity that’s particular to every couple or host. Bronson gets this, just as he understands how to gracefully deal with family politics. The second best part about him is his wit and sense of fun. There’s nothing like planning a party with someone who contributes elegant levity to all that goes wrong—and right. He’s beloved by both sides of my family and by my husband in particular. Any time I would start to worry about something for my own event, Bronson had a simple answer. Today, years after that special evening that he made possible, I still find myself turning to Bronson with questions—and, being the gentleman that he is, he always has the simple answers.

PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N ; PAT R I C K D E M A R C H E L I E R

Bronson van Wyck by Stephanie LaCava


2009

PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N

Young and the Guest List by Jack Bryan “Jack, just do it. What do you have to lose?” Georgina, my soonto-be editor at Quest magazine, asked me as we sat side-by-side at a 2008 end-of-summer Bryant Park event. She was offering me the magazine’s “Young and the Guest List” column and, having shown up to the cocktail-casual party in black-tie, I thought the idea that I was going to be offered a society column about anything pretty suspect. I knew Chris Meigher, Quest’s sharp and charming publisher, to be a man of taste (he liked me) and admired him for always being surrounded by beautiful women (namely his wife and daughters) so I figured that this was a man I could work for and learn from. I accepted to helm the column, which had started under Andrew Black in 2006 as a means of giving Quest a younger nightlife voice. Over the next two years I acted as Roger Moore to Andrew Black’s Sean Connery. The fun in writing YGL was always in the research: I had a method wherein every month I would go to a certain number of events until invariably I would either stick my foot in my mouth or accidently do something stupid enough to warrant a column. If you know me you know I didn’t have to wait that long. After two years, I went Hollywood (via TriBeCa) and the column went Brown. The lovely Elizabeth “Lizzie” Quinn Brown took over in 2010, the Daniel Craig to my Roger Moore. Her work was smart, funny, original— and it continues to be, although she too is no longer with Quest. Lizzie will be missed. Whether she was reporting from Madison Square Garden (she was the biggest Rangers fan in the office) or the newest downtown hotspot, Lizzie’s column was always bursting with energy. Her version of YGL, which she helped redesign, was fun to look at, fun to read. Recently, Alex Travers was assigned the column (I believe we’re out of good Bonds to reference here). Dust off your tux, Travers. Let’s see what you got. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 3 9


2010 Ralph Lauren revolutionized the retail experience in 1986 when he took over the famous Rhinelander Mansion and opened his global flagship at 867 Madison Avenue; he was a visionary in having ushered in the branded retail environment. He quickly became the arbiter of American taste. In Ralph Lauren’s case, it’s always been the casual privilege of the WASP lifestyle par excellence. With a pillar in preppy chic, Lauren has built a global empire around the notion of the idealized American guy gone right—and the glamorous, independent-spirited American woman who’s evolved right there with him. The company’s founding as a maker of ties, some 50 years ago, could be likened to its prep-school period of life: casual, carefree, collegiate. Over time, Ralph Lauren has gone on to graduate, enter the world, and capture the collective imagination of the 140 QUEST

American culture that it represents, and now helps to define. In 2010, on the heels of opening a new Paris location in a sumptuously refurbished hôtel particulier on Boulevard Saint-Germain, housing the still impossible-to-get-into restaurant Ralph’s, the designer dared to recreate a part of that Parisian chic across the street from where it all began in New York. That year, a limestone Beaux-Arts building with decorative ironwork was erected at 888 Madison Avenue as the women’s counterpart to the men’s flagship on the opposite corner. Today, these iconic edifices anchor a strip of Madison Avenue known as Lauren Land. But the gates of the empire don’t stop on Madison Avenue. In 2015, Lauren went on to open the clubbiest of canteens on East 55th Street, aptly named The Polo Bar, where the burger is served with a side of slaw—and a whole lot of tartan touches.

CO U RTE S Y O F R A LP H L AU R E N

Ralph Lauren by Daniel Cappello


2011 Evelyn Lauder by David Patrick Columbia Evelyn Lauder died on a Saturday in late November 2011 at her home here in New York. She had been suffering from a nongenetic ovarian cancer, and had celebrated her 75th birthday that August. She was born Evelyn Hausner to Jewish parents in Vienna in the mid-1930s, an infant when Hitler annexed Austria with the Anschluss in 1938. Her father, who was in the lumber business, had the foresight to get himself, his wife, and his only child out of the country. It was a long and arduous task but, in 1940, the family boarded a steamship for New York. She grew up on West 86th Street. She went to Hunter and met Leonard Lauder. They married four years later. Over the years of their marriage, the Lauders became actively dedicated members of the community. It was an extraordinary life for the child who arrived in New York a refugee from Hitler. In 1989, when Evelyn was 53, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. This matter was never publicized until the time of her death. It was assumed so only because she was so passionately committed to finding a cure. Her own treatment was successful. But by the time she started the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1993, she was famous amongst friends and friends of friends for assisting them when the call came. Since she created it, the BCRF has raised hundreds of millions of dollars. Her bravery, her gumption, and her cleverness, as well as her appetite for life, made all of that possible for her as well as hundreds of thousands—possibly even millions—of others. We miss her. We miss her smiling face, her sweet hello. And her courage. Well done, Evelyn, well done.


2012 Albert Hadley by Bunny Williams Years from now, when one looks back on the interior designers of the last 30 years, Albert Hadley will stand out as the star on top of the tree. His unique ability to see interiors in many ways made him a master creator. Though he was interested in tradition, he was passionate about Modernism, and his work was always new and fresh. He never adopted a “look” but treated each project with a fresh eye. He spent time with his clients so that their homes represented their lifestyles. He was a skilled interior architect and paid as much attention to the details of a space as to its furnishings. A scholar of the past, all of us fortunate enough to have worked with him spent hours discussing the great interiors of old. But he was also an innovator; in the ’80s, when design was at its most opulent, Albert was always restrained. Because of his editing and his ability to make magical combinations of pieces, his rooms never became dated. The elegant red lacquer library with simple brass moulding that he created for Mrs. Vincent Astor is a great example of his flair for imagining a fresh approach to a room. The combination of the rich leather-bound first-edition books and the shiny red lacquer shelves will remain one of his greatest rooms. Albert was a true gentleman. In a profession of egos, Albert always put his aside. There was no arrogance or pretension. He was kind and considerate to everyone. Albert cared a great deal about education and was a masterful teacher; because of this and his generosity, many of us received the most amazing education ever. We feel it is our responsibility to pass that gift along to others. 142 QUEST


2013 Lilly Pulitzer by Daniel Cappello In a way, the dresses were a sort of metaphor for her life: zesty, colorful, shocking, and bright, yet practical, sensible, reliable, and handy. Lilly Pulitzer, like the shift dress she became famous for, was so much more than a fashionable staple of the town of Palm Beach—she was one of its icons. It started with a dress born of necessity. In 1959, while working at a juice stand that she opened among the citrus groves, Lilly, an heiress to a famous oil fortune who had married into a famous publishing family, needed something that would hide the stains and spills of oranges and grapefruits. So she had a shift dress made in whimsical prints and irreverent tropical colors, like hot pink and lime green. “I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy,” she once explained: “fruits, vegetables, politics, or peacocks. It was a total change for me, but it made people happy.” It certainly made the ladies of Palm Beach happy. One glimpse of Lilly, and locals had to have a dress of their own. Soon, the peppy shifts were appearing at dinner tables on the social circuit, and when clients like C. Z. Guest and Jacqueline Kennedy were photographed in them, the demand grew so great that a bona fide resort label was launched, grossing up to $15 million in annual sales. Like her company, Lilly’s life took turns. She divorced Peter Pulitzer in 1969 and remarried to Enrique Rousseau. Her company sought bankruptcy protection in the ’80s, was revived in the ’90s, and was acquired in 2010 by Oxford Industries; by 2012, annual net sales reached a reported $122.6 million. Though Lilly was no longer the active head of the company, she remained its undeniable soul until her dying day, at the age of 81, in April of 2013. She continued to serve as a creative consultant, approved fabrics and new designs, and helped expand the accessories line. “Whenever we saw Lilly down in Palm Beach,” Jane Paradis, a vice president of the company, tells me, “she was always pushing us to make the collection modern,” which might explain the chic new silhouettes that keep the brand relevant today. Her original shift, in other words, keeps on shifting, but her originality will always endure as its own.


2014 Hamilton by Daniel Cappello George Washington may very well be the father of America, but when it comes to our home city, Alexander Hamilton will always reign supreme. And thanks to the genius of composer-lyricist-actor-singer Lin-Manuel Miranda, our ten-dollar Founding Father was memorialized for the ages in a new and groundbreaking light—that is, a hip-hop musical titled, simply, Hamilton. Inspired by Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, Miranda’s musical takes a cue from Hamilton’s immigrant experience (he was an orphan of the Caribbean who muscled his way to the colonies) and sings the story—via a multiethnic cast—of an immigrant nation. Hamilton has enjoyed rapturous acclaim by fans and critics alike, garnering a kind of praise that Shakespeare himself should have enjoyed in his own lifetime (it seems safe to say that Hamilton is likely to sit alongside Hamlet on college syllabi). The musical made its Off-Broadway debut at The Public Theater in February 2015, but buzz about its brilliance was percolating in the year before its opening—and even earlier. Miranda had performed versions of the opening song as early as 2009, and complete acts were being read in workshops by 2013. Once it opened at The Public in the winter of 2015, its engagement quickly sold out. The show moved to Broadway in August 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, and, last year, Hamilton was nominated for a record-setting 16 Tony Awards, winning 11 of them, including Best Musical. It was also awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Hamilton the man, in many regards, will always be the quintessential, if not original, New Yorker—proof positive of the Sinatra mantra, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” We’re just glad Hamilton the musical made itself here in our city too.


2015

American Pharoah by Alex Travers The great miracle of the 147th running of the Belmont Stakes—which a bay colt named American Pharoah won, making him the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years—was that long after the race was over, the crowd remained. When American Pharoah crossed the line, beating runner-up Frosted by five-and-a-half lengths, fans cheered and cheered. The roars were deafening. But after the noise subsided, they all stayed put, a crowd of 90,000 lingering around the track. Thirteen horses have failed to make the Triple Crown sweep since 1978. Two—War Emblem in 2002 and California Chrome in 2014—were ridden by Victor Espinoza, Pharoah’s jockey. So there were many skeptics who thought there’d never be another Triple Crown winner, even after Pharoah began making headlines. There’s a video on the Internet of Pharoah’s first public workout where an exercise rider is nearly tossed off the colt from his acceleration. Spectators watch in silence until one loud “Holy s---” can be heard in the distance. Some credit this as the first blossom of hope for the eventual Triple Crown winner. By the age of two, Pharoah took to the track and was proving he could run. At three, he won the Kentucky Derby and went on to win the Preakness. But there was still the Belmont, the grueling mile-and-a-half race that has dimmed the hope of owners, trainers, and fans alike—and this was a distance Pharoah had never raced. In the end, he handled it perfectly, becoming the twelfth member of the most exclusive group of athletes on earth. To many, Pharoah’s win was not about strategy or weather or a quick start out of the gate. The past had proved otherwise. This win had to do with faith, which cannot be fought by reason and thrives when faced with doubt. Faith’s only enemy is disbelief. And on June 6, 2015, there were legions of Pharoah’s believers at Belmont. Owner Ahmed Zayat, trainer Bob Baffert, and jockey Victor Espinoza will always be credited for the win that day, but it was also a victory for those who love and believe in the sport. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 4 5


2016 Bill Cunningham by Chris(topher) Meigher After my dear mother died, Bill was the last one to call me “Christopher,” always in his soft-toned, near-squeaky voice. It was pure Bill, and it reminded me of my childhood. As countless others have lovingly remarked, Bill was as likeable as he was genuine. And yet, his modest mannerisms aside, Bill was also a sharp-elbowed competitor who was never bashful about getting the shot he saw…and wanted. Not unlike the legendary Slim Aarons, Bill Cunningham well understood his near-iconic standing in the social scene. Like Slim, he never took it too seriously; it was always just his job.

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Even when surrounded by would-be “swans” and stilettotoed wannabe climbers, all vying for his camera’s attention, Bill was never taken in by the spectacle. He was all about the shot. And the clothes. I once commented to Marian Sulzberger Heiskell of the New York Times clan that “Bill Cunningham is your secret weapon.” Marian paused, then thoughtfully replied: “No, Bill is far more. He’s our street conscience.” In the time since his death early last summer, we have missed Bill’s gentle presence and discerning decency, but we share comfort in knowing that he loved what he did. As did we.


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2017 Donald Trump by Taki Theodoracopulos China, North Korea, and ISIS aside, here is what the 45th American president has to contend with: a small group of men and women who have achieved monopoly control over the most powerful means of communication known to man, and who are exploiting this power to shape national opinion to advance their own ideological agenda. The trouble is that The Donald is no fool. He knows how to get down and dirty and play the same game. He calls them purveyors of FAKE news, and, despite their disinformation campaign, has 60 million Americans behind him. The vituperation shown by the media against Trump, however, is as unprecedented as it is unfair. Simply put, Trump’s most ardent opponents see him as an existential threat, and comparisons between Hitler and Trump abound. The mainstream media has failed to understand that The Donald’s victory at the polls was no fluke; he captured the populist shift while news organizations like the Times and the networks were bewailing the plight of transgenders or some other exotic bunch of the New Democratic coalition. Just like a Pat Buchanan speech delivered by Spiro Agnew long ago, Trump is now attacking an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals but who are self-appointed analysts, the majority of whom express their hostility to whatever Trump has to say. Hence the 45th president’s answer to them: You will not have a free hand in selecting, presenting, and interpreting the great issues—I will. This will be a long and brutal battle as the Fourth Estate does not like its power challenged by anyone, especially a populist like Trump. My personal worry is not North Korea or ISIS, but the media, who have proven that they actually are the enemy of the American people.


Above: A photograph of the Enid A. Haupt Convservatory. Below: Gregory Long and

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P H OTO C R E D I T G O E S H E R E

THE HEART OF THE CITY

CO U RTE S Y O F RO B E RT B E N S O N ; NY B G

Maureen K. Chilton.


P H OTO C R E D I T G O E S H E R E

New York Botanical Garden NEW YORK CITY enjoys a wealth of landmarks, organizations, and worthy causes. Fortunately, it is also filled with people willing to dedicate their time and influence to these establishments in order to support, preserve, and enrich them. The leaders of the charities in this city are unparalleled in their dedication to raising funds and awareness for their projects, and each new generation provides even larger ranks of faithful supporters. Here, we present some of the city’s most cherished institutions.

In 1891, inspired by a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens near London, Lord Britton and his wife launched a public campaign to establish the New York Botanical Garden. Today, this non-profit organization boasts a board and staff dedicated to furthering plant research and conservation programs. The splendor of its diverse landscape, as well as its exceptional programs in horticulture and science, have made the New York Botanical Garden a distinctive National Historic Landmark. M OMNAY T H2 20 01 07 8 1 4 09 0


Above, from left: Barbara and Donald Tober at the Museum of Arts and Design MAD Ball in 2015; the Museum of Arts and Design’s Jerome and Simona Chazen Building at Columbus Circle. Below, from left: Mark Ackermann, James Dubin, and Alan Morse at Lighthouse Guild LightYears Gala at the

▲ Museum of Arts and Design

▼ Lighthouse Guild

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) was established in 1956 by philanthropist Aileen Osborn Webb with the intention of recognizing the craftsmanship of American artists. Formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts until 1979, and the American Craft Museum until 2000, MAD has undergone multiple name changes as it has broadened its spectrum of interest. Today, MAD explores the art of crafting across all fields of creative practice and has a board dedicated to the continued celebration of the value of art. Held annually each fall, the MAD Ball is the museum’s most anticipated fundraiser, with all proceeds donated to MAD’s education and exhibition programs.

Sisters Edith and Winifred Holt discovered their calling at a young age: to help individuals overcome the challenges of vision loss. In 1905, the self-starting siblings founded Lighthouse, an organization dedicated to preventing blindness. In 2013, Lighthouse Guild announced its renaming after merging with Jewish Guild Healthcare to broaden its services. Today, Lighthouse Guild is an instrumental resource for the blind and visually handicapped. Its mission: to help people attain the highest possible level of function “through the integration of vision and healthcare services, and the expansion of access through education and community outreach.”

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Mandarin Oriental in New York; vision-impaired students benefiting from the Lighthouse program with their instruments, circa 1920.


Above, clockwise from top left: Marguerite Hillman Purnell, Norma Dana, Phyllis Cerf Wagner, and Jean Clark, 1997; Anne Harrison, Douglas Blonsky, and CO U RTE S Y O F T H E O R G A N I Z AT I O N S ; M A RY H I LL I A R D ; PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N

Michael Bloomberg at the hat luncheon; Shelley Carr, Suzie Aijala, Karen May, Amelia Ogunlesi, and Patti Fast at the hat luncheon. Below, from left: The New York Public Library’s historic Rose Main Reading Room; Laurance S. Rockefeller and Brooke Astor at a fundraiser; Stephen and Christine Schwarzman.

▲ Central Park Conservancy

▼ New York Public Library

The Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980 by a group of philanthropists with a steadfast passion to restore America’s first major urban public space back to its prime. Designed in the 19th century by Frederick Law and Calvert Vaux, the park experienced an unfortunate decline in the 1970s. Today, CPC’s mission is to prevent future disrepair and guarantee the park’s maintenance. Since its inception, CPC has managed the investment of more than $875 million, much of which was raised from private sources and corporations. Today, the Women’s Committee is responsible for 15% of CPC’s annual budget through their hosting of premier charitable events.

Since the opening of its doors in 1911, the New York Public Library has become a staple of America’s intellectual fabric. The combination of scholarly research collections and its many community branches work together to enrich its holdings and foster accessibility. Outside its headquarters, two marble lions—called “New York’s most lovable public sculpture” by architecture critic Paul Goldberger—rest with gazes of great pride, marking the entrance of the stately Beaux-Arts building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Named after its mascots, the Library Lions gala remains NYPL’s largest and most anticipated annual event, celebrating arts, letters, and scholarship.


In 1869, Albert Smith Bickmore—a student of Harvard University zoologist Louis Agassiz—proposed the idea of a museum for natural history in New York. With the support of William E. Dodge, Jr., Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., Joseph Choate, and J. Pierpont Morgan, the American Museum of Natural History was established on April 6, 1869, with the approval of Governor John Thompson Hoffman. Soon after, it moved to a space on Central Park West (the cornerstone of the building was laid by Ulysses S. Grant in 1874). Today, the museum has a world-class collection of more than 33 million specimens and artifacts and 45 permanent exhibition halls and galleries, including the Rose Center for Earth and Space with the Hayden Planetarium, the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, and the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. Above: The Duke of Windsor and Arthur Vernay looking at the lion group in Akeley Hall, October 1941. Below: Meredith and Tom Brokaw at the Museum of Natural History’s 2016 Museum Gala at the American Museum of Natural History. 152 QUEST

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The American Museum of Natural History


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American Ballet Theatre & New York City Ballet Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, who built one of the most impressive repertoires of storied ballets from the past—while continually commissioning new works by the best living choreographic geniuses—American Ballet Theatre (ABT) has grown to be one of the world’s leading classical ballet companies. Over its 75-year history, ABT has performed in an astounding 139 cities across 50 countries. Today, through the leadership of artistic director Kevin McKenzie, this living national treasure continues to produce legendary performances and is celebrated worldwide—especially at home in New York, with its annual Spring Gala at the Metropolitan Opera House. No less impressive is the New York City Ballet founded in 1948 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Kirstein dreamed of an American ballet where young dancers could be trained by the greatest ballet masters, and George Balanchine made this dream a reality and served as the artistic director of the company for over 35 years, inspiring all who witnessed his beautiful productions. The current Ballet Master in Chief, Peter Martins, now oversees 90 dancers and an impressive repertory of over 150 performances including The Nutcracker, performed annually in the David H. Koch theater at Lincoln Center. The company, which continues to match Balanchine’s values and standards, celebrates its ongoing success through its four highly-anticipated philanthropic events featuring world premieres and renowned honorees. Above, from left: Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch performing in ABT’s Theme and Variations, circa 1947; Thomas Wilhelm and Sara Arison at an ABT Fall Gala at Lincoln Center. Below, from left: Robert Fairchild and Sterling Hyltin in NYCB’s production of George Balanchine’s Apollo; Sarah Jessica Parker, Ricki Lander, Peter Martins, and Noriko Maeda at New York City Ballet’s Fall Fashion Gala at the David H. Koch Theater.


Above, from left: Mark Gilbertson and The Director’s Council Chairs of the Museum of the City of New York at New York After Dark; a photograph of the building’s Georgian Colonial exterior on Fifth Avenue taken from Central Park by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1932. Below, from left: Julia and David Koch, supporters of

▲ Museum of the City of New York

▼ The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering

Both an art gallery and a history museum, the Museum of the City of New York celebrates and interprets the city, educating the public about its distinctive character, especially its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation. Founded in 1923 as a private, nonprofit corporation, the museum connects the past, present, and future of New York City. Gracie Mansion housed the museum from its founding until 1932, when it moved into the Georgian Colonial—style brick building on Museum Mile. The Director’s Council holds its annual Winter Ball to raise money for the museum, and the event is considered to be one of the highlights of the charity gala season.

The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering was founded in 1946 in order to support the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and its programs. With numerous committees that range from addressing patient care to education to fund-raising, the organization has become indispensable to the center’s efforts over the years. James D. Robinson III, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center affirms: “The Society has been an integral part of the Center’s history. It is a terrific association of people who make a difference, not only in fund-raising but, more importantly, in the ambiance, the heartbeat, of the whole institution.”

CO U RTE S Y O F T H E O R G A N I Z AT I O N S ; H A R RY B E N S O N

Memorial Sloan Kettering, photographed by Harry Benson for the October 2011 issue of Quest; students touring the Kettering Laboratory, circa 1960.


Above, clockwise from top left: The Michael Kors building at God’s Love We Deliver; Scott Bruckner, Blaine Trump, Bill deBlasio, Michael Kors, Karen Pearl, and Michael Sennott at the dedication of the new Michael Kors building; Joan Rivers, Karen Pearl, and Corey Johnson celebrate the 15-millionth meal at God’s Love.

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Below, from left: Ritchey Howe at Homework Help; Brian Cintron and Bill Tyree at The Boys’ Club of New York’s Winter Luncheon at 583 Park Avenue.

▲ God’s Love We Deliver

▼ Boys’ Club of New York

In 1985, Ganga Stone, a hospice volunteer, was inspired by a lifechanging visit to a man dying of AIDS and too sick to cook for himself. Stone began delivering food to this man regularly and quickly learned how impactful this simple act could be. With Jane Best, an organization was founded with the goal of improving the health and well-being of those living with severe illness. Through the vision of these two women, God’s Love is now a top provider of nutritious, made-to-order meals across the New York City area and attributes over 25% of its operating revenue to its signature fundraising events, including Love Rocks NYC!, Midsummer Night Drinks, and the Golden Heart Awards.

In 1876, philanthropist E. H. Harriman founded The Boys’ Club of New York with the intention of removing inner-city boys from the streets of the Lower East Side, providing them a safe haven from the dangers of urban life. In 1968, the club established the Women’s Board, which helped the group’s philanthropic efforts by having members volunteer at the clubhouses and hosting fundraising events including fashion shows, dinner dances, luncheons, and other chic events. Since its founding, The Boys’ Club has had a variety of New York’s most prominent philanthropists serve on its board of trustees, proving it to be a leader in male youth development. u

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This page, clockwise from above: Elaine Kaufman, owner of the famous Elaine’s, on Second Avenue, with guest George Plimpton; the Who’s Who of New York converged at Elaine’s, including Candace Bushnell, in 2002, with Gay Talese in the back; the restaurant’s exterior.

THE INSIDER CAFÉS OF NEW YORK’S CAFÉ SOCIETY 1987-2017 BY ALEX HITZ

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d This page, above (left to right): Mortimer’s restaurateur Glenn Bernbaum with public-relations guru Paul Wilmot, 1984; Bernbaum (seated) with maître d’ Robert Caravaggio (right), chef Stephen Attoe (center), and the Mortimer’s team. Below (left to right):

A LE X B R A N D O N / A S S O C I ATE D P R E S S ; J E S S I C A B U R S TE I N ; H A R RY B E N S O N

An evening at Swifty’s; Caravaggio and Attoe, who opened Swifty’s when Mortimer’s closed.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO CELEBRATE the 30th anniversary of a New York insider’s eye like Quest without at least a nod to the canteens frequented by the smartest of the smart set—and those who’ve come from around the world to see them. As I’ve said before in these pages, the restaurants I love may not be the hippest, latest, last-worded, coolest, Michelin-starred-est bodegas on the rosters, but travel guides be damned: to insiders, these are the places that matter.

Bill Blass, the Henry Kissingers, the Abe Ribicoffs. When Glenn died in 1998, Mortimer’s closed and left a sudden void that maître d’ Robert Caravaggio and chef Stephen Attoe filled by opening Swifty’s, in a different space down the street. And for a long while, it was a great success. As Swifty’s fell on hard times and suddenly shuttered, in 2016—a surprise to even its staff—a void in New York City insider canteens opened up that has yet to be filled.

MORTIMER’S, AND THEN SWIFTY’S Insider Glenn Bernbaum dreamed up the ne plus ultra insider neighborhood joint with Mortimer’s, on Lexington Avenue at 75th Street, in a space that he, quite literally, lived in above. For almost 30 years, Glenn ruthlessly ruled over which table which patron got or didn’t get, and sold “wholesale” caviar out the back door for double the price. His menu combined 1930s WASP country club favorites like curried chicken salad, crab cakes, meatloaf, and calf’s liver with “nursery food”—creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots. On top of it all, the joint wasn’t too ambitiously priced because, as Glenn acknowledged, “even rich people love a deal.” They all came: the Bill Buckleys, Nan and Tommy Kempner, Judy and Sam Peabody,

ELAINE’S A way-the-hell-up-there place on Second Avenue, Elaine’s must be mentioned in the insider list, although, as a customer and chef, I really never understood it. It certainly wasn’t the food… I’ll leave that part there. Nor was it the atmosphere. Nor the place. And hostess, sometime-chef, and owner Elaine Kaufman could be, let’s just say, difficult. But somehow Elaine’s was always a coveted insider’s spot for celebrities: Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Georges Plimpton and Hamilton, Chita Rivera, this or that Tony winner, and whichever Hollywood legend who was in from the coast. The mind boggles but Elaine’s was a thing, and whether I understood it or not makes no difference. It can’t be argued.


This page, left to right: The interior of the venerated La Côte Basque; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis exits La Côte Basque through its famous revolving door, 1970. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: An archival image of the “21” Club, which originally opened as a speakeasy; famous ornamental horse jockeys guard the gates to “21”; the interior of Sette Mezzo, an Upper East Side insider canteen (and its exterior, to left); the awning entrance to La Grenouille; it has long been a family affair at La Grenouille; Ralph Lauren at the foot of the stairs of his much-hyped The Polo Bar; the exterior of The Polo Bar, on East 55th Street; the exterior of La Goulue, now shuttered.

LA GOULUE It’s with more than a tinge of nostalgia that I write about La Goulue, a brasserie that inhabited nearly a block on Madison Avenue for what seemed like a zillion years. When I first lived in New York almost 25 years ago, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia and I met there for the original “Board Meeting,” a group of locals and Euros who regaled each other over steak frites and Sancerre at lunch every Saturday and Sunday. The Board still meets, downtown these days, but its golden age was at La Goulue on Madison at 64th Street. Just so you know, we were always seated along the wall to the left in the front—’natch—while Mr. and Mrs. Dodsworth from Michigan were always shown straight to the back.

want to avoid being seated in Siberia, please have a really good regular customer make the reservation for you. I always do.

LA CÔTE BASQUE This place was such an insider scene. The room was pretentiously simple—charmingly decorated with murals of France’s Basque fishermen on its walls. But don’t be fooled: this was no simple fisherman’s joint. The goujonnettes de sole and chocolate soufflés were good. But the restaurant was really more infamous than famous because Truman Capote’s roman à clef Answered Prayers was set there. The book’s protagonists were thinly veiled insider characters, and the book spilled the secret beans of an uber-eschelon extramarital affair—a tale that had been told to Capote in strictest confidence. None of the Babe Paley, Lee Radziwill, or Gloria Guinness types who’d been Capote’s confidantes and lunch buddies at La Côte Basque ever spoke to him again. I first went there with my parents in December 1991. Next table? Valentino and Jacqueline de Ribes en tête-à-tête.

SETTE MEZZO I live a block away from Sette Mezzo, and it’s my neighborhood place. There are a million fresh specials every night, the food is simple and great, and it’s a colorful scene in a way that insiders recognize and appreciate—New York playing itself. Until very recently, Sette Mezzo never accepted credit cards. Pay your bill on time and you’ll always get a good table. Don’t and they’re fully booked.

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THE POLO BAR It’s no coincidence that the storied past of La Côte Basque’s famed location on 55th Street is where Ralph Lauren chose to launch his signature restaurant concept for insiders and those who want to be insiders in New York. Although reconfigured from the old days, the place is quite literally marinated with history. Its entrance is discreet and cozy and it’s really hard to get into so, from the beginning, its allure is established. Cast straight from the photos of Ralph’s ads, the room is a sensation, and it’s hard to tell whether the staff is more capable than they are gorgeous, but if you’re like me, who cares? Calvin, the Giulianis, Donny Deutsch, and Cate Blanchett can say whatever they want, but the pastrami on rye, dripping in clarified butter, is simply NOT to be missed. u

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“21” CLUB On the left side—note: not the right side—of the Bar Room at “21” there is another super-secret insider place whose favorable tables are saved for big-tipping regulars, mobsters, tycoons, and visiting heads of state. Not to be missed is the insider tour of the wine cellar, an armored labyrinthine set of rooms that made up a speakeasy during Prohibition. If you have self-esteem issues and

LA GRENOUILLE This restaurant may be the most glamorous of all—and when I say glamorous, I mean that dimly pinkish-golden-lighted, red-velvet-banquetted, pale-ranunculus-filled, diamonded, perfumed, and furred come-hither type of glamour from a bygone time that exists here still, and does almost nowhere else in the world. It’s civilized. One does not simply eat here; one dines. One does not merely come into a room like this; one makes an entrance. Good enough for Jackie, Annette, or Suzy? Good enough for me.



OK O B N O I T A V RESER E H T M O R F S AT SWIFTY’ 2001 DECEMBER Taki and Alexandra Theodoracopulos Brooke Astor Carroll Petrie Mario Buatta Bill Blass Peter Duchin Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece Eleanor Lambert Liz Smith Iris Love Kathleen Hearst Amanda Burden and Charlie Rose Herb and Ann Siegel Barbara Walters Gayfryd Steinberg Robert and Blaine Trump Aerin and Eric Zinterhofer Dominick Dunne Lee Radziwill Kenny Lane Deeda Blair Mark Gilbertson Betty Sherrill Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Schlesinger Bianca Jagger


Anjelica Huston

Dr. William and Gale Hayman-Haseltine

Reinaldo and Carolina Herrera

Carl Bernstein and Cheri Kaufman

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

Peter Bacanovic

Leonard and Evelyn Lauder

Brooke Hayward Duchin

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benton

Shirley Lord and Abe Rosenthal

Pat Buckley

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sulzberger

Ahmet and Mica Ertegun

Mary McFadden

Robin Chandler Duke

Chris and Grace Meigher

Mr. and Mrs. Billy Salomon

Princess Michael of Kent

George Trescher

Serena Boardman

Kip Forbers

Joan Rivers

Aileen Mehle

Toula Livanos

Pat Patterson

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Tower

Liz Fondaras

Siri and Tony Mortimer

C. Z. Guest

Avi and Gigi Mortimer

Cornelia Guest

Jeffrey Bilhuber

Duane Hampton

Dolores Smithies

Fred Krimendahl and Emilia Saint Amand

Nina Zinterhofer

Boaz Mazor

Tom Quick and Pauline Pitt

Barry Humphries

Jill Rossevelt

Marc Rosen and Arlene Dahl

Marlene Hess

Carole McCarthy

David and Helen Gurley Brown

Mr. and Mrs. Matt Lauer

Alexa Hampton

Barbara Cook

Peter Rogers

Joe Eula

Mary and Mike Wallace

Nan and Tommy Kempner

Joan Collins

Gabrielle Forte

Calvin and Kelly Klein


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BY DAVID PATRICK COLUMBIA PARTIES ARE CELEBRATIONS. They mark time, talent, and lives—the past and the future. They also give form to what we call society. The world is a stage, and the party the life upon it. The intent is a constant: to impress the guests (and the hosts) with the fun of it. The most famous party of the last half-century in America was Truman Capote’s 1966 Black and White Ball, a masterstroke of ballyhoo that was held in Kay Graham’s honor in the grand ballroom of The Plaza Hotel. The great parties, like the ones in these pages, are the sea from which all dramas are drawn. And as these images prove, they were about celebrating culture and this life—and all the ships upon it. u

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Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball 1. The writer Truman Capote receiving whispered musings from a masked reveler at his famous Black and White Ball at The Plaza Hotel, November 1966; 2. Capote and guest of honor Katharine Graham, who was then president of The Washington Post; 3. Andy Warhol, who was said to be overwhelmed by the number of celebrities in attendance; 4. The ballroom at The Plaza; 5. One of Capote’s most beloved swans, Lee Radziwill, enjoying the party on the host’s arm; 6. Radziwill putting on her mask for the occasion; 7. Newlyweds Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra.

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Studio 54 1. Roy “Halston” Frowick, Loulou de la Falaise, Yves Saint Laurent, Nan Kempner, and Steve Rubell; 2. Andy Warhol, Diana Vreeland, and Steve Rubell celebrated Liza Minnelli’s performance in The Act at Studio 54 in 1977; 3. Bianca and Mick Jagger were regulars of the club; 4. Bianca even celebrated her 30th birthday there, making

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a grand entrance on a horse on May 2, 1977; 5. Studio 54 opened in 1977 at 254 West 54th Street to become one of the most famous clubs in the history of New York City, closing in 1981.

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The Museum of the City of New York Winter Ball 1. The Director’s Council of the Museum of the City of New York Winter Ball, which is a grand fixture on all social calendars;

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2. Kari Talley, Phoebe Gubelmann, and Ivanka Trump in 2005; 3. Rachel Hovnanian, Allison Rockefeller, and Tara Rockefeller in 1995; 4. The 2010 Winter Ball; 5. Julian Niccolini showers Jamee Gregory with affection; 6. Alexia Pickett, Calvert Saunders, and

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Mark Gilbertson; 7. Paige Crawford, Kerry Gaines, Nicolas Rohatyn, and Marybeth Gilmartin; 8. Siblings Dylan and David Lauren; 9. Edward Burke; 10. Muffie Potter, Chappy Morris, Joanne de Guardiola, and Doug Leeds in 1991; 11. George Whipple II, Marc Giordano, J. C. Giordano, Candace Bushnell, and Robby Banker in 1990.

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Mike Todd’s Garden Party 1. Mike Todd threw a party to celebrate the anniversary of Around the World in 80 Days, renting out Madison Square Garden; 2. Approximately 18,000 guests were in attendance; 3. Todd’s wife, Elizabeth Taylor, cut an 11-foot cake; 4. Steve Allen and wife Jayne Meadows; 5. Todd (who used the whistle to cue the orchestra) with emcee George Jessel; 6. Feathered Marchers,

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a 45-piece band from Philadelphia’s Mummers club, was one of 24 bands and two orchestras that performed that evening.

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Nan and Tommy Kempner’s 50th Wedding Anniversary

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1. Pat and Bill Buckley, with Julio Mario Santo Domingo; 2. Ahmet and Mica Ertegun; 3. Louise and Henry Grunwald; 4. Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera; 5. Nan and Tommy Kempner; 6. Arianna Boardman, Pepe Fanjul, Dixon Boardman, and Samantha Boardman; 7. Deeda Blair and Anne Bass; 8. Andres and Lauren Santo Domingo with Alejandro Santo Domingo and Eugenia Silva; 9. Joy Henderiks and Billy Norwich; 10. Betsy Bloomingdale and Bob Colacello; 11. Anne Slater, John Cahill, and Hamish Bowles; 12. Carol and Earle Mack.

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1. Annette and Oscar de la Renta; 2. Boaz Mazor and Lee Thaw, keeping dry under an umbrella; 3. Robert and Blaine

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Trump; 4. Kenny J. Lane cutting a rug with Sally Albemarle; 5. Sam and Judy Peabody avoiding the rain; 6. Aileen Mehle and Mario Buatta; 7. Jill Cartter, Tony Hoyt, and Peter Maass; 8. “grateful pub” and Taki Theodoracopulos; 9. Nan Kempner in deep discussion with Mark Birley; 10. Helen O’Hagan beaming with David Patrick Columbia; 11. Tommy Kempner and Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman; 12. Emilia Fanjul and Grace Meigher;

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13. Alex Hitz and Brooke Hayward; 14. Pauline Pitt with Hilaire O’Malley; 15. Annette Tapert and the legendary Dominick Dunne.

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Q U E S T A R C H IVES

ON NEVER HAVING MET MRS. ONASSIS BY DAVID PATRICK COLUMBIA

MY FATHER idolized her father. I grew up hearing his name. He was always referred to either as Bouvier or Black Jack Bouvier. Whenever my father said it, there was romance and adventure, a stature and dash in the sound of his voice. It resonates in my mind’s ears to this day because it was like an oasis in the otherwise bleak and angry landscape that was my father’s life and household. Back in the late 1920s when he was a young man and long before I was born, he had been Black Jack Bouvier’s driver. From his descriptions of the man, my childhood sensibilities forever picture a handsome figure who loved the grand, fast life. They’d race Bouvier’s Stutz Bearcat with my father at the wheel going 90 and 100 miles an hour, out to East Hampton. That’s fast today but it was a lot faster 65 years ago. To me, it was a passage out of Fitzgerald. My father didn’t think much of the missus. He referred to her derisively, in his typically Irish way, by pronouncing her second husband’s name Ark-in-clarse. More than once he recounted that because of her there had been a fistfight, way back then, between the two men—Bouvier and Auchincloss—one night in the parking lot of the Bathing Corporation in Southampton. Bouvier won, of course. Our hero. At least in my father’s version of the story, ignoring the fact that Auchincloss got the girl. He never said “boo” about Black Jack’s peccadillos, let alone their effect on the Bouvier marriage. 168 QUEST

I was a young man before I heard the first name of either Bouvier daughter. Jacqueline was world famous before I knew that it was her father, and not her mother, who had made a mess of the happy home she never grew up in. Coincidentally, it was at this time that I also learned that my own father had long before brought a new meaning to the word adultery. It was only natural that he would cover for the memory of his former boss. I never knew Mrs. Onassis. I never met her, nor was I ever in the same room with her. I know a number of people who did know her, and a few who knew her well, or as well it would seem, as one could. I often heard many of these friends and acquaintances talk about her, particularly her foibles and personality, which is what almost all people like to talk about anyway. It was always interesting. The little girl voice, they said, was for the world. There was another voice, no matter how quotidian, that seemed somehow remarkable in the retelling by those who had been in her company. She was a historical person to me, rather than a real person. Therefore, I had no expectations of whom she should be or how she should act. I accepted her on her terms. I felt she was owed this considering what she’d been through. I never thought of her as saintly, as many quickly and absurdly did after John Kennedy’s death. She was a woman who had to make sharp, tough choices in her life. Most women do, it is true, although most women don’t have to do it with the world staring at them. However, it turned

H U LTO N A R C H I V E / G E T T Y I M A G E S

Originally published in the July 1994 issue of Quest (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis passed away on May 19, 1994)


QUEST A RCH I V E S out that she had a talent for publicly putting a good face on things. It was to everyone’s advantage, including the American people. It may well have been honed in that childhood of sharp dissension between her mother and father. She bore the burden, as children do, of cherishing a father who had lost control of his life and never regained it. But she was irrepressible and she had grace. Her life had developed into a large and fascinating canvas. Her choice of Onassis as a second husband clearly articulated a certain aspect of her. As did her choice of Jack Kennedy. With Kennedy she was beautiful, and enchanting, and the world’s princess. However, with Onassis she suddenly seemed frivolous, tabloidal, the ultimate shopper. After Onassis, she transformed again. She went to work. She was a serious single parent who reared her children well. The public resumed their reverence— this time for keeps. Unlike a lot of New Yorkers who’d seen her dozens, maybe hundreds, of times—because she was so out there despite the privacy she serenely commanded—I saw her on only three different occasions. The first was more than 20 years ago, on Madison Avenue in the 80s on a still snowless but gray early winter’s afternoon. I was walking north when I spotted up ahead on the other side of the street a brunette woman moving quickly south through the crowd. As we reached parallel spots on the sidewalk, I recognized whom I was watching. She was wearing Burberry belted at the waist, dark stockings and low-heeled shoes. Her gait was strong, wide, and quick. Her calves were muscular but slender and her arms swung decisively. I stopped to watch this dynamic figure who moved with such precise determination. She made a dash across the avenue to beat a changing traffic light. She darted eastward between cars with an athlete’s agility, then disappeared lickety-split down East 83rd Street towards Park. It was a powerful, astonishing presence—a pleasure to see. The second time, about six years later, I happened to be walking by 1040 Fifth Avenue about 11:30 one morning in the springtime. A limousine was waiting next to the canopy. Traffic jammed the avenue. Everything was stopped for the light. In the lane next to the limousine, the Fifth Avenue bus was waiting to move. The billboard on the side of it had an ad for a local newspaper serial. It was a picture of JFK and the words in the big white print against a black background: “Who Really Killed JFK?” Then, as if it were a surreal scene out of a movie, his widow suddenly emerged from her building, a doorman escorting her to the waiting car with the billboard directly in her line of sight. Whether she saw it was impossible to determine. I would hope that she didn’t. But to this passerby it was a shocking reminder of her past and the memories that she had to live with. Several years later a friend told me about going with Jackie to interview a famous singer in the hope of signing her up to write her autobiography. The singer had not given a public concert in years and Jackie asked her why. The singer started to explain that the last concert she had given many years before was outdoors in Central Park and at the time she found herself on the open-air stage fearing a sniper’s bullet from a skyline rooftop. Suddenly she realized whom she was telling this story to. She

stopped and apologized. She then recalled for the slain president’s widow what we all recall about ourselves—where she was at that moment on November 22, 1963, when the world heard the news. Jackie said nothing and the subject passed. The conversation continued unmarred by any more awkwardness. After the meeting, the friend asked Jackie how she felt about the singer’s gaffe. Jackie confided that it was a common occurrence in her life, that strangers often would come up to her on the street to offer sympathy, always recalling where they were at that fatal moment. “What they don’t realize,” she told her friend, “is that I also remember where I was on that day.” Then how, the friend asked, did Jackie handle such an unconsciously insensitive assault? “A steel door comes down before my eyes,” she replied, “and I shut it out.” The only other time I saw her was that September. I happened to be crossing 58th Street by the Plaza Fountain; when turning to watch for oncoming cars, I noticed her coming out of the side door of Bergdorf’s, carrying shopping bags to a waiting dark emerald green Buick sedan. A driver in a light gray suit and cap was holding the car door for her. It was a private moment. He was speaking to her with a smile on his face, as if chiding her. She got into the back seat with her packages, smiling with an expression of mock guilt. There was a kindness and a sweetness in the way she looked up at him. There was none of that stony hauteur or grim self-importance that often marks the countenance of so many of her social peers when they are being served. Again, it was that natural grace. The night of her passing someone told me a story, perhaps apocryphal, but nevertheless appropriate for the sad moment, about Nixon’s visit to China and his meeting with Mao. The two men sat next to one another in those big chairs with the big arms surrounded by their lieutenants and interpreters. The Chairman, old and infirm, stared straight ahead, still and silent. Nixon, no champion of casual conversation himself, was hard put to engage the dying dictator. He brought up the assassination of Kennedy and the effect it had on this country. Then he inquired of Chairman Mao as to how he thought things would have turned out for the world if, instead of Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev had been killed. The sphinx-like Chinese leader sat there unblinking for several moments. Then, without turning to his guest to answer the question, he admitted that he didn’t know what the outcome might have been. But, he added, he did know one thing for sure: Mr. Onassis wouldn’t have married Mrs. Khrushchev. It was a life like no other in this century. Millions and millions admired and related to her. Her adulthood was marked by prominent relationships that made her famous and made her rich. But neither, ironically, could have made her happy. However, she had pluck and seemed to have found happiness in her children, her work, and, eventually, in a less than traditional but very happy relationship with Maurice Tempelsman. The public could speculate, as they did, that she found a successful way to get beyond the horrors of her destiny. Perhaps that is why so many of us strangers felt the grief one feels only for a loved one. It was as if everybody had been robbed by fate—us, her family, her loved ones, and especially Jackie herself. u M AY 2 0 1 7 1 6 9


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BRLE A T RCOKS P E C T I V E

YGL THE YOUNG & THE GUEST LIST

Cornelia Guest with Boy George

PAT R I C KM C M U LL A N . CO M

It’s not quite as old as Quest, but the now teenage YGL has always managed to capture the energy of the younger generation partying around the globe. So let’s raise a glass to the three columnists—Jack Bryan, Andrew Black, and Lizzie Brown—who expertly navigated the nightlife map.


R Muffie Bancroft Murray (1993)

Fernanda Niven and

Christopher Mason at his

Alexandra Boyer (1994)

birthday party (1993)

Topper Mortimer (1999)

Carey Lowell and Griffin Dunne (1994)

Joe Armstrong and Carolyne Roehm (1993)

Cristina Zilkha (1993)

Ghislaine Maxwell (1993)

Gilles Dufour and

Blandy Uzielli and

Mark Gilbertson, Susan

Roffredo Gaetani and

Claudia Schiffer (1995)

George Moss (1991)

Colley & Bob Arnot (1991)

Kalliope Karella (1993) M AY 2 0 1 7 1 7 1


Clockwise from top left: Transporting a keg at the Far Hills Race Meeting; Christina Staffon; Stephanie Michaan and Stephanie Fell; Miles Rutter and Steve Medgyesy; Meredith Murphy, Lucy Taliaferro, Alyssa Sommar, and Missy Weil; Dane Evans and Grant Wentworth.


Jack Bryan, the second “Young and the Guest List” columnist, at the Costume Institute Gala on May 7, 2007. Nicole Hanley and Helena Khazanova at the opening of Lilly Pulitzer on

Kathryn Bohannon and Tatiana

Madison Avenue on May 13, 2008.

Papanicolaou at an event at Christie’s on February 8, 2006. Emma Snowdon-Jones and Mark Langrish at a Maurice Villency-hosted event on December 14, 2005.

Alexandra Richards, Ryan Cabrerra, Theodora Richards, and Lydia Hearst-Shaw on November 11, 2004.

Euan Rellie kissing Nadine Johnson at a Richard Johnson-hosted

Ivanka Trump and Annabelle

party on April 27, 2000.

Vartanian at a New York Observerhosted event on June 6, 2007.

Rich Thomas and Tamie Peters at the Shore Club in Miami, Florida, on December 31, 2005.

Hud Morgan dancing at a Cinema Society premiere and after-party at the IFC Center on April 27, 2006

Patrick McMullan and Elizabeth

Harry LeFrak and Topper Mortimer

Meigher at a Dennis Basso dinner

at a Maybach party in Southampton,

on May 15, 2006.

New York, on July 26, 2003.

Fernanda Niven and Shoshanna Gruss

Georgina Schaeffer and

at the launch of a Christian Dior fragrance

Jeff Caldwell at Dressed to Kilt

at Kittichai on June 10, 2004.

on April 3, 2006. M AY 2 0 1 7 1 7 3


T R AV E R S

YGL

THE YOUNG & THE GUEST LIST BY ALE X TRAVER S

This page: Matt Dillon and Naomi Watts came out to the Bowery Hotel on April 17 to celebrate the Turtle Ball. 1 74 Q U E S T


From left: Fashion designer Christian Siriano with Jasmine Poulton; Natasha Prince and

PAT R I C K M C M U LL A N

Masha Rudenko; Keytt and Alex Lundqvist.

▼ THE TURTLE CONSERVANCY’S “TURTLE BALL”

▲ OMAR’S 4TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

ON APRIL 17, the Turtle Conservancy held its fourth annual

OMAR HERNANDEZ OPENED a little nightclub in the West

Turtle Ball at The Bowery Hotel in New York City. The evening brought together artists, tastemakers, scientists, and the media who all came out to support the Turtle Conservancy’s global conservation work and to raise important funds and awareness for threatened turtles and tortoises around the world. The event saw the likes of Naomi Watts, Sarah Silverman, Drew Barrymore, and Ed Norton, raising over $525,000 for a good cause.

Village four years ago and it instantly became a favorite among the city’s most beautiful people. Those with big careers in media, fashion, and even paintball (Alex Lundqvist) continue to be regulars. So, naturally, the anniversary party was packed with chic guest. Spotted: Christian Siriano, Cameron Silver, Jackie Astier, Valesca Guerrand Hermes, Alison Jackson, Alexandre Assouline, Paul Haggis and Rohan Marley. u

From left: Turtle Ball attendees Leilani Bishop and Louie Metzner; Nick D’Orazio; Sarah Silverman and Eric Goode.


SNAPSHOT

IN APRIL 1987, I had an epiphany to start a real estate magazine with color ads. I knew absolutely nothing of the magazine business, photography, or real estate, but boy did I learn from my mistakes. I had no track record, and magazines were like restaurants—only one in ten is a success. Still, real estate firms were intrigued, so I gave up my job and asked my son Alexander to come work with me during his summer break from college. He had the great idea to write about “well-known characters and personalities, past and present, both honorable and scandalous subjects,” by whom I have always been intrigued. For example, in the first issue we commissioned an article about the Collyer brothers, descendants of one of New York’s oldest families, whose deaths led to the removal of over 103 tons of garbage from their house. I chose a printer and visited the plant, only to discover that I had inadvertently chosen one of the largest printers of por176 QUEST

nography in the United States! (We didn’t stay with them very long.) The first issue got lots of press both for its glossy quality of the real estate pictures and for its content. The New York Post said that my endorsement of the legalization of hemp in the publisher’s letter was “as if Town & Country had endorsed body piercing.” We decided not to write articles on real estate, and instead chose writers like Dominick Dunne, Ormonde de Kay, and Freddy Eberstadt. We captured the imagination of New York society and we received enormous success from the feedback of our customer base. Managing a magazine is more than a full-time job; I loved it. Life is still busy for me, having recently written the memoir of my daring adventures throughout life. —Heather Cohane Above: Heather Cohane, founder of Quest, with her beloved terriers Juansito and Sparky. Inset: The cover of one of the earliest issues.

C H R I S E A S T L A N D / C H R I S E A S T L A N D . CO M

THE BRIGHT DAWN OF QUEST


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announcing

the anniversary auction sunday, november 5, 2017 Consignments Now Invited

Georgian Silver and Diamond Pendeloque Earpendants, late 18th century, to be sold at auction June 11, 2017

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T O DAY The Theodora Cuff 75th Anniversary limited edition, signed and numbered

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