D AV I D PAT R I C K C O L U M B I A A M E R I C A N H O S P I TA L O F PA R I S FO U N D AT I O N P R E S E N T E D I TS A W A R D S AT T H E P L A Z A
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha
impression you get. The impression you get from Tab is “nice man.” With the same handsome, young presence he had on the screen. He stood up to greet me, like a gentleman, and to shake my hand. I told him we had a mutual acquaintance/friend from Santa Barbara, where he lives. Then, I told him I was there to take his picture to publicize his film. He understood, sat down, and was camera ready. I had learned from my extensive experience with Deb28 QUEST
Larry Leeds and Bettina Zilkha
Marshall Wais and Mark Yockey
bie Reynolds, when writing her autobiography, that her and Tab’s generation of movie actors were highly disciplined in their relationship to the public. Always. They put on a good face, look good, and act courteously. Not all of the stars were able to achieve that, and those who could achieve that were generally nice people. Tab is a gent. It’s a corny thing to say but, at 84, he still maintains that personable persona that made him a big star as a young man on the
Claude Wasserstein and Jean-Claude Gruffat
Sharon Jacquet and Bernadette Toomey
screen 65 years ago. The documentary is based on the man’s memoir (same title) and, since I have not yet read the book or seen the movie, I can only tell you what the blurbs on the film and book tell us—which is essentially that they’re the Hollywood story of a very young man, in Southern California, who was discovered by a talent agent and became a matinee idol. By the time he was 24, he had starred in World War II drama Battle Cry, where his character
not only has an affair with an older woman but ends up marrying an older woman. Hot stuff in the mid-1950s. And, speaking of Hollywood, I went to an early dinner one night with my old friend Charlie Scheips, whom I met through our mutual friend, Beth Rudin DeWoody, in 1992. We, coincidentally, had both returned to New York after living for a number of years in Los Angeles. Charlie is a curator, art adviser, archival director, writer,
J AY AC K E R M A N
Howard and Gretchen Leach