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Southampton & Beyond
Touted as “the hottest gala of the fall charity season,” the Central Park Conservancy’s 150th Anniversary was to be celebrated with “150 Dinners on the Park” for 1,500 guests. However, the party far exceeded that plan! Through months of tireless effort, co-chairs Norma Dana and Eleanore Kennedy gathered a Who’s Who of New York and managed to seat 2,300 guests at 161 elegant dinners held in various private apartments, hotels, or clubs, each of which had a magni.cent view of Central Park.
At 7:45 p.m., artist Cai Guo-Qiang put on a spectacular pyrotechnic light show over the park, and around the city, the 2,300 guests were standing on high terraces to witness it! My husband and I were fortunate to be on Friederike and Jeremy Biggs’ glamorous Park Avenue apartment terrace, and even though - in keeping with the summer’s penchant for raining on most parades – at precisely 7:45 PM, wet drops did begin to fall - no one’s spirits were even slightly damp-ened! It also helped that the Biggs and hosts Jeanne and Carlisle Jones had thoughtfully provided an array of umbrellas, so we could all view the thrilling show without being touched by a single raindrop.
A few of those who hosted wonderful dinners were Eleanore and Michael Kennedy, whose guests at their Central Park South penthouse included actress Sigourney Weaver; 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft; Adrienne and Gigi Vittadini; and record moguls Clive Davis and Ahmet Ertegun with his wife, Mica; Sherry Bronfman, who hosted a party at Bill Clinton’s office in Harlem; and many others, including Norma Dana, Happy Rockefeller, Candice Bergen and Marshall Rose, Honore and Karl Wamsler, Nancy and Joe Missett, Jessie and Rand Araskog, Gail Hilson, Lee and Jane Gammill, Muffie and Donald Miller, and Pat Patterson.
Our cozy and glamorous dinner felt like New Year’s Eve with lively conversation ranging from politics to spider veins, including the name of one of the best doctors to zap them – Dr. Ken Biegeleisen! Other high-powered guests were Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols, Meredith and Tom Brokaw, Kayce Freed and Peter Jennings, Jane and Morley Safer, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Shakira and Michael Caine, Shiela and Tom Wolfe, Susie Wetlaufer and Jack Welch, Liz Smith, Dominick Dunne, Caroline Kennedy and Ed Schlossberg, Katie Couric, Charles Osgood, Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn, Daisy and Paul Soros, Bianca Jagger, and some two thousand others! This was an incredibly special evening, which raised more than $2 mil for our beloved Central Park!
George Plimpton’s sudden death was so devastating for those of us who had been long-time friends of this charming, witty, gracious, and lovable man that I wondered if I could possibly get through The Paris Review’s 50th Anniversary Party, which I had accepted many weeks before. The party, held at Cipriani 42nd Street, had been planned as a gala event of “entertainment, readings, dancing, awards, and revelry,” to honor George Plimpton and the other Paris Review founding editors, Tom Guinzburg, Peter Matthiessen, William Styron, Harold Humes, John Train, Donald Hall, and William Pene du Bois, as well as to raise money to ensure The Review’s future.
The Gala went on despite the grief everyone felt about George, and it turned out to be exceptionally upbeat, fun, with a fascinating look back at George’s life and the history of his cherished magazine. Peter Duchin played during cocktails, and the room was filled with nostalgic Paris Review memorabilia, including the tablecloths and silk scarves designed as a patchwork of the magazine’s earlier editions. There was also a film tribute to George with clips of events in his life, and his reflections about his friends, his books, and the autobiography he had planned for the future. And there were mesmerizing readings from the most recent Review. In appreciation of George’s unofficial position as the city’s Fireworks Commissioner, Grucci even managed to set off some fireworks in the high-ceilinged dining hall!
At this sold-out event (which still had a long waiting list of disappointed would-be revelers the night of the party), more than 800 guests enjoyed a delicious seated dinner of shrimp and green bean salad, steak, chocolate mousse, and vanilla crepes - a truly astonishing feat by The Paris Review’s Michelle Clarke, who organized it all!!
Who was there? Well, one person I really felt was in the room was George Plimpton. His spirit was everywhere and it made me very happy. George loved parties and he would particularly have loved this one because so many of his favorite friends and loved ones were there. Among them were his wife, Sarah, with their beautiful twin daughters, Olivia and Laura, and his former wife Freddy, with their son, Taylor and daughter, Medora.
Others in the crowd were Victoria Anstead, Rusty Guinzburg, Rose Styron, Bob Loomis, E.L. Doctorow, Kurt Vonnegut, Lewis Lapham, Chris Cerf, Andy Rooney, Mike Wallace, and Art Buchwald. Maneuvering further around the room, I also saw Garrison Keillor, Drue Heintz, Budd Schulberg, Sandra and Michael Meehan, Charlie Rose, Nelson Aldrich, Jean Kennedy Smith, Betsy and Walter Cronkite, Joan and Joe Cullman, Elizabeth Fondaras, Carl Bernstein, Frances Hayward, Luly and Tony Duke, Alexandra and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Martha Stewart, Tina Brown and Harold Evans, actors Alec Baldwin, Lee Grant, Candace Bushnell, Timothy Hutton, and Karen Duffy; along with Bill Becker and Pat Birch, who choreographed a wonderful can-can number, and Elaine Kaufman, at whose restaurant George and a great many of the rest of us spent many happy nights!
No one wanted to leave, even though the evening went on into the late hours with dancing to the Bethune Big Band. We all wanted to hold onto this moment when it felt as though George was still sharing in the fun. I think Kurt Vonnegut put it just right when he looked out at the crowd and said, “If anybody can come back from the dead and write about it, it’s George Plimpton!”
Kristi Witker is a well-known television broadcaster and writer, whose articles and interviews have been published in magazines and newspapers around the world. She is also author of How to Lose Everything in Politics (Except Massachusetts), a humorous behind-the-scenes account of George McGovern’s Presidential campaign.
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