Actually, this is from an ad for Tom Kenan-owned THE BREAKERS HOTEL in Palm Beach for a "White Wedding" (NOT a racial slur). www.thebreakers.com
And KUDOS to Paul Leone and the Kenan Family for their recent award!!!
>>> THE EVENING I ATTENDED A REAL US STATE DEPARTMENT DINNER IN 1981:
1. Tennessee Williams and I shared a cab from the Watergate Hotel to the State Department complex with Edward Albee, who shared the back seat with me, and thinking I was Tennessee's SQUEEZE, played kneesies with me half the ride. Being 6' 11", my knees were WEDGED into the back seat so I played along coyly.
2. Lest there be any confusion from my title, TODAY as I write, the French President is here (or THERE -- in the USA), and there will be DINNER. Back then, it was a State Department dinner where the Kennedy Center Honors were actually presented in early December -- the televised ceremony that is broadcast every December 26 by CBS was actually filmed in the Kennedy Center the following day.
3. We sat at the head table, Audrey Hepburn the head of the Artists' Committee and Mistress of Ceremonies, across from me and next to Tennessee. At one point a rather drunk Maureen Stapleton (one of TW's most loyal friends), ran up to Audrey and exclaimed, "You're the most god-damned,elegant cunt in the place -- so RELAX!!!", and that caused Tennessee to run, busting and crouching, to my side before he exploded in laughter, to tell me all about it (the floral centerpiece was so high and full I could only see the bobbing tiny leaves attached to thin wires that emanated from the top of Audrey's hair-do like semaphore).
Robert Wolders and Audrey Hepburn at 1981 Kennedy Center Awards (see what I mean about her HEAD-DRESSING???)
Now, check this out about WOLDERS!!!:
Robert Wolders
Born: 28-Sep-1936Birthplace: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: Netherlands
Executive summary: Erik Hunter on Laredo
"Robert Wolders is that rarest of things in today's society: a gentleman. Discreet, charming, with penetrating eyes, he is the kind of man who refills your drink when you excuse yourself from the table for a moment. He immediately puts you at ease -- even if you have met him only ten minutes earlier. Some men fear women, fear their beauty and their power, and consequently belittle them. Other men simply love women, cherish their beauty and singular courage. Rob is one of these men."[1]
4. Earlier, Meryl Streep found me to introduce me to her husband, Don Gummer, who had not been to any of the other gatherings where I'd spoken with Meryl. And I had paraded with Lillian Gish to find Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. -- and observed how SMALL Richard Chamberlain looked.
5. Flanking me at the table was Juanita Kreps (who gave the Commencement Address at Denison University in 1973 when I graduated), and the wife of the President of ARCO or Atlantic Richfield Company -- part of Standard Oil Trust from 1874 - 1911 when S.O. was broken up, so the Kenans inherited more of it than Rockefeller -- after Henry Flagler died in 1913. Today, ARCO is owned by Tesoro.
A little known fact of US history is that when the government rightly broke up Standard Oil in 1911, S.O. stockholders got proportional shares to their holdings in every one of the 30 or so derivative companies -- and the move was so popular with the public who then drove up stock prices so much that stockholders' wealth was slightly more than DOUBLED within a year with nothing else really happening. Two years later, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler benefited from this, now the basis of wealth for the Kenan Charities, mostly.
Juanita Kreps was so engrossed in conversation with the person on the other side of her that I barely got her attention to tell her how much a honestly liked her address at Denison. She acknowledged that and immediately turned back away. But later I learned that not only had she once taught at Denison (as well as being Carter's Secretary of Commerce as well as the first woman Director of the New York Stock Exchange), but had risen through the ranks at Duke to become their first female Vice President -- and her husband taught at the OTHER top Kenan school, UNC Chapel Hill. (And remember, according the the first edition (1967) of the book THE KENAN FAMILY, I -- aka YOURS TRULY -- was listed at my then 6' 6" with the stated expectation of a basketball scholarship to Duke).
I can't help thinking that Jaunita Kreps was instrumental in convincing the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust to give Denison over a million dollars in 1974 or 75, during an endowment-raising campaign -- the second largest donation that was garnered.
Of course Reggie Love (like Richard M. Nixon -- "goose-gay", although that did not come out on Nixon until about 18 months ago when Bebe Rebozo's intimate love letters to Dick were published), DID get a sports scholarship to Duke. Dick Nixon did NOT -- although he graduated.
And Reggie was President Obama's top "Body Man" from late in his senatorial career until 2011 -- later spotted boarding Air Force One whenever Michelle was not going. MUCH speculation on THAT!!!
I digress -- but the wife of ARCO's President (also a touch overwhelmed), and I had a LOVELY kaffee-klatch -- just like in suburbia.
6. After Secretary of State Alexander Haig clanged his knife-butt against a water glass to call all to order and barked a few remarks on behalf our Government, Audrey Hepburn PAINFULLY gave her keynote speech.
Tennessee Williams and I at the 1981 4th Kennedy Center Honors (Mr. Williams was honored two years before, actually)
MORE can be found on the 1981 Kennedy Center Honors festivities, my meeting President and Nancy Reagan, etc., in these two chapters of my memoir: http://laterdaysoftennesseewilliams.blogspot.mx/2013/10/chapter-7-dinner-at-seven-thirty.html and http://laterdaysoftennesseewilliams.blogspot.mx/2013/10/chapter-8-gauntlet-and-honors.html
>>> BACK TO THE PRESENT:
1. I called my Mom in Raleigh this morning, after seeing the CNN forecast not only for Atlanta but the whole region. In a rare lapse of thinking, when I asked 91-year-old Mom what she planned to do if the power goes out and her and 95-year-old Dad's driveway is short but WAY too steep to deal with when iced, she said their heat is gas -- forgetting that it is controlled by electric. That considered, she said that she and Dad would just bundle up in heavy blankets and be fine. My mother is the definition of toughness -- a quality she also imparted to me -- and we joked about that.
An interesting image from FOX NEWS
I did also let her know that I had contacted Glenn Greenwald directly, yesterday, and she's cool with that. Details here: http://theweathercontinues.blogspot.mx/2014/02/my-letter-just-sent-to-glenn-greenwald.html
2. While it is TRUE that I often rag on the corruption of parts of both the Catholic and Episcopal Churches (and First Presbyterian, Wilmington -- but NOT that denomination), I'd like to CELEBRATE my Episcopalian friend Ansley Kulp of metro Atlanta:
Scott
A FINE seduction!!!
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