5/1/09. Sunny and mild it was yesterday in New York.
On the first of May
it’s a moving day;
spring is here,
so blow your job – throw your job away;
Now’s the time to trust
to your wanderlust.
In the city’s dust you wait,
must you wait?
Just you wait.
In a Mountain Greenery
where God paints the scenery,
just two crazy people together.
The lyric to “Mountain Greenery” written by Lorenz (Larry) Hart with music by Richard Rodgers, was performed around this time -- on May 10 – in 1926 at the Garrick Theatre in a review known as The Garrick Gaieties. For you theatre historians out there: the show was directed by Philip Loeb with musical staging by Herbert Fields (brother of lyricist Dorothy), with a cast that included: Romney Brent, June Cochrane, Sterling Holloway, Libby Holman, Edith Meiser, Sanford Meisner, Betty Starbuck, Lee Strasberg, Imogene Coca and Rosalind Russell.
Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart in 1936.
Frank Sinatra singing Rodgers and Hart's "I Wish I Were In Love Again."
Tomorrow, May 2nd, is the 112th anniversary of the birth of Larry Hart. He was born in Harlem in 1895, the son of Jewish immigrants. He attended Columbia University where he met Richard Rodgers, and the two joined forces to write songs together for Broadway shows. Their first real notice came six years into the collaboration, in 1925. The above song came from the second edition in 1926.
The two men wrote memorable material together including many popular American standards of the 20th century, such as “Blue Moon,” “The Lady Is A Tramp,” “Where or When,” Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “My Funny Valentine” and ...
I’ll take Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island too,
It’s lovely going through The zoo.
It’s very fancy
On old Delancey Street you know
The subway charms us so,
When balmy breezes blow, to and fro.
Larry Hart was a sad character, it turned out. He was homosexual (closeted, of course, in those days, although it was not a secret in the theatre world), and along with its torments, he was an alcoholic and had a prolonged period of drug addictions. He had an artist’s temperament and some of the classic personality foibles that accompany that. He was also dynamic and diminutive; a brilliant man, deeply sensitive and a genius. He wrote a line (from the song “I Wish I Were In Love Again”) which to me is one of the most perceptive remarks about the human condition in the English language: “The self-deception that believes the lie.”
I also think of Larry Hart often because his lyrics (which I was brought up on) often accurately describe my feelings about the vibes of living in this city.
“We’ll go to Coney, and eat baloney on a roll;
through Central Park we’ll stroll,
where our first kiss we stole, soul to soul ...”
New York is a celebration of the thrill of discovery and its irony.
Larry Hart and Richard Rodgers had a very successful collaboration of more than two decades, writing some of the great American standards of the 20th century. Their partnership ended in the early 1940s when Hart was having his down days and Rodgers the workaholic (and pro) that he was, was looking to get on with it.
Oscar Hammerstein, looking for a new collaborator (it was Hammerstein who initially introduced Hart and Rodgers in 1919), teamed up with Rodgers to write a ground-breaking musical show “Oklahoma.” Its great success was the final straw for the delicate Hart, and he died ten months later at age forty-eight.
No doubt, at the time of his passing, Larry Hart was in a deep low in his life. Had he been able to make it through those hard times and on to his fifties and sixties, he would have, as his partner Rodgers did, see what a great accomplishment he achieved in portraying the City and its people.
Last night I went down Sotheby’s where an organization called the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation was having a gala benefit dinner, their Third Annual Connoisseur’s Dinner; An evening of Wine and Art.
The evening’s chairs were Nancy Corzine and Leonard Lauder. Honorary Chairs were Mr. and Mrs. Martin Gruss, Mr. and Mrs. James Niven, Mr. Thomas Quick, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Ross, Mr. and Mrs. William Ruprecht, and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Tober.
Tamara de Lempicka at Sotheby's.
Richard Prince, My Girlfriend.
It was black tie. Cocktails were held in the reception gallery on the tenth floor of the Sotheby’s glass headquarters on 72nd Street and York Avenue. Dinner tables were set up in two large galleries where Sotheby’s is hanging their current paintings about to be put up for sale. There is an exhibition of Tamara de Lempicka that will be sold next week on May 5th. A beautiful place to have a dinner. Black tie.
The organization, ADDF is completely a “research” oriented foundation for Alzheimers. They are looking for drugs to counteract the affliction. I remember going to this dinner a couple of years ago when I met a prominent Alzheimer doctor. I was asking him about his work and the disease. He ended up asking me what I thought I would do if I were diagnosed with the disease. I replied: “Kill myself, what would you do?” He replied, “The same.”
I was thinking about that honest conversation last night while I was listening to the speakers who included Nancy Corzine, whose mother died with Alzheimers, Leonard Lauder, and Dr. Howard Fillit, a leading authority on the disease and Executive Director of The Institute for the Study of Aging, a private venture philanthropy based in New York City established by the Estee Lauder Trust.
The dining room set up in the galleries for last night's Alzheimers Drug Discovery Foundation benefit dinner.
My place setting.
The first course, scallops in a pesto sauce topped by grilled artichoke.
Leonard Lauder and Dr. Fillit spoke. The doctor’s words were very optimistic. He also warned that we were moving into a time when one out of every three over a certain advanced age would have some form of Alzheimers. It is imperative that we find a drug that can treat the disease.
Then he introduced a woman whose name I didn’t hear. She was a guest at the dinner. I would guess her age to be in her mid-sixties. On first seeing her at the podium, I would have guessed she was a scientific researcher who was going to talk about her work with us.
She very matter-of-factly described herself as someone who had been diagnosed with Alzheimers. She had none of the “characteristics” of the condition about her. She told about considering “telling” anybody of her diagnosis. What would they think? What did it mean? She also discussed the advances that were being made in treatment. When she finished she got a standing ovation, and as she returned to her table I realized that my thoughts about the condition had reason to be more optimistic.
What is crucial now is the funding. It’s like Evelyn Lauder’s Breast Cancer Research Foundation which had its benefit the night before last: the heat is on; they’re getting closer. I came away believing it.
Grace and Chris Meigher, Lesley Smith, Leonard Lauder, and Dr. James Walsh
Princess Yasmin and Nancy Corzine
Carl Bernstein and Ron Weintraub
Maurice Sonnenberg and Faye Wattleton
Mrs. and Mr. Sam Michaels
Jamie Niven
Bonnie and (Senator) Frank Lautenberg
Siri and Dr. Lars Ekman
Dennis Basso, Charles Allom, and Michael Cominotto
Harriet and Ron Weintruab with Evelyn Lauder
Denise Rich
Rob Arango
Judy Taubman
Dr. Howard Fillit, Evelyn Lauder, and Alfred Taubman
Susan Shin
Mr. and Mrs. Simón Beriro
Last night at the Armory on Park Avenue and 67th Street, they held the benefit preview for the Frick Collection of the opening of the International Fine Art Fair.
Sladmore Gallery, United Kingdom.
About 350 of the town’s connoisseurs, collectors et al were on hand. Such as:
Stephen and Christine Schwarzman, Agnes Gund, The Honorable and Mrs. Felix G. Rohatyn, The Honorable Daniele Bodini, Mr. and Mrs. Jean-Marie Eveillard, Barbara Fleischman, Mr. and Mrs. George Wachter, Beatrice Stern, Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Mimi Stafford, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Ames, Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Scott Crain, Mary Sharp Cronson, Cynthia Boardman, Geoffrey Bradfield, Hester Diamond, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Gerschel, The Honorable Earle Mack, Eldo Netto, Jr. David T. Owsley, Mrs. Leslie B. Perkin, Charles Ryskamp, Lydia Fenet, Elisabeth Saint-Amand, Kipton Cronkite, Paul Cruikshank, Fiona Benenson, Lucy Lang, Charlotte-Anne Nelson, Olivia de la Rama Pirovano, Philip Thomas, Lauren Elisabeth Rosbottom, Emily R. Washkowitz, and Ariana Rockefeller.
