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| Tapping in traffic. 11:30 AM. Photo: Jeffrey Hirsch. |
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| Wednesday, August 14, 2013. Strong, steady rain yesterday morning with the clouds departing in the late afternoon leaving us a sunny day. Until late evening when it rained again briefly. Catching up. Last Thursday when I headed off to Nantucket for a long weekend, Connie and Randy Jones gave a small birthday dinner at their Sutton Place duplex for Arlene Dahl to celebrate her 88th birthday. I’ve known Arlene since I was a kid and saw her with Fred Astaire and Red Skelton in MGM’s “Three Little Words.” It was also the first MGM film for Debbie Reynolds. I actually got to know Arlene in the years that I’ve been writing the New York Social Diary. |
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| She is one of those women whose personality doesn’t betray her famous beauty. She’s gracious and friendly, not shy but circumspect. She speaks with certainty but always with reserve – gentle and kind. She is one of those people who treats everyone with that grace. The power and magic of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s image in American culture is long gone with the Studio System itself. But Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had a powerful influence on the American psyche of the last mid-century. It was the top of the crop of the film studios. Orson Welles, in the book “My Lunches with Orson,” which I wrote about on these pages several days ago, said that many of MGM’s movies (they turned out fifty features a year) were not as great as the image the studio produced for the screen but they left the impression because of their brilliantly thorough composition as film entertainment. It was a ‘look” that inspired the “signature” look of many photographers of that era and in the years following in the 1960s and 70s. It was found in all aspects of their films – from the story, the costumes, art direction, the direction, and foremost: the talent. |
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| Today we would call it branding, for that is indeed what it was. You knew it was an MGM picture simply by the way it looked and its stars – who were among the biggest and most memorable of the so-called Golden Age of Film. The movie audience knew if it said MGM up there on the screen, it meant a visual quality that was closest to the make believe-reality that evoked the "dreams" in our culture. Its stars were groomed to reflect that. Arlene Dahl reflected that. She was an MGM star and she exemplified that “look” of quintessential American glamour and style. (She and Debbie Reynolds are the last two remaining stars of the MGM roster which the studio publicity department described as “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven.” |
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A little girl from Minneapolis, Arlene Carol Dahl made her first film (“Life With Father” based on the hit Broadway play) at 23. The last film she made was “Night of the Warrior” with her son Lorenzo Lamas, in 1991. |
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In the meantime when she wasn’t working in film and television, she embarked on business ventures and also became a professional astrologer and columnist. I found Arlene’s chart and the details that go with it, if you’re interested in this sort of thing:
Don’t ask me what it all means because I have only a vague idea, having listened many times to people who know with an expertise that I don’t possess. Although it’s always interesting. People will often ask me if I “believe” in it. I don’t regard it so much as a “belief system” as a mathematically study based on the Ancients of the nature of life on this planet. Arlene, however, is an advocate of it and speaks of it with confidence and certainty. Naturally, I’m always willing to listen. Meanwhile at the Jones’ dinner, the guestlist was: Liza Minnelli– whose mother was of course at MGM – and who has known Arlene all her life; TCM’s Robert Osborne, Barbara Taylor Bradford and producer husband Bob Bradford; Yanna Avis, Simone Levitt, Carole (Arlene’s daughter) and Philippe DeLouvier; Arlene’s son Stephen Schaum; Mario Buatta, Drew Butler, (Marc and Arlene’s godson), and their host and hostess Randy and Connie Jones. At each place setting was a photographs of Arlene from her days at MGM. |
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| Last Saturday night at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, they opened a revival of “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum,” a musical farce with book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The Bay Street Theatre’s director and choreographer was Marcia Milgrom Dodge. It started Peter Scolari, Conrad John Schuck, Jackie Hoffman and featuring Stewart Lane. The original Harold Prince production which opened in 1962 at the Alvin Theater (now the Neil Simon) deservedly won several Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Book. Zero Mostel starred. It has since had several Broadway and (London) West End revivals as well as a successful film also starring Zero Mostel. Also in the Bay Street Theatre Forum cast are: Glenn Giron, Grant Haralson, J. Morgan White, Nick Verina, Lora Lee Gayer, Tom Deckman, Laurent Giroux, Halley Cianfarini, Jen Bechter, Jessica Crouch, Shiloh Goodin, Phoebe Pearl, Terry Lavell and Nathaniel Hackmann. The show runs through September 1. |
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| More catching up. On the Friday and Saturday of July 19 and 20, at Columbia County’s Copake Country Club in Craryville, New York, 5000 people attended the 3rd annual Hudson Valley Food Lovers’ Festival, Farm On! Proceeds from the Festival benefit the Farm On! Foundation in Partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Questar III and 4H. Chef Zak Pelaccio and Lady Jayne’s Alchemy of Fish & Game hosted a “Hootenanny” at the Farm Fresh Fundraiser Dinner on Friday. 60 local farmers and their families joined the 300 guests at table. |
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| At each table of 10, eight diners were joined by a local farmer and his wife, offering a firsthand experience to learn about the local food system, and eat with the people who are behind the food they were enjoying - most of which was sourced on the farms within five miles of the festival, providing guests with firsthand experiences with the people who make their food. The "Hootenanny" also included a Hudson Valley cheese course, golf cart drive-in and movie sponsored by Whole Foods. |
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| The following day was the 2013 “Friends of the Farmer” Festival, sponsored by fashion designer John Varvatos at the Copake Country Club. Its highlights include live performances by Lukas Nelson (son of Willie)and P.O.T.R., a robust farmer’s market including vendors with local libations and a wide range of kid-friendly activities such as a petting zoo, pony rides and more. Founded and produced by the Culinary Partnership, a company specializing in launching food products and owned by Tessa Edick, the event raises scholarship money for students participating in Cornell University’sCooperative Extension, Questar III and 4H and brings awareness to consumers through the ”know your farmers, know your food” mission. |
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| “I’m standing up for my farming community and my food choices, by meeting one farmer at a time!” points out Ms. Edick. “We want kids participating in Camp Farm On! to know farming is not only cool, it can be a highly profitable business. Pairing agriculture with an ROI business mentality makes for viable livelihoods and gives the next generation of farmers the tools to succeed today. Only then can we talk about succession and the future of farming.” All funds raised benefit The Farm On! Foundation, offering Hudson Valley students an opportunity to visit local farms and gain an understanding of how they become viable businesses - fostering entrepreneurial spirit and encouraging the next generation of local farmers.” |
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Photographs by Rob Rich (Funny Thing). | Contact DPC here. |