1939
I write tonight with heavy heart. The dog has gone away to be an angel. Poor little pup read the nasty things I said about him in last month's column and went out to chase cars. A Jaguar did him in. All that's left of Elvis is a leash, a license and memories.
I also write with heavy head. Last night they held the Hopkins Dinner between the halves of the '39 party at the Barclay. Something in the dinner disagreed with me. Or perhaps I smoked too many cigarettes. It truly was the night the Waldorf turned Green. The dinner was a grand affair. Someone forgot to turn off the motors on a couple of the speakers. Otherwise it was just about perfect.
When the Glee Club finished singing "Dartmouth Undying" — in the darkened ballroom, under a wall-sized color projection of Dartmouth Hall - there was nary a dry eye in the place. The only sound to be heard was the steady drip of tears into the, uh, coffee cups. My dancing boots are still soggy with salt water. If it had been up to me, I'd have passed the tambourines right then. The capital gifts campaign would now be an historic success.
As for Hoppy himself - The Greatest! And the '39 party. The ladies were lovely in their gowns. And the boys so handsome in their dinner clothes. Nicely behaved, too, being as how the suits had to go back to Read & White by 3:00 P.M. the next day. But a lively affair, nonetheless. 'Twas like the night that Paddy Murphy died. For all I know, one or more of the following may still be behind the couch or up in the chandelier:
Bill Bachman, from Detroit, Phyllis and Dick Brooks, from Westport, Conn., Ethel and Bill Carter, Deidre and Beech Chapin, 800 and Bud Clifford, Billee and Jack Coulson, Dot and Walt Darby, Bill Deal, from Philadelphia, Marge and, Herm Funke, from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Bob Gibson, from Minneapolis, June and Bill Goodman,, from Hartford, Jane and Dick Hadley; Pattie and Rodg Harrison, Jack Haverfield, Ralph Hill, from, Burlington, Vt., Louise and Bob Howe, from Boston, Math and Dick Jackson, Bob Jessup,. Marie and Jim McKeon, Pat and Charlie Neer,. Barbara and Ed Oppenheim, from Oklahoma City,. Dick Ruebling, Evie and Andy Ruoff, Bob Thomas, Peggy and Al Tishman, Glenn Vincens and your scrivener, Bunny and Bill Webster and Haven. Falconer.
I shall continue with a few more societynotes, in an attempt to give you some indication of how hard I work to get news for you.
Seen at the Dartmouth Club bar: Dick.Monahon, Bruce Learned, Vic Whitlock,Dick Jackson, Bill Webster and Herm Funke,. the textile tycoon, in town to corner the market on linsey woolsey.
Seen at the recent Open House at that, same Dartmouth Club, now beautifully enlarged, redecorated, refurbished and resplendent: Walt Darby, Don Andrews, and Curt Anderson. Don is a chemist with American Cyanamid Corp. Curt is still the guidinggenius of Mechtronics, Inc., makers of point of purchase displays. Curt knows what that, means. I don't.
Heard as well as seen at that same event: Bud Clifford, the Jersey thrush. When not punching the keys on the N.Y. Telephone Company's Univac, or serving as WaltDarby's strong right arm in the planning of our Titillating Twentieth, Mr. Clifford sings. Such power! That night, as the last haunting strains of his "Rose of Tralee" faded away, there was neither man nor window left in the place. No wonder the telephone company kept him up in Hanover for eight weeks last summer. (Nice duty, by the way. Eight fatiguing weeks at a school for telephone executives - eating steak three times a day, with cocktails fore and aft, and taking such courses as Inter-relationship of Golf ana the Dial Telephone, Electronic Gin Rummy, and Executive Relaxation, 22.)
Seen at luncheon in the Ebony Room of the Prince George, 27th Street's finest hostelry: Bud Finck, my host, in town on a buying trip for his department store in Nogales, Ariz. Before heading into the setting sun. Bud tipped his sombrero, said that he and Renee would be back in June for Reunion, and then gave me some news of my own backyard. Les Smith has left WNAC in Boston,., to do the news for WOR in New York.
Received at a meeting of the Reunion Committee at Dot and Walt Darby's: Lumps on the head for not mentioning Reunion in this column. Giving the lumps, in addition to the Darbys were Adee and Bob Kalaidjian, and the previously mentioned Websters,jacksons, Harrisons, Coulsons and Carters.
Your committeemen have a wonderful program awaiting you on your arrival in Hanover, on Friday, June 13, with your wife and all the kiddies. Space does not permit me to set forth the entire program here. Dick Jackson will tell you all the details in his next Newsletter. I repeat a few choice items only-
No more sitting in the sun on that mountaintop, eating scramburg and dust from paper plates. It says here that we can expect hors d'oeuvres, tenderloin and petits fours on the Outing Club House terrace.
The children need be no problem. They can go camping with Herb Mattlage or stay with Mommie and Daddy in town. They can stay in camp overnight with the bears and the woodchucks, or come back to cadge drinks around the class tent. There'll be something doing for boys and girls of all ages, and all will have costumes just like Mommie's and Daddy's.
Bill Webster and his uniform committee, which is Jack Cumming, the Providence wet wash magnate, have planned costumes that will be both attractive, flattering to the middle-aged, and useful long after reunion is history. Just as a teaser, I tell you that the men will be wearing forest green leotards with matching skin diver's goggles, and water wings emblazoned with the class numerals.
The food will be good. Bob Kalaidjian who, in addition to being King of Personnel at Columbia Broadcasting System, is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hanover Inn, has used his influence to see that we'll have wheat germ in our breakfast eggs and genuine pure heavy whipped cream in our Irish coffee.
Rodg Harrison, who has just been elected vice president of Kudner Agency, in charge of the National Distillers account, is providing one of the agency's left-over Buicks for each non-drinking member of the class, and a case of Old Granddad for each who does. And this morning I went to church to pray that Charlie Glueck was lighting off the boiler under the Stite vat....
A note from Red Jensen informs me that I was one shy in my count on that gala at Roz and Red's a couple of months ago. On their good behavior throughout the doings were Penny and Skip Morse, who had come all the way from New Jersey just for the occasion. Red also reports this news of Greater Springfield:
My boys are now 14, 11, and 7. The oldest is away at boarding school but came home for 'Christmas and we had a great time. Hear from Ken MacDonald once in a while and see Toby Wing. Hank Hastings here last summer - still in Moscow, Vt., making bird calls and whoopee. Bob Elkins in Springfield with his father in construction firm. John Karr running an oil business with his brother in Ludlow, Mass. Brother in law, Scott Taylor welcomed fourth bambino few months ago.
Secretary, Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. 1 Madison Ave. New York 10, N. Y.
Treasurer, 15 Meridan PL, Huntington Station, N. Y
