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Evelyn
Lauder. After Estee Lauder, a household name, Evelyn
Lauder (pictured
with Sir
Elton John and Candice Bergen), one of the two daughters-in-law,
wife of the eldest son, Leonard, is the most prominent Lauder
in New York social and philanthropic circles, in a solid partnership with her
husband. Following in the footsteps of a powerful mother-in-law must have been
a major challenge for a girl who started out adult life as a schoolteacher and
spent her early married life as an attentive mother (to two boys). In The
List in memoriam, it is said that Estee very much approved of her eldest
son’s selection of a wife. But in the annals of in-law-dom, there is always
The Lauder family, both mother and sons – Leonard
and Ronald,
and their wives and now their children, have been active in New York philanthropic
and civic affairs since Estee and Joseph Lauder established
the family’s position in the community. As the family business thrived
over the past four decades and the family wealth accumulated, they have conscientiously
exploited their assets by giving back. As a result, the two sons and their wives
(Jo Carole is wife of Ronald) are one of the most highly regarded
leading families in New York, giving generously to the arts (both brothers have
large and important art collections), culture and public institutions such as
hospitals and the Library.
In 1993, Evelyn, however, took the family
philanthropy one step further and created
the Breast Cancer Research Fund to combat the disease
that has become epidemic for American women. In the past
eleven years, since the BCRF’s founding, she and
her supporters have raised more than $70 million for
breast cancer research. Her annual benefit gala which
is held every year at the Waldorf is one of the biggest
drawing fundraisers in the social season. Sir
Elton John is also a committed contributor to
the event (this past year, he performed with his band
after dinner for more than an hour).
All this, while keeping her day job as executive vice-president
of Estee Lauder.
She’s one of those New York women who uses her advantages to get the most
out of her days (often with formidable schedules) and to provide much to others.
She and her husband entertain at private dinners frequently. They also are in
attendance at many of the events on the crowded social calendar during the season.
They travel, both alone as a couple, and in groups, and enjoy friendships all
over the world. I’ve never seen her interact with her children, daughters-in-law
and grandchildren, but there is a very strong sense of mother and nurturing about
her that surely her family experiences.
Unlike a lot of women who enjoy her status and position,
there is NO pretense or sense of self-entitlement about
her in relationship to others – an example
(too infrequently followed by her peers) is what she sets. Instead, you can still
detect that young woman who started out life in one of the city’s boroughs
as a schoolteacher intent on preparing her students thoroughly. You might wonder
what it must have been like for that young woman to marry into a world that was
dominated (and for decades) by the brilliant and highly motivated mama Estee.
And from observing the daughter-in-law, as I have, you might conclude that she
consciously chose a path of wisdom and rose to the occasion, and then some. It
is difficult for me to eschew flattery when portraying Evelyn Lauder; she’s
a game girl who sets her mark and achieves it, all the while with kindness and
courtesy. |
Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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Irving
Lazar. Inarguably the most flamboyantly
famous talent agent of his time, he was born into poverty as Samuel
Lazar, morphed into Irving Paul Lazar and through the wit of his
occasional client Humphrey Bogart, became known
as “Swifty.” He was a tiny man, remembered visually
for his entire bald head and enormous black-rimmed glasses. He
was a tremendous snob who prided himself on his ability to get
huge commissions for his literary (or acting) clients without having
seen or read their work. The clients stretched from Noel
Coward and Cole Porter to Joan
Collins and Madonna and Truman
Capote.
In his early days, when he acquired the name Swifty, he was something of a joke
amongst the set he palled around with, including Frank Sinatra and
Bogart. In his later days, he acquired a beautiful and elegant wife named Mary (who
read the books he made the big movie sales with) and every Oscar night gave a
big party (for stars only – his definition of course) at Spago when it
was located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Lazar liked stars and was
unabashedly (a gentle word for his brand of chutzpah) a snob. He kept
a house in Beverly Hills and an apartment in New York where he liked socializing
with names — movie stars in Hollywood and celebrities and society names
in New York. And royalty of course any old time they happened along.
He was reptilian in countenance, immaculate in grooming (he took a nap every
afternoon and had his sheets changed everytime his body touched them; he also
washed his hands after everytime he touched a doorknob that had been touched
by another’s hand), his suits were bespoke. He likened his style to Cary
Grant and Fred Astaire. He had an elegant inflection
to his speech, belying any roots in the lower East Side of New York when it was
the Jewish ghetto.
The first time I met him was at a Thanksgiving dinner in the mid 1980s in Beverly
Hills at the home of David and Gladyce Begelman (Mrs. B was
the mother of Beth Rudin DeWoody).
There were about thirty dinner guests and the opportunity for introduction came
only at the very end of the evening when I happened to be standing behind him
and his wife as we waited at the front door of the Begelman house for the valet
to bring the cars. Janet (Mrs. Freddie de Cordova)
was standing next to Mr. Lazar and seeing me, said to him: “Irving, I want
you to meet David Patrick Columbia.”
Without
turning his head so much as a half inch to see my face, looking
straight ahead toward the street, he extended his right arm
behind himself so that I, sight unseen, could shake his hand.
It was a remarkable display of what I call the I-Am-And-You’re-Not
attitude that permeates the spheres of the arrivistes, and
so rude that it was actually funny.
Not surprisingly the next few times I saw him, he didn’t recognize me
although I came to know his wife Mary fairly well. She went out and did a lot
of the legwork looking for talent for her husband. So it did not come as a
surprise one Saturday afternoon when I got a phone call and the voice on the
other end of the line said: “Mr. Columbia, this is Irving Lazar. I want
to introduce you to Mrs. Barbara Sinatra because I’m
going to make a book deal for her and I think perhaps you should write the
book.”
Okay. I followed instructions and went the next morning, Sunday, to meet Mrs.
S. Nothing came of the matter except that Irving called the next morning to
find out what I thought and how I liked her. After reporting, he thanked me
and that was that. He couldn’t have been nicer.
Now largely forgotten, although he’s only been dead for twelve years
this December, his legacy lives on in the name of the restaurant — Swifty’s,
in New York — named after a pug owned by the late Glenn Birnbaum,
who owned a restaurant called Mortimers that Irving Lazar frequented (because
of its chic clientele). The dog had been a gift to Birnbaum and he named it
after the tiny mega-agent because it was small and ugly, just like Irving.
But cute too. |
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