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`WE ARE called not to be successful but to be faithful," wrote Ellwood Kieser.
MUCH EXCITEMENT over the re-opening of the St. Regis Hotel. And the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation's dinner-dance on the roof was a landmark all by itself. It brought back a moment of genuine gentility and glamor. People actually got up and danced to the magical music of Peter Duchin "just for the fun of it."
Host Garrick Utley told us there'd be no speeches, then made a brief one. And during the course of the evening, we actually received four quite splendid speeches - by Landmarks mover/shaker Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, by the one and only Brooke Astor (she reminisced about the hotel, which was owned by her late husband), by that superstar of academe, Yale's Vincent Scully, and by the evening's deserving honoree - Paul Goldberger of the N.Y. Times.
Mrs. Astor, wearing a black lace dress enlivened by three strands of "built-in" pearls, was her witty off-the-top-of-my-head self. She announced she'll be 90 on her next birthday, but nobody believes this, and my book shows her March birthday as No. 89. Equally unbelievable!
An evening of civilized erudite charm - definitely not "politically correct!"
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