Bea Arthur Remembered

Today, Joe and I attended the star-studded memorial service for Bea Arthur at the Majestic Theater on 44th Street. Angela Lansbury hosted, and participants included Adrienne Barbeau, Zoe Caldwell, Norman Lear, Rue McClanahan, Ann Meara and Jerry Stiller, Rosie O'Donnell and Chita Rivera. Two hours of ribald recollections, funny stories and videos. The incredible Angela Lansbury, an octogenarian who moves with the coltish fluidity of a sixteen year old, opened the celebration by wonderfully belting out the song from Mame that was Bea Arthur's big solo, The Man in the Moon is a Lady.

I also had a chat with Michael Buckley from "What the Buck", caught up with Michael Wilson of the Hartford Stage Company, traded beauty secrets with Coco Peru and met a very handsome young man named Eric Garcia who plays piano and sings several nights a week at Chez Josephine on 42nd Street, the location of the after-party where I got the picture of Anne Meara seated across the table from Norman Lear.

The good news announced at the celebration by Executive Director Carl Siciliano is that the Ali Forney Center is naming its first housing facility the "Bea Arthur Residence"

Here are some stellar pics.

(Update: I've added some of Joe's pics to the batch, and here is his report.)

Barks and Bikes

Ours was a balanced weekend including the riotous crowd crammed into Shubert Alley (“the heart of Broadway”) for the annual “Broadway Barks”, and also, a bike trip to the serenity of Wave Hill, a city-owned garden/mansion on 252nd Street in the Bronx (We put our bikes on the subway).

At “Broadway Barks”, with Pal Joey, who had to make a stop at the nearby 7/11 done over as a Quicki-Mart, to purchase memoribilia, I loved being less than ten feet from the long line of celebrities who took the outdoor stage on behalf of dogs and cats needing adoption. Mary Tyler Moore, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Jo Anne Worley and Harry Hamlin, to name a few.






At Wave Hill, we toured the seventeen distinctly different gardens, overlooks, buildings, exhibits and paths that comprise this twenty-eight acre dreamscape packed with rare trees and flowering plants. Panoramic vistas of the Hudson far below us, and of the cliffs of the Palisades.

Getting there was easy. An elevator at 66th Street accomodated our bikes, and, in line with subway policy, we wheeled them into the last car which we had entirely to ourselves all the way up to the last stop on the #1 line: 252nd Street. From there, you have to carry your bike down a long staircase to street level, and, you have to bike uphill for 15 minutes. This effort is rewarded by the touring of some shady streets featuring enchanted cottage-mansions designed by Dwight Baum (crazy brick, stucco, eyelet windows under slate, very arts and crafts. We'll be back to see more of these and more of the Fieldston neighborhood in which they are located. Hard to believe you are in the Bronx.