Thursday, 27 May 2004
Elaine Kaufman's Elaine's - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER - Everyone Comes to Elaine's is a delightful book that's come out recently. Its subtitle says it all: Forty Years of Movie Stars, All-Stars, Literary Lions, Financial Scions, Top Cops, Politicians, and Power Brokers at the Legendary Hot Spot. The hot spot is of course, Elaine's at Eighty-Eighth Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan. Elaine's, named after its colourful proprietor, Elaine Kaufman, who has cultivated one of New York City's most famous watering holes, a joint as famous as the parade of stars who have frequented the establishment.
A.E. Hotchner, who's done biographies of Ernest Hemingway, Sophia Loren and Doris Day, amongst others, completes this book, a love letter chronicling the life and times of a food and drinks place as storied as 21, Sardi's, or Toots Shor. It's got far more character, one supposes, than the pretentious Orso's or Le Cirque. At Elaine's, the veal chop and meatballs is as much a part of the scenery as bumping into Woody Allen, David Halberstam, Liza Minnelli, George Steinbrenner or Mikhail Baryshnikov. Hotchner, who is also business partner with Paul Newman and his not-for-profit pasta sauce and salad dressing empire, writes of Elaine's: "What Rick's place was to Casablanca, Elaine's is to New York, the same swirling intrigue, international celebrities, double-dealing, jealousies, threats and brutalities, sentimentality, romance, sex and redemption."
Elaine Kaufman is sitting at a table in the dining room of her restaurant. She's downing bottled water, regaling patrons with stories as chockfull of memories as the mementos on the wall. From old movie posters, to book jackets of tomes launched at Elaine's, it's like a museum. That's the shot on the front of the book, but the more telling photo is the one on the title page, that of the rotund Elaine Kaufman, donning a roomy muumuu, parked on a bar stool, overlooking her establishment. It either is just before opening, or just after it's cleared out. Elaine is pensive, as balloons and streamers decorate the room. For forty years, Elaine has packed them in, turned away the best of them, and became a legend. Now she sits, rightfully so, resting on her laurels. If Bogie played Rick, then Harvey Firestein could play Elaine.
Woody Allen, the otherwise recluse that he is, says that he ate at Elaine's, every night for about ten years. "I've eaten alongside everyone from Don King to Simone de Beauvoir. Rod Steiger kissed me on the lips once as I was walking out and a female in the movie business pinched me on the behind saying that even though she was a stranger to me she'd always wanted to do it." Always packed, high energy and full of people he knew, Allen used Elaine's front window in the opening of his film Manhattan.
Elaine's never really set out to change the world with its food and fine wine. It never would become as swanky as Orso's, nor did it want to be. If the Russian Tea Room is all about style, then Elaine's would be all about substance. Think of the brilliant and colourful minds that have called Elaine's their home away from home. From the brilliant writer Pete Hamill, to bon vivant extraordinaire George Plimpton, to the indomitable Gay Talese, the culture and intellect had between those walls is extraordinary considering Elaine's was the joint where those starving writers hung out while tapping away at their old typewriters hoping to change the world with their prose. Elaine Kaufman was their den mother, and they've repaid her by making Elaine's the place, where by just walking into the place, you can feel a part of New York City's culture alive and well and preserved.
This book, Everyone Comes to Elaine's, does a fine job in preserving the culture that Elaine's has wrought not only to Manhattan, but also to the American story. Elaine's comes alive in the pages that A.E. Hotchner has put together. He has weaved a summary that is vibrant and that is timeless, no matter the changes in the personalities that have come and gone through Elaine's doors. Rich and lively stories abound, from Frank Sinatra's coldness when he bumped into author Mario Puzo, to Jackie Gleason coming in and doing his old "Joe the Bartender" routine for the customers. There are those remarkable nights like that during the 2000 Subway Series, when Elaine's was so packed that George Steinbrenner couldn't get a table. Or that night when Elaine hurled a couple of garbage cans at paparazzi who wanted to get photos of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, or Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett. What about the time when Phil Spector pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the New York Post's Steve Dunleavy? Dunleavy returned the favour by summarily giving Spector a right blow to the nose, prompting the music producer, now alleged murderer to bleed profusely. Better yet, what about that night when Elaine herself was arrested for socking an unruly patron who ran his mouth to the proprietor when she humiliated the fellow because he and his lady friend were sharing a Tanqueray and tonic. It seems that the rule at Elaine's is, you occupy the real estate at the bar, there's no free lunch. You pay. Rude patron greets Elaine with, "Fuck you, lady," and Elaine rightfully socks the cheapskate, cutting his cheek. Cheapskate's bleeding profusely, thanks to a ring on Elaine's finger. The cops are called and Elaine is hauled off to the hoosegow.
In forty years, the night that stands out most for Elaine Kaufman rounds out the book. 'The night Jackie came in to dance,' stands out. "Two o'clock one morning. Unannounced, unexpected, there's a commotion at the door, a lively group is on the way in, led by Mike Nichols and Susan Sontag, followed by Adolph Greene and Betty Comden and George Plimpton, and last in, Leonard Bernstein, who is escorting Jackie Kennedy. It was her first night out after her mourning period and the group was trying to cheer her up." Wearing a Chanel gold bouclé suit with a starburst emerald brooch, she came into dance. It doesn't get better than Jackie Kennedy and her cabal of compatriots. It doesn't get better than Elaine Kaufman, and Elaine's. Few times in a cultural history has a place of such vibrancy and colour taken on a legend and mystique of its own. Elaine's is its own world, and at the same time, is the embodiment of the world itself.
Everyone Comes to Elaine's: Forty Years of Movie Stars, All-Stars, Literary Lions, Financial Scions, Top Cops, Politicians, and Power Brokers at the Legendary Hot Spot by A.E. Hotchner, is published by HarperCollins and is $41.95 CDN ($26.95 USD) (ISBN: 006053818X).
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .