A Dinner Story
A Dinner Story When he checked his calendar last May and noticed that The American Spectator was to observe its tenth anniversary in the fall, Baron Von Kannon began preparations for the greatest...
...Nothing would stop him...
...Live from the St...
...The staff had reached the airport, but their plane was grounded by mechanical failures...
...Von Kannon first reserved a spacious ballroom at New York's St...
...The place abounded with poodles, Hermes luggage, Texas businessmen wearing $500 double-knit suits, and others who failed to see any humor at all in Tyrrell's remarks...
...America's last whooping crane...
...Worse yet, the elevators had been shut down and Tyrrell was to be detained in the St...
...In a populist fever Tyrrell hurls his text to The People...
...The American Spectator February 1978 41 42 The American Spectator February 1978 Arnold Beichman, fortissimo con brio...
...Jaycees as one of the Ten Most Outstanding Young Men In America for 1978...
...Then Commentary's Norman Podhoretz raised his glass and declared: "Ten years is old for a magazine...
...American," the marching anthem of The American Spectator...
...Scenes from the Dinner William F. Buckley apprises Len Garment, Frank Shakespeare, and R. Emmett Tyrrell of "our" position on the Erie Canal...
...Irving Kristol—never above enjoying his own joke...
...An hour and a half later the phone rang again...
...One-hundred and eighty celebrants of The American Spectator's tenth anniversary pause to consider what it all means as Irving Kristol completes his 38th trip to the bar...
...The Baron had been hospitalized and would not be coming to New York, and the staff was trapped in a blizzard...
...What an evening the Baron had engineered...
...Regis Hotel, chose the most gifted and humane bartenders available, and rigorously instructed them in his carefully developed etiquette for serving firewater...
...Tom Wolfe ponders another species of chic...
...Generally, the Saturday Evening Club meets in Bloomington bibulously to dissect each issue of the magazine as it rolls off the press...
...Not since the Medicis has an institution so generously endowed the arts...
...The joke failed, and as he vainly experimented with variations on this hopeless drollery the staid lobby was penetrated by a mob of firemen and police armed with hoses and axes...
...The celebration was underway...
...Upon registering at the St...
...Regis lobby until the fire was extinguished—an intolerable situation...
...By mid-evening, 180 satisfied diners had devastated the nation's last flock of whooping crane (and they thought the prandial centerpiece was lowly capon...
...A Dinner Story When he checked his calendar last May and noticed that The American Spectator was to observe its tenth anniversary in the fall, Baron Von Kannon began preparations for the greatest Saturday Evening Club ever held...
...Regis on the afternoon of the dinner, Tyrrell sniffed alien fragrances...
...Nat Glazer remembering the answers...
...the elevators sprang to life, and Von Kannon's guests began to arrive...
...That the so-called liberals continue to grumble about this largess is just another indication of their profound anti-intellectualism...
...Norman Podhoretz and Frank Shakespeare stalked by the mysterious stranger...
...Erich Eichman and Ken Gooderham in a rare moment of hilarity...
...Robert Nisbet: From Gutenberg to The American Spectator in 15 minutes...
...Finally, Robert Nisbet discoursed on The American Spectator's genealogy, introduced R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., and announced the thrilling news that Tyrrell had just been chosen by the U.S...
...While brandy was poured, and the healthful aroma of cigar smoke filled the air, master of ceremonies William Safire introduced himself as "a great example of tokenism at the New York Times...
...Regis: The Saturday Evening Club "Singers" Jim Buckley digesting with special guest soloist William F. Buckley...
...Ron Burr, our distinguished Vice President...
...The American Spectator February',W78 43...
...Tip O'Neill, he presented the evening's musical entertainment featuring Len Garment and the Chuck Wayne Trio...
...And too bad for the so-called liberals...
...I myself have been carrying on something like a posthumous existence...
...The suave William Safire enunciates far over the head of R. Emmett Tyrrell...
...It was Bloomington...
...Ernest van den Haag and Adam Meyerson study another of Peter • Rusthoven's diatribes...
...We had so much fun we decided to stick with The American Spectator for another ten years...
...Next, National Review's William F. Buckley, Jr., toasted The American Spectator, and with characteristic understatement opined: "I believe that there is a greater concentration of beauty, brains, and culture here tonight than ever assembled anywhere in the history of the world...
...There was a fire in the Maisonette Room—the very Maisonette Room in which The American Spectator's dinner was to take place that night...
...He then suborned a host of writers into attending despite their understandable misgivings and the requirement that they wear tuxedoes...
...All of which led to the editor's speech (please see page 4), a piece of oratory so stentorian in sheer volume that Tyrrell prevented an emotional ovation only by hurriedly summoning to the stage the Saturday Evening Club "Singers" for a rendition of "I Am a One Hundred Percent...
...Tyrrell reacted to this news with characteristic decisiveness: He stirred bath oils into his tub, added more hot water, and submerged himself again...
...But this special session was to be held in New York on December 6—and it was to transcend Perle Mesta's wildest fantasies...
...Cacophony resounded through the room and disharmoniousness shook the chandeliers as members of the assembled multitude, songsheets in hand, joined the choir...
...Back to the tub...
...By late summer the Baron had set an immense enterprise into motion...
...Yet, once begun no CIA project is ever stopped: The alleged fire was merely steam from a recusant water pipe, and the staff commandeered a later flight to arrive just in time for the opening of the bar...
...After a moving statement attesting to his admiration for the new administration and for Mr...
...Rather like an animal, a magazine that survives for ten years can be deemed to be not only mature, but approaching the condition of possible senility...
...What a feast...
...and had downed a small ocean of le vin blanc...
...yet stopped and undone he almost was...
...He tested the hotel staffs sense of humor by insisting the odor was marijuana...
...In time the telephone rang...
...Without thought for his personal safety he scrambled up 26 flights of stairs, charged into his suite, and submerged himself in a hot bath...
...The Public Interest's Irving Kristol toasted the Baron Von Kannon's achievement...
...Finally, the ever resourceful Baron persuaded the CIA to foot the bill with a special cultural grant...
Vol. 11 • February 1978 • No. 4
