My Parents' Legendary Parties
Dad was an ophthalmologist, and he used to get the neatest Christmas presents
from the optical companies and optometrists he referred patients to (he
was scrupulous in his business dealings as with everything else, so I'm
sure he was even handed). Sometime in the late '50's or very early
'60's, we were gifted with a Polaroid camera. These were relatively
new, but far enough along that Polaroid had come out with ASA 3000 (very
fast, very good for low light) film, and I, at age 13 and up, took these
pictures of the parties. I must point out that there were many parties,
that I probably only took pictures at less than ten of them, and finally
that, given the madcap spirit of these images and how difficult it is to
capture such things........that these images are just a taste. The
parties were more spirited, more a feast of the mind and spirit than I've
even captured here.
Everything my peers were doing was quite dull and tame by comparison....this
was living!
A familiar sparkplug of these parties was Claire Gray: what outrageous
sparkling gamine delight.
That's Dad in the two outside pictures, Jack Radow in the middle.
Through out these pictures, you'll catch glimpses of Dad's hat collection.
On the left, Dad's wearing a Viking helmet that he and Milton Metz got
from the Met. Below on the left is Martin Wagner in another of the
hats
And, in the spirit of the hats, there were occasional costume parties.
Above center and right are the Doctors Furnish. Bill had a wicked
dry wit and a terrible predilection for setup gags, and Mary was his drawling
foil, here Rommel meets Pocahontas.