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 her with 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.
And, in the spirit of the hats, there were occasional
costume
parties.
Left and center are the Doctors (Bill and Mary) Furnish. Bill had
a wicked
dry wit and a terrible predilection for setup gags, and Mary was his
drawling
foil, here Rommel meets Pocahontas. Above on the right is Martin
Wagner.
