Insider Information on Faberge

         Many, many years ago I dated a cute red-haired girl named Donna. I’ve had a weakness for cute red-haired girls ever since. Unfortunately, they’ve exhibited no weakness for me. So, whenever I’ve fantasied about cute red-haired girls, Donna is the only one that enters the playground of my imagination. As a consequence, I’ve long since grown tired of Donna. On the other hand, my guess is that it’s been many, many years since she gave me a second thought. 

         Donna had a sister named Lynn who lived in New York and worked at Faberge. She was the personal secretary to one of Faberge’s board of directors named Archibald Leach…otherwise known as Cary Grant. The first time Lynn visited her sister in Washington, D.C. we all went out for drinks and the first question I asked was, “What is Cary Grant really like?” I’ve always had a knack for asking people questions they’ve never heard before.

         “He’s exactly as you probably imagine him to be…extremely handsome, impeccably dressed and marvelously charming with a wonderful sense of style and class.”

         “Much the way you imagine yourself to be, Mac…in your dreams,” said Donna.

         Cuteness and red hair were always Donna’s most endearing features.

         “So, just like he was in the movies,” I said to Lynn.

         “Yes,” she replied. “Just like he was and just as he is, in the movies.”

         By that time Lynn had been Cary Grant’s personal secretary for several years so there was no reason to doubt her appraisal of the man and it was very gratifying to hear it. I would like to have met him. As it is, there are only two people I would have bothered to cross the street to meet…namely, Fred Astaire and Johnny Carson. Since they’re both dead, that’s a journey I will never make. They were the best at what they did. Bob Fosse, George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov are all on record as saying that Astaire was the greatest dancer of all time. As for Carson, no one has come close to matching his excellence. Unfortunately, the late night talk show hosts who followed learned very little from him. They are, without exception, dreadful by comparison. The real shame, however, is that the class and style those three men radiated is no longer on display…not in the public arena, anyway. Fortunately, I’ve had the privilege of knowing a few people who measured up to those standards in their personal lives. I’m sure there are many, many more and they keep alive the spirit of dignity and grandeur to which all human beings should aspire.