At a luncheon the Dorman Cheese Company gave the other day, at the Sky Garden Roof of the St. Moritz, in honor of Mary Anne Krupsak, the Lieutenant Governor of New York; Carol Bellamy, the New York City Council President; John Lindsay, the former Mayor of New York City; Lewis Rudin, an influential New York real-estate man; Alan King, the comedian; and Sandy, a dog and a star in the Broadway musical Annie —because the Dorman Cheese Company thinks they are all good New Yorkers—here are some of the people and things we saw and heard:
Alan King wearing a brown herringbone sports jacket. Carol Brock, a food columnist for the News. Avram Dorman, the president of Dorman Cheese. Carol Dorman, the wife of Avram Dorman. William Dorman, vice-president of Dorman Cheese. Phyllis Dorman, William Dorman’s wife, wearing a roomy maroonish dress. Jeff and Ned Dorman, their sons. Carol Bellamy wearing a smartly tailored blue suit. Alice
Weiss, Phyllis Dorman’s friend from Scarsdale. Carol Bellamy sipping water. John Lindsay buttering bread, then eating the buttered bread. Sandy the dog wearing a black bow tie and lapping up water from a water glass. Phyllis Dorman saying, when she saw Sandy the dog lapping up the water from the water glass, “Oh, my God!”
Also: Phyllis Dorman saying to a woman she had just met, “I am from Charleston, West Virginia. I married Billy twenty-seven years ago, and today is our anniversary.” Phyllis Dorman saying to a man, “Herman, is Susie here?” Phyllis Dorman saying to the people at her table, “Could we make some room for Herman? Move over a little.” Sandy the dog barking. Sandy the dog wearing a white napkin. Sandy the dog looking sad-eyed, the way all dogs look when they are around people eating. Phyllis Dorman calling out from her table to Alan King, who was sitting on the dais, “Alan, is your speech going to be better than Sandy’s?”
Also: Alan King staring across the room past Phyllis Dorman’s head. Phyllis Dorman’s friend Alice saying to Phyllis Dorman, about the first-course antipasto, “This should be the whole lunch. It’s so much and it’s so good.” Alice, as she watched Sandy eat up a large slice of cheese, saying, “Kay Thompson’s dog ate pasta like that in Florence.”
Also: William Dorman handing out awards—bronze wedges of Swiss cheese—to the good New Yorkers. Carol Bellamy sipping more water. Phyllis Dorman saying to her friend Alice, “Billy and I are going to Wimbledon on Sunday.” Alice saying to Phyllis Dorman, “We played tennis with Jack Paar at
his house in Connecticut. He has a little TV camera on the court that tapes the game as you play, and later he shows the tape. It’s fun to see yourself.” Phyllis Dorman saying, “Ugh, I can’t bear to watch myself.”
Also: Carol Bellamy, Alan King, John Lindsay, Lewis Rudin, and Sandy posing, with their awards, for photographers. John Lindsay leaving after lunch. Mary Anne Krupsak arriving after lunch. William Dorman telling an after-lunch joke about how much he hates photographers telling him to say “cheese” when they are taking his picture. William Dorman telling the roomful of people that it was his and Phyllis Dorman’s twenty-seventh wedding anniversary, and then saying to Phyllis Dorman, “Here’s to my big cheese,” and holding out to her an award similar to the awards that the honored New Yorkers had received. Mrs. Dorman clasping her hands over her mouth and then saying, “Oh, that’s so sweet.”
—July 3, 1978