Elaine’s was certainly in its heyday in the early eighties when I worked for John Scanlon, but, odd to say, he was never part of that scene. I wonder why–everyone who hung there was someone with whom he would have aspired to associate. Over the years, I made a couple of appearances there–one or two Esquire parties; an amazing post-Loose Lips dinner with Kurt Andersen, Lisa Birnbach, Harvey Weinstein, and most amazingly, Sharon Stone; and the book party Chris Napolitano threw for me and The Coup. A very special occasion. Beyond that, the place existed as a heaven on earth for a writerly New York that no longer really exists. Anyway, Drew Friedman has been filling a Facebook page with mementoes of the career of his father, the great Bruce Jay Friedman. The other day he posted this photo of Elaine’s A-listers that Irving Penn took for Vogue in 1971. Front row: Arthur Kopit, Jack Gelber, George Plimpton and Gay Talese; second row, seated: Willie Morris, Jack Richardson, Elaine Kaufman, Christopher Cerf, David Halberstam; third row: Nicholas Pileggi, Robert Brown, Jean-Pierre Rassam (center), and Bernard “Buzz” Farber (far right); back row: John Barry Ryan III, Lewis H. Lapham, Bobby Short, William Styron, and Bruce Jay Friedman
