New Year's Eve in Palm Beach
I thought that New Year's Eve in Palm Beach would be different this year, but I had no idea how different.
My evening was to begin with a cocktail party at the home of Dick and Susan Nernberg, friends of mine from Pittsburgh. They live in an exquisite apartment above Maus and Hoffman, a clothing store on Worth Avenue.
Then I was to go to the wedding of George Cloutier and Tiffany Spadafora at the Breakers Hotel. I would have to leave at some point to go to the Coconuts party at the Flagler Museum. This is the most exclusive invitation in Palm Beach by far. Then finally, Mark Brentlinger and Brian MacDonald were giving their annual blast at their mansion. They were gay and last year at midnight the bartenders stripped off their shirts to greet the New Year. That would be a fitting ending to the evening.
In the last few months the lives of the mega wealthy have been twice devastated, first by the collapse of the stock market and secondly by the embarrassing losses of the Madoff Ponzi scheme. That made even those who had lost nothing angry and fearful looking for someone or something to strike out against. And when people learned that ABC's 20/20 was following me around New Year's Eve, that became the target of the moment.
The day before yesterday, I knew something was wrong when Susan called and said that guest after guest at her cocktail party was backing out, terrified by the idea of camera snouts intruding on their lives. A few months ago, most of these same people would have lined up for their shots, but now AM(After Madoff) they seek to hunker down in obscurity. I scarcely had time to decide what to do about that problem when George Cloutier called to say that he had guests refusing to come if there were cameras. George loves publicity, and it was extraordinary that he was willing to give up the klieg lights in the name of love and a full house.
Mark Brentlinger said that he didn't want cameras either. These were tough economic times, and it would not look right that he and friends were having a wildly extravagant blast.
I couldn't do anything about George's wedding or Mark and Brian's party but I sure could do something about the cocktail party. So I started calling around inviting a whole new group of people to the cocktail party. ABC interviewed on camera many of the guests. What was so striking was the seriousness of their comments and their convictions that Palm Beach was a different place now and their lives different too.
After the cocktail party, my wife Vesna and I drove over to the Breakers for the wedding. "If this is the Titanic," Cloutier had told me in one of his more philosophical moments, "Well, we're in the ballroom and we're going down dancing." It was most flamboyant, extravagant, over-the-top, spare-no-expense blast imaginable. Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey tried to talk over the din of music while Florida's Senator Bill Nelson and Louisiana's John Breaux sat quietly and others of the 350 guests danced.
Former Senator Breaux and I were at the same table, and we discovered that we shared a lot in common. Our apartments in Washington are two blocks from each other. We were wearing the same stripped dress shirt. And as a politician, he shared with journalists one of the defining attributes of our mutual castes. We never pay for anything. When I started talking about my forthcoming book, Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach, the good Senator whipped out his business card and asked for a freebie. (Don't worry, Senator, you'll get it next week).
I left the Breakers before eleven to make it to the Coconuts at the Flagler Museum. Last year several of the twenty-five Coconuts had told me that they had been upset at the quality and quantity of their several hundred guests, but this year was different. It could have been fifty years ago, all these faces of the old American elite. As the fireworks exploded brilliantly above the Inland Waterway to the sounds of popular music, I found it poignant. I knew this world was ending, even if few of the people here realized it.
Just as the final barrage of fireworks exploded, my wife and I left to drive north half a mile along the ocean to Jungle Road and the big gay party of the evening. Palm Beach was once one society, now it is many and gays are one of them. Gays were once servants of the wealthy. They escorted the ladies as walkers. They clothed them. They decorated their homes. And now they are often the mega wealthy themselves.
It was an overwhelming event that spilled over from the gigantic mansion next door to Ivana Trump's home. Everywhere there were pretty boys, handsome gay men, and occasional tongues placed in occasional ears in manners unseen at the Coconuts. And there was former Congressman Mark Foley, who left the House in a scandal involving Congressional Pages. And in the middle of it all dancing endlessly was the co-host, Brian MacDonald, in a white décolletage shirt that made him look like Errol Flynn playing a pirate.
As I drove back to our home, I thought what a fantastic evening it had been but one filled with a sense that I was seeing the last of something. Palm Beach has retreated into itself seeking to preserve a world of privilege and wealth beyond human imagination. But there is a stirring in the land, and a stirring even within many people on the island itself. America has to change and Palm Beach has to change as well. And there may not be too many more evenings in Palm Beach like New Year's Eve.
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That's why we should "redistribute wealth".
While these lasses were "celebrating" in their mansions, a few dozen dudes were huddling around a trash fire near their shacks on the Caltrain Right Of Way in Frisco.
Leamer's Madness Under the Royal Palms gets two thumbs up
Leamer's new book is an amusing anthropological study that offered layers of depth and insight into individuals, relationships and social groups. The result is a humorous parable with some heavy moral lessons.
STORIES THAT WILL MAKE YOU CRINGE
As Leamer draws us into his world and follows the lives of the characters, like with Aesop's Fables, we cannot help but predict the tragic outcomes of the paths they have chosen. The irony here is that these are real people, illustrating that the tragic flaw of humanity is our inability to step outside our selves and get past the artificial world of our own construct. This is the real-life version of Faust, and a lesson in perception, misperception and mortality.
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES' IS NOT ENOUGH
Money seems to be the fulcrum in the lives of the residents, an ends and not a means. Greed is the corrupting factor that invariably crushes relationships, family, trust and trust funds. In a twist of the plot, however, money is the engine that fuels their existence, and yet it is still a limiting factor on the island. For the very privileged, social status is determined by caste, not wealth alone.
After putting down Leamer's new book, I was reminded of the profound statement that some ascribe to Samuel Johnson: "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
Larry Leamer's account of New Year's Eve in Palm Beach, like his forthcoming book Madness Under the Royal Palms, proffered less a 'thesis' than a chronicle of enculturation. His titration, to borrow a term from chemistry whereby a substance of known strength is infused in a solution in order to detect the concentration of an acid, will no doubt elicit a tirade in the infirm commonwealth of Palm Beach. For we are witnessing the last morbid twitch of a dying culture as we embark on a conceivably more merited millennium, no longer marooned in the eremitic density of creed and greed. The present attempt of the old guard of this declining power enclave to revive its superannuated political panoply reminds me of the ill-fated attempt of general Yuan Shikai to reinstate the monarchy in China in 1915. Provinces throughout China declared their independence from the Empire as Yuan's reign waned. So too will be the fate of the prominence of Palm Beach in the minds of our budding Republic.
Dr. G. Heath King
Palm Beach is not a zoo - sadly, people come to town to pimp their stories of the nouveau rich and exploit a lovely town - maybe you should try Boca...you might be more welcome.
I'm not a "Palm Beacher" as I live over the bridge, nor am I here to defend them. However, if you want to check the huge amounts of money these citizens give to numerous charities, whether it be for tax write offs or not, they have saved many a struggling mission for those in need. I haven't lived on the Island for quite a few years now but can honestly say those I met through my employer (an attorney) and on my own are nothing like some of the negatives I've read. I could go on and on about anonymous monies given to various projects and people. I think Palm Beach gets a bad rap for a careless and corrupt few. The Palm Beachers I've had the pleasure of meeting and knowing are good people.
The Palm Beach crowd of inherited wealth can afford to lose a few mansions, and a yacht or two.
Last night I saw an interview with Ben Stein on CNN, for the first time ever, I was in
complete agreement 'with him. He talked about the fact that people who have money,
have jobs and are fine, should spent money. It is exactly what this economy desperately needs.
And he talked about the rich, telling them they must and need to spend money to get this
economy going. HE IS 1000% CORRECT. All this negative gloom from the media is disgusting.
I have heard many many people say, "we no longer listen to the news on the economy, it's too
depressing and negative." RIGHT. We need postive news and a feeling that is NOT the
great depression. Stein is right, people with jobs, should start spending, the rich should start
spending, luxury is NOT dead. "If you need a refrigerator, a car, buy it now." He added, "if you are
rich, get out and there and spend, add household staff, this is exactly what the economy needs,
and right now."
HE IS 1000% CORRECT.
ENOUGH OF THIS GLOOM!
No matter how much money these people have, there will always be another politician willing to slip some under the table, make deals, and what have you. Yes, Obama is going to rein in these people, and all their dirty money, tax evasion scams, pay to play politics. They scorn the little guy. Soldiers dying in Iraq, pffffft. whatever. They're suffering more. How do I know this? Direct observation of people's attitudes toward these things in WPB-their own words. Seriously, these people are the fakest, most uppity, condescending, arrogant, selfish, heartless, souless people around. They keep scamming in more money from oil contracts, arms deals, credit card fraud, insurance fraud, medicare fraud to try to make up for the emptiness, and show the "he who has the most toys wins". It is seriously a sick depraved culture. Not everyone, but a good chunk of them are like this. Their mega-money has corrupted their minds and warped their sense of reality. They've never learned that money does not make the man, and that their sense of entitlement hurts everyone. Some very rich escape this trap and preserve their humanity, but many do not.
joey, while worrying about Palm beach, why not worry about DC too. Or haven't you noticed that congress all gave themselves a nice raise recently? So much for setting the example. Or is it because its the Pelosi congress that did it, therefore folks like you don't want to notice it?
One thing I find most disturbing in this article is the attendance of active politicans, including my home state's governor attending these parties. That just is too much of an opportunity for the wealthy to have access to power in government, leading to less regulation and more corruption which is now coming back to hurt them.
Many of the wealthy saw their wealth substantually decline in the recent and continuing financial crises. From declining values of their mansions, to their stock and bond holdings, some who put their trust in guys like Makoff, they are seeing real affects in their lives. I also think many wealthy have lost some of their smug confidence that everything they touch turns to gold. They are becoming less trusting in other rich who may have phony wealth, tied up on all borrowed monies. Further, I think many of the rich are seeing that they asked for too much in large parts from pushing for what turned out to be too much degulation, leading to much of their financial problems. Perhaps this will lead to some long term change, but in another generation the stupid ways will return.
No kidding?
I suppose even big shot politicians have friends, and they have New Year's Eve parties.
But, It does seem odd that these "servants of the people" are rubbing shoulders with the fabulously rich. And, how "boistrious" did that party get?
It's like "The Great Gatsby" all over again. High times before the crash! We never, ever learn. This time it's "trickle up" economics. Hard times start at the bottom and in a year or two they hit the top tier of the economy!
"And there may not be too many more evenings in Palm Beach like New Year's Eve 2009."
Yes, except that it was New Year's Eve 2008.
Fascinating. I've always wanted someone to do an ethnography on Palm Beachers. Looks like Learner's new book will be helpful in that regard.
This article reminds me of France.
Just before the revolution.
Beware of women who knit.
Have to agree. The people of the U.S. have been steadily losing trust in its political leaders. Given enough war, inflation, homelessness, and hopelessness, anarchy can, and might well, arise. Violence, now mainly confined to video games and T.V., is gradually entering into the national consciousness as a way of solving the problems which we have inherited from a stagnant and non-responsive beltway clique enamored by their "mastery". The leaders are now being openly ridiculed. It is but a short step to being scorned and rejected -- and then the objects of rage. We cannot make claim to being exempt from all historical patterns.
Ah, I think you meant, in your final sentence, to say "New Year's Eve 2008", not 2009.
You don't need to be a gazzilionaire to have a nice party. It's time to take these people's money and property and redistribute it more equitably. If the Palm Beachers don't like it, tough. We could be much more harsh.
If you are willing to let the populace raid your own personal money and property for redistribution to others first I see no problem.
I kind of felt that way about my retirement fund. only it was the populace, it was the others.
It's called the bailout and it just happened. Furthermore, what do you think tax breaks for the rich means other than redistribution of wealth upwards?
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