May 10 Bel Of the Ball - the unique Bel Kauffman's 100th Birthday appearance at DT is a sensation, after K.T. Sullivan's operatic flair
SPEAKER
DTer BEL KAUFMAN: Our member, Bel Kaufman is best known as the author of the 1965 best-seller, “Up The Down Staircase,’ hailed by Time Magazine as “easily the most popular novel about U.S. public schools in history.” Granddaughter of famed Yiddish writer, Sholem (“Fiddler on the Roof”) Aleichem, she published her first poem, “Spring,” as a child in the Odessa magazine Little Bells. In February of this year, at age 99, Bel became the oldest known newly-hired professor when she was hired by Hunter College to teach a course on Jewish humor. “I’m too busy to get old,” said Bel. Her 100th birthday is May 10th and she still dances the tango at her weekly dance session, in stiletto heels. Come and hear her talk about her writer’s life and the literature she loves.
ENTERTAINMENT
DTer KT SULLIVAN: singing star of cabaret, theater and recordings – and no stranger to the Dutch Treat stage – shares selections from her current engagement “Rhyme, Women and Song,” which she’s performing at The Algonquin’s Oak Room, May 3 to 28. Composers and kyricists featured in her show include Dorothy Fields, Carolyn Leigh, Joni Mitchell, Carol King, among others. At the Dutch Treat Steinway will be “Rhyme, Women and Song’s” musical director, DTer Jon Weber.
HOW IT WENT:
Incredible! Bel Kauffman, celebrated for writing the most famous book on classroom teaching ever - Up The Down Staircase - arrived a tad late at the Dutch Treat luncheon in her honor, climbed the broad staircase all by herself, and made an entrance which saw usually elegant and poised members scramble to surround her with cameras galore, personal hugs of congratulation, and even a movie camera wielded by the documentary maker Albert Maysles, famous for his take on the reclusive Kennedy sisters and now assembling shots for his biography of Bel's famous literary forbear, Sholem "Fiddler on the Roof" Aleichem.
When the swarm had dissipated, Bell sat at the head table by the piano against the wall next to Albert and the inimitable K.T.Sullivan, even more of a cupcake than usual in a pink jumper, sing a medley of songs with operatic control and much offstage sashaying around the room with her usual lovable ebullience, accompanied by the equally musically ebullient Jon Weber. After K.T's mother also sang, this time a tribute to Bel that she had penned herself, Bel came to the stage and microphone and delivered a thoughtful, humorous and philosophical account of her long life, her voice bold, rich with resonant feeling and holding the audience alternately spellbound and roaring and squealing with laughter.
For anyone who had assumed that a 100 year old was necessarily tottering and croaking her way through her public appearances, it was a revelation. Bel gave the lie to all that and more, as befitted a life long teacher who only this year was hired to explicate Jewish humor to the students of Hunter College.
Afterwards we walked with Bel to a cab on Park Avenue, learning a little more about her literary career (she wrote another well received book after her bestselling Up The Down Staircase was turned into a movie) and shooting her with a hand held Panasonic FZ-35, all the while admiring her lively and handsome face (see for yourself in the last video below).
She said that she was in for two more public birthday celebrations, one at the Arts Club that evening and one next day at Hunter, before a private one with her friends later tomorrow, before getting into a cab and moving off uptown and home for a well earned rest, leaving the remarkable impression behind her that it is possible to be cogent, thoughtful, interesting and fun to be with, and beautiful in face as well as in character, at the centenary of one's birth.
Her mental and physical vigor is surely most reassuring to all who meet her who might have assumed that otherwise would be inevitable in their own case. They now see that it may be that 100 is the new 70!
Read MoreDTer BEL KAUFMAN: Our member, Bel Kaufman is best known as the author of the 1965 best-seller, “Up The Down Staircase,’ hailed by Time Magazine as “easily the most popular novel about U.S. public schools in history.” Granddaughter of famed Yiddish writer, Sholem (“Fiddler on the Roof”) Aleichem, she published her first poem, “Spring,” as a child in the Odessa magazine Little Bells. In February of this year, at age 99, Bel became the oldest known newly-hired professor when she was hired by Hunter College to teach a course on Jewish humor. “I’m too busy to get old,” said Bel. Her 100th birthday is May 10th and she still dances the tango at her weekly dance session, in stiletto heels. Come and hear her talk about her writer’s life and the literature she loves.
ENTERTAINMENT
DTer KT SULLIVAN: singing star of cabaret, theater and recordings – and no stranger to the Dutch Treat stage – shares selections from her current engagement “Rhyme, Women and Song,” which she’s performing at The Algonquin’s Oak Room, May 3 to 28. Composers and kyricists featured in her show include Dorothy Fields, Carolyn Leigh, Joni Mitchell, Carol King, among others. At the Dutch Treat Steinway will be “Rhyme, Women and Song’s” musical director, DTer Jon Weber.
HOW IT WENT:
Incredible! Bel Kauffman, celebrated for writing the most famous book on classroom teaching ever - Up The Down Staircase - arrived a tad late at the Dutch Treat luncheon in her honor, climbed the broad staircase all by herself, and made an entrance which saw usually elegant and poised members scramble to surround her with cameras galore, personal hugs of congratulation, and even a movie camera wielded by the documentary maker Albert Maysles, famous for his take on the reclusive Kennedy sisters and now assembling shots for his biography of Bel's famous literary forbear, Sholem "Fiddler on the Roof" Aleichem.
When the swarm had dissipated, Bell sat at the head table by the piano against the wall next to Albert and the inimitable K.T.Sullivan, even more of a cupcake than usual in a pink jumper, sing a medley of songs with operatic control and much offstage sashaying around the room with her usual lovable ebullience, accompanied by the equally musically ebullient Jon Weber. After K.T's mother also sang, this time a tribute to Bel that she had penned herself, Bel came to the stage and microphone and delivered a thoughtful, humorous and philosophical account of her long life, her voice bold, rich with resonant feeling and holding the audience alternately spellbound and roaring and squealing with laughter.
For anyone who had assumed that a 100 year old was necessarily tottering and croaking her way through her public appearances, it was a revelation. Bel gave the lie to all that and more, as befitted a life long teacher who only this year was hired to explicate Jewish humor to the students of Hunter College.
Afterwards we walked with Bel to a cab on Park Avenue, learning a little more about her literary career (she wrote another well received book after her bestselling Up The Down Staircase was turned into a movie) and shooting her with a hand held Panasonic FZ-35, all the while admiring her lively and handsome face (see for yourself in the last video below).
She said that she was in for two more public birthday celebrations, one at the Arts Club that evening and one next day at Hunter, before a private one with her friends later tomorrow, before getting into a cab and moving off uptown and home for a well earned rest, leaving the remarkable impression behind her that it is possible to be cogent, thoughtful, interesting and fun to be with, and beautiful in face as well as in character, at the centenary of one's birth.
Her mental and physical vigor is surely most reassuring to all who meet her who might have assumed that otherwise would be inevitable in their own case. They now see that it may be that 100 is the new 70!
