October 28, 2023
The Best
of
The
News
from
Abroad
No. 224
Weekend
Edition
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at 6:00 AM
In This Week’s Issue
UNDER THE IRON DOME

In Israel, people are acting normal, but there’s no hiding the fact that the country is at war. Sirens are sounding, pictures of hostages are everywhere, and hundreds of thousands of reservists have been called up …

ARTFUL DODGERS

The dynastic, art-dealing Wildenstein family are in peril of losing something almost as cherished as their vast fortune: their secrecy …

IMMORTAL BELOVED

Cazzie David is seeking inspiration from the world’s longest-lived communities to ensure she makes it to 100. But how can she live long and prosper when she’s trapped in L.A.? …

U.F.O. IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS

Legs McNeil recalls the time, in 1974, when John Lennon looked outside his window and saw a flying saucer floating near his East 52nd Street apartment …

HOME ON THE RANGE

The Holdovers director Alexander Payne takes Sam Wasson on a filmic pilgrimage through the Midwest, visiting the childhood homes of Fred Astaire, Montgomery Clift, and Henry Fonda …

SUGARCOATING IT

The old Domino Sugar refinery in Williamsburg has been reimagined, reconstructed, and resurrected into one of the most impressive architectural feats New York City has seen in years, according to Paul Goldberger …

A HOP IN HIS STEP

Hilary Knight, the soon-to-be-97-year-old co-creator of the Eloise picture books, is still going strong. In an AIR MAIL exclusive, he shares his ingenious new drawings of the character he calls “more important” than Eloise …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Michael Caine makes his last film at 90 … Saint-Moritz is immodestly stylish and outrageously elitist … Chaplin wasn’t exiled for his politics alone … Scorsese outs Oklahoma as the crucible of American racism … never-before-seen Rolling Stones photos … the C.I.A.’s plot to murder Patrice Lumumba … Brooke Garber Neidich will insult you with silence … revisit the design wonders of the London tube … And vote now for the Attention Whore of the week! …

But First …
Issue No. 224

The View from Here Tel Aviv diary: a visit to Israel in a state of war

By Mark Horowitz
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
3
Anatomy of a Scandal

Where the Wildensteins Are For more than a century, France’s Wildensteins reigned over their colossal art dynasty in near-total secrecy. Now the third court case in two decades threatens a precipitous fall for the family

By John von Sothen
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Story Time

The Adventures of Sir Percy On the eve of his 97th birthday, Hilary Knight, the artist behind the Eloise picture books, introduces a new character: Sir Percy, a human-size frog!

illustrations by
Hilary Knight
Introduction and captions by Amy Fine Collins
29
The official Sir Percy portrait. This pretentious and misinformed frog is writing his memoir, called Sir Percy’s Memories! He is drinking Memory Juice to help him recall salient episodes of his life. Swimming in the glass bowl is a tadpole, a younger version of himself. He wears tadpole-print breeches and cap. Beyond is a marsh, where a naiad frolics.
An attempt at starting, in his stocking feet, a private journal. Sir Percy thinks that “to reflect” means to have an image of oneself in the mirror. His fan-mail box is empty, but he has a letter opener at the ready. Sir Percy is famous for doing nothing. He is, in fact, always pretending to be doing something.
Top, a disgruntled, ailing Sir Percy is brought by two uniformed men to live at Utopian Senior Living. As the pandemic is still in full swing, everyone is safely masked. Sir Percy’s mask serves the secondary purpose of muffling his off-color utterances. Above, on day two at the Utopian, Sir Percy, who has no common decency, is already misbehaving with his night nurse.
Sir Percy is installed for the duration in Room 131 of the Utopian. He hangs a sign outside his door to identify himself. Sir Percy, too, is hanging from a striped barbell, left over from his circus days, he says.
Eureka! Sir Percy is bathed by Nurse Costanza in Room 131’s shower. A frog naturally loves water.
Sir Percy, who always gets everything wrong, believes ipso facto that his nurse has given him consent for further intimacies, including a sponge bath. Racing after her, like Harpo chasing after a girl in a Marx Brothers movie, Sir Percy wears on his frog feet monogrammed bathing slippers.
Sir Percy carries his sleeping creator, Hilary Knight, and does not find the task burdensome, as the artist, Sir Percy sings, is his “alter e-bro.” Hilary finds his disorienting new circumstances at the Utopian far more tolerable with Sir Percy taking over.
Sir Percy is deeply offended by Johnny Mercer. As he is totally self-involved, Sir Percy thinks Johnny Mercer’s American Songbook classic, “Jeepers Creepers,” is about baby frogs, tadpoles, or polywogs, also known as “peepers.” That is why he wears his peeper-print pj’s, and why he imagines Johnny Mercer took notes for his song lyrics in a marsh full of amorous, tuneful frogs.
More old tunes from Sir Percy, who imagines that he not only can sing, but that he also can play the upright piano. Here he rehearses, in a tailcoat, for a New Year’s Eve recital with the legendary Mabel Mercer. He is woefully confused by the tongue-twisting lyrics. He falsely claims that the song originated with the hirsute Ainu people of Japan, and is written in their language, a tongue that he himself discovered. In fact, the song was written by Louis Jourdan and Billy Austin in 1943.
By New Year’s Eve, Sir Percy has forsaken the piano for drinks and a dressing gown. Though the night is young, he is already tipsy, and loses a slipper while doing the frog-hop.
Sometimes Sir Percy fancies that he has performed the starring roles in remakes of classic Hollywood movies. Here, he mumbles Ronald Reagan’s famous line from King’s Row. The future president plays a wounded railroad worker who wakes up to find himself legless, the result of a needless amputation by a spiteful doctor, played by Charles Coburn. Percy, per usual, is all mixed up. Because frogs legs are on the dining hall’s dinner menu (and because he is entirely self-absorbed), he assumes they are cooking his lower extremities, even though evidence to the contrary is right before his eyes.
Sir Percy watches too much television, and feels he belongs on the small screen. He had a notion that maybe, if he wore a shaggy wig or an olive-green T-shirt, he might be in the news all the time, too.
Sir Percy also toys with the idea of making his on-air debut as an auto-insurance spokes-frog. He figured if a mere gecko, a reptile, can do it, so can an amphibian, but no one has asked him yet. He has all the mannerisms of a smarmy salesperson—the smirk, the interlaced fingers, the manly frog-spread legs.
He really became miffed when he saw a Talking Toenail shilling on TV, during the local news, for a fungal nail-renewal ointment. Sir Percy wants to be taped, but once again he confabulates. He thinks that means someone would have to wrap some adhesive Duck-type tape around him, and who would ever agree to do that to him?
Maybe, instead, Sir Percy could host a game show. To show off his range, he creates a set of emojis.
Sir Percy sees himself as an international frog of mystery, an irresistible James Bond type, his “martanique” drink shaken not stirred. Note his dapper tadpole-print waistcoat.
Sir Percy imagines himself now as a sports hero, the subject, like prizefighter Jack Dempsey, of a George Bellows painting. Bellows, a master of the Ash Can School, was also the art teacher of Clayton Knight, Hilary’s father.
While turning his attention to sports, Sir Percy points out the necessity of sticky frog fingers to speed skaters. Does he know that touching fingers to the ice can disqualify Olympic contenders?
Sir Percy loses himself in another Olympic frog fantasy. As Sir Percy is sewn into his lily-pad skating costume, he pictures himself partnering with Miss Polli Wog in an ice dance. Percy wears Frog Foot warmers, as he, like all other frogs, is allergic to ice.
Sir Percy went a-courtin’. But at the Utopian’s exclusive Amphibian Retreat, he was repelled on his first date. The sound of the lady frog singing Kermit’s song turned him off, possibly for all future dates, for all time.
Sir Percy prefers ogling nurses, all of whom he regards as “maidens.” But the nurses prefer Tousey, Hilary’s tabby cat, who is Sir Percy’s roommate at the Utopian. Once again, he is repelled, this time by kisses delivered to furry kitten lips, even when administered through a protective mask.
Indifferent to dating and mating, Sir Percy applies to rent a robot (frog) baby from a foundling home. In the park, a couple politely pretends to admire the little monster in the pram, but their son and the bird in the tree above them speak the awful truth about what they see.
Sir Percy loves a holiday, and observes Valentine’s Day with Tousey.
He celebrates Easter with special alacrity, in bunny ears, bunny slippers, bunny tail, bunny breeches, and a bunny bolero. Tousey finds his enthusiasm to be foolishly excessive.
Tousey gets out of the Easter basket and more into the festive spirit.
The most important holiday of the year, of course, is Save the Frogs Day. This festival is not a consequence of Sir Percy’s imagination run amok. This special day really exists. Look it up. He gets the date wrong, though. It’s April 28, not 29. He is not, by the way, father to any of the polliwogs pictured. They are orphans.
After watching, like millions of others, the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla on television, Sir Percy understandably believes he is equally fit to be a king. The fact that he has yet to find a queen is an inconsequential technicality.
Honoring Hilary’s 100th-birthday wish, Sir Percy drives his alter-e-bro to India to celebrate. En route, as he pulls up to a refreshment stand, he runs over a hapless cobra.
Bonus!! Sir Percy Paperdoll. Percy may be a natty dresser, but he sometimes has trouble spelling his own name, here revealed for the first time in full, between “Polly Wogg” quotation marks. Also note the “royal Frog” logo on his waterproof undergarment, over which his “Camo-Frog-Flage” pants can go. The snakeskin Swamp Sloggers come with an attached serpent’s forked tongue, a fitting embellishment for this mendacious human-size frog.
Read On
Modern Times

How to Live Forever A new Netflix series visits the world’s “blue zones” to unlock the secrets of longevity. Our intrepid columnist puts the show’s mandates to the test

By Cazzie David
Read On
Air Supply

Classic Acts

From tried-and-true sartorial treasures to heirloom-worthy interior accents, these enduring essentials are deserving of any shopping bag—because some things never get old
Shop
Photo: Francesco Scavullo/Condé Nast/Shutterstock (Johnson)
Guest Edit

My Favorite Things The Hollywood interior designer of choice for Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore shares her exacting essentials for the home and beyond

By Brigette Romanek
Shop
Photo: Michael Clifford (Romanek)
Space Oddities

Across the Universe? The out-of-this-world story of John Lennon’s close encounter

By Legs McNeil
Photograph by Bob Gruen
Read On
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Taylor Swift finally makes the short list, but can she compete with that other statuesque blond, Donald Trump?

Read On
On the Road

The Plains’ Greats Alexander Payne gives the author a Hollywood master class on wheels, with stops at the childhood homes of Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, and Marlon Brando

By Sam Wasson
Read On
Skyline Sweetener

Young Inside Vishaan Chakrabarti’s reimagining of the old Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn is the building New York didn’t know it needed

By Paul Goldberger
Read On
High Times

The Who’s Who of Halloween With spooky season in full swing, New Yorkers have strapped on their cat ears and begun their yearly—shall we say “haunting”—antics to be seen in the right spots … even if they’re in full disguise

By Elena Clavarino
Read On
The Planet

What the Heck Is an “Unabated” Fossil Fuel? One wonky word favored by oil companies could doom the earth once and for all

By Amy Westervelt
Read On
Small Talk
Panhandle Pictures

Oklahoma, Not O.K. Martin Scorsese’s erratic Killers of the Flower Moon takes Hollywood’s conflicting views of the Sooner State to the downbeat limit

By Michael Sragow
Read On
Inside Story

“A Castro or Worse” Patrice Lumumba won the Congo independence in 1960, but his suspected Soviet sympathies led to his overthrow. A new book reveals the man behind the myth—and the C.I.A.’s role in his murder

By Stuart A. Reid
Read On
Small Talk
“I need a teeny-tiny handbag so I don’t have to stow away my husband’s wallet, phone, and reading glasses.”
“I need a teeny-tiny handbag so I don’t have to stow away my husband’s wallet, phone, and reading glasses.”
Food for Thought

A Portable Feast A new book pairs Dwight Garner’s complementary obsessions: reading and eating

By Robert S. Boynton
Read On
Best
Wear Lisa Yang Every winter, we fall hard for a cashmere purveyor du moment, and this year is no different. After dabbling in the universe of… Visit Jaeger-LeCoultre Watch-lovers, here’s one more reason to get to New York immediately. From November 3 to 22, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s exhibition “Reverso Stories“… Read No Agency Annual: 2022–2023 Each month, the New York It Girl talent-management company No Agency mails out 100 copies… Light Austin Austin x Matthew Raw There can be a certain alchemy to a brand collaboration. Such was the case when Austin Austin,… Indulge Alice Leave the lava lamp in your closet, Garcia—these mushrooms won’t make you hallucinate. The magic in Alice mushroom chocolates comes… Shop First Light Books I’ve had a complicated relationship with Austin lately. On the one hand, it’s the Texas city that most collectively and unabashedly… Wear Lisa Yang Every winter, we fall hard for a cashmere purveyor du moment, and this year is no different. After dabbling in the universe of… Visit Jaeger-LeCoultre Watch-lovers, here’s one more reason to get to New York immediately. From November 3 to 22, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s exhibition “Reverso Stories“… Read No Agency Annual: 2022–2023 Each month, the New York It Girl talent-management company No Agency mails out 100 copies… Light Austin Austin x Matthew Raw There can be a certain alchemy to a brand collaboration. Such was the case when Austin Austin,… Indulge Alice Leave the lava lamp in your closet, Garcia—these mushrooms won’t make you hallucinate. The magic in Alice mushroom chocolates comes… Shop First Light Books I’ve had a complicated relationship with Austin lately. On the one hand, it’s the Texas city that most collectively and unabashedly…
Letter from Saint-Moritz

The Peak of Style Sophisticated regulars, a vibrant nightlife, and a growing art scene are making Saint-Moritz’s allure stronger than ever

By Vassi Chamberlain
Read On
Little Britain

No Money? No Problem To prepare for a cashless future, the Royal Mint is re-training its workers to make fine jewelry instead of coins

By Daisy Dawnay
Read On
The Horror!

The Spooky World of the Simmons Sisters A gruesome tale of gothic horror from three ill-fated and long-forgotten purveyors of woe

By Emma, Eulalie, and Libby Simmons
Illustrations by Grant Shaffer
Read On
Small Talk

DNR Texting acronyms for aging baby-boomers

By John Ficarra
Read On
Grand Finale

The Little Film That Could Despite a minimal budget and pandemic lockdowns, The Great Escaper and its octogenarian stars managed to make their way to the screen

By Victoria Mather
Read On
Small Talk
“What are you crying about? You’re the one who wins all the awards.”
“What are you crying about? You’re the one who wins all the awards.”
Listen

How to Live to 100 (Or Not!) On this week’s podcast, Cazzie David reveals whether Secrets of the Blue Zones is really all it promises

Read On
Open Book

The Rolling Stones, Out of Time On the heels of Hackney Diamonds, the Rolling Stones’ first original studio album in 18 years, a new book collects rare and never-before-seen images of the band, photographed by Bill Wyman, Terry O’Neill, and others

8
The Rolling Stones, photographed by Michael Ward, in a Rolls Bentley in the English countryside in 1964.
Mick Jagger, photographed by Gered Mankowitz during the recording of Aftermath at RCA Studios, in Nashville, in 1965.
Top, the band, photographed by Terry O’Neill on James Street, in London, in 1964; above, Keith Richards, photographed by Tony Sanchez at home in Sussex, circa 1970s.
The band, photographed by Michael Joseph at Sarum Chase Grounds, in Hampstead, in 1968.
Brian Jones, photographed by Bill Wyman at RCA Studios in 1966.
Richards, photographed by Mankowitz while recording Between the Buttons at Olympic Studios, in London, in 1966.
Top, Jones, photographed by Mankowitz while recording Between the Buttons; above, the band, photographed by Ken Regan in New York in 1977.
Charlie Watts, photographed by Wyman in 1989.
Read On
Highlight
A 1926 London Underground poster designed by Dora M. Batty, advertising the wonders of the English countryside.

Lights at the End of the Tunnel

“The Golden Age of Travel” evokes a time when venturing abroad was a genteel, leisurely affair, not the mad crush of irritable humanity it often is today. How civilized it all seemed then, to set sail on ocean liners where everyone dressed for dinner for a hearty evening of droll repartee followed by dancing. Air travel wasn’t as convenient as it is now, but the seats were roomier, the cabins resembled a flying cocktail lounge, and the flight attendants? Très chic! READ ON

A 1926 London Underground poster designed by Dora M. Batty, advertising the wonders of the English countryside. Read On
Book Reviews
Richard Zoglin On

Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided

by Scott Eyman
Read On
Celia McGee On

A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial

by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Read On

Murder, They Wrote

by Lisa Henricksson
Read On
Close-up

Aria Mia Loberti With her screen debut, in All the Light We Cannot See, the former academic is forging a path for actors in the blind community

By Bridget Arsenault
Read On
Highlight

Back from the Dead Rarely seen Egyptian manuscripts with religious writings, spells, and illustrations go on view at the Getty Villa

By Peter Saenger
Read On
Small Talk
View With a Room

A Florentine Masterpiece It doesn’t appear on any of the best-of lists, but Villa La Massa is, according to our critic, the greatest hotel in the world

By Alan Richman
Read On
The Perfect Ending

Brooke Garber Neidich

The Sidney Garber Fine Jewelry designer answers 71 of life’s most pressing questions
Read On
Risko’s Sketchbook
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Creative Director

Angela Panichi

Deputy Editors

Ashley Baker Ash Carter Chris Garrett Nathan King Julia Vitale

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Editor at Large

George Pendle

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Senior Editors

Elena Clavarino Jensen Davis

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Research & Legal Editor

Matt Kapp

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Associate Editors

Carolina de Armas Lucy Horowitz Clara Molot Paulina Prosnitz Jack Sullivan

Art Director

Paloma Huerre

Senior Photo Editor

Emine Gözde Sevim

Designer

Zoé Gillette

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

London Editor

Bridget Arsenault

Communications Director

Harrison Vail

Columnists

Cazzie David Lisa Henricksson Walter Isaacson
Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson John Lahr
Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall Daphne Merkin

Contributing Artists

Monica Ahanonu Barry Blitt André Carrilho Paul Davis David Downton Andrea Ferolla Josh Gosfield Cathy Graham Eric Hanson Angelica Hicks Pip Johnson Hilary Knight Danielle Kosann Michael Lindsay-Hogg Ross MacDonald Joe McKendry James McMullan Donald Robertson Charles Dare Scheips Grant Shaffer Ed Sorel Ralph Steadman

Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

Architectural Consultant

Basil Walter

Head of Audience Development

Rachel LeSage

Audience Growth Manager

Merritt Johnson

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Technology

Brooks Oakley Justin Rubaloff Sade Singleton

Intern

Gasper Tringale-White

OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

Bill Keenan and Emily Davis

Air Supply General Manager and Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Advertising Director

Michael Pescuma

European Sales Director

Selim Mataraci

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

Chief Strategy Adviser

Adam Mendelsohn

Chief Merchant

Jennifer Noyes

Shop Editor

Zoe Ruffner

E-Commerce Manager

Isaac Metlitsky

E-commerce Associate

Lilly Schoenbaum

In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Duncan Hannah Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley

Issue No. 224
October 28, 2023
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Issue No. 224
October 28, 2023
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