Forever 21 Club

I am saddened to hear New York’s iconic 21 Club is closing its doors after 90 years in business given the coronavirus pandemic.

The five-story midtown Manhattan eatery, with its famous colorful jockey figures decorating the West 52nd Street facade, was a haven for the rich and famous since it opened in 1930 as a speakeasy at the height of the Prohibition Era.

When I was an editor at New York Magazine in the ‘80s I would often eat lunch or dinner in the dining room, with toy planes and trucks hanging from the ceiling, joining a legendary list of the eatery’s customers, including FDR, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Onassis, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor.

I also attended myriad premieres and launch parties there, and my former Upper Eastside neighbor, Sheldon Tannen, an avowed Anglophile, who died in 2018 at the age of 93, was chairman and president of 21, given his uncle, Peter Kriendler, was one of the founders.

Innumerable fond memories…

Ellen on the Mend

Montecito TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who has revealed she is suffering from COVID-19, says she is “feeling fine” and recovering at her home with her devoted dogs in our rarefied enclave.

In a Twitter post Ellen, 62, said anyone in close contact with her had been notified and she was following all proper CDC guidelines.

Her Burbank-based Warner Bros. syndicated show is now on hold until the New Year.

“I’ll see you after the holidays,” she added. “Please stay safe and healthy.”

Be well soon, Ellen…