Brooke Astor

William Rockefeller, Walter Chrysler.

obviously Chrysler corporation, Elizabeth Arden, businesswoman and cosmetics empire founder, um, Brooke Astor and Vincent Astor noted philanthropist and members of the Astor family.

Okay.

Samuel Gompers, Harry and Leona Helmsley, real estate and hotel magnets.

And there is something to say for these are the people who are leading culture now, because it is a billionaire culture, and it is AI is taking over and, and all these people in the Trump administration are the people who are leading the news.

But do we really have to give them this kudos, this, this like, "You are the, are the new Brooke Astor.

You're the new, uh, you know, Rockefeller.

You're the new Vanderbilt." I mean, really? Really? Really? Fenton, go ahead and defend it.

And during the Reagan era, when there was so much new money coming into uptown, and there was... everything was big, you know, the big hair, the big jewels, the big ball gowns.

And there was all this, you know, you had like Brooke Astor at the tippy top.

And then you had, you know, your Gayfried Steinbergs and your Susan, is it good friend? How do you pronounce it?

Yeah.

Like one of the great jokes at the time was Sister Parrish, who was everyone's decorator in the old world, said of someone, it will take them a generation to understand wicker.

And Mrs. Astor understood was Wicker.

I remember there was an article in Vanity Fair about Brooke Astor, and it said that the only person who intimidated her was Jane Reitzman, who was that Brooke was sort of like, you know,

a little all

Yeah, that's right.

And sort of a sidebar is that I was hired to produce and direct a documentary about Brooke Astor, who was the cornerstone of New York philanthropy.

The Citizens Committee of New York hired me, and I met Brooke before I was gonna shoot with her.

She actually walks into her office and says, her hello was, "I'm in a foul mood, and you'll get nothing from me today." [laughs]