Blog

……………….For my 40th Birthday Jac planned a somewhat surprise! I knew something was going on because there was a lot of action behind closed doors at my office….Jac was having her meetings with Connie Francis, my right arm assistant, and Mark Bower, one of my design assistants…..Mark made the invitation at the upper left….Inside it said “You are invited to Captain Lou’s 40th Birthday Party”, and gave all the details…….I knew my BIG 40th was coming up, and Jac was planning something, but what it was I had no idea!…..That particular July we had a spell of rainy thunderstorms one after the other!……..On the day of my party, Jac all dressed in her nautical best, took me to a restaurant on the East River near 30th Street……”The River Club” which was owned by a friend of ours…..but it was a decoy……We walked right passed the restaurant to a waiting three story boat filled with my friends and family!…..Was I surprised….you bet!…….The picture, at the upper left shows Jac and I looking up at the clouds rolling in……On the main deck were round tables with chairs, and white table cloths with lovely flowers on each table…..It looked beautiful, and I knew Jac left no stone unturned…..Just as we were pulling away from the dock a gust of wind came up and knocked over every vase with flowers!….OHOH was this a harbinger of things to come!??….My brother Mauro made me a wonderful tape of my life from when I was born to my most recent photos, movies and videos he and my dad had taken through the years….It was fabulous!….Connie had arranged a TV to be set up on the deck on a stand, with the video player underneath…..When the boat made a turn around the Statue of Liberty the stand went rolling and the TV went OVERBOARD!…..but my tape was SAFE on the lower shelf!!!….I knew we were in for a bumpy ride……The planned trip was down the East River, around the Statue of Liberty, and up the Hudson River past the George Washington Bridge……..that was the plan…..Then it started RAINING, and we all started DRINKING!!!! Thank God it was a warm evening in July, and after a point we all said screw it, and we were all standing in the rain drinking, and soaked to the skin….but very happy!!!….I know at some point we did eat…A large array of food was set up indoors on the second deck…..My mother , father, Jac’s mom and sister sat in the large cabin for the whole trip! Everyone else was all over the ship drinking, laughing, and getting very wet……At the top photo next to me and my balloon is a photo of my Brother Mauro his wife Kathy, my SIL Carol and my brother John. They are still dry so it must have been an early photo…LOL… Just below me and my balloon is a photo of me with Ellen Harth who ran the ELITE Modeling Agency, which Jac belonged to….Next to that is a picture of Richard Assatly, Ed Diamond and Leo Narducci….good good friends. I’m in the background looking as if I feel no pain! Richard and Ed are no longer with us, but Leo is 90 something!…Below the picture of Ellen is me with Donna, drinking away….Her 40th would be coming soon……At the far left, under the invitation, is Joe Stafiniak, my showroom manager and friend, and Hannah Khoury, my fabric developer and buyer, and dear friend. We all at AK were one big family…..Next to us is me and my dear friend and AK sales person Ralph Perillo….We both look very wet and very drunk, and very happy. The three young women are my assistants at AK……Then the storm got really bad with lightning and thunder. I remember Stephen Weiss, Donna’s husband, got very excited, because he was on an upper deck and saw lightning hit the Empire State Building! He though that was so cool……However, as we approached the GW Bridge the water got very rough, and the captain thought it was time to turn the boat around and head back to base. We were all pretty drunk and unruly, and the captain was fearful someone might get hurt or fall overboard!……We all gathered in the cabin, and it was time for me to open presents!. Jac and Connie organized the opening of the presents…..It was 35 years ago!!! so I don’t recall what I got, but I still have the gold cufflink set from Cartier that Frank Mori, the president of Anne Klein gave me. I don’t think I had ever seen Frank drunker or wetter! All in all there were about 50 people on the boat, and everyone had a great time…..They are still talking about it all these years later!…..Jac pulled off a fabulous, and memorable party for me, and it was the best party I ever had!