Mike O’Neal, 1936-2018

Legendary New York restaurateur Mike O’Neal has died. I refer you back to this post of mine from eight years ago.

Mike and his wife Christine Covey O’Neal at the Boat Basin Cafe

On this day in 1963, JFK was killed and the Beatles released their second UK album. It was also the second day of business for a new restaurant in New York City, called the Ginger Man, later to be renamed O’Neals’.

We talked to brother Mike some more and decided to risk it all… Mike decided that if he was actually going to run a restaurant in New York City, it might be a good idea if he learned something about really good food and preparation thereof… so he enrolled in Dione Lucas’s cooking school… When Mike told Dione what we were doing and why he was in the class… in a matter of weeks Dione had closed the business and thrown in her lot with us, with the result that soon after we opened we got a rave four-star review from Craig Claiborne, the restaurant critic of the New York Times. — from Talk Softly: A Memoir, by Cynthia O’Neal

The New York Times has this obituary for Mike, with something I didn’t know about his namesake restaurant:

It was immortalized as the place where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton meet for their last lunch in the 1977 movie “Annie Hall.”

After John Lennon had returned to Manhattan from his year-long “lost weekend” in Los Angeles, he and Yoko were regulars at the restaurant, and they befriended Mike and his wife Christine who, along with their sister-in-law Cynthia O’Neal, happened to be good friends with Prue Bury. Cynthia and her husband, actor Patrick O’Neal, lived in the Dakota Building, where Yoko still resides.

A Thanksgiving wish for Mike O’Neal from John, Yoko, and Sean Lennon

John and Yoko were impressed with the manager that Mike had hired for the restaurant, and they told Mike they wanted to hire him away to run their dairy farm in upstate New York. Mike had no objection and he was happy for his manager, who left to run the farm. John and Yoko had the O’Neals on their Thanksgiving wish list less than two weeks before John was killed.

Mike was a great guy, completely open, friendly, and funny. Prue says, “He was a very special man and the epitome of kindness.”

This Old Money

Something from a few years ago on CBS. The Grey Gardens estate in the Hamptons has a Jackie O. connection, but after almost 50 years of neglect the place was nothing like the Kennedy’s Hyannis Port compound.

This is supposed to be the trailer to the 1975 documentary by the legendary Maysles brothers, but it appears to be the entire film.

https://youtu.be/jcKLGI4LeVs

It’s a First Printing, Charlie Brown

Over at Nat Gertler’s AAUGH Blog he discusses the book adaptations of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I bought a used copy many years ago and assumed that because the title page says “First Printing 1965” it is indeed an original printing.

But wait! Nat explains that all of World Publishing’s press runs say “first printing,” so for a few minutes while listening to the podcast I feared that mine is merely a reprint. But Nat goes on to explain that he has determined the features of an apparent true first edition. For starters, the book should be 8.5 inches tall, without a large black area to the right of the illustration. Check.

Second, the end papers should be a nice, deep red color. Check.

Finally, the first printing came with a dust jacket. Mine doesn’t have that, but the end flaps have text, and Gertler’s description matches two pieces of paper that came with my copy. Therefore, I conclude that my Charlie Brown Christmas book is a true first-run printing.

The most significant piece of information that Nat provides is the name of the artist who illustrated the book. Only the cover has a Schulz drawing. The interior was drawn by Sparky’s former assistant Dale Hale, who did the job in only two weeks.