Archive for January, 2010

George Clooney and our town’s Bob O’Loughlin have teamed up to buy the Sofitel hostelry in Los Angeles. “We became friends, when we shot baskets at St. Louis University, when he was here on the shoot of ‘Up in the Air,”’ said O’Loughlin, who is chairman of St. Louis-based Lodging Hospitality Management. O’Loughlin also said he has under contract to buy the Cheshire Inn and Lodge, for which reconstruction should be completed by the summer of 2011. With LHM’s regional salesmanager, Barbara Koenig, at Il Bel Lago, O’Loughlin continued that his company is poised to buy the Wyndham Hotel in Chicago and Le Meridien in Dallas, Tex.

In the party room of Carmello and Frank Gabriele’s restaurant, a celebration of life was underway to toast on their natal days: Ruth Todd on her 99th; Ann Ewers on her 100th, Anna Maria Polizzi, 85th and Roseanne Cusumano, 80th. Hosted by Anna Polizzi Keeler, Phyllis Herich, Kathy Gatti, Betty Dodd and Linda Liebman, the party featured an all-Siciliano feast. Party favors included Polizzi Keeler’s candles with her ocean floral fragrance.

Norwood Hills C.C. was where civil rights advocate James Buford hosted the 50th birthday celebration for his wife, Susan. About 75 of the Bufords’ nearest ‘n dearest, including civic and business leaders, attended the frolic amid the background of Music Unlimited Sound. During the dinner, Jim shared with the guests, that when Susan reached the half-century mark, she received her AARP membership card. Jim said, “She tossed it into the trash not realizing that in today’s economy one needs all the discounts one can get.” Following the party, Jim headed for China to attend a national conclave of Urban Leaguers. On hand were attorney Wayman Smith, III., with Susan Arceneaux, who will say “I do” in March. James E. Williams, Jr., a McDonald’s franchisee told friends, that he is about to open his sixth McDonald’s. He was glad-handed upon his recent selection as the first African-American president of McDonald’s U.S.A. Faces in the crowd included those of: Edward Turner and Kathy Allen; Gentry Trotter; Dr. Jerome and Marva Williams; Dr. James and Donna Knight; Aaron Phillips; Charles and Jerilyn Rhodes; Alicia Bams; John and Emma Moten; Dr.Bernard Randolph, Jr., and Kathleen Smith; Johnny and Minga Furr; Judge Charles and Kay Shaw and Damien Trasada and Dr. Ingrid Taylor Trasada.

While time and people may pass and fashions may change, the tables are always set at the venerable Tony’s. So it came as a shock to hear that the Bommarito family’s highly-touted restaurant may move to Clayton from downtown St. Louis. Not so fast! Scotch those rumors! As of Wednesday, Vince Bommarito, Sr., called a halt to negotiations with the management of the rising Centene Building in Clayton. Asked about the matter, Vince, Sr., would only confirm that it would have been a second location, “but the number didn’t work.” The cost of construction and common space costs would have made it difficult, offered a source close to the confab. Meanwhile, Vince and his sons turned to putting final touches on the menu for Sunday night, Feb. 14, when Tony’s will swing open the doors.

Where was I to go in this town on a weekday night? In the long nights of the old days, I used to make the rounds until 2 a.m. (Imitate Walter Winchell – earn big money!) Ah, that’s when I began plugging away through blurry eyes on the newly-installed computer at the old Globe-Democrat. Most of them are gone now – publisher G. Duncan Bauman, editors Paul Tredway and Ed
Presberg – to name a few. Some are still around such as the talented Sue Ann Wood Poor and octogenarian Martin Duggan, whose last stand there was as editor of the editorial page. Duggan, as most of us know, retired and became a television star on KETC, Channel 9′s “Donnybrook.” Before he was to be honored Wednesday night at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, we chatted about his 45-year career at the newspaper and oh, the stories he could tell – and did. Most of all, he said he enjoyed being a news editor, but being editor of the editorial page “was more prestigious.”

“When I was with the feature page, my mentor was (the late columnist) Bob Goddard,” he recalled. “In those days, we had great friends at the Post-Dispatch. We had fun and there was a great deal of rivalry. Every day it was Super Bowl time.” Then, he reminisced about his early stint on “Donnybrook” and the bashing by then Post-Dispatch television critic
Eric Mink. Duggan pointed out, “Mink wrote we’re all an embarrassment to the city of St. Louis and he likened me to (zany appliance pitchman) Steve Mizerany. And, yet, we did win two Emmys.” (I later asked Mink about his critique and he said, “I take it as a compliment that Duggan remembers what I wrote a thousand years ago; I certainly don’t. That said, I love the Mizerany comparison. Didn’t Martin do ‘Donnybrook’ on roller skates a couple of times?”) In his retirement, Duggan won’t be sitting back and listening to Rush Limbaugh on KMOX. “I’m not a fan of his,” said Duggan. Asked if he’ll write his memoirs, Duggan insisted,”Memoirs are pretty boring. But, I might write about snobs, slobs, deadbeats and drunks.”

Among the sights we never hope to see while driving: a Metro train with a “student driver” sign on the rear.

Republican U.S. Senator-elect Scott Brown confounded the nation’s political pundits in racing past Democrat Martha Coakley to capture the seat held for decades by Senator Ted Kennedy, but he did not surprise Laura Lyford of Nixa, MO, who – according to Federal Election Commission reports – was one of only a small handful of Missourians who contributed to Brown’s campaign in 2009. Lyford, a homemaker according to reports, sent $500 to the Brown campaign in December. A Kansas City lawyer, Michael Messina, sent $250. A search
of the records by the columnist did not turn up any prescient Brown donors from our town.

What he writes down continues to get former Missouri state representative TD El-Amin in hot water. Earlier this month, El-Amin was sentenced to 18 months in a federal prison and ordered to pay restitution for soliciting and accepting a bribe from a St. Louis business man, who was cooperating with the FBI. Some of the most damning evidence in the government’s case was a collection of handwritten notes from El-Amin negotiating the amount of the bribe. Now, authorities are holding another piece of incriminating paper from El-Amin’s hand: a check written to the U.S. District Court that. . .bounced, bounced, bounced.

Guesstimates have varied from “none” to “too many,” but there is now an official answer to the question of how many pieces of property Paul McKee has acquired within his designated redevelopment area in north St. Louis. According to documents filed with the state of Missouri regarding the highly anticipated NorthSide project, McKee and affiliated companies owned 731 parcels at the end of last year, most of them vacant lots and abandoned buildings that he plans to fill with new businesses, homes, parks.