Susan Lucci and husband
Helmut Huber. |
MARCH OF DIMES
Beauty Industry Honors
John
Demsey, Hal Kahn
Story by Tim Boxer
Photos by Al Periera
 USAN
LUCCI
of All My Children looked around the Grand Ballroom of the
Waldorf-Astoria and sighed, “I have warm feelings for this room
– I lost a couple of Emmies in this room.”
Lucci
joined a host of guests for the March of Dimes 26th
Annual Million Dollar Beauty Ball in April 2001.
True
to its name, the gala raised $1,213,500. “When I took over, we
were raising $375,000 for the event,” said Lawrence Aiken
of Vogue who serves as honorary chairman of the Beauty Ball
and board chairman of the Greater New York Chapter of the March of
Dimes.
John Demsey (left) and fellow
honoree Hal Kahn. |
Founded
by John Ledes, publisher of Beauty Fashion, the Beauty
Ball has raised $15 million to help March of Dimes prevent birth
defects and infant mortality.
Lucci
recalled when her son was born. The next day the nurse told her,
“Don’t be alarmed, Mrs. Huber. We won’t be bringing your baby
to you tonight.” Where is her? “He’s in a nursery.”
“A
nursery was the euphemism for intensive care,” Lucci said.
“There was my baby, in an oxygen tank. The nurse had noticed my
baby was blue around the mouth and rushed him to the neonatal
intensive care. Thank God she was alert. It was a month before I was
able to bring him home.”
Today
her son is a senior in college. He’s 6-foot-3 and able to pick up
his mother with one hand.
Estee
Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder presented the Beautiful Apple
Award to MAC Cosmetics president John Demsey.
John Demsey and the Hilton girls:
Nikki, Paris and
Kathy.
|
Philip
Shearer,
president of the luxury products division of L’Oreal USA,
presented the Retailer of the Year Award to Macy’s East chairman Hal
Kahn.
“I
grew up when polio was widely feared,” Kahn related. “My Jewish
mother wouldn’t let me go to the movies for fear someone would
cough on me. I remember my mother marching for March of Dimes. March
of Dimes finally helped find a cure for polio.”
“Polio
may have been cured,” Demsey noted, “but my parents still
don’t let me go out.”
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