Joan Rivers and
Dina Merrill |
Susan Lucci and
Helmut Huber |
ARLENE DAHL
AND MARC ROSEN
They
Said It Wouldn’t Last
But We’re Celebrating Still
Story
by Roger Webster
Photos by Billy Farrell/PMc
 OLLYWOOD
legend Arlene Dahl and her husband Marc Rosen
celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with a black tie dinner at
the posh Doubles Club in New York’s Sherry Netherland Hotel, the
absolute perfect spot for this kind of an affair—a musical
love-in.
Arlene’s
son with Fernando Lamas, Lorenzo Lamas, sang Surrey With a
Fringe On Top to a standing ovation. (Someone later mentioned
that he’d love to do a Broadway show.) Then Yanna Avis sang
La Vie En Rose and Lilliane Montevecchi sang Mon
Homme. Dick Gallagher, who wrote the off-Broadway hit When
Pigs Fly was the musical director and the accompanist. “They
all came to me to rehearse their numbers at least once,” he said.
Tommy
Tune sang the Rodgers and Hart’s I'll Tell the Man on the Street,
with lyrics he altered to fit the occasion including references to
the Web and AOL. Christopher Barker, a son from Arlene’s
marriage to movie Tarzan Lex Barker, who had flown in from
Geneva for the evening, sang On The Street Where You Live.
David
Staller
jumped up on the piano to sing Irving Berlin’s (I’ll
Be Loving You) Always, prefacing it with the story about how
Berlin gave the song to his wife Ellin MacKay as a wedding
gift, after her father had disinherited her for marrying a Jew.
Ironically, Clarence MacKay hit a financial rough spot during
the Depression and Berlin lent him money.
Jeffrey
Butler
was emcee. Many pals and family members took the microphone to
express their affection. Cindy Adams brought down the house
when she said that she and Mark had gone into business together with
a perfume called Gossip.
“The
only thing is, we didn’t make any money,” she explained. Turning
to Marc, she asked, “What did you do, cook the books?”
Joan
Rivers jumped up and, without missing a beat, shouted, “I don’t like to
talk in public—I swear to God— but I had to say something
because I went into the perfume business with Marc too, and I
didn’t make any money either! You’re under arrest!” she said
in that Rivers mock-seriousness.
Rick
Hilton said to Rivers and Adams, “I don’t know what is wrong with you two.
I went into the perfume business with Marc and made a fortune. In
fact the money is still rolling in.”
All
their children were there. Daughter Carole Holmes McCarthy,
who has her mother’s classic features, said, “They were married
on a cruise ship, and life is not a cruise without waves, but your
marriage has been smooth sailing.” The youngest, Stephan Schaum,
perfectly summed up the mood saying, “I love you very much.”
Granddaughter
Shayne Lamas said that her grandmother, who she calls GaGa
was her idol, “and yes, I will follow in her footsteps. Just look
at the glow in GaGa’s face and you can see how happy she is.”
she said. “We call Marc, Papa Marc,’ and he’s awesome,” she
added.
Marc Rosen,
Arlene Dahl, Lorenzo and
Shayne Lamas |
Arlene
was beaming when she made her toast. “Life is a wonderful bouquet
of beautiful flowers,” she said. “I thank Marc for bringing so
many friends into my life, the ones who are here and the ones who
have called from all points of the Zodiac and the world.”
It
was also at Marc’s 56th birthday. “They all said it wouldn’t
last because I was younger than she—and her sixth husband,” he
reminded the guests.
“But
I’m here to tell you that I’ve lasted ten years longer than her
last longest marriage—and twenty years later, I look older than
Arlene.”
Among
the other guests singing Happy Birthday when the cake came
out were Dina Merrill with Ted Hartley, Rita Gam and Peter
Powell, Marty Richards, Wendy Carduner, Marylou Whitney and John
Hendrickson, James Earl Jones and his wife Cecilia, Sally
Jesse Raphael and Karl Soderlund, Arizona Diamondback
star Steve Finley with his wife interior designer Amy
Finley, TCM’s Robert Osbourne, Tom and Diahn
McGrath, Barbara Taylor and Robert Bradford, Patrice
Munsel, Susan Lucci and Helmet Huber, Frances Scaife, Kathy
Hilton, Parker Ladd and Arnold Scaasi, Barbara de Portago,
Mario Buatta and Isabel Leeds.
|
