Bill Cunningham: New York Page #5

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held his own City Hall press conference.

Their work... It is perfectly possible

for them to do somewhere else.

The work of Carnegie Hall,

and the work of music...

and our contribution to the city,

has to come from Carnegie Hall.

City hall sources tell Andrew that Mayor

Bloomberg will not intervene in the matter.

He reportedly feels it's a

private, landlord-tenant dispute.

There was no official comment

from the mayor's office.

The state of things now is,

I don't want to say grim,

but it feels like the

studios of Carnegie Hall,

the legendary studios,

are on its last legs.

There are six tenants remaining in

the building, all rent control.

Everything is turned into offices.

Corporate offices.

Beautiful artist studios like this

have been divided up...

with partitions and computers

and telemarketers.

Agnes de Mille's studio...

This is the famous one, Ballet Arts,

where she choreographed

Oklahoma.

Can you imagine how big that studio was?

That is now a sea of telemarketers.

For us it feels criminal.

It feels immoral that these people,

at this stage of their life,

are going to spend their twilight years,

fighting to hold on to these studios.

That's why it's a treat to see Bill and

Editta Sherman standing their ground...

and being the last holdouts here

of the Carnegie Studios.

Editta Sherman!

[Chattering]

[Woman]

Come on in!

[Editta]

What is this thing?

How come they're not doing

something on me?

[Man] We did something on you.

This is all of you.

We're doing something

on all of you now.

[Woman]

Well, why?

Here I am. They don't even

bring a cup of coffee.

Well, I think they're not very civilized.

Editta's always hungry.

She's always hungry.

You see?

This is a crazy house.

- [Man] That's so beautiful.

- [Editta] I know that.

[Interviewer] Suzette, how

long have you known Editta?

Were you here

when I moved in in '49?

No. You were here first.

Forty-nine.

I moved in here in the '40s.

I guess I must have been here

around 1940, huh?

And Bill was making hats.

He was a designer.

[Interviewer] In this building?

Yes. Yes, he made hats.

And I met him because I wanted

to buy one of the hats.

[Interviewer]

Did Suzette wear your hats?

Yeah. I wear the orange

one all the time.

Suzette is very conservative.

It's wearing out.

An orange one. The orange beret.

She had one.

There's a picture

of it around somewhere.

Yeah, I have

one downstairs...

A painting of it,

a big painting.

[Editta]

Well, I have the hats here.

One of them is a little beret,

which is very cute.

No, it's nothing.

Don't show them the garbage.

This is one of Bill's hats.

Everybody looks at me

on the street when I wear this hat.

Like that one?

[Bill] My hat salon

was on the 10th floor.

Ginger Rogers used to come and joan Crawford.

Marilyn Monroe was one,

and I had no interest

'cause they weren't stylish.

I think this is the way he has this.

We have it?

Maybe I should have

something light on, like this.

You like it?

This all right?

I know Bill Cunningham was a milliner,

and he went under a label William J.

You see, he didn't go...

He went by William.

There, his label.

Actually, I've seen a few of his hats

at F.I.T. At an exhibit.

They were quite beautiful.

That's what we have in common, also, that

he used to see me on the street in hats.

Well, I did the little trick.

I put my hat in front of my face,

and I changed hats.

It's just, so it's not so blatant.

It doesn't... It doesn't break the line.

And that's how I put on hats

when I'm in public.

I love this little bowler.

I feel like Mr.

Peanut in this little bowler.

It's kind of a different silhouette for me.

It's very Mr. Peanut.

Do you like this one?

Do you want the same fur?

Do you like it that way

or do you like it hanging?

My friend Ray Solowinski

on the eighth floor was a photographer,

and he had the studio

where Caruso made his first recordings.

Marlon Brando had

his studio here.

Mrs. Sherman, no lipstick.

Yes, I know.

It doesn't go with that costume.

Well...

[Interviewer] Do you have

any funny stories... Yeah!

Like about the three of you?

About living in Carnegie?

Yes. Oh, definitely.

Sherman...

Sherman was the centerpiece.

It had always been her hobby.

She was self-taught,

and she danced to the music

of the dying swan. [Laughs]

Whose music is the dying...

Oh, it was The Carnival of the Animals.

Yes.

You know how that goes.

# Da, da, da, dee, da, da, da #

##[Orchestra:
Saint-Sans,

Carnival of the Animals]

[Bill] We'd never seen

anything like this in our lives.

But Editta would turn off all the lights

, and on the night of a full moon...

the moon would come

through those skylights...

Editta would come out

and do the dying swan.

We were all mesmerized by that.

##[Continues]

[Astor]

Someone like Editta Sherman...

She's married to the studio and her

craft, and that's her life.

And to extract her

out of this environment is...

That feels criminal to me because she's

an artist who works in this environment,

and it's because of this environment

she does what she does.

And it's true of a lot

of the other tenants.

So... to sort of displace them

at this stage in their lives,

into some sort of anonymous apartment

is just, you know, I think,

would be the beginning of the end

for a lot of these tenants.

Is it sad for you? They're going to

relocate us in the neighborhood.

So you're not worried... It'll be an

apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom.

Who the hell wants a kitchen

and a bathroom?

Mmm.

Just more rooms to clean.

[Laughing] Can you see one of

these fancy apartment houses...

where all they move in are filing cabinets?

I'm not gonna worry.

I have more fun going out and photographing.

I suppose it'll bother me at

the time, but so what?

Inconvenient but otherwise...

You can't interrupt your life

with that nonsense.

[Crowd Chattering]

Psst! Psst!

## [Band:
Jazz]

- Look at Veronica!

- Bill, a hug.

Hello child. My...

The diamonds have gotten bigger.

Right?

[Laughs]

And, of course...

Now that they make them at Club Monaco,

they get bigger and bigger.

And, of course, they're all real.

Yes.

Absolutely.

In someone's mind.

[Laughs]

[Man] Bill, this gentleman here in the

velvet blazer straight ahead of you...

is David Koch,

who we're honoring tonight.

[Bill]

Oh, I know him, yeah.

[Koch] I've never had

an experience like this Bill.

I'm kind of over the moon about

it, you know? Good. Good.

Enjoy it. My head is spinning.

Well, you should be.

[Woman] "Evening Hours"documents

, perhaps to some, simply parties...

and the people who go to them,

but really, what it's about...

are the amazing connections

people have in this city...

with each other, with the

various organizations...

they think are important,

with the people who they honor,

and Bill really chronicles that.

This is Karole Armitage.

She has a dance company in New York.

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