Cocktails with Picasso...

The title says it all

* Names and location have been changed...mostly.  The stories, unfortunately, have not.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Thanks for tuning in to Apparently I'm the Punchline, Season Two. Okay, so I had been summoned to Ella's for cocktails because nobody says no to Ella. Mary picked me up, and we got to Ella's home, which was another one of the grand homes in town. It was on a corner lot, gorgeous red brick, stately home, wraparound porch. And as we walked up, beautiful antique wicker with these luscious vintage floral cushions. And we walk in to the foyer, greeted by Ella, and she quickly asked us what we would like for cocktails, and then told us to make ourselves at home. So I look to my right, and there's the library. Beautiful. Dark green walls, like really dark, with a hint of maybe teal in them. Floor to ceiling mahogany bookshelves. All the way around the room. Window seats. And a mahogany ladder with brass accents that rolled all the way around the room, even in front of the window seats. Tiffany lamps. All of it. Sexy. Fabulous. It was all that. And I know there had to have been first editions in there. I don't know what all. I could have just stayed at my evening, could have been over, and I could have just sat in that room and gone through those bookshelves and just had a blast. Anyway, we go into the living room, the very grand, large living room that had old money walls. What do I mean by that? Well, when I would go to people's homes that came from family money, they had old money walls. Not like the gallery walls people are doing today, okay? These were oil paintings, watercolors, vintage photographs, just fabulous art, whatnot. All hung floor to ceiling, nothing matched, no frames matched, but somehow it was amazing. It just all would work. And you never knew where to look first. Except at this time, I did. I saw them. A portrait of a little girl, an oil portrait, and another one of a little boy. And I don't know if I was even breathing at that moment. I know my mouth was agape. I probably was slobbering on myself. And Ella walks in with our cocktails. And she said, Oh, you found them. Well, when we lived in Paris, Harry would walk the Seine every day. And this is when Pablo was starting out in his career. And he asked him if he wouldn't mind doing a portrait of our daughter and of our son. He obliged. So there they are. Let's have a seat and enjoy our cocktails. What? Wait, what? We just happen to be in the middle of a cornfield. Yes, I have two Picasso's. Aren't they fabulous? Sit down. Let's let's chat. Oh my god. Oh my god. I mean to tell you. In that moment, I mean, I have chills right now, just even thinking about that moment, because it was a very rare moment to be had. Let me just say that. Um, they had rodent sculptures. They were Jewish and they fled right before World War II and were able to bring with them their entire art collection, which was very rare, very rare. Um and they ended up in Mountville. I, you know, uh, yeah, can't even make this shit up. Uh, he was the town doctor, I guess, for years. He's he was deceased when we moved there, but um anyway, towards the end of the evening, she said, I want you and Mike to come for dinner next week, next Thursday, actually. I want you to meet a couple in town that I think you'll love. And dinner will be served at 8, but let's start cocktails at 6:30. See you then. There was never any questions like, are you free? What day is good for you? Oh no, you're summoned, you go, you don't ask any questions. And you should be so lucky to even receive an invitation to go to her house. Look, Ella, how I called her, was the European Grand Dame. And Mary was the East Coast Grand Dame. Whatever, as it should be. And Mary, since her parents sent her to a boarding school on the East Coast, just and had lived there then after college, um, married and raised her family there. They owned a landscaping company, which is why she hates blackbirds in the trees. But she talked as if she was an aristocrat, like the Kennedys. Okay, like no facial expression, no nothing moved when she talked. Like her lips, it's like, let me see if I could do it. She's like, love it, love it. Come through the hemlock hedge for a cocktail. I mean, it was like nothing moved. It was like the look, like the teeth are still together and like the lips barely move. It always fascinated me because I am like full animation. Okay, everything's moving. My eyes, my mouth. I mean, I I don't know if I could even like do that. I think it'd feel very confining to me. But, anyways, so that's why I called Mary the East Coast Grand Damme, because she was, and she was always wearing cashmere sweater sets, pearls, and khakis, and her hair done perfectly. Ella, on the other hand, was a little more bohemian, let's say, but an aristocratic bohemian. Anyway, Thursday rolls around and Mike and I pick up Mary, because of course Mary was invited, and we get to her home, Ella's home, and we meet this lovely couple that's sitting there. And as we're talking, the older gentleman proceeds to say that he came from a communist country. He was telling us a story. I will refrain from saying the country, um, but that he and a very dear friend of his worked very hard at a certain sport to make the Olympic team. And they did. And then he proceeded to say, but not for the reasons you're thinking. And I'm thinking in my head, this is getting good now. This is gonna be fascinating. He said we weren't there to compete. We were there to flee. And they devised a plan where opening ceremony night when each country, it's a big parade, as you know, everyone's carrying their flag and you're marching behind it and everyone's coming out. That they would slowly, slowly keep taking a step back, a step back, a step back until they got lost in that crowd. And then they were going to make a run for it. Sadly, his really dear friend did not make it. And we can surmise what happened to him, and it was kind of sad when he was discussing that, but he did make it, obviously, and ended up in Mountville people.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

I mean to tell you, I mean to tell you, I'm still in the rabbit hole. Yep, still here.