At mighty events, little happenings can take on major life, as
I was reminded on Thursday evening when I found my pants falling
off. I was talking to a stranger dressed in white tie and tails,
which was the uniform for dais guests. He beckoned to his wife,
who quickly came and extended a maternal hand to my trousers at
hip level. "That's exactly what happened to Bill at our son's
wedding last week," she said, endeavoring a cure.
The bustling room full of prominent guests at the 61st Alfred
E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria busied
themselves with animated conversation about other things than
unruly pants.
Dr. Kissinger was talking, and was talked to. Before long Gov.
Pataki materialized, as did senators Schumer and Hillary. We
learned early on that Cardinal Egan, the host, was forbidden by
his doctors to climb the steps necessary to ascend to the throne
at the dais, from which to address the 800 guests whose $1,000
contributions sustain so much of the health care undertaken by
the archdiocese of New York.
There is a special snap to the Al Smith Dinner because it has
for many years served as a required stop for anyone seeking to be
president of the United States. The political heft of the
Catholic Church in New York is reflected in the allure of the
evening's speaker.
Only exceptionally is there more than one speaker. In 1947
there were two: James V. Forrestal and Winston S. Churchill. In
1960 there was high excitement at the dinner featuring John F.
Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, three weeks before Kennedy was
elected president.
In 1968 the card was truly comprehensive: President Lyndon
Johnson and two contenders for his office, Hubert Humphrey and
Richard Nixon. On my right that night was New York earth-shaker
Robert Moses. After Humphrey sat down, overextending by 20
minutes the 10 minutes he had been allotted, Mr. Moses leaned
over to me with a whispered question: "What comes after a
Saturday night speech by Hubert Humphrey?" My eyes betrayed that
I didn't have the answer. Moses smiled and said, "Sunday."
The speaker on Thursday was NBC newscaster Brian Williams, but
things were not going smoothly that night. I lost my pants, the
cardinal couldn't climb up the stairs, and, as the assembly
waited for Brian Williams to declare his candidacy for president,
there was commotion at the end of the long dais. A guest had
fainted.