Truman said that William Paley allocated his art collection to the museum to put his name on the wall. Another reason to do so, is to reduce the insurance premiums on said art in the event that it was damaged or stolen, which is a smart business decision. As far as insurance companies are concerned, a museum is the equivalent to bank vault, in other words a safe bet. Moreover, in the Art World, when artworks are displayed on exhibit, it increases there values by millions.
Roman à clef is French for novel with a key, is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction, or appears with fictitious names or details, blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction.
Personalities Mentioned:
- Carol Matthau (Carol Grace) - Writer and wife of Film Actor Walter Matthau
- Gloria Vanderbilt - Great-great-granddaughter of "The Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of her family's fortune (He consolidated the railroad network in the New York Metropolitan Region as well as the North-East and the Mid-West. Began his first business, a transport and freight service between New York City and Staten Island, at age 16 with $100 he borrowed from his mother. He repaid the loan after the first year with an additional $1,000. Upon his death, he was the wealthiest man in the United States.) She was known for her bohemian tendencies and her work as a fashion designer. She was romantically linked :Howard Hughes (CEO Hughes Aircraft), Frank Sinatra (Singer), Marlon Brando (Film Actor), Sidney Lumet (Film Director), and even Truman Capote. One of her sons became CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper.
- Norman Mailer - American novelist, journalist, playwright, and filmmaker. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II . He is also Co-founder of the Village Voice newspaper.
- Max Ernst - German Painter
- Max Beckmann - German Painter
- Bianca Jagger - Nicaraguan actress and wife of The Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger
- Otto Preminger - Austrian Film Director
Institutions mentioned:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art ("The Met") - founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens - businessmen and financiers as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day - who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people.
- New York Botanical Gardens - founded by the New York State legislature in 1891 largely on the urging of Nathaniel Lord Britton, a Columbia University botanist. The land was purchased in 1884 from the Lorillard family, the tobacco dynasty. It is located on a 250-acre site and was opened to the public in 1900.
- The Frick Collection - assembled by Steel Magnate Henry Clay Frick, he was appointed director of US Steel by Financier J.P. Morgan after acquiring Carnegie Steel from Andrew Carnegie
- New York Public Library - founded in 1895, and was expanded thanks to a $5.2 million donation from Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Lending Library), allowed the organization to purchase land and build branch libraries that formed the backbone of The New York Public Library's circulating system.
Galangal is a flowering plant that is native to Indonesia, China, and Thailand. It is a member of the ginger family and is also known as blue ginger, lengkuas, or Thai ginger