The Elaine’s memories keep pouring in, and most of them voice something to the effect of “Elaine Kaufman threw my checkbook in my face and I will miss her” (those being the words of writer-model Carole Mallory, who thinks she might’ve gotten off on the wrong foot with Kaufman because she showed too much cleavage). Ash Bennington is thankful that Elaine scolded him as he approached a favorite writer (“Put down your drink before you go over there: You look like a schmuck”); Regina Weinreich thinks her bark was worse than her bite (“She pegged me with her owl eyes to make sure I knew the score. She cautioned me against toasting with a glass of water”); and S.T. VanAirsdale fondly remembers the time she threatened to kill him if he mentioned the possibility of her demise in a Daily News piece (at the time, she told him that manager Diane Becker would take over in such an event, but forbade him to print it).
Meanwhile, aside from a yarn about Geraldo Rivera getting kicked out, Men’s Health editor Dave Zinczenko’s recollections are 100 percent positive — Elaine took him to a Yankees playoff game, after all. He estimates he had a mind-boggling 1,300 dinners at her saloon, and writes, “Infinite possibility was what you encountered every night at Elaine’s.”
Earlier: Everybody Remembers Elaine
