BROTHER DRISCOLL HAS ALL THE FUN:

The Man, In Full (Ed Driscoll, November 19, 2004)

Tom Wolfe spoke yesterday in San Francisco, at the Herbst Theatre, an early 1930s, 916-seat auditorium. He was introduced by Michael Lewis, who began by describing a visit to New York in 1989, shortly after Liar's Poker was released.

"Tom Wolfe really loves your book", his agent said.

"Oh suuuure, he does", Lewis replied to his agent, who said, "No really, he does. And he'd like to meet you for lunch".

"Well, I'm staying at the Algonquin. Tell him to give me a call", Lewis told him.

"The next day, the phone rang. And a voice said, "Hi, I'm Tom Wolfe. I really loved Liar's Poker. Where do you want to meet for lunch?"

"Well, where do you go if you want to make a splash in this town?", Lewis replied.

"The Pool Room of the Four Seasons", Wolfe replied.

Lewis told the audience that this room, so named because of the enormous marble fountain in the middle of it, was where so many of the movers and shakers of the 1980s met. And how he arrived there, was escorted by the maitre d' through "Picasso Alley" until he saw a man at the other end. Lewis described him looking like as a negative image version of the famous scene in Lawrence of Arabia where Peter O'Toole's Lawrence first meets Omar Sharif. Sharif began that scene as a small squiggly line in black, shimmering in the distance and getting larger and larger.

Wolfe, standing in the entranceway to the Pool Room, was a small squiggly line in white, getting larger and larger as Lewis approached. Meanwhile, everyone in the room was staring at the Man In White and wondering whom the young fellow Wolfe was meeting for lunch was.

After that knockout of an introduction, Lewis brought Wolfe onto the stage at the Herbst Theatre.

Hopefully C-SPAN was there.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 19, 2004 11:48 PM