The Players Club, on Gramercy Park, is the setting for a dinner honoring Kitty Carlisle Hart after she was named head of the New York State Council on the Arts. In the diary, the club’s significance lies in the way the evening joins a public tribute to Kitty with a glimpse of its historic interior and the social world gathered there.

Setting and Interior

Before dinner, the diarist’s doctor, Doc Cox, took him upstairs to see Edwin Booth’s bedroom. The room struck him as musty and dusty, much as he remembered it from earlier days. That brief tour gives the club a history that is tangible rather than ceremonial: amid the evening’s speeches and company, an old bedroom preserves the feel of another time.

The Honoring Dinner

The gathering was for Kitty Carlisle Hart, newly appointed to lead the New York State Council on the Arts by Governor Carey. It included Arlene Francis and Peggy Cass, Kitty’s sidekicks on To Tell the Truth, as well as Dena Kaye, who attended in place of her husband, Danny, and Irene Selznick, chairwoman of the evening. The diarist likened the predominantly male gathering to a stag party, while noting the women who were present.

Dinner brought its own small complication: the food was rich and creamy, the sort the diarist was not supposed to eat because of his gallbladder. Doc Cox felt awkward seeing him indulge during a social occasion, then let him off the hook by saying he would not look. The episode makes the formal dinner feel personal, with the doctor’s concern unfolding alongside the public celebration.

Speeches and Recognition

After dinner, everyone made speeches, and Kitty’s was the standout for the diarist. Dressed in black and pearls, she looked chic; she also said she wanted to keep working a great deal. The tribute thus presented her not only as the recipient of an appointment but as someone intent on remaining active. The doctor later drove the diarist home, closing an evening that moved from an upstairs historical room to a dinner recognizing Kitty’s public role.