Next door,Joan Jakobson was lunching with Barbara Liberman, Suzanne Maas and Tim Hogan. Joan and I met in 1969 when we were both volunteers in the Carter Burden Councilmanic campaign here in New York. Tim had an official job in the campaign.
Carter Burden was well known in New York as a Vanderbilt scion who was married to Amanda Mortimer, Babe Paley’s daughter, and was said to be following in the footsteps of his mentor, Senator Robert F. Kennedy whose office Carter had worked in. So for us kids, it was an “of the moment” time and we were young adults and New York was the most exciting city in the world where everything was happening.
![]() | ![]() | | Bill Paley, Amanda Mortimer (Mrs. Carter Burden, Jr.), Carter Burden, Jr., and Babe Paley, 1964 (©Ben Martin/ Time magazine archive). | ![]() |
The campaign headquarters was in a defunct supermarket on the corner of 79th Street and Second Avenue (it’s long since been replaced by a towering apartment building). There were lots of volunteers, many of whom were the candidate’s generation. We had all been infused with the excitement of the political process after the ill-fated Presidency of John F. Kennedy.
We were all looking for the next “hero” (Kennedy-like) who would inspire the people to do great things. It sounds naïve and almost quaint in these troubled times, and they were troubled times then too, but we remained inspired by the positive and expansive energy John Kennedy brought to the nation.
Because Burden was a rich boy, married to a beautiful young woman with a glamorous background, and a disciple of Bobby Kennedy, he attracted an ambitious and energetic group of people to help him. The Upper East Side was then highly populated by older, working class people as well as the affluent we always read about. Many were senior citizens, widows and widowers, who lived, often alone, in rent control apartments of old tenement buildings that filled the neighborhoods east of Third Avenue to the East River since the early 20th century. It was called the Silk Stocking District mainly because of the citizens living west of Third Avenue, from Lexington, Park and Madison to Fifth Avenue.
![]() | ![]() | | Knock-knock. “Who’s there?” “Christina Onassis and Douglas Fairbanks ...” | ![]() | ![]() |
As volunteers we campaigned with our feet, knocking on every door along the avenues and the cross streets, talking to our neighbors, learning what their issues and problems were. Among his volunteers were his cousin Douglas Fairbanks Jr. At the time Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a newlywed and stepmother. She called the campaign headquarters one day asking if they could use the help of her stepdaughter Christina Onassis.
Of course, was the answer: send her over. So Christina O and cousin Fairbanks were sent out, a duo, knocking on the doors of the tenements in the 80s. Knock-knock. “Who’s there?” “Christina Onassis and Douglas Fairbanks ...” Doors opened, slowly and cautiously but enough to get a glance: yes it was true.
Although Carter Burden was a circumspect individual – neither shy nor ebullient, at least in public appearances, he was a very bright young man who despite his silver spoon background knew what the real priorities were and had the pluck to put himself out for them. He worked hard in the campaign, was professionally organized, and had the funds available to do so. He won big and he worked hard at his job after that.
But politics was an eye-opener for him. Among his achievements was the result of awareness provided by his district — much of which was an older neighborhood where families had lived for generations: he founded the Carter Burden Center for the Aging for his district. The objective was to assist and help those neighbors with their basic needs, counseling (and advice). That was forty years ago, or more, and the Burden Center for the Aging flourishes in the Upper East Side neighborhoods to this day. You may have read about it here on the NYSD.
Carter Burden died young — in his early 50s— of a heart ailment. He’d abandoned politics long before, very disillusioned, I was told, with the process and corruption that confronted him. His widow Susan Burden, who is also one of the co-founders of New Yorkers For Children, still takes a very active interest in the work and fundraising for the Burden Center which continues to assist thousands of neighbors.
Meanwhile back at Michael’s yesterday. The List (always incomplete, mostly what was in my purview: George Malkemus (Manolo Blahnik’s business partner in the US) and Cody Kondo of Saks Fifth Avenue; Jamie MacGuire (MacGuire Communications); Susan Magrino (Susan Magrino Public Relations); Fern Mallis with Lynn Tesoro (public relations); Barry Frey (Digital Place-based Advertising); Linda Janklow; Terry Kramer who is in town for the opening of the new musical “Rocky,” with her ex-son-in-law; TV Guide’s Jack Kliger; Shelley Zalis of IPSOS OTX; Alice Mayhew; producer Bob Bradford (husband of Barbara Taylor Bradford);Laurie Dhue with Lawrence Stuart; Joe Versace; Jay Sures of United Talent; Bonnie Timmerman with Cornelia Guest; Henry Lambert; Neil Lasher of EMI Publishing; Marty Pompadur; Scott Singer of USA Today with Betty Cohen; Joan Gelman and Joan Hamburg; Harold Ford Jr.; Rick Northrop; the legendary television executive Fred Silverman, Nick Verbitsky of United Stations; Robert Zommerman; John Arnhold; producer Beverly Camhe with filmmaker son Todd Camhe; Hearst’s Deb Shriver, and scores more just like ‘em.
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