As the old saying goes, if the chairs could talk.... One place where it's doubtless a good thing they can't is The Bull and The Bear, the bar at the Waldorf Astoria at the back side of the hotel, not the fancy Park Avenue entrance. Low ceilings, a room that still feels filled with smoke years after the ban went into effect, the same staff that's been there for at least 25 years. When I did my first IPO I ended up meeting with the independent accountant, a partner in one of the firms then known as the Big 8, now the Big 4, whose signature I needed for the SEC filing package. He suggested the place, theretofore unknown to me, and bought me a couple of Remy Martins to cushion my journey back down to Wall Street to finish assembling all the documents at around midnight.
More recently, I was in the midst, at about 5:30 in the afternoon, of a shaggy dog story with Oscar, El Supremo among the bartenders, when a white-haired man with a florid complexion walked in. "Mr. O!" Oscar and several of the waiters exclaimed simultaneously. Mr. O gave a big wave and shook Oscar's hand, Oscar introduced us to each other and then confirmed that Mr. O wanted the usual.
"I haven't been up here in awhile," he said, settling on his barstool. "But we're back big time now. Got a new company and it looks like we'll be doing a deal to go public. Last one didn't work out so well—that's why I moved to Florida. Homestead exemption and all that, you know." He laughed. "I got to know my mailman so well, from all the subpoenas and legal papers when they sued us, that I don't only know his kids' birthdays, I know their blood types and what they like to eat at McDonald's." He laughed again at his own joke and tagged me immediately as a lawyer. "But you have an honest face," he said. "That's kind of disorienting. But it's worked for me, I know that for sure. You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I'm fifteen sixteenths Sicilian, one part Irish. The O at the beginning of my name instead of the end has been worth its weight in gold!"
We discussed finance, Wall Street, the market and the economy as we savored our refreshments. "You know," he said, "my wife and daughter are meeting me here. Out shopping, then we're going to Bobby Van's Steak House for dinner. She wants to go to law school, my daughter—you'll like her—and I'd appreciate it if you would talk to her, answer any questions she might have about the subject. Here, this one's on me. Confusion to the enemy."
The wife and daughter arrived and we moved to the other side of the bar. With the daughter was a well dressed man in his early 30's, short hair slicked back, nothing ostentatious. Mr. O informed me he was the fiancée, and we smiled at each other and shook hands. Mrs. O was on the far side of me, with the daughter next to me, and on the other side was the fiancée, Mark, with Mr. O holding down the right flank. Miss O could not have been sweeter or more charming. We had a lovely discussion, she asked good questions, and it became apparent that she was easily smart enough to do the law thing, so I abandoned my usual reservations on the subject. My own daughter announced when she was about four that she would never be a lawyer--in response to my asking why, she said "Well, you and mom are both lawyers and you both hate your jobs. What am I supposed to think about that?" She's been like that all her life, and I'm sure it will always stand her in good stead.
As Miss O and I continued to meander through the legal maze, I kept an ear tuned to the conversation between Mr. O and Mark, yielding the following.
"So what's with your uncle Tony," he asked Mark. "I don't see him around lately. How's he doing?" Long pause, accompanied by throat clearing. "Well, there were some things that had to be taken care of, you know. He's not part of the picture now." Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mr. O squeeze Mark's elbow as he said, in the immediate past tense, "Well, he was that way, you know." About two minutes later as I made my exit, I reminded myself to be grateful that I hadn't proffered my business card, and hoped the marriage would be as happy and carefree as possible.
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