I don’t have many heroes, but if I was ever inspired by an individual’s story, character, humor, accomplishments, lust for life — and yes, food — George Lang would be one of those heroes.
Headline from July 6th New York Times article
Last year, not long after I started this blog, I posted George Lang’s recipe for an American Bistro. It was the introduction to one of my favorite cookbooks, and it seemed to capture the essence of the man and his beliefs:
Although I have eaten well at Cafe des Artistes, and even had bought his notable Hungarian cookbook years earlier (after exploring this cuisine with my friend and fellow fisherman, Miklos Kozo), I never knew Mr. Lang in person. But as I read some of the written material about his extraordinary life, I thought it was appropriate to share the highlights of those articles with you here:
- Full article reporting from today’s N.Y. Times
- Beautiful feature from The New York Restaurant Insider magazine, written in 2007
- The Village Voice piece about his thoughts on a Last Meal
I think most of all, I take away a message about an indomitable spirit, the ability to innovate and work through any obstacles (and successes) he encountered, and the ability to do it all for many years with resilience, love, humor, good taste, and a balanced sense of self. That is a message that should be helpful for us all.
Dgourmac's Blog 
correction about Last thoughts on a meal: My mother, Doe Lang, had the Fulbright scholarship (as an Opera singer). 1951-2. He went with her, and got a full scholarship in Rome to study violin at the University of Santa Cecelia. Among their friends and neighbors were Carson Mc Cullers and the famous Hungarian/Italian sculptor, Amerigo Todt. He also had a full scholarship to Mannes College of Music when he came here. Understandable lapse. He died of Altzheimer’s only 4 years after this was written. Incidentally, she was a pianist, singer, actress who often performed for celebrities at the Waldorf. It was on er recommendation,that he got the interview with Pierre that led to him becoming assistant banquet manager.
Brian Lang
He also served as Chairman of the Commemorative Coins Committee of the Bicentennial Commission by Presidential appointment in 1968. And, he was drafted onto the 4 person Artistic Policy Committee of Carnegie Hall by Isaac Stern, when it was in trouble in the early ’80s. He also rescued some American Journalists from the Indonesian Military on the eve of the coup, when he was director of the Indonesian Pavilion (as well as the Gas Pavillion) at the NY World’s Fair (President Sukharno hired Restaurant Associates on condition they give him the job.) His friend, the late William Safire told that story at an event in his honor as well as the circumstances of how they met.and became friends. Safire was working as the secretary/treasurer of the Grace Kelly Fan club. They wanted to have an event at the Waldorf but their budget wasn’t enough to cover the cost. My father, who was assistant banquet manager, at the time, somehow made it possible for them to have their event. On his own time, he was a talented artist who worked in many media, including painting, sketch and caricature, calligraphy, copper, linoleum and furniture. He was too modest, self-deprecatory and perfectionistic to allow his work to be exhibited. But he was brilliant. I watched him sketch individuals or a whole room with a pad and ball point pen without the pen leaving the paper in seconds in the 1970’s. Though an accomplished photographer (in the days of light meters, etc.) he only brought his pen and sketchpad on the job. The New York Museum of Folk Art did exhibit a photo of an example of his calligraphy in icing on a cake in the ’70s. The review is online somewhere. And he wrote the title of his autobiography in calligraphic hand.
He also was banquet manager at Queen Elizabeth II of England’s coronation banquet at the Hotel Savoy, and organized the food service on the first luxury liners to visit cuba and china in the ’80s. He also had a restaurant and bakery at Citicorp Plaza in the ’70s called, respectively, Hungaria and Small Pleasures. He had a regular column, six issues out of twelve for 17 years in Travel and Leisure Magazine, he wrote the articles under or the Encyclopedia Britanica entries, Gastronomy and Restaurants, he had a segment on CBS Sunday Good Morning with Charles Kerault in the early ’80s, he was an extra in one of Istztvan Szabo’s films (he plays a waiter, the voice is dubbed).He was a contributing editor to the Time Life Foods of the World Encylopedia in the ’60s. He organized the Fountain Cafe, a summer restaurant around Bethesda fountain in the ’60s. He wrote a couple of hundred articles, five books, contributing introductions to others. His work, “Cuisine of Hungary” which took ten years to write and for which my mother learned Hungarian, went with him to Hungary, did a lot of the leg work and all of the typing and initial editing is the first, and to my knowledge,still the only history of the kitchen of all of Hungary (though, since then, some histories of regions have come out.) He once told me that it was the first book ever written to examine the dynamic interaction between a countries food and it’s politics, history (including military history) culture, etc. Published in 1972. Still in Print.
correction: He eventually go a full scholarship to Mannes when he came here. When he first arrived, he was so poor, he would go to Horn and Hardart and get a bread roll and put al the condiments on it for dinner. He had a room with a roomate and a hot plate in Hell’s Kitchen, care of Hebrew Aid Immigrant Society, and sometimes ate dinner at his Uncle’s House. His uncle Eugene, Jeno with an umlaut, was an impresario who had been a journalist and publisher among other things who fled Hungary in 1919.
sorry for the typos. I didn’t really proof this. Still, you get the idea.
BL
Dear Brian,
Thanks for all the supplemental information. I appreciate it, and perhaps some readers will, too.
Regards,
Abbott Weiss
last comment: He was able to befriend the guard who helped him escape the labor camp because he was a fellow artist though from a peasant class background. Incidentally, in the autobiography, “The Pianist,” on which tthe movie is based, Szpilman relates how on one occasion, his family (who we see murdered in the opening sequences of the film) and he were saved by fascist “police” who recognized him as a fellow musician,and so let them all pass a street blockade.
Last comment plus 1: When he left Travel and Leisure Magazine after 17 years (his column was entitled, “Table For One.” He signed a contract with Town and Country Magazine to write fewer articles about anything he wanted (not just food). I found four:
String fever.Detail Only Available
By: Lang, George; Frohman, Jesse. Town & Country, Apr94, Vol. 148 Issue 5167, p86, 7p, 10 Black and White Photographs; Reading Level (Lexile): 1100
Subjects: GIFTED children; VIOLINISTS
Database: MAS Ultra – School Edition
Add to folder
2.
Periodical
High & lows.Detail Only Available
By: Lang, George. Town & Country, Apr95, Vol. 149 Issue 5179, p90, 6p, 3 Color Photographs; Reading Level (Lexile): 930
Subjects: MUSICIANS; BIOGRAPHIES
Database: MAS Ultra – School Edition
Add to folder
3.
Periodical
Mahler’s maestro.Detail Only Available
By: Lang, George; Ockenfels, Frank W.. Town & Country, Aug95, Vol. 149 Issue 5183, p68, 5p, 1 Black and White Photograph; Reading Level (Lexile): 920
Subjects: KAPLAN, Gilbert; MAHLER, Gustav, 1860-1911; CRITICISM
Database: MAS Ultra – School Edition
Add to folder
4.
Periodical
Chateau de la Chevre d’Or.Full Text Available
By: Lang, George. Town & Country, Feb96, Vol. 150 Issue 5189, p112, 3/8p; Reading Level (Lexile): 1300
Subjects: FRANCE; EZE (France); RESTAURANTS
Database: MAS Ultra – School Edition
Add to folder
HTML Full Text
5.
Periodical
The Doge Club.Full Text Available
By: Lang, George. Town & Country, Feb96, Vol. 150 Issue 5189, p113, 1/4p; Reading Level (Lexile): 1350
Subjects: ITALY; VENICE (Italy); RESTAURANTS
Database: MAS Ultra – School Edition
Add to folder
HTML Full Text
6.
Periodical
The Rainbow Room.Full Text Available
By: Lang, George. Town & Country, Feb96, Vol. 150 Issue 5189, p114, 1/4p; Reading Level (Lexile): 1120
Subjects: NEW York (State); NEW York (N.Y.); UNITED States; RESTAURANTS
Database: MAS Ultra – School Edition
Add to folder
ok. so, 6.
Last plus 2 (or three, depending on how you look at it) He was also comptroller for the Conde Nast Cafeteria http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/gehry/condenast_22.html towards the end of his career. He told me about it around 2004 or 5 maybe?
clarification: He wasn’t just the director of the Gas and Indonesian Pavillions, he created and organized them in consultation with the client, President Sukharno of Indonesia who was about to be overthrown (see “Year of LIving Dangerously” with Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.) He also became a big fan of Balinese art while he was there. Also, Stern drafted him into the Board of Trustees and onto the Artistic Policy Committee of Carnegie Hall.
further clarification: The Gas Pavilion had nothing to do with Indonesia. But they were both restaurants at the NY World’s Fair which he created and ran for R.A.
gas pavillion description and photos.Just found these. Pretty amazing even compared to now.
http://www.nywf64.com/fesgas07.shtml
http://www.nywf64.com/fesgas02.shtml
Actually, I believe he was director of R.A. projects at the World’s Fair including the restaurant and food facilities in those pavillions. I had always assumed the whole pavillion was the restaurant. I was five at the time. But it was a big part of the show. And quite amazing.
excerpt from above links. go to see photos and more detailed description.:
“…The Festival’s Theater of Food is a glass-enclosed, semi-circular, amphitheater where famous chefs from all over the world will perform. A new Guest Chef will be presented each week and from four to eight performances will be given daily. The Theater of food will hold 200 spectators for each performance….Another major highlight of the Festival of Gas pavilion will be the Festival ’64 — The American Restaurant — which will feature regional American specialties. The restaurant with “see-through-walls” gives diners a pleasant unobstructed view of the fairgrounds, both night and day.
‘Set among the pavilion’s pools and flowing streams, the Festival ’64 blends into the garden-like atmosphere providing Fair visitors with a romantic, unhurried dining experience.The restaurant is managed by Restaurant Associates, operators of New York city’s famed Four Season, The Forum of the Twelve Ceasars, and La Fonda del Sol.”
…
“Visitors get their first view of the pavilion while riding on the world’s largest Carousel, complete with giant prancing horses. Moving ramps carry people to the Carousel high above the main floor of the pavilion. Following the four-minute ride, visitors see the special attractions of the pavilion, at their own leisure. These include: the Fun House of the Future, a demonstration of life tomorrow; the Festival Puppet Show; a Magic, featuring the everyday magic of industry; and tiny fuel cells create most of the power, electricity, heating and cooling for the pavilion; a Theatre of Food, with performances by famous chefs from all over the world; and one of the famous restaurants at the World’s Fair…the “Festival ’64”
Just spoke to my mother and mentioned this. Have to correct another mistake. My mother sang at the Hotel Pierre and the Waldorf and recommended him to Philippe of the Waldorf.
another correction courtesy of my mother. His scholarship was from the accademia (not the University of) Santa Cecilia, a music school. Wikipedia describes it as one of the oldest music schools in the world. Incidentally, he had honorary PhDs from at least 6 prestigious universities around the world, including the U.S., and taught at Culinary Institute of America, (the Juilliard of cooking and hospitality schools, and I think Cornell, that I know of, including the first banquet management class, anywhere, but he didn’t finish college.
He also wrote articles for Reader’s Digest, as I recall. I was trying to look this up and found this funny quote from another WordPress site:
Wine can range from acceptable to what my father called a three-man wine: two men had to hold you down so that a third could pour it down your throat.
– George Lang in Travel & Leisure
At his memorial service, somebody quoted him as follows (as deeply profound and insightful, as anything by Mark Twain, as any one who has ever lived in NY, with its eternally desperate housing shortage and attending ill consequences, can attest … as well as funny:
“New York is a wonderful place to live … if you have a wonderful place to live.”
– George Lang
George Lang on:
Social Issues: “As long as it doesn’t frighten the horses.
Education: “Everything will be shown; Everything will be explained.”
Quality Control: “ Nicely, Nicely, Johnson.”
(Nicely, NIcely Johnson was a character in Damon Runyon’s universe of endearing gamblers and loveable rogues, immortalized in “Guys and Dolls”, (Marlon Brando) and “Sorrowful Jones” (Bob Hope) and based on his stories in which a frequent settting is a restaurant calle , “Lindy’s” (the original one). “Guys and Dolls” has a song about Lindy’s. There is a Wikipedia article about it. It was quite famous.)
Work Ethic: “My father used to say, “always do just a little more than is necessary.”
His work Ethic: “…Oh, my god, there it is,” he whispered, “the corner where I stood after working already 12 hours, watching the master chef, learning, practicing…’ The impresario stood aside as a young Thai cook dashed by. “There goes the next George Lang,” he said. He sounded empathetic and envious.”
– “George Lang Tells His Story From Top to Bottom” by Molly O’Neill. New York Times. April 22, 1988.
On unfulfilled potential: “He didn’t have enough Sitzfleisch.” (technical term: denoting the point of intersection between the butt and the chair.” (Yiddish/German).(no ifs and or butts – je)
Wikipedia entry:
“Etymology
From German Sitzfleisch, from sitzen (“to sit”) + Fleisch (“flesh”).
[edit]Pronunciation
IPA: /ˈzɪtsflaɪʃ/
[edit]Noun
Sitzfleisch (uncountable)
The ability to endure or carry on with an activity. [quotations ▼]
Sitzfleisch (uncountable)
The ability to endure or carry on with an activity. [quotations ▲]
1947, Frank Vigor Morley, “My One Contribution to Chess”, Chess Notes, Faber & Faber (1947):
Sitzfleisch: a term used in chess to indicate winning by use of the glutei muscles–the habit of remaining stolid in one’s seat hour by hour, making moves that are sound but uninspired, until one’s opponent blunders through boredom.
2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin (2004), page 203,
He never dallied with the image, beloved of the Renaissance, of the lean and shrunk-shanked scholar, possessed of infinite Sitzfleisch and inured to pain.”
– from Wikipedia
On the Holocaust and film:
after seeing the film, “Sunshine” (directed by Isztvan Szabo, 1999. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(1999_film:
“That’s the way it was”
– George Lang
regarding the restoration of the Gundel’s sister restaurant, Bagolyvar Etterem (Owl’s Nest) :
The following is quoted from: http://www.bagolyvar.com/index.php?lang=en&mid=106
“Introduction
“…I kept mulling over a concept that would be right, considering its location and remembering that it was a landmark building that could not be altered…”
“…We preserved the original architectual elements of the restaurant and the interior is decorated in the spirit of a Hungarian Home circa 1920…”
“…I suggest we open up a moderately priced family restaurant where the kind of dishes that act as a bond between members of the family would be served by women…”
“…I thought the entire staff of bagolyvár, including the management and the cooks, should be women…”
“…The selection of comfort dishes may change every day, but my favourites are often there…”
GEORGE LANG – Nobody knows the truffles I’ve seen
The furnishings of the restaurant evoke a middle-class dining room of the early twentieth century. The tables are covered by heavy damask table-cloths, there are old engravings on the walls. During summertime it is a delight to spend some time at one of the two shady garden-terraces at the perimeter of the Zoo.
To evoke the atmosphere of a good, traditional restaurant of the past, George Lang created a restaurant and a kitchen in which exclusively women are at work, under the expert management of the charming Ms. Noémi Szécsényi with Ms. Andrea Németh, the excellent chef de cuisine. The basic principle of the restaurant is the idea that: the good tasted and delightful dishes which accompany our lives, are created mostly by women. By our mothers, our grandmothers, our god-mothers. It is a logical idea that women should prepare and serve our food in a good, traditional restaurant as well.
These ladies are the “pillars” of the Owl’s Castle: they draw up the carte de jour, they are buying the foodstuffs, they are preparing and serving the dishes and the beverages. They are offering The traditional Hungarian hospitality which makes the guests feel at home.”
The dedication from “Cuisine of Hungary”
“To My Grandmother Gizelle, who taught my mother.
and to my Mother who taught me the love of the kitchen instead of flowers…”
– George Lang
His mother was the daughter of a famous rabbi. His violin teacher, here, who took him, a penniless music student for his first fine meal, here (his father took him once to Gundel’s when he was a teenager for his first fine meal in Hungary) at the Cafe Des Artistes,, was a woman (Madam Fonoroff (spelling uncertain.). The rabbi who officiated at his memorial service was a woman.
What goes around comes around…
.and around, and around, and around.
– google books synopsis of “Nobody Knows The Truffles I’ve Seen” by George Lang.
“:In this immensely moving and entertaining memoir, George Lang tells the story–as only he can tell it–of his extraordinary life. Seasoning his account with splashes of comedie noire,as he relives the horrors of the Nazi takeover and of his harrowing escape to freedom, he details with generous measures of joie de vivre his metamorphosis from budding violinist to top strategist in the palate revolution that swept across America during the postwar years. Born in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, only child of a Jewish tailor, Lang was destined for the concert stage. But his world suddenly collapsed: at nineteen he was incarcerated in a forced-labor camp, never to see his parents again. Miraculously (with the help of his rudimentary tailoring skills) he survived, only to find himself, after the liberation, undergoing torture and a trumped-up trial. Even his planned escape from Hungary in a hired hearse backfired, and he was forced to walk through minefields to reach the Austrian border. After he landed in New York in 1946, his hard-won survival techniques served him well: a stint on the Arthur Godfrey show, an idyll at Tanglewood, a fill-in at Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, before the momentous decision to switch from the fiddle to the kitchen, where a whole new world opened up. Soon Lang was managing a “wedding factory” on the Bowery, and then orchestrating banquets at the Waldorf for Khrushchev, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Grace, and the like. The time was right. America was ready to be converted to the idea of food as entertainment, and George Lang was the man to spread the gospel. He took on The Four Seasons, he explored Indonesia and the Philippines to bring back exotic tastes for the 1964 World’s Fair, he pioneered upscale restaurant complexes within shopping malls that were sprouting up all over. It was almost inevitable that he would invent a new profession, and as the first restaurant consultant he managed to create several hundred pleasure domes in more than two dozen countries. Finally he resurrected two great landmarks: the Cafe des Artistes in New York and Gundel in his native Hungary. Lang’s book also brings back the world of the Budapest coffeehouses, where life was one long string of paprika-flavored punch lines. His lively cast of characters ranges from Pavarotti and James Beard to President Clinton and Pope John Paul II.Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seenis a quintessential Horatio Alger story told by a born raconteur.:”
This was my father’s favorite book when he was in high school (though, needless to say, it was not part of the curriculum. it came out in 1938, when he was 14).: “Homo Ludens” by Johann Huizinga. Arguably One of the most influential books nobody’s ever heard of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens_(book)
Here was another piece from the managing editor of Nation’s Restaurant News I found moving:
Remembering George Lang: restaurateur, consultant, educator
Words From: Paul Frumkin, managing editor
July 25, 2011 | By Paul Frumkin
I first met George Lang a year or so after I had graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1980 and moved down to New York. For anyone coming out of the CIA at the time and looking to make their way in the New York culinary scene — as a chef or writer or whatever — Lang was recognized as being part of an elite group of gastronomic high priests who presided over the city’s haute dining establishment. The group included Paul Kovi and Tom Margittai of The Four Seasons, André Soltner of Lutèce, Tony May of the Rainbow Room, Joe Baum of Windows on the World, Jerry Berns of the “21” Club and Jean-Jacques Rachou of La Côte Basque.
George Lang was a bit different. Not only did he pilot the much-loved West Side classic, Café des Artistes, but he also was a chef, had his own consulting company and wrote books as well as food and travel periodicals. He was a multifaceted individual.
My first encounter with George — it took me years to stop calling him Mr. Lang — got us off to a shaky start. I wrote a story mentioning his failed experiment with breakfast at the cafe and bought some hard feelings with it. It wasn’t good for his consulting business to publicize his own restaurant’s missteps, he told me later.
By the time the cafe was preparing to celebrate its 70th birthday in 1985, though, he had forgiven me. He invited me to his offices on West 67th Street to talk. I recall being awed by his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stacked with cookbooks and culinary tomes and histories in various languages.
We talked for what seemed like hours. Well, he talked mostly, and I threw the occasional question his way. I confess, I was a bit dazzled. It was like sitting for a master class in gastronomy. Not only could he have taught a class at the CIA, he probably could have taught every class at the CIA.
Later, we went down to the Café des Artistes where he graciously gave me a private tour of the famous Howard Chandler Christy murals, introduced me to actor Joel Grey, who was having a late lunch in the corner, and then sent me happily out into the street. It was a real New York day.
George must have liked the story I wrote because afterward I rarely had problems getting him to comment for articles — to which he always managed to add some thoughtful point. In 1991 he treated me to a scoop when he offered me the story on how he and partner Ronald Lauder were taking over the storied restaurant Gundel in Budapest, Hungary.
Once again, I met him at his office. But this time, to help me comprehend the full story, he had convened eight or nine other experts who were working with him to reopen the 100-year-old restaurant. Back to school with George, again.
Education, in fact, pretty much defined my relationship with him. He taught; I listened. I imagine others felt the same way. In George’s obituary in NRN, restaurateur Drew Nieporent called him a “renaissance man,” and said he was very generous with his knowledge. I second that.
In the same piece, writer Gael Greene observed sadly that in today’s much-altered New York dining universe, some people don’t remember who George Lang was or what he had accomplished in his 86 years.
To that, I can only reply that I, for one, will never forget him.
Contact Paul Frumkin at paul.frumkin@penton.com.
Read more: http://nrn.com/article/remembering-george-lang-restaurateur-consultant-educator#ixzz1nzAY28wa
another correction: I read somewhere that he organized a banquet for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation banquet at the Hotel Savoy (not sure where, I remembered it as her coronation banquet.) According to Wikipedia,, she was crowned in 1953, which is too early. Other sources mention banquet(s) for her at the Waldorf. He may also have done so at the Hotel Savoy, at a later date, as I remember, that reference.
clarification: In the tribute from the managing editor of the NRN, not the one you have a link to, the author, who had just just graduated,j from Culinary Institute of America, says, “he not only could have taught a class there, he could probably have taught all of them.” I remember he did teach there, as well as other places, I’m not sure when, it might not have been when he graduated in 1980, or whether at that school they were year long courses or seminars and lectures.
But the point, is that no single account comes close to describing it adequately. He lived so many lives compressed into one, and accomplished so many things. It’s hard to keep all this stuff straight; historians will have to sort all this out. I hope they do. And what, little even I know, or think I know, which is a lot, barely scratches the tip of the iceberg.
He was a force of nature.
Apropos of Nothing:
“Nettie: [singing] When you walk through a storm / Hold your head up high / And don’t be afraid of the dark”
Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, adapted from “Liliom,” by Ferenc Molnar.
– best I could do on short notice. I was looking for a quote from “Carousel” based on “Lilliom” by Ferenc Molnar, Hungary’s Shakespeare/Shaw rolled into one. His plays were produced at the Belasco theater here in the ’20s and a number of famous films were adapted from his plays. Another of the most famous people nobody’s every heard of. Last comment: I remember the view from his office in Duffy Square in New York where he had the title of Vice President in the Fine Restaurants Division of Restaurant Associates. There was an enormous billboard for the currently playing movie, “They Shoot Horses Don’t they” about an early 20th century ballroom dancing competition/marathon, where the last couple standing might win. Talk about Sitzfleisch. Cheers.
The Chinese philosopher writer, and inventor Lin Yu Tang was a friend of my parents before I was born or when I was small. I don’t remember meeting him, but I heard about him all the time, and my parents had a beautifully bound set of his writing that were a gift from him. When I read these the hilariously iconoclastic, contrarian, witty, sarcastic, and insightful quotes from him, I have to conclude that either he influenced my father’s writing and way of speaking, enormously, or it was just an amazingly coincidental meeting of the minds. Another of the most famous people nobody every heard of:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang
George Lang on Jews of great accomplishment: “Clever these Chinese.” (spoken with great pride.)
“It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.”
“… All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell…”
Lin Yu Tang (He was also the first Chinese humorist, and he invented the Chinese Typewriter and the self-filling toothbrush.”
“Lin Yutang (October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.” – Wikipedia
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I find all of this fascinating, being a chef myself. I would like very much to be in touch with Brian
and Doe. And, would enjoy finding out how to do such. I was, as a child, friends with Andrea,
and my father, Russel Wright, was very good friends with Doe and George. I have just discovered that Andrea was killed in the fire and I feel saddened by that even though we had not been in touch
recently. In any event, I hope to receive a response. Thank you, Annie Wright