SEESAW VIGNETTE ON ENTERTAINING EASON-STYLE Eason Dobbs was a long- time resident and socialite in Fort Lauderdale whom I got to know through my mother in the ‘70’s. She was well known among South Florida movers and shakers as a great hostess and entertainer, accomplished cook, stylish and clever decorator with a syrupy drawl and quick wit. People coveted an invitation to one of Eason’s parties, and it was confirmation that you were among those that mattered socially in South Florida. At Christmas she hung her tree upside down, and that, like many things Eason did, was reported in the Style section of The Miami Herald. Eason tended to come and go from Fort Lauderdale, at times going back for extended periods to visit her father in her home town of Crossville, Alabama, where she had been named Miss Potato Queen as a young woman. Eason came back to Fort Lauderdale after one of these long disappearances, driving her father’s old pickup truck. She had contacted a friend who had a second home at the Four Seasons, Fort Lauderdale’s most luxurious condominium that had the city’s top restaurant, Le Dome, on the roof. The friend agreed to let Eason stay in his apartment while she was in town. “I am having a dinner party at Le Dome Thursday at 6 p.m. and would love for you to come,” Eason said on the phone to me during this vi “David and Joanne will be there, and Angelique and others that you know, sit. and I have invited your mother. We are going to have drinks before in a few apartments that I am buying in the building.” Of course I went. There were about 15 people invited. Among them were the most prominent South Florida socialites at that time. Angelique Stahl (founder Broward Federal Saving and Loan who ran Jimmy Carter’s campaign in Florida), her husband Steadman Stahl, (the top criminal attorney in Florida), the vice president of Burger King, Zev Bufman (producer at Parker Playhouse and Coconut Grove Playhouse), and his wife Vilma, Bobby and Sharon Collins, box office super star Burt Reynolds’s attorney, Joanne and David Johnsen, Fort Lauderdale’s top socialite and her plastic surgeon husband, and so forth. We first had drinks in the apartment lent to Eason while she was in town. The party progressed through six other apartments, really every unit that was for sale at The Four Seasons. Eason had spent the prior week working on her guest list and contacting the owners of each of these apartments, explaining the she was Eason Dobbs and that she was going to buy their apartment for cash, and for the full asking price. No one refused when Eason asked if they would mind if she showed their apartment to some friends Thursday evening. Eason explained to her guests during the evening that she had bought all of these apartments, and that she intended to renovate them and corner the market on luxury condominiums at the Four Seasons, the city’s most luxurious building. We followed Eason to the Four Seasons penthouse level to the restaurant Le Dome, where she had planned the dinner with the maître d’ earlier that week. Eason sat at the head of the table, a floor length black mink coat thrown over the back of her chair, pearls to her navel, carrying a Louis Vuitton purse. I sensed that the guests were a bit surprised by the depth of Eason’s pockets. Some of the guests including my mother and I were among her inner circle who knew better, but curiously no one was alarmed. Did they know Eason’s history so well that they felt she would land on her feet once again? Others were lured there by Eason whose artful invitations that couldn’t be refused. She would casually mention to a targeted guest that someone else would be there that Eason knew they would want to spend an evening with. I was seated next to the VP of Burger King, who whispered in my ear, “I had no idea Eason had this kind of money.” I responded, “She doesn’t.” Alarmed, she said, “Well how is she going to pay for this?” I said, “Watch.” Courses were served by white gloved waiters, wine flowed with each course, dessert was served, and everyone was having a grand time. At the end of the dinner the maitre d’ came to the table and presented Eason the bill. Of course, he knew most of the dinner guests and was most discreet with the bill. The Burger King VP and I watched keenly as Eason reached for her Vuitton bag, fetched her wallet, and pulled out an engraved calling card that said, “Eason Dobbs, 92nd Floor, John Hancock Tower, Chicago.” Eason presented this card to the maitre d’ and asked if he wouldn’t mind forwarding the bill to her business manager in Chicago. So as not to create a scene in front of this prominent crowd, the maitre d’ retreated with her calling card, unpaid bill in hand. The following week Eason spent calling each of the guests, inviting them to join her Four Seasons syndicate, where in exchange for their investment in these condominiums they would share in the profits to come. Everyone politely declined. As the weeks wore on Eason became less welcome as a guest at the Four Seasons. With her best laid plans coming to a halt when the investors failed to invest, no money otherwise and a maitre d’ on her tail, she packed up her Louis Vuitton luggage, black mink and pearls, loaded up the pickup truck and drove back to Crossville, Alabama, where her father once again came to her rescue. Rob Rose Long-time friend of Eason’s +
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 13:34:30 +0000