Grande Dame

House & Garden, the magazine launched in 1901 and acquired by Conde Nast publications in 1911, was shut down Monday. "It was the grande dame, all fantasy and not enough service," says Samir Husni, chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi. "It lost touch with its readers." It has now died twice. In 1993, Conde Nast purchased Architectural Digest, killing House & Garden -- renamed HG (see below) by Anna Wintour, who revived the title before moving to Vogue.

With an international career that spans four decades, Jessye Norman is a long way from her childhood in a supportive, education-minded family in Augusta, Ga., singing in the church choir. It's much easier to envision the statuesque star as the reported inspiration for the 1982 French film thriller "Diva," whose title character embodies all the excess the word implies. One reason the stereotype lives on: In recent years, Norman has avoided the press. The reason, she says, is that many who show up to question her might as easily hail from the sports department or the gardening section as the classical music beat.

With an international career that spans four decades, Jessye Norman is a long way from her childhood in a supportive, education-minded family in Augusta, Ga., singing in the church choir. It's much easier to envision the statuesque star as the reported inspiration for the 1982 French film thriller "Diva," whose title character embodies all the excess the word implies. One reason the stereotype lives on: In recent years, Norman has avoided the press. The reason, she says, is that many who show up to question her might as easily hail from the sports department or the gardening section as the classical music beat.

There's no substitute for a grand old hotel, preferably one that predates the Great Depression, appoints its public rooms with senatorial gravitas, and keeps a fleet of comfortable chairs on its veranda. This list is far from comprehensive (for a longer list of likely suspects, there's Historic Hotels of America (www.historichotels.org), but these are places we've checked out in the last few years. Ahwahnee, Yosemite National Park: Where once stood a Miwok village in Yosemite Valley, the Ahwahnee's stacked boulders and heavy beams serve park visitors who carry fat wallets and plan well ahead.

The celebrated Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, perennially at or near the top of everyone's "best" lists, has undergone a face-lift and added a sleek new wing that it formally inaugurates Thursday.

An ambulance raced to the scene of an accident on Interstate 5 south of Bakersfield. The driver, it seemed, had dozed off at the wheel and hit a guard rail. When the paramedic peered into the car and saw the uninjured driver, a flash of recognition came across his face. "I don't suppose you remember me," the paramedic told Gladys Waddingham, "but I used to be in your Spanish class at Inglewood High School." Another former student had just encountered Inglewood's most acclaimed former teacher.

Before the Music Center rose on Bunker Hill, Los Angeles' cultural heart belonged to Pershing Square. In those days, the square's nighttime habitues were not the homeless, but well-dressed couples out for a breath of flower-scented air during the intermission in that night's play or concert. West of the square stood the "host of the Coast," the Biltmore Hotel, and, beside it for four decades, the Biltmore Theater.

Phyllis A. Whitney, the grande dame of American gothic fiction who contributed to the rebirth of the genre in paperback and who wrote more than 70 mysteries and novels for readers of all ages in a career that spanned six decades, has died. She was 104. Whitney died Friday of pneumonia at a Charlottesville, Va., hospital, said her daughter, Georgia Pearson.

In "Pangaean Dreams," Rachel Rosenthal, that 64-year-old grande dame of performance art, covers it all. The story begins with the breaking up of Pangaea, a once-solid land mass of 250 million years ago, into our current continents. She relates the journey of these land masses to her own personal journey when she and her parents fled their Paris home as Holocaust refugees 50 years ago. And then relates the breaking up of the continents to the breaks and tears in her own aging body.

She was one of America's most colorful and remarkable journalists, the grande dame of Los Angeles newspapering, and the first female city editor of a major metropolitan paper. Agness Underwood--Aggie to her colleagues and the whole city--was a crusty, tough-talking woman who ruled the city's news appetite with a combination of toughness, professional know-how and sentimentality. She was a mother of two who cooked her special spaghetti not only for her kids, but for Errol Flynn and Mickey Cohen.

Louise Bourgeois, an internationally revered artist whose intensely personal work was inspired by psychological conflict, feminist consciousness and a fertile imagination, has died. She was 98. Bourgeois died Monday at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan after suffering a heart attack on Saturday, said Wendy Williams, managing director of the Louise Bourgeois Studio in New York. Known for sculptures of giant spiders, women with extra breasts, double-headed phalluses and rooms that resonate with loneliness and dread, Bourgeois was a fearless creative force whose work could be disturbing and perversely witty.

Elin Brekke Vanderlip, the Norwegian-born grande dame of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and founder of a Los Angeles group that raised millions of dollars to help rescue France's cultural riches, has died. She was 90. Vanderlip, who was a member of the family that once owned much of the peninsula, died July 20 of heart failure at her home in Rancho Palos Verdes, said her daughter Narcissa. In 1979, Vanderlip founded Friends of French Art, an organization that helped restore the country's art and architecture by making relatively small donations -- $10,000 or $20,000 -- that over the next 21 years were matched dollar for dollar by the French government.

If you're looking for a budget vacation, check out Reno's annual Artown festival, which is offering 400 events this month in the Nevada city, most free. The lineup includes concerts, cultural celebrations, theatrical performances, dance, art exhibits, outdoor movies and children's workshops. The festival draws more than 100 artists, musicians and other presenters.

Eileen Slocum, 92, the grand dame of society in Newport, R.I., who lived in a Gilded Age mansion along Millionaires' Row and who until early this year was a member of the Republican National Committee, died Sunday after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Slocum lived in the Harold Carter Brown House, a Gothic Revival-style estate built in the 1890s by her uncle, a member of the wealthy family that established Brown University. In her mansion, Slocum held fundraisers and parties for President Ford, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.

Phyllis A. Whitney, the grande dame of American gothic fiction who contributed to the rebirth of the genre in paperback and who wrote more than 70 mysteries and novels for readers of all ages in a career that spanned six decades, has died. She was 104. Whitney died Friday of pneumonia at a Charlottesville, Va., hospital, said her daughter, Georgia Pearson.

If anyone knows about Hollywood hostessing, it's Sue Mengers. The tart-tongued former super-agent who represented Barbra Streisand, Candice Bergen, Ryan O'Neal and other stars is as legendary as the parties she held in the 1970s and '80s at her Bel-Air home. (Mengers calls it her "party house" as opposed to the more modest--by Hollywood standards--"dinner house" she now lives in in Beverly Hills.

Thank you for the beautiful article on the Los Angeles Theatre ("To Heck With a Movie; Let the Theater Entertain You," Feb. 26). They certainly do not build anything like that anymore. I would like to find out if there are tours offered for the public. Please let me know. Emina Darakjy Pasadena Editor's note: Only tours of the exterior of the Los Angeles Theatre are being offered by the Los Angeles Conservancy. The interior is not accessible to the public. Tears came to my eyes remembering the beautiful old theaters from my youth during the 1930s and '40s.

House & Garden, the magazine launched in 1901 and acquired by Conde Nast publications in 1911, was shut down Monday. "It was the grande dame, all fantasy and not enough service," says Samir Husni, chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi. "It lost touch with its readers." It has now died twice. In 1993, Conde Nast purchased Architectural Digest, killing House & Garden -- renamed HG (see below) by Anna Wintour, who revived the title before moving to Vogue.

ONE warm October evening, you're sitting outside with friends under trellises trained with bougainvillea, about to begin dinner on the terrace of one of the most glamorous hotels in the world. The wine's magnificent, the china's gorgeous. A plate of risotto is set before you, preceded by an amazing aroma -- the first Piedmont white truffles of the season. The waiter ceremoniously displays the prized specimen -- the truffle -- then shaves it in a gorgeous flurry over your dish.