For a man who has had a lifetime of honors, Thursday evening was clearly Leonard Lauder’s moment. He found himself on stage at the Waldorf-Astoria being serenaded by rock royalty in the form of Sir Elton John. “If he were in England, he would have the sword. He would be Sir Leonard by now,” Elton John began. Then he concluded the song with a salute: “Leonard Lauder, the greatest man I know.”
The event was the annual Breast Cancer Research Foundation gala, which Lauder’s late wife Evelyn founded, and the song was Elton John’s way of presenting the chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., with Roz and Leslie Goldstein Sung Hero award. The award is normally called the unsung hero award, but as Roz Goldstein pointed out, Leonard Lauder cannot be called unsung.
Related Articles
The Thursday evening dinner raised close to $7 million for breast cancer research, bringing the organization’s lifetime total to more than $535 million.
You May Also Like
“Am I the sung hero?” Lauder replied to Elton John’s impromptu tribute. “No, you all are,” he said the packed ballroom, then went on to thank everyone for their support through the years.
The other high point of evening for the crowd was a 35-minute concert by Tony Bennett, who belted out some of his biggest hits of his 50-year career.
Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., had new wife Judith Glickman Lauder on his arm as he navigated the pink carpet. “We’re like two kids,” he said. “We were never really single. When we got married [to their respective original spouses], we did not know what marriage was. You got married, you had babies, you went to nursery school and if they got sick, they threw up in bed. And here we are, I dare say, grownups and enjoying ourselves.”
While chatting along the rope line, Lauder spotted one of the evening’s co-chairs, Lizzie Tisch, and pointed out that he was once an upstairs neighbor of hers. A noisy neighbor, he joked, saying he was a heavy walker with loud footsteps.
“In the building, we call him trouble,” cracked Tisch.
Lauder was presented with his Sung Hero award by his granddaughters, Eliana, Danielle and Rachel Lauder. “Pa, I’m honored to spend this evening with you,” Danielle Lauder told her grandfather in front of a room of more than 1,000 people.
Attendees’ summer plans also came up. Donna Karan revealed that she’s setting up a vocational school in Haiti in June, while William Lauder’s plan to have his knee replaced sounded considerably less fun. Elizabeth Hurley is filming the second season of her television show, “The Royals,” on which she plays a fictional Queen Helena.
“It’s fabulous to play the queen,” she said, noting that filming starts in June and wraps in September. “I like to be the queen. It’s good fun.”