R.I.P.

Remembering Hickey (Fondly) and Elaine (Not So Fondly)

Photo: Patrick McMullan

Adweek editorial director Michael Wolff, last seen feuding with Toby Young, has now gone and spat on the corpse of Elaine Kaufman in the pages of British GQ. “Page Six” quotes from his profile of the “loud, stupid, uncomprehending woman”: “Her baying voice was a particular slow chalk on a blackboard … This is a joke. Nobody enjoys this. It’s at her expense. She’s a grotesque. She’s the freak show … A Toscanini of crassness.” Meanwhile, the memories of Jim Hickey — who died just weeks after he had to give up his bar of 44 years, Hickey’s — are fonder. Friends initially believed the 75-year-old, who manned the midtown time capsule every day despite bad health, collapsed from the heartbreak of having to pack up after the rent was upped by $5,000 to $6,000, but DNA Info reports he was suffering from late-stage colon cancer. If you weren’t familiar with Hickey’s, let this Midtown Lunch profile serve as an introduction.

Cowardly Critique of Elaine [Page Six/NYP]
Hickey’s Bar Owner Dies After Closing Namesake Midtown Saloon [DNA Info]

Remembering Hickey (Fondly) and Elaine (Not So Fondly)