Columnists: East Side Story

It was Saturday afternoon in New York, and the Journal-American's Columnist ("Man About Manhattan") and Theater Critic John McClain had a date with Mrs. Anne Ford, recently divorced from Henry Ford II. They were going to see the movie Tom Jones. And thereby hangs a tale.

"According to my theory," wrote McClain in a Runyonesque account, "the whole thing was preordained. We get there at 4 p.m. instead of 4:40 when the next showing begins." With time to kill, McClain and Mrs. Ford decided to have a cup of espresso. "It occurs to me that at such an hour on a Saturday afternoon in New York, the only places prepared to serve espresso coffee are large hotels. So I say why don't we go to the Regency, the new hotel at Park and 61st." Mrs. Ford suggested that they go to the Delmonico instead. But McClain felt an invisible force tugging him toward the Regency.

"We go in and a captain says, 'Do you want to go to the bar?' and I say, 'No, we just want a cup of coffee.' So he leads us to a table in a small room next to the bar where there are a few tables and some banquettes, and he seats us exactly next to the only two other people in the room.

"And the only two other people in the small room are Frank Ryan, an old friend of mine who now lives mostly in Madrid, and Mrs. Christina Austin, who is the lady whose name was mentioned with Mr. Ford's prior to and during the divorce. We are seated and settled in before the incredible coincidence is discovered, and then it is Mrs. Ford who has the poise to take charge. 'This had to happen some time,' she whispers.

'I think the only gracious thing is to go over and say hello. You know, I've never met her.'

"So we get up and go over and everybody shakes hands. It is all very civilized, but if there were a way to bottle up the electricity in that little room it would run the Ford industries for a solid year. Then we exit, rapidly, and go back to the theater and, I must say, that Tom Jones is a whale of a picture."