James Gorman Stays in Character, Everyone Else Goes Bananas

(Bloomberg) -- Chris Allen of Medley Management spent Halloween night in a gorilla costume, trick-or-treating for his favorite candies (gummy bears, Swedish fish, the rarely seen Chuckles) with his son, dressed to match as a banana.

“Usually I’m the banana,” his wife, Kate Allen, said at Thursday’s opening night of the Tefaf art fair, looking quite relieved to be wearing a simple black top and floral pants by Etro. Not that she could escape top-banana billing. As president of the Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering, she stood by the entrance thanking guests for their support through their first-look tickets.

This was the place to not get into Halloween. Forget about candy corn, there were freshly shucked oysters. Forget about ghosts, there was a bust of Lord Byron. And forget about a gorilla costume: James Gorman, the Morgan Stanley CEO, was in a plain old suit and tie as he perused the booth of Munich jewelry design house Hemmerle, glass of white wine in hand.

“I’m just on downtime,” Gorman said, declining to pose for a photograph.

Kate Allen got her Halloween fix earlier in the day, giving personalized bags of treats to hospital patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering as an example of one of the activities her group organizes. It also runs education programs about cancer, which brings us back to her financier husband.

Chris Allen is so fair he’s constantly monitoring his skin for cancer, his wife said. His complexion also may be responsible for his delight in being a dark, hairy gorilla on Halloween, she added.

Of course, he wasn’t the only gorilla last night. At New York Restoration Project’s Hulaween benefit, Cyndi Lauper came out to perform in an ape suit, which she wore for a few bars before undressing in front of hundreds to reveal a platinum bob hairdo and a cream silk suit.

Both outfits went with the event’s theme: “Haunted Hollywood: The Golden Age.” Catherine Zeta-Jones was Jean Harlow, Michael Douglas was Lawrence of Arabia and Larry Milstein was the Carol Burnett version of Scarlett O’Hara.

Bo Polk, a former chairman of MGM, was dressed as a centurion sitting for Chasen’s chicken pot pie with Cleopatra (his wife Anna). Charles Bendit, co-CEO of Taconic Investment Partners, wasn’t sure what he was dressed up as, in his striped suit and straw hat.

“Black and white gangster,” said his daughter Marissa, who works for Disney and had a Morticia Addams look going.

Ben Platt, the “Dear Evan Hansen” actor with Gwyneth Paltrow as his mom in Netflix’s “The Politician,” was all done up as the Tin Man for a musical number, a version of “Monster Mash” designed to wrangle “monster cash” from guests. To offer more incentive on the way to raising about $2 million, Bette Midler dressed as Mae West introduced “The Utterly Corrupt People’s Choice Award” for the biggest text-pledger of the evening.

The things they make you do at a benefit! Citigroup’s Ray McGuire not only pledged to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, he got to be honored with his wife Crystal. Two Sigma’s David Siegel got to emcee for the Scratch Foundation. Harlem School of the Arts helped Racquel Oden of JPMorgan bond with actress Lupita Nyong’o.

And no one made them do it, but General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford bit into his friend John Monsky’s medal at the New-York Historical Society gala, Rupert Murdoch joined Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump Jr. at a benefit for the Hudson Institute, and Vornado’s Steve Roth showed up without a tie at the black-tie Sir John Soane’s Museum gala. (“As a 75th birthday present to myself, I vowed never to wear a tie again,” Roth said.).

From how Kate Allen spoke of her stints in a banana costume, it sounded like she’d prefer another look, but she’s willing to be a “good spouse” and do it all over again. Just don’t hand her any Chuckles. She prefers a Butterfinger or Baby Ruth.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Peter Eichenbaum

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