Urban Adventures on The Big Apple – Part 1
This past January we spent a few days in New York city. While we stayed in a hotel a few steps from Times and did’t leave Manhattan the whole time we were in the city, a trip to “The Big Apple” is always an adventure. The yearly pilgrimage to the city that never sleeps for a few days of shopping, theatre and wining and dining has become a tradition for my wife and her friends. This year her cousin brought her husband along and we made it more of a couples’ getaway. Additionally, in other to appease my grumblings during the long hours of shopping, Brenda agreed to a couple of activities that were more in line with my interest.
Some time before the trip I had read an article in Men’s Vogue Magazine about a store front in Park Avenue for a legendary Safari company called FM Allen. The company was founded by the late Maurice “Bunny” Allen, famed big game hunter and guide, who orchestrated the safari location shoot for Mogambo and was an adviser on African Queen and other classic movies set in Africa. Today the company is owned by Tee Faircloth who has turned the tiny storefront into a kind of museum for a collection of vintage safari and aviation inspired artifacts as well as a show room for a high priced line of safari clothing.
Having read my share of Hemingway stories, I had to check out this place. The cab dropped us off at the cross street indicated for that address on the cabbie’s handy pocket reference. It took us a while to find the actual address since the store was tiny and the outside a lot more nondescript than I thought, as it frequently happens with things you read about in magazines or watch on TV. We thought the place was closed but as we peered through the windows a lady appeared and opened the door for us. We stepped inside and our contingent of four quickly took up the entire available space.
We browsed the shelves pretending that we could afford something. Some of the artifacts were impressive such as the large three-bladed propeller hanging from the handrail of the interior balcony. I climbed the cramped stairs and talked to a gentleman whom I assumed was Mr. Faircloth. He told me that the exhibition was being moved temporarily to Dallas in just a few hours. I thought it was cool that I got to see this and would like to have a similar collection some day; however, mine will probably be salvaged from thrift stores rather than bought from an Upper East Side storefront.
