Hasta La Ideas

Founded in 1991 and opened in 1995, Gilda’s Club New York City was the site Friday of a intimate celebration of Gene Wilder‘s life. Among those sharing memories of Wilder and his second wife Gilda Radner were actor Mandy Patinkin, who first met Radner when he shot a TV commercial in Canada at age 17, and Allan Zweibel, who wrote for her on Saturday Night Live.

From a report by The Daily Beast’s Tim Teeman:

One day Patinkin put on his dressing room door an the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway a quote of Radner’s, or so he believed: “Enjoy the delicious ambiguity of life.” For a nervous person like Patinkin, “there is no person on earth that wanted to hear those words more than me then, and now, and tomorrow and tomorrow.”

A fellow actor told him the quote actually belonged to Joanna Bull, Radner’s cancer psychotherapist.

The next day, Patinkin bumped into film critic Joel Siegel whose wife had passed away from cancer, who told him he had just spoken to Bull about setting up a cancer center, and then Bull herself flew into New York, and soon Patinkin was involved in the setting up of Gilda’s Club with Siegel, Wilder and Bull.

Bull is writing a memoir and at Friday’s event, she revealed it will be called Delightful Ambiguity. During her remarks, she also revisited a landmark weekend for the cancer charity in Chicago that involved Princess Diana. As an added bonus, The Daily Beast article ends with the recipe for Chicken Wilder (as recalled by Zweibel’s daughter Robin), a dish the actor used to love to serve up for friends.

Previously on FishbowlNY:
RIP: Gene Wilder

Image via: gildasclubnyc.org