Sizzling Red Hot Pool Party Fundraiser Was the Society Event of Midsummer; Wind up Summer 2024 with the Festival Itself

by Grayling Holmes / photos by Grayling Holmes

The Summer of 2024 truly has lived up its billing as being RED HOT for the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. Nothing exemplified it better than when 100+ high-society arts supporters gathered at the tony home of Bill Donius and Jay Perez for the RED HOT POOL PARTY fundraiser on Sunday, July 14th. Strike that. Nothing exemplifies the Red Hot Summer better, until tonight, when the crown jewel of Tennessee William’s canon of work, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, takes the stage for its much-anticipated opening night. For ELEVEN steamy days, count on Tennessee’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning play to bring the heat. Bring your hankies, folks, to wipe the sweat from your brow and seats as you watch “Cat” at the Grandel Theatre in the Grand Arts District. You will revel in how celebrated Broadway director Michael Wilson brings a gifted cast to life that does Tennessee’s work proud. Thanks to fundraisers like the Grand Dame Cabaret in May, and the Pool Party in July, the sizzling August festival is possible.

I was honored to be both photographer and videographer for the event. Resplendent in her chic sheer red swim cover, and me in my red outfit, my daughter Amy and I walked up to the Kingsbury Place manse. Immediately, we were immersed in a sea of party-goers similarly clad in red. Host Bill Donius greeted us. Color us impressed as he showed us around the spacious first floor of he and his partner’s “humble” home. The house was abuzz with excited laughter and chatter from guests filling the home with can only be described as midsummer joy.

Hosts Bill Donius and his partner Jay Perez.

And things only got better when Bill showed us past the dining room table laden with ripe summer fruits, hot as well as chilled hors d’oeuvres, and choice cheeses. He graciously, escorted us to the next room as we scooted past other guests gathered at the open bar. We glance at the well-stocked bar, manned by two bartenders serving up libations. Walking through the 10-foot tall patio doors, Bill transported us to an outdoor oasis where black and white umbrellas kept shade over those who favored the 98 degree heat over the pleasures of their climate-controlled rooms.

The blue waters of the pool beckoned. Red balls dotted the cerulean waters, waiting playfully for those who would later swim, and accentuating the RED HOT theme of the event.

“Amy, I need to interview Bill for a minute,” I said. “Why don’t you go back inside and avail yourself of some munchies and a drink? I’ll catch up.”

For those of you who don’t know, Bill Donius is the now-retired chairman and CEO of Pulaski Bank in St. Louis. In 20 years, he took the bank from a relatively small financial institution with 160-million in assets to one with a billion plus. When asked why he agreed to host this, the third annual TWSTL pool party, he said, “Well, my partner Jay and I are both supportive of the arts in general. We were actually on their board many years ago,” Bill responded. “We like Tennessee’s work and try to do one or two things a year for community organizations like the festival. And, we know Carrie (Houk) and Teddy too, so it was a no-brainer to get involved.”

I smiled a bit when he referred to TWSTL Board President Ted White as “Teddy,” never having heard him called Teddy. I gleaned that they went waaay back. “We attend the festival plays because Tennessee works are a unique form of theater and the organization is laser focused on bringing his remarkable work to us,” Bill pointed out.

He went on to tell me that through the years he had been and remains a fervent supporter of the Matthews Dickey Boys and Girls Club and other local charities. He and Jay are good stewards of the community. I thanked him for inviting me into his home and after a brief photo shoot with him, made my way back into the house, loaded up a plate and ordered a Maker’s Mark neat from the gracious bartender.

I then saw a striking young woman across the way and decided to strike up a conversation with her. She stood out because she was wearing a crimson swim wrap almost identical, yet twice as chic, as the one my daughter was wearing.

“Hi, I’m Jessica Taveres,” she said. “I’m a friend of Ted’s. Actually, I met him when I first moved to St. Louis and assumed my role overseeing car sales across the North Central US for Enterprise Holdings.” She continued by telling me that she and Ted met when she joined the advisory board of Missouri Baptist Hospital soon after relocating here from Philadelphia two and a half years ago. “It was pouring rain when I got there and we both got into the same elevator. He must have noticed that I looked lost. We locked eyes and I said that I have no idea where I’m going,” she recalled. “He said, oh just follow me and I’ll get you wherever you need to go.”

She and Ted are both on the board of the Saint Louis Fashion Fund. The St. Louis Six Degrees of Separation struck as it often does when conversing with a stranger in this, the “biggest small town in America. “You must know Susan Sherman,” I asked rhetorically. “Susan and I have been colleagues and friends for more that 30 years. We started working together at a big St. Louis PR firm run by the same guy I work for now who owns Sophisticated Living St. Louis. And I know Ted because he is one of the magazine’s most enduring advertisers.” BOOM! Six degrees. Four people. Only in St. Louis.

I then got down to business and asked her why she was at the TWSTL pool party fundraiser. “Well, I think it’s important to support everything in the arts,” she said. “Anything that we can do to be involved with the arts and bring awareness, well, that’s huge. I think it’s important to learn about the different things that are happening in our communities and within other orbits.”

“I interact with this organization because not only did Ted introduce me to it, but because Tennessee Williams and his work are fabulous,” she enthused. “It’s fabulous because it is authentic to St. Louis and it’s a big part of history here and I will support that.”

I then bumped into Lococo Fine Arts Publisher Artist Liaison Matt Mercer, another of our long-time Sophisticated Living advertisers. Matt was festooned in a designer outfit that could only be described as “couture pajama pool wear” that stepped straight out of a watercolor painting. Everyone was complimenting him on his choice in red-accented attire. Matt and I go way back to our days when I was the VP of marketing and PR for the Grande Dame in the bar industry, the inimitable, late Ms. Nancy Novak. Again, this pesky six degrees thing. I hadn’t seen Matt in more than 15 years. Then, all of a sudden began working with him tangentially through the magazine. Then, I started bumping into him at TWSTL events. “What brings you here today, this must be the umpteenth time our paths have crossed this year?” I said exaggeratedly after paying him what must have been his gazillioneth compliment on his tasteful ensemble. “Oh, I’m the newest board member to the festival, and I like parties,” he said with a wink in his eye and a high ball in his hand. (For our younger readers, a high ball is a baby boomer way of saying cocktail, btw.)

Ted Wight hands Matt Mercer placed the highest bid in the live auction.

“Wow, I remarked. You really have come a long way, baby from when we met in your 20’s. Professional art afficionado, now board member of one of the most highly-regarded theatrical organizations in the city. Proud to know you, Mr. Mercer,” I said, with a wink in my eye, a grin in voice, high ball in one hand, my Samsung Galaxy 24 Ultra camera/tape recorder in the other. “Oh, you can still call me Matt,” he said with a winsome smile on his face. I then asked him the question of the day. “I joined the board for three reasons. First, I love Tennessee Williams. He is not only the most talented and storied playwright St. Louis has ever produced, but he was openly gay back in the day when being gay was seriously taboo, even dangerous. What balls that must have taken,” Matt said with admiration for Tennessee in his voice. “Secondly, because I am a true fan of the dark humor that embodies many of his works. I’ve seen the movie version of ‘Cat,’ but never the play. I’m going to see it twice during the festival.”

“Enough, said, brother,” I remarked and started to walk away. “Grayling, don’t you want to hear the third reason? I come for the people. The people that people these Tennessee Williams gatherings, and the people that people the theater seats, are deep thinking, gregarious individuals. They are my people. They are my tribe.” Drop the mic, I thought. This young man, 20 years my junior, has truly grown up and transformed. Perhaps that was the gift all of us get from the propinquity of six degrees in St. Louis, to share our love of things with others and to nurture their mutual love.

Next, it was on to the man of the hour, this year’s honoree at the pool party, John Russell. He was being honored as one of the original philanthropists and patrons who came to the aid of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis when Carrie Houk tested it out in 2014, and officially started it nine seasons ago in 2015. “Back then, Carrie came to me with a great idea of starting the festival here. I thought about it and quickly agreed to help with financing,” he said. John is a 38-year veteran financial adviser with Stifel. “She’s done a great job with it,” he said of Carrie. “It’s really grown through the years. I think its because St. Louis has a lot of culture and a lot of educated people live here, and a great many of his plays were written here.” He went on to laud the accomplishments of the Mississippi native who lived in St. Louis for years and wrote many plays here. “He is probably one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.”

Next, he said something that I chuckled at and will always remember, “Williams said that he wasn’t particularly known for his philanthropy, but the most philanthropic thing he considered that he ever did was casting Marlon Brando in a tee shirt.” With that, he walked away, leaving me with an impression not only of himself but of the marked humor and sense of self that Tennessee imbued his characters with, and left the world to forever delve into his unmatched cannon of work.

Join the festival through August 18th. For more information, go to twstl.org.