No, the people are not from a famous set of quadruplets, but three are from a pictured group of people enjoying what looks like a late lunch in the garden of Cafe Nicholson on West 58th Street in NYC in 1949. The diners, from left to right are: Tanaquil Le Clercq, Donald Windham, Buffie Johnson, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. Messrs. Windam and Vidal had the photo accompany their obituaries. Ms. Buffie Johnson hers.
As described in a blog posting many years ago, it is a "key race" photo, as much as for the artistic and literary careers of the diners, as for their longevity.
The same people, left to right, passed away at 71, 89, 94, 71, and 86. The photographer who took the picture, Karl Bissinger, was 94. The food must have conferred its own form of longevity.
And now we have an unseen member of the same crowd, the fourth person to have the same photo accompany their obituary, Johnny Nicholson, at whose restaurant the photo was taken, who has now passed away at 99. Perhaps he ate more of the food.
Mr. Nicholson was partners with the chef, Edna Lewis, who went on the become a major exponent of traditional Southern cooking and who authored many cookbooks. Mr. Bissinger was Mr. Nicholson's partner in an antique business.
The restaurant was a favorite amongst artists and celebrities, and survived until 1999, despite protracted closing spells caused by the owner's extensive travels.
To me, Mr. Nicholson is distinguished by the reason he was not accepted for military service in 1941. An Army psychiatrist recognized him as someone he treated at a children's psychiatric hospital for chronic, perhaps even epic truancy from school. Who knows how different Mr. Nicholson's life might have been if the Army doctor separated school truancy from punctuality in making the date for his pre-induction physical. It's the first I ever heard of a reason for being turned away from military service.
The server in the background of the picture is Virginia Reed, who I'm going to guess has also passed on. The chef, Edna Lewis, passed away at in 2006 at 89. She rated her own NYT obituary. Her life was no less interesting that that of her diners, being the granddaughter of a slave, an accomplished seamstress, cookbook author, chef, pheasant farm owner and spouse of a Communist retired merchant seaman.
You had to love the era.
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