Tiger, Tiger...
and More Tigers

Alex Donner's debut as the Sunday-night bandleader in resident at the Café Carlyle had the makings of a class notes column in the Princeton alumni magazine. Mr. Donner (Class of 1975) and many of the guests had been invited by Dr. Cap Lesesne (Class of '77), a plastic surgeon who has known Mr. Donner since before college. "Some of your friends are your college friends." So Dr. Lesesne invited Nancy Peretsman (Class of '76), an executive vice president and managing director of Allen & Company, and her husband, Robert Scully (Class of 1972), an investment banker; Leslie Stevens (Class of '81), a publicist whose clients include Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Banana Republic; and Thomas Zacharias, a vice president of Corporate Property Investors, a real estate investment company. Also in the audience were Mr. Donner's father, Joseph Donner (Class of 1949), a retired foreign service officer, and Jose Pincay-Delgado (Class of 1977), the chief financial officer of Alex Donner's entertainment company.

Not everyone on Dr. Lesesne's list had a Princeton connection. Phyllis George, a former Miss America whose book, "Never say Never," is being published this month, was there, as was Barbara Taylor Bradford, who left with apologies for having to get up at 5 am yesterday to work on her latest book; John H. Gutfreund, a former chief executive of Salomon Brothers; and Alice F. Mason, the real-estate broker.

Mr. Donner talked about his first job after Princeton, driving a taxi, and about quitting a later job as a lawyer to be a full-time bandleader. Until then, he had worked in a law firm during the week and had led his band on weekends, playing wedding receptions. Wearing one hat or the other, he said, he could have handled a couple's prenuptial agreement, played at their wedding reception, handled the divorce and played at the second wedding reception.

James Barron | October 8, 2002