BY ALBERT AMATEAU | The title of her 2013 autobiography, “Memoir of an Independent Woman: An Unconventional Life Well Lived,” fit her perfectly.
Tania Grossinger, publicist, writer, raconteur and a Village resident for more than 50 years, who grew up at Grossinger’s, the renowned Catskills resort run by a cousin, died in hospice care July 19 after a short illness. She was 78.
Her list of public relations clients included Playboy — Hugh Hefner’s magazine and clubs — and Betty Friedan’s landmark book “The Feminine Mystique.” She appeared on national television — including “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and “20/20” — and on countless local TV and radio shows across the country.
In an interview two years ago with Jerry Tallmer in The Villager, she spoke about first coming to Greenwich Village after graduating from Brandeis University in 1959 and finding a 3½-room rent-controlled apartment on Christopher St. for $168 a month. She played trumpet and her roommate composed music, but they kept it very quiet and passed a six-month trial period. The roommate left after four years but Grossinger remained for the next 54 years.
“She loved the Village so much,” said Violetta Bitici, who with her father, Sergio, runs Macelleria, the Meatpacking District restaurant. “She created a drink for us — the Macellerita — after the margarita, because it’s made with tequilla. And she loved The Villager. She would bring us clippings from it. She read lots of papers every day and would clip articles and ads by hand rather than use e-mail. She would always tell us about specials in the neighborhood,” Violetta recalled.
“She did some public relations consulting for us in the early ’80s and we’ve been friends ever since,” said Sergio. “We used to meet for lunch at least once a month. We’d talk about restaurant ideas. She’d keep me posted on what was happening culturally. We had a party at Macelleria for Tania and her boyfriend, Art D’Lugoff, shortly before he died in 2009,” Sergio recalled.
D’Lugoff, who died at age 85 in November 2009, was an illustrious producer of jazz and owner of the famed Village Gate on Bleecker St. In her memoir, Grossinger wrote about first meeting D’Lugoff around 1970 at the Lion’s Head, a Christopher St. bar frequented by writers. Grossinger had had a brief marriage to a podiatrist that ended when they discovered they weren’t in step. Her partnership with D’Lugoff, who was married, lasted 40 years.
Sergio said that he and Grossinger last met at Macelleria on May 10 but she began declining shortly after that.
Rocio and Jimmy Sanz, who have been running Tio Pepe, a restaurant on W. Fourth St., for the past 45 years, also recalled their friendship with Grossinger.
“She did some public relations work for us and we became friends,” Rocio said. “She would drop by the restaurant on Sunday and over a bottle of wine tell us wonderful stories about her life,” Rocio added.
In an earlier memoir, “Growing Up at Grossinger’s,” Tania Grossinger tells the story of her meeting, at the age of eight, with Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier of Major League Baseball as a star with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Tania’s mother, Karla, was working for her cousin Jenny Grossinger, owner of the Catskills resort, when Robinson, his wife, Rachel, and their children were spending a few days there.
Young Tania, who had a reputation as a prodigal ping-pong player, accepted a challenge from Robinson and won their match.
“I told him I thought he let me win. He bought me an ice cream soda and said, ‘You’re too young to be so cynical,’” she told Tallmer in a 2008 interview. Grossinger and Robinson became lifelong friends.
In the interview, Grossinger also told Tallmer about the genesis of “Growing Up at Grossinger’s.”
A bartender at the Lion’s Head known as Schrank, tired of hearing Grossinger grouse about how she wanted to be a writer, gave her a dime and told her to go home and write, but before then, to call Bill Honan, travel editor at The New York Times, and say Schrank told you to ask for an appointment.
After dismissing one of Grossinger’s ideas, Honan jumped when she said, “Well, I grew up at Grossinger’s.” The interview turned out to become a travel article and the article turned out to become a book, published in 1975. Incidentally, Honan had been editor of The Villager in the late 1950s.
Grossinger, whose childhood was spent first in Beverly Hills, and then shuttled between Chicago and the Catskills, told Tallmer that she felt her Christopher St. home in the Village was her cocoon.
Her obituary notice in the Times was signed by two cousins, Mary Ann Grossinger and Pat Strongin, “with special memories and much love.” A memorial will be announced later.
