Get to know our guest: Vita Paladino
The Boston Globe recently covered Vita’s treasure keeping ways at Boston University.
Before diving into the article, here are some notes provided by Andrew Holden on one of our most frequent guests:
Vita is a weekly guest at Eastern Standard as long as I can remember. With more than 400 visits, Vita is the most incredible host of the party-almost no one else gets to look at a menu as she is in control of each dining experience. It is well known, Vita visits starts with raw bar (always and at all hours)!
At times, ES has had a secret stash of Red Zen herbal tea (not in the program) for Vita on hand. Additionally, when Vita is celebrating she sticks to the classics, negroni or sipping whiskey on the rocks!
Caroline Markham adds:
Vita can tell you every true story about BU history. Sometimes when a nostalgic mood comes along she will bring me by table 31 to tell me stories of John Silber… it was and always will be “his table.”Vita is extremely loyal to ES and thinks of us as a second home, for every occasion.
From a private office, she catalogues public lives
Vita Paladino is the keeper of a treasure trove. As director of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, Paladino curates the personal collections of an array of contemporary figures — from Martin Luther King Jr. to Robin Williams to Dan Rather to the late Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Researchers and historians visit the vast archives, housed in BU’s Mugar Memorial Library, to pore over personal papers and scrutinize historical letters. Paladino’s private office is curated more personally — if not more carefully. She gets attached to things and she doesn’t let them go.
“I feel like a junk shop,” the 65-year-old Brookline resident jokes. “My house isn’t too different.”
Jam-packed with the bric-a-brac of famous clients who became her friends, the office has the feel of a cozy family parlor — if your family included iconic journalists, ballerinas, historical figures, and Hollywood actresses.
The office is filled with classical art and leather and upholstered chairs in rich earth tones, and dotted with green plants and an orchid. To sit in the office is to be surrounded; faces lean curiously toward you from almost every angle. They include a classical bust of Isaac Rich, the founder of BU, a wooden carving of writer W. Somerset Maugham, and a painting of a youthful Gotlieb.
Paladino, who started as a secretary at the archives 42 years ago, worked closely with Gotlieb and succeeded him in his role after he died in 2005. His cane dangles from one of the bookshelves.
Behind her desk hangs a painting of Erica Morini an Austrian-born violinist whose collection is housed at the archives.
“I like her looking over my shoulder,” Paladino says.
Over her other shoulder peers a youthful Bette Davis in the portrait that appeared in the movie “Jezebel.”
And on the bookshelves looms an image of the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, looking wizened from Vietnam.
On the desk, there’s a coaster with a the map and flag of “Italia,” and a stack of Post-Its bearing the image of Wonder Woman.
Much of Paladino’s work takes place outside the office — on the road, where she pursues notable figures and persuades them to donate their cherished correspondence to her collection.
Many don’t have any connection to BU. “Civilians,” Paladino calls them. Some are leery of meeting an archivist.
“They think they’re going to get a stiff,” Paladino says. “Then the New York Italian comes along and I don’t put on airs for anybody.”
Big, brassy, and Brooklyn-born, Paladino is certainly no stiff. She’s also persistent, as she pursues her subjects, and she invests herself in her work. “We’re not just out to get your papers. We keep a relationship,” Paladino says. “We know what’s going on in your life.”
Lauren Bacall’s Oscar gleams from Paladino’s office bookshelf. She used to visit Bacall twice a year. She’s about to visit Angela Lansbury.
The shelves also contain Fred Astaire’s dance shoes, a model telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, and photos of clients with whom Paladino has forged close relationships.
“Tyne Daly, she’s like a sister,” she said of the “Cagney & Lacey” actress, who appears with her in one photo.
Mary Louise Parker, who smiles beside her in another picture, was there for Paladino when her son, Adam, died at age 33 last year. The actress brought Paladino a blanket and kept her comforted with Bellinis at the reception after his memorial.
Her first name, Vita, means life in Italian. But death is never far from view for Paladino, who is right behind it, curating the legacies others leave behind.
Her office includes two sets of ashes: a box containing the ashes of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova and a ginger jar with the remains of pianist and harpsichordist Rosalyn Tureck.
There are postcards showing the art of her late son, a printmaker whose work she is just now beginning to sort. A colleague who also died young and unexpectedly appears in two photos.
And then there’s a photo of Della Hardman, an artist educator, activist, and a columnist on Martha’s Vineyard whose collection is housed at the center.
On a wooden banner on the bottom line of Paladino’s shelves, Hardman’s motto is spelled out: “Savor the Moment.”
Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at Stephanie.Ebbert@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieEbbert