With Salvador Dali at the Bloomingdales

In the late 1950s, when I was a young dancer in New York, my friend Mara was a model for the painter Salvador Dali. She would model for him, and he would paint. This went on for some time, and I often found myself in their company. I thought Dali was irritating. It was always Dali this and Dali that, and no one could get a word in edgewise.

The last time I saw him was at the Bloomingdales. I was shopping and he was being Dali. Suddenly he saw me and began walking in my direction, but something distracted him and he stopped. I walked around behind where he was standing, then watched him looking for me where I had been, among the racks of clothes. He looked and looked and looked, but he couldn’t find me.

And that was the last time I saw Dali.