Albert Einstein Award for Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta, impresario of the New York Philharmonic, director-for-life of the Israel Philharmonic and former conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, receives the prestigious Albert Einstein Award from the American Technion Society on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton.

Howard W. Koch, who refers to Mehta as a “20th-Century Renaissance man,” is particularly excited about the affair. He’s dinner chairman. As such, Koch has amassed a weighty crowd from the arts and sciences, philanthropy and industry to pay respect to Mehta “as a great artist and an exceptional human being, sensitive to the well-being of all mankind.”

Friends are sending personal messages to be incorporated into the souvenir folio album as a remembrance.

That weighty group of honorary co-chairmen includes Merv Adelson, Irving Azoff, Mrs. George S. Behrendt, Allan Carr, Mrs. Norman Chandler, Robert A. Daly, Lester Deutsch, Barry Diller, David Geffen, Arthur Gilbert, Earl Glick, Dr. Armand Hammer, Burt I. Harris, Julio Iglesias, Burt Lancaster, Sherry Lansing, Norman Lear, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Sue Mengers, Shirley MacLaine, Gregory Peck, Lloyd E. Rigler, Morris Stoller, Jack Valenti, Frank Wells and Ben Winter. Eclectic, for sure.

This one’s the cat’s meow.

The Watts/Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club takes the benefit stage Tuesday evening at the Shubert Theatre for a special performance of “Cats,” the Tony Award-winning dance production.

“Cats” escorts its audience on a mythical journey to a different world--the confines of the city dump. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production mixes music and dance with the feline fantasies of T.S. Eliot.

Benefit tickets are $50 for mezzanine and $100 for orchestra. Call the club at 567-2278 for reservations.

Now this is some way to say Happy Birthday. Nancy Holliday, who, of course, isn’t partial at all, informs us that Pasadena Beautiful is about to celebrate 25 beautiful years.

This is the way she tells us: “Like stages of human development, Pasadena Beautiful Foundation has undergone the trauma of birth, the struggles of infancy, the frustrations of youth, and yet has emerged a mature organization unencumbered by partisan politics and proud of its efforts to improve and enrich the lives of the citizens of Pasadena.”

That’s her way of leading up to the fact that the board of directors will take over Caltech’s Athenaeum on Jan. 19 to pay tribute to all those who have served as board members. The event is black-tie.

Dorrie B. Poole, president of the board, and Gordon Pashgian, chairman, are going all out to locate directors, mailing invitations all over the United States.

The group was begun in 1960 after A. Claude Braden concluded Pasadena warranted its own beautification program. The birthplace was Floyd Gwinn’s restaurant on Colorado Boulevard. And around the delivery table were Earle Hugens, Ted Huggins, J. Lowell McAdam, Gwinn and a lot of others.

The sycamore trees on the Pasadena Freeway would not be there had it not been for PBF’s intervention with the Division of Highways. PBF has done its best to keep the Crown City’s neighborhoods attractive. A plant bank offers free plants to anyone willing to improve his garden. Golden Arrow awards are given to home owners who do the most to enhance property.

The Infertility Research Foundation is gunning its motors for the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show preview Friday evening at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The Los Angeles Motor Car Dealers Assn. has given its blessing for the event to benefit research and treatment of infertility patients in the in-vitro fertilization program at Hospital of the Good Samaritan. Dr. Richard Marrs directs the research.

We hear that more than 500 autos--classics, antiques, racers and 1985 domestic and imported models--will be displayed.

The Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired teaches children how to listen and eventually how to talk without the aid of sign language or lip reading.

It’s an admirable goal. And Saturday evening believers will flock to the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony benefit at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

Sybil Brand will receive tributes, Jerry Buss is master of ceremonies and Gloria Loring is guest star. It all blends together with the champagne reception at 7 p.m. before the 8 p.m. curtain.

Superstar Barry Manilow received the Tarbut Award of the Jewish National Fund for his outstanding contributions in the entertainment medium, joining fine company--Sarah Caldwell, George Balanchine and Zubin Mehta.

According to Ernest B. Goodman, vice president of MCA-TV and president of the fund’s San Fernando Valley Council, Manilow will have a garden of trees planted in his honor in the artists’ section at American Independence Park in Israel.

Sisters of Notre Dame and the faculty of La Reina High School host a ground breaking for their new multipurpose building Sunday afternoon in Thousand Oaks.

Ellie and David J. Lavin co-chair the Palm Springs Opera Guild brunch Sunday at the Royce Hotel. Saks Fifth Ave. shows the fashions and Evie Glieberman of the Chicago Lyric Opera is presenting a musicale.

Mrs. William B. Malouf and the late Lily Pons founded the guild.