A Coup for Las Floristas Headdress Ball
It won’t be announced until Friday night at Las Floristas’ gala Premiere Party at the Bel-Air Country Club. But we don’t like to keep you in suspense, so we’re going to share the newsy tidbit. And when you read it, you’ll know why Las Floristas are jumping with joy.
And here it is. First Lady Nancy Reagan has agreed to be honorary chairwoman for the 47th annual Las Floristas Headdress Ball, that floral extravaganza that takes place April 26 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Las Floristas president Carole Wells Karabian gets credit for the coup. And Las Floristas’ goals--helping support Las Floristas Handicapped Children’s Clinics at County-USC Medical Center and Rancho Los Amigos Hospital--helped cinch the First Lady’s support.
There’ll be more news at Friday’s Premiere Party, a fancy kickoff for the ball. Headdress Ball mannequins will be introduced (that’s one secret we’ll hold till later). And co-chairs Mrs. Marshall Jarvis and Mrs. Taylor Richardson will reveal the theme: Opening Night. It’s a theme Arthur Simon can run with. Mrs. Ronald Higgins and Mrs. Robert Conrad will be in charge of the florists who’ll create the five-foot-tall headdresses, and Mrs. Nick Lee will be coordinating the models. Mrs. Randolph Stockwell is assistant ball chairwoman and she’s already signed up Lewis Malin and his orchestra for the runway and dancing music. Mrs. Joseph Petrotta is chairing the curtain raiser (read Premiere Night) and Mrs. Martin Kordick will be consulting with Simon on his set designs, klieg lights and palm trees.
William Weinberg, incoming president of the Western States/American Friends of the Hebrew University, will be toasted at a reception in the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Crystal Room on Tuesday. Hosts for the gathering are outgoing president Vidal Sassoon and university supporters Lillian and Harvey Silbert and Joe and Ruth Sinay.
The Social Scramble: The Sunday brunch at the Westwood Marquis attracted the likes of S. Charles Lee and his wife, Hilda; David Murdock with two of his sons; Larry and Sachi Irwin with son Jon; and Jackie Applebaum, back from Deer Valley, with Jacques Camus. And spotted in the hotel’s lobby--Shelley Fabares and her new husband, Mike Farrell; Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis; Diane Sawyer of CBS’ “60 Minutes” and Warren and Sunny Adler (she’s editor-publisher of the Washington Dossier magazine, which often hints at Washington society peccadilloes in blind items).
Lunching at the Bistro Garden: the Hay-Adams Hotel’s Rose Narva with son David, who owns the YSL Rive Gauche boutiques in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs; Van Venneri with Simone Katzof; Eva Gabor with Jean Sully and Audrey Wilder with Ingrid Ohrbach Ingram, Connie Wald and Felisa Vanoff.
Looking back at the holidays--just one more time: London art dealer Billie Keating spent the holidays floating down the Nile aboard the Nile Dream. And now, according to pal Peter Morton, he’s in Kenya for a bit of rest and recuperation. And Harriet and Charles Luckman took their three sons and their families for a cruise through the Panama Canal aboard the Island Princess.
Harry and Joan Sherwood hosted a Christmas Eve dancing and dessert affair at their home. Also hosting the gala party were, in absentia, Franco Cozzo and the Plaza Athenee Hotels in Paris and New York. The jolly group dancing to Clark Keene’s band included Gerry and Virginia Oppenheimer, Jayne and Henry Berger, Marcia and Larry Israel, all of whom are devotees of the Paris PA; Count Hubert O’Brien; Margo Hirsh; Irving and Ethel Axelrad with Dorothy Shaw, daughter of Hong Kong’s Sir Run Run Shaw; Betty and Bill Hollingsworth; Marjorie and Michael Fasman; Marilyn and Harry Lewis; the consular corps’ Sam Bretzfield and Joe Bolker and their wives, Nancy and Victoria; Elsie and Franklin Pollock; Charles Fawcett; and Paris’ Phillippe and Nicole Weill.
It was one of those wonderful holiday presents--Herbie Hancock at the piano and Charles (Buddy) Rogers playing the trombone. It happened spontaneously in one magic moment at the holiday party Muriel and Abe Lipsey gave at their home. The menu (beef with oyster sauce, crab, Dinah Shore’s crispy chicken salad and other goodies) and the decor were all Chinese. And in the milling crowd were Buddy’s wife, Beverly; Billy Dee Williams and his wife; the Beach Boys’ Mike Love with Sharon Lee (it was her birthday); Tova and Ernie Borgnine; Ova Ostern with her love Chuck Fries; Frank Sinatra Jr. with his mom, Nancy; Lois Garner (Jim was on location in La Costa); Dr. Eliot and Marian Corday; economist Arthur Laffer and his wife; Bob and Jane Finkel; Glen and Kim Campbell; Rosemarie and Bob Stack; Billy Davis and Marilyn McCoo; Gigi Hancock and a few more equally lovable folk.
