Brontosaurus-Size Ball Set at Museum

Walking, roaring and flying prehistoric animals, not for real, of course, will cast the magic spell at the Dinosaur Ball on March 23 at the Natural History Museum.

Under no illusions, ball chairman Pat Herbert reports more than 400 tickets already are sold. She has Rococo of Beverly Hills signed for sumptuous dining, and the black-tie crowd will trip to the Triceratops and Company on the dance floor.

With “The Magic of the Museum” as a theme, guests will have cocktails in the museum’s exotic mammal hall, then move to the American and African mammal halls on the first floor for dinner. The halls will be done up by Shelton Ellis of Gump’s Beverly Hills for a starry night ambiance.

A brontosaurus of a ball; tickets are $200.

Before that, though, Museum Director Craig Black will co-host a party Friday to preview the Smithsonian’s Thailand exhibit, “Ban Chiang: Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age.” Thailand’s new consul general, Sumet Wasantapruek, will be there, and so will Museum President Bob Attiyeh and his wife, Linda.

Co-hosts are the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Thai Assn. of Southern California. To be sure, Thai food and Thai music.

Legend, Pat Bucklin says, tells us that California derives its name from a 16th-Century Spanish romantic novel about an island in the West ruled by Queen Calafia.

Thus, “The Land of Calafia” is the name of the Pasadena Garden Club’s flower and horticultural show March 15 in the Georgia Van de Kamp Hall at Descanso Gardens in La Canada.

Chairman Kay Onderdonk has a blue-ribbon committee--Patty Burschinger, Polly Goodan, Lourinda Bray, Jane Morton, Hannah Bradley, Connie Grigsby, Ernestine Avery and Nancy Call--working out details and arrangements suggestive of the Big Sur, Hollywood and San Simeon areas.

There’s a reception March 15 for members and guests and then a public show March 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Spring is around the tulip patch, and that has inspired Ann Barrett, Tink Cheney, Joan Graves, Laurie Griff, Bonnie McClure, Susan Miller and Tally Mingst (Children’s Chain members) to stage their annual Spring Luncheon and Children’s Fashion Show on March 9 at the Beach Club in Santa Monica.

Childrens Hospital will benefit. Bartel’s Chapter IV/Confetti and At Ease in Westwood will provide fashions.

John Scali, senior correspondent for ABC network news and former ambassador to the United Nations, will speak Sunday at the United Jewish Fund Inaugural President’s Dinner at the Beverly Wilshire.

Bruce Hochman, president, and Harriet Hochman are dinner chairmen.

Merlin will be sculpted in ice, and bubbling blue cocktails and other magic potables will be served at bars in Merlin’s and the Knight’s Chambers. It’s part of “An Evening of Magic” Saturday evening planned by Mayfield Junior School parents and friends dressed in abracadabra.

Benefit chairmen Dee March and Barbara Curtis and decorating chairmen Pat Ellison and Laurie McKinley are creating castles and fire-breathing dragons.

To make money, 300 items will be auctioned, say Ann Kibler, Diane Toland, Lorraine Schiavone and Lyle Ann White.

Hallee Gould of Somerset Catering will keep them well fed on blini with caviar, oysters on the half shell and assorted fruits and cheeses before they sit down to harlequined black-and-white taffeta-covered tables for the tenderloin of beef, ginger carrots and chocolate almond Malakoff with whipped cream and strawberries.

The benefit concludes the next day (with a few hours off for sleep) with a noon family mass and a fried chicken picnic.

Dr. Anna L. Fisher, astronaut and seven-year NASA veteran, will be honored as Woman of the Year today by the Muses of the California Museum of Science and Industry.

Mrs. Charles Mair is luncheon chairman.

A Saks Fifth Avenue show for three generations highlights the Beverly Hills Hadassah Youth Aliyah luncheon today in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. A 40-piece Children’s Orchestra of the Akiba Academy will perform.

June Hamlin is president; Lucille Melcher is luncheon chairman, assisted by Leona Hertzberg.

The ERAS Center, a school for children and adults with learning disabilities, will benefit from the third annual celebrity charity luncheon-fashion show Thursday at the Beverly Hilton.

Mary Ann Mobley and Gary Collins will commentate.