Fun Social Agenda for French Visitors

The Friends of French Art, who travel to some enticing area of France each year (this year they’ll discover the Silk Route in the area around Lyons) and raise money for the restoration of historic monuments and historic art, are now planning a Southern California house party for their French friends. The hospitality will be boundless, and Mrs. Kelvin Cox Vanderlip, the tireless founder of FFA, has put together a social agenda that could cause terminal fatigue if it didn’t promise to be such fun.

Flying in from Paris at the end of the month is a group headed by Prince Napoleon, a direct descendant of the Bonaparte clan, and his very aristocratic-looking spouse, Princess Alix Napoleon; the Count and Countess Bruno de Boisgelin; Baronne d’Anglegan-Chatillon; Baronne du Breuil; Count Charles-Andre Walewski; Baron Roland de L’Espee; M. and Mme. Olivier Roussel; M. and Mme. Serge Bortat; Mme. de Malleray de Parre; Jean Georges Lavit, who is Inspecteur des Monuments Historiques for the Ministry of Culture; Gerard Mabille, conservator of the Musee des Artes Decoratifs, and Olivier Le Fuel.

Adding to the congeniality will be the Robert Cointreaus, who own a charming chateau in the Loire Valley; Evelyn Kelly Lambert of Vicenza, Italy, and Mme. Guy Van Der Scheuren of Montignac.

With the Westwood Marquis as home base, the group will be bused from Santa Barbara to Palos Verdes and from Pasadena to Westwood. In Santa Barbara, the French and their California hosts will tour the Ganna Walska Gardens, the Stewart Abercrombie estate and the Robert and Gene Wolf residence, designed by Palm Beach’s famed Sanford Meisner and for sale at the moment for the not inconsiderable sum of $18 million. Louise (of the Newport, R.I., Van Alans) and Alexander Saunderson host the Mexican lunch and Beverley Jackson the cocktail hour.

Then it’s back to Los Angeles for a sit-down dinner given by the Cliff Mays in their hacienda. The next day they all tour the UCLA Sculpture Garden with Dr. Franklin Murphy, who with his wife, Judy, also hosts that evening’s dinner. Arlette Crandall (she and Dr. Earle Crandall will be on the FFA French tour in May) will help guide the tour. Frederic Weisman’s contemporary art collection comes next. The rest of the day’s touring will take in the Farmers Market and the homes of John and Louise Good and Donna Powell, who lives in Green Acres, the former home of Harold Lloyd.

On Sunday the action moves to Venice for a visit to the Roy Doumani house (the architect was sculptor Robert Graham) and to Palos Verdes for a stop at Marineland, the Wayfarer’s Chapel created by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., and for a luncheon hosted by Elin Vanderlip and Lehman Katz at her Villa Narcissa. Betty Field has invited them all for cocktails at her home, and Jack Lowrance and Max Eckert will prepare a Texas barbecue that night at their home.

With two days left, they will crowd in views of the art collections at the downtown Los Angeles headquarters of Times Mirror and Atlantic Richfield. And then it’s on to Pasadena for a look at the Norton Simon Museum, the Huntington, and lunch with Joan and John Hotchkis, scion of a California founding family.

There’s a little time for rest the next day between Mrs. Chase Morsey’s luncheon and the final events--a grand gala and farewells. It’s all for Franco-American amitie and c’est tres bonne.

The Social Scramble: Lee Hogan Cass, vice president and fashion director for the Broadway stores and also co-author of the book, “Look Like a Winner,” is the “friend for all seasons” Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson and M. M. Howard Miller are honoring at a tea Tuesday afternoon.

Ross Claiborne, the soft-spoken gentleman who has spent most of his life as an editor and publisher, and John Fenton stopped off in Los Angeles en route to a wonderful journey that will take them to Japan, Thailand, the People’s Republic of China and wind up in Rome and London. Their friend Jay Allen hosted a bon voyage party for the pair. First the guests gathered at the art-filled home of Jay and Bill Thomas for drinks and hors d’oeuvre and then, in various cars, they took off for Madame Wu’s Garden where everyone, Mme. Wu included, gave the traveling duo lots of practical advice. Tish Nettleship, who’s full of positive news on the L.A. subway (she’s involved), is an old hand on China.

Thomas had worked on a film in Thailand and he and Jay sailed to China last year. Ruth and Hutton Wilkinson had been to Thailand. And Mary Anita Loos, just back from a holiday in Key West, was full of wonderful stories about the good, bad days in Hollywood.

Dining at Morton’s--entertainment tycoons Marvin Davis and Aaron Spelling and their wives, Barbara and Candy; Victoria Principal with good chum Dr. Harry Glassman, the plastic surgeon, and the Go-Go’s.

Lunchtime at the Bistro Garden--MCA head Lew Wasserman and his wife, Edie, celebrating their wedding anniversary; writer Patsy Klein with Greg Bautzer; Richard Gully with Merritt Blake and Morgan Brown; Juli and Herb Hutner with Joyce Flaherty; London’s Margaret Gardner with Warren Cowan; Midge Clark; Frances Skipsey; Dee Cramer; Mary Jones, and Sue Sommermeier. Even the most dedicated calorie watchers are having trouble resisting the desserts created by Wolfgang Leschanz, formerly of the 200-year-old Viennese Konditorei , Demel.

Among lunchers at the Regency, the private club atop David Murdock’s Westwood building--Palmer Ducommun and Francie Brody, Murdock, Suzanne Marx with Margaret Carr, protocol chief for L.A.

Chandra Kusuma, who is celebrating the first anniversary of his Palette restaurant, joined art patrons Joan and Jack Quinn to host a party at Palette the other night for House & Garden Editor Martin Bletter and his wife, Rosemary, who were in town scouting some of our private architectural marvels. Joining the group were artist Billy Al Bengston and Cindy Dietrich (she says people remember her name if she tells them it’s Diet Rich). The next day Joan was flying to New York to attend Christophe de Menil’s April Fools’ party and the unveiling of Robert Graham’s horse sculpture for the Kentucky Derby.