Friends of Joffrey Get Dinner Bibs Ready

On the night of June 27 fans and friends of the Joffrey Ballet will be celebrating all over town at gourmet and ethnic dinners with celebrity guests. The Night of the Joffrey Dinners is an idea that chairman Mrs. Dwight Kendall, the Joffrey’s board and the Friends of the Joffrey toyed with, then plunged into when word reached them that a series of such dinners for the New York Library had been a huge success.

Fifty-two separate dinners have been planned by a total of 75 hosts. The guests, all of them Music Center patrons, will be given a list of six choices from which to choose where they want to spend the evening. Not everyone, of course, will get his or her first choice. But speed in returning the reservation cards attached to the invitations, which will be in the mail at week’s end, is essential. Places will be assigned, Dona Kendall says, on a first-come, first-served basis. To make sure everything is on the up and up, a computer will make the final decisions. You can’t argue with that.

If your preference is to dine with James Galanos at Paul Bruggemans’ little dinner at St. Germain to Go, or to dine on potluck with best-dressed Betsy Bloomingdale, or to mingle with the cast of “Dynasty,” with hosts Douglas S. Cramer and Richard and Esther Shapiro, you’d better let your wishes be known quickly.

The hosts are showing a great deal of imagination and style: The Thomas Trainers (he’s the Chevaliers du Tastevin’s grand senechal , which means he’s serious about his wines) will give their guests a tour of their wine cellar. Pam and John King are recalling “our heritage” with “Spanish food, wine and music in an old Spanish home.” Chef Laurent Quenioux of the 7th Street Bistro will have the Mark Taper Forum’s artistic director Gordon Davidson and his wife, Judi, a theatrical publicist, on hand to lead the “theater talk.” The Davidsons, who spent three weeks on the Cote d’Azur, may add a little gossip from that jet-set haven.

A raft of friends (Sandy and Shell Ausman, Terri and Tim Childs, Nancy and Sid Petersen, Nancy and Tim Vreeland among them) will host an evening of “Dancin’ and Romancin’ ” at Chasen’s. Barbara Lazaroff, the decorator, and Wolfgang Puck, the adorable chef, are co-hosting two dinners. The one at their Chinois on Main will have Gene Kelly and Sandi Bennett as the star attractions, and the one at Spago will have Spago fans Janet and Fred de Cordova as guests of honor.

And that should give you an inkling of what a great evening it’s going to be. The dinners-about-town benefit will raise funds for the ballet troupe, which opens its Los Angeles season Sept. 16.

Acting as advisors for the benefit are two experts on entertaining and food and wines--Paige Rense, editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit and Architectural Digest magazines, and Robert Lawrence Balzer, lecturer and syndicated wine columnist.

“My committee is the Joffrey board,” Dona Kendall reports. And it does include Mrs. Harry H. Wetzel and Armand S. Deutsch as co-chairmen, David H. Murdock and Atlantic Richfield’s William F. Kieschnick and his wife, Keith (Murdock and Arco covered the cost of the invitations), Harriet Deutsch, Mr. and Mrs. Peter O’Malley, Mr. and Mrs. E.L. Shannon Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Vanoff, Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Ferry, Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Childs, Dwight Kendall and Harold Price.

The Friends of the Joffrey Committee includes president Harold Huttas, first vice president Michael Berk, Jon Douglas, John Minks, Eloise Rich and Joanne Sliteris. Robert Joffrey will be in Moscow on that night with some of his company, but associate artistic director Gerald Arpino and executive director Robert R. Hesse will be at one or another of the dinners.

To celebrate their marriage, Guadalupe Hank, dressed in a pink-petaled dress by Rubin Panis and wearing a veil, and Darwin Shannon, a scientist, danced the Mexican hat dance while he stepped lightly over the train of her wedding gown. “He loves Mexico as much as he loves me,” Guadalupe said, revealing that the next day they were off to Acapulco, Mexico City and Sonora on their honeymoon.

The dinner-dance at the bride’s home (Murray Korda and his orchestra played romantic music) followed the church wedding at Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Regal Rents created the pink tent with its rows of tiny lights, and Flower Fashions filled it with flowers and hanging ferns.

Mexican actress Maria Elena Marquez was matron of honor; Guadalupe’s daughter, Elizabeth, was maid of honor; and young Hector Hank gave his mother away.

Shedding a few happy tears during the evening were such friends as attorney Mickey Rudin and his wife, Mary Carol; attorney Maurice Harwick and his wife, Sue; sculptor Pascal and her husband, James Regan; Frances and Sid Klein; Ellen and Berny Byrens; Harry and Ruth Roman; designer Ruben Panis; Dale and Charles Snodgrass and their son, Gene; Leonard and Ruth Gross; Virginia Lee, who told us she’d introduced the newlyweds; Grace and Merrill Lowell; Fred Gibbons; Jeff Williams; Carlo Celoni with Marilyn Katleman; investor Philip Salet; Dr. Joseph and Suzanne Marx; Sachi and Larry Irwin; Frank and Suzy Cross; the Bill Hollingsworths, who had gone first to the Orchid Ball; and quite a few more.

The Social Scramble: Saturday is a very special day for St. John’s Hospital and Health Center. That’s when St. John’s dedicates its Foundation Circle to actress-singer Irene Dunne, long known as the First Lady of St. John’s, and to its other trustees, and unveils a life-size bronze bust of Miss Dunne by artist Artis Lane. The bust, set on a marble base, will be placed in the floral garden in front of the hospital. The dedication follows an out-of-doors mass celebrated by Father Maurice Chase and Father Herbert De Sousa, both of whom are associated with Loyola Marymount. A luncheon reception honoring Irene Dunne, recipient of St. John’s first Lifetime Trustee award in 1982, and members of the St. John’s Foundation follows in the hospital’s auditorium.

Marcia Israel, chairman of the more-than-80-unit Judy’s fashion chain, is off to Birmingham, Ala., to receive a Woman of Distinction award from Birmingham Southern College, a co-ed fine arts institution. She’ll be in good company since the other recipients are former First Lady Rosalynn Carter; philanthropist Mary Lasker; television’s Phyllis George Brown; jewelry designer Paloma Picasso; Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph; Lee Thaw, vice president of the International Rescue Committee; actress Dina Merrill; Vogue editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella; Diane Sawyer of “60 Minutes”; diva Anna Moffo; and Marietta Tree, the first woman U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mrs. David Mahoney is chairing the weekend festivities, which will include a luncheon, the awards gala, and a tour of the college.

More than $125,000 was raised at the Third Annual Barbara Sinatra Art Auction at the Spa Hotel in Palm Springs benefiting the Child Sexual Abuse Program of the Family Service of Coachella Valley, which will be housed in the soon-to-be-built Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at the Eisenhower Medical Center. Helping raise that sum were Alice Faye, who donated a painting that was bought by Taylor Caldwell’s husband, W. R. Prestie, for $1,000; Frank Sinatra, whose oil painting “Monaco Boom” (inspired, said his wife, by fireworks in Monte Carlo), brought $7,000; and Cary Grant, who donated an ink drawing by Lionel Barrymore. Lee and Walter Annenberg were not able to attend the auction, but they sent their check.

Lunching at the Beverly Wilshire’s La Bella Fontana--Sue Vidor (the late King Vidor’s daughter), en route from Hawaii to Paris, and Colleen Moore, down from her Paso Robles ranch. And dining at Morton’s, the super-celebrity evening hangout--Steven Speilberg with a very pregnant Amy Irving; Barbra Streisand (for a brief interlude she and Speilberg were an item) with Richard Baskin, David Geffen and a few other chums; Vitas Gerulaitis; Cher and Josh Donen; the former and current James Bonds, Sean Connery and Roger Moore, with their spouses.