Oregon’s Sen. Packwood Will Raise Funds Here

A fund-raising first--a $1,000-a-plate banquet for an out-of-state senator, right here in L.A.

It’s for Sen. Bob Packwood, the junior GOP senator from Oregon, who is expected to have only mild opposition when he runs for his fourth term in 1986. Of course, Packwood is chairman of the truly powerful Senate Finance Committee (which will handle tax reform legislation in the upper house, once the White House unveils its plan later this spring). Local GOPites say that Packwood has held similar events recently in New York, Dallas and Chicago--events that have averaged $300,000 each.

Howard Allen, chairman of the board of Southern California Edison Co., will chair the L.A. version set for the ballroom of the new Century Plaza Tower on Aug. 5. Events with a $1,000 price tag have been held for non-Californians--but these have been smaller affairs, averaging several dozen big givers.

ALLIES--Another major GOP name--Arco’s Robert O. Anderson--will be featured at a big dinner. But this time it’s a nonpartisan affair, with Anderson--chairman of the Atlantic Richfield Co.--being honored by the L.A. NAACP with the Roy Wilkins Award. Arco, a major supporter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, is cited as a “pace-setter and is looked upon in the minority community as an ally and friend.” Named for “Humanitarianism” is South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who will also be on hand for the dinner June 3.

INTERESTING INVITES--Mailgrams went out this week, inviting several hundred honchos to meet “Dan Shapiro, our candidate for City Controller,” at a breakfast next Thursday. Signers included expected names, like Councilmen John Ferraro and Ernani Bernardi and former state Atty. Gen. Evelle J. Younger. Also, Jules Radcliff Jr., an attorney with a major role in the recent campaign of City Atty. James Hahn. Another series of telegram invites with slightly different language went out signed by attorney Edward Sanders--a longtime Democrat and Jimmy Carter adviser. Sanders has held a wide range of positions in the Jewish community--but the bastion of political punch there, the Waxman-Berman operation, is backing Rick Tuttle in the June 4 election.

PEACE--Called “The Ribbon,” it’s more than eight miles of banners that will surround the Pentagon and weave to other public places in Washington, come Aug. 4, two days before the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Justine Merritt of Denver thought up the project three years ago, and crisscrossed the country, urging individuals and groups to produce panels of double muslin, 18 inches by 36 inches, on which they could paint, embroider or quilt expressions of their feelings about peace. In California, about 1,500 “ribbons” created here will be sewn together and displayed at Merritt Park in Oakland on May 31 to June 2.

BORN IN THE U.S.A.--But he loves Italian food. So Bruce Springsteen and a small group gathered during the weekend at Marino’s on Melrose to “Happy Birthday” his mom, Adele. The cake, from L.A. Desserts, came complete with fresh flowers, but then, isn’t that the way it’s done back in Freehold, N.J.?

POLI SIGH--Ma Maison had the usual Tinseltown crowd there last Friday--like David Begelman with his cronies, and, at a nearby table, Gladyce Begelman and Pamela Mason. But wasn’t that Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson with RTD’s Nick Patsaouras. And didn’t Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, at another table and kidded about eating with the stars, have the best line? “All the good restaurants are in my district.” . . . Yaroslavsky hosts San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros at one of the councilman’s regular breakfasts for several hundred, May 20. . . . Stevenson and challenger Mike Woo debate May 23 at a breakfast meeting sponsored by MECLA, the gay-rights political action committee. . . . Ann Hart, the daughter of the late Michigan Sen. Phil Hart and a mezzo-soprano, will sing the National Anthem at the Dodgers game tonight.

LANDING--Iwo Jima--the bloodiest and fiercest battle in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps--28,000 American casualties and of those, 7,000 fatalities. Japanese fatalities numbered 20,000 men. On May 27, KCET and public TV across the country present the documentary, “Iwo Jima,” narrated by Ed McMahon (a retired Marine colonel), and produced by Arnold Shapiro. A lunch at KCET Tuesday will feature a Marine Color Guard and will be hosted by Jim Montgomery, board chairman of Great Western Financial Corp., KCET’s chair Dennis Stanfill and Shapiro. Sue Raney will sing, and John Pasanen, a minister from Northern California and a veteran of Iwo Jima featured in the documentary, will be on hand, along with a lot of current Marine brass.

CHEERS--To Larry Baum, V.P. for Community Relations at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center--named by Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret M. Heckler to join the 20-member National Advisory Council on Health Professions Education. . . . To Motown’s Berry Gordy, named a “Gordon Grand Fellow” by Yale University, a top-drawer honor given to industry leaders--Gordy being the first recording industry exec to get the nod.

DAYTIME--The TV show, “Hour,” is geared to women at home, who make up more than 80% of the audience. But men can learn something--as has host Gary Collins. One new idea for men, Collins said, is the concept of working on a relationship--an idea well-known to women. Collins, whose marriage to actress Mary Ann Mobley is seen as one of Hollywood’s happiest, said men just have to loosen up--”By allowing yourself to be free and express your feelings, fears, needs--all the things that men have been unable to do for all these years--this takes marriage to the next level. . . . There is for each and every couple, another level--and another beyond that. That’s what marriage is all about. You don’t love somebody when you get married. You love the idea. . . . It is only after you have been with somebody that a marriage develops.”

BENEFIT SAVE--The Friends of the L.A. Unified School District’s School Volunteer program will hold a reception before their “Cats” party Tuesday night. Almost no reception, though, when the scheduled spot--the Princess restaurant in Century City--got sold and closed temporarily. The resourceful Volunteer Program people then lined up the Jade West. They’ve got to be resourceful, because their regular job is recruiting 30,000 volunteers for the 570,000 kids. Betty Anderson is president of the Friends and Gloria Curtis directs the program, which includes peer tutoring and the DOVES (dedicated older volunteers in educational services). Money’s extra important because staff is needed to recruit bilingual volunteers from L.A.’s many ethnic and minority communities. Especially important since, for many children having a bilingual volunteer, even one not totally fluent in English, is a big push toward school work and self-esteem.

ARTSY--Sens. Pete Wilson (in pain with the since-removed ruptured appendix) and Alan Cranston co-hosted Tuesday, in Wilson’s office, a reception celebrating the loan of California art from the Fredrick R. Weisman foundation. Weisman was there, with four California artists--Vasa, Lita Albuquerque, Ed Ruscha and Joe Good. On hand were some L.A. types who just happened to be in D.C.--longtime Wilson buddy Joanne Kozberg, Carter Hawley Hale’s Donald Livingston, political operative Ron Smith, the White House’s Robert and Donna Tuttle (they’re big collectors of contemporary art), Frank Hodsell from the National Endowment for the Arts, Carter Brown from the National Gallery and N.J. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, another major collector. California wine was served.

UNION MADE--After some doubt, “Factwino: The Opera” a production of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, will open at the Variety Arts on Wednesday. Still unresolved, however, is the long-run question of unionization for the troupe, established in 1959. It’s a “worker managed collective,” which means that the 17 people currently in the troupe are all workers. Equity only organizes when there are managers and workers. A guest artist contract will allow the current production--including two Equity members--to go on here next week, a spokesman said, but the Mime Troupe is faced with getting Equity to write a special contract which will allow unionization of all the members of the collective--actors, business types, managers, etc. Arthur Holder, a member of the troupe (whose plays often have a pro-labor tone), said, “We want to be union and we want to have good relations with Equity.”

UPCOMING--Not soon, but the lavish redo and addition of the Biltmore Hotel and the Biltmore Tower will bring four new restaurants to downtown--the Bistro, the Grill Room, the Palm Court and Conti Bar. The Grand Avenue Bar and Bernard’s will continue to be housed in the hotel complex.

THIN TOAST--Betsy Berkheimer (the pres of Berkheimer & Kline public relations) met Cris Credaire, a sales-marketing consultant, at the party to promote Diet-Rite Salt Free Cola. Can you guess what they served, 18 months later, at their wedding reception?