Some Things for Lovers of Antiques
If you quiver at the sight of a well-turned Queen Anne chair leg or an 18th-Century English chest of drawers or even a torchere or anything old and beautiful, you’re going to love the Junior League’s Antiques Show. But be patient. It doesn’t come up until November.
The league is celebrating its 60th Diamond Jubilee, so everything’s going to be bigger and better than ever. The private preview gala takes place in the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove on Nov. 6, a dinner-dance featuring Joe Moshay’s band and some fancy entertaining. The show itself, also at the Ambassador, runs Nov. 7-10. Mrs. William Garnett and Mrs. Alan Clark have all sorts of elegant plans for the opening party for which tickets are $125 per person. (General admission to the Antiques Show is $8, which includes a catalogue.)
Serving as honorary chairmen for the show are Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and his wife Andrea and the Thomas R. Vreeland Jrs. Mrs.J. Michael Hennigan is heading the show with co-chairmen Mrs. Joseph Gentile and Mrs. Douglas Waldron. Russell Carrell, who coordinates the very important Winter Antiques Show in New York, returns to manage the Los Angeles endeavor,which will feature museum-quality antiques from more than 50 of the most prestigious European and U. S. dealers.
In honor of the league’s anniversary, Christie’s, the auction house, has put together a treat--a series of lectures (admission is $15 per lecture) on a variety of antiques-related subjects by well-known experts. To give you a little idea of the scope of the series: Lisa Taylor, director of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum: The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Design, will talk about Cooper-Hewitt’s own collection; architect Thomas R. Vreeland Jr. will chat up “A Classical Ideal in American Architecture”; decorator Kalef Alaton will speak on “Antiquities in Interior Design” and Timothy Schroeder, curator of decorative arts at the County Museum of Art, will discourse on “Silver in California Collections.” There’s more, of course, all designed to stimulate those little gray cells.
If you want to catch up with Bob Crosby, Mrs. Jimmy Durante, San Diego Padres owner Jane Kroc, Steve Garvey or former San Diego Chargers’ owner Gene Klein, try Del Mar. The track, founded by Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien and some of their Hollywood pals, opened its 1985 season Wednesday. Between now and the closing date, Sept. 11, it’s going to be a beehive of social activity. On opening day, as always, executive vice president and general manager Joseph W. Harper and his wife hosted a post-races cocktail party. And members of the Del Mar board--chairman Thomas M. Hamilton, president John C. Mabee, vice president Clement L. Hirsch, secretary-treasurer Louis R. Rowan, Robert H. Grant, Dr. James R. Buell--invited friends for the opening day festivities.
Today, the Belles of Mental Health and chairman Mrs. William B. Rippee will gather in the private Turf Club. And other groups will be staging their own racing days--the Boys and Girls Aid Society Auxiliary of San Diego on Thursday (Mrs. Harley Greaves is race day chairman); next Friday, the Country Friends with Mrs. Lester J. Hafferkamp as chairman of the event; on Aug. 12 the Junior League of San Diego (chairman is Mrs. Charles Savadjian); on Aug. 26 the Social Service Auxiliary of San Diego (Mrs. William B. Rippee is in charge) and on Sept. 5 Las Patronas of La Jolla (chairman is Mrs. Timothy Canty).
It’s what is known as the “California Spirit.” Five of Los Angeles’ top chefs and restaurant owners will add to California’s growing culinary tradition by setting up their stations on the grassy lawn of Dr. Jerry Buss’ Pickfair (the late Mary Pickford’s estate) and preparing their own specialites de la maison for the benefit of the American Cancer Society’s research, education and patient service programs.
The dinner menu will be a choice (or all of the following) of what these masters turn out--Spago’s Wolfgang Puck, Valentino’s Piero Selvaggio, St. Estephe of Manhattan Beach’s John Sedlar, Trumps’ Michael Roberts and the Mandarin of Beverly Hills’ Cecilia Chiang. Co-chairmen of the whole delightful exercise are Barbara Lazaroff (Puck’s wife and decorator), dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein and Yvette Fierstein. Raising the flag for the American Cancer Society will be president Dr. Irwin Grossman and executive director Yvette Rosen.
The Social Scramble: Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing stopped off for a night in Los Angeles on his way to that exclusive men’s enclave in Northern California, the Bohemian Club. (He was meeting up with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.) While here Giscard d’Estaing was the guest of French Consul General Francois Mouton at a dinner at Patrick Terrail’s Ma Maison. (The night before Frank and Barbara Sinatra had dined there with Gregory and Veronique Peck, Anne and Kirk Douglas and George Schlatter.) Mouton’s VIP guest list included Dr. and Mrs. Armand Hammer, Dr. Jonas Salk and his artist wife Francoise Gilot; Allen E. Pucket, chairman of the board of Hughes Aircraft; Marvin and Barbara Davis; architect Olivier Vidal and radio talk-show host Michael Jackson and his wife, Alana.
Gale Hayman lunched at The Ivy on crab salad before flying off to New York. On her social agenda (there was business to take care of, too) were a weekend with Christophe de Menil in Easthampton and a theater date with Kenneth Jay Lane, the jewelry designer. After lunch Gale did a little shopping at McMullen’s, the Japanese antiques place on Robertson, where she found an embroidered vest she said she’d be wearing with jeans.
It started out as the kind of ladies’ luncheon where practically every woman left with a gift, a major one. And it’s been getting better every year. This year the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Imperial Grand Sweepstakes luncheon, Nov. 6 in the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Crystal Room, will have “even more phenomenal gifts.” Our source is Zena Hoffman, this year’s chairman. And she ought to know. Besides the diamond necklace from Harry Winston (Winston has donated a sparkling neckpiece for each of the past luncheons) there are such goodies as a round trip ticket for two to New York on Regent Air, stays at the Kahala Hilton and London’s Dorchester and much more.
There were tiny gold fishes in the shallow bowls of some of the arrangements, a nonstop menu that began with Korean tacos, and a lot of well-dressed pals enjoying Sachi and Larry Irwin’s dinner party at Woo Lae Oak, the restaurant on Western Avenue. Sachi and Jane Kramer both wore evening pantsuits by Gus Tassell. Tomas Concepcion, who was returning to Rome the next day, sang “Strangers in the Night.” Dr. Joseph Marx made a few funny toasts; the host did his imitations of Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Cagney. And Suzy and Frank Cross, Grace and Merrill Lowell, Suzanne Marx, Richard and Lili Natale, Helena Schlemenson, Joseph and Victoria Bolker, Anne Jeffreys and Bob Sterling, Kathy and Chris Matsumoto (he worked for days on the decor that included bamboo poles linking the floral arrangements, Japanese umbrellas), Dale and Chuck Snodgrass, Marie and Stephen Tramz (they’ll make the Snodgrasses grandparents in October), Doris Finley with Karl Dargis, Jasmine and Tyler Runnels had plenty to talk about as course after course came along.
Those retailing whizzes, Herbert and Norman Fink, are holidaying in nice and sunny Sardinia. But en route to the jet set vacation spot they stopped off in Paris for visits with designers Sonia Rykiel and Claude Montana. Herb has opened a Rykiel boutique on Rodeo Drive, and the Claude Montana shop on the pricey boulevard opens in October.
Backtracking: A little while ago Belgian banker Albert Frere and his wife hosted a very special party for U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Geoffrey Swaebe and his wife Mary. And the dazzling guest list included Luxembourg’s Ambassador to Belgium Pierre Wurth, Prince and Princess Antoine de Ligne, Viscount and Viscountess Etienne Davignon, the governor of the National Bank of Belgium and Mrs. Jean Godeaux, Count Jean-Pierre de Launoit and the Maurice Lippens.
And in London, “MASH” creator Larry Gelbert and his wife Pat threw a champagne party for Loretta (“Hot Lips”) Swit and her husband Dennis Holihan at Mayfair’s newest gathering place, the Champagne Exchange. It was hot and sultry in London that night so the “MASH” cocktail (a blend of passion fruit juice, cognac, champagne, grenadine and a cherry dreamed up by Exchange owner Anthony Marks) was very popular. Mary Martin was looking great. She’s staying in London until September. And among the other guests were Ben Vereen, “Muppets” creator Jim Henson, John Hurt and his American wife Donna; producer Sam Spiegel getting ready for his annual holiday aboard his yacht in the South of France; concert pianist Byron Janis; David Frost; Jean (“Upstairs, Downstairs”) Marsh who went on from the party to see herself in Disney’s “Return to Oz” at its West End premiere; Nigel Massey, managing director of London’s St. James’s Club; Michael Winner; New York agent Milton Golden (a few nights later he gave a party for his client Mary Martin) and other equally fascinating types. From London Loretta and Dennis were off to Corsica, Sardinia and a Mediterranean cruise aboard one of the Sea Goddesses. Nice going.