Singers to Headline Several Fund-Raisers

October is shaping up as a very musical month. Perry Como sings for the Friends of Childhelp on Oct. 3 at the Beverly Hilton. And since Como is proud of his Italian heritage, the fund-raiser is a “Gala Italiana.”

And then it’s Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence’s turn to warble for a cause. Theirs is SPRINT (Special Preventive Research, Intervention and New Technology for Children at UCLA) and they’ll do their harmonizing at the Universal Amphitheatre on Oct. 25.

Nancy Reagan, as we mentioned earlier, is national Childhelp chairman, and June and Fred MacMurray are the co-founders of the Friends of Childhelp, which hosts the Gala Italiana. (Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson are founders of the parent organization, Childhelp USA.)

Como won’t be all alone at his gala. “Friends” such as Norm Crosby, master of ceremonies Johnny Grant, Murray Korda’s Strolling Strings and Ray Anthony and his orchestra will be sharing the stage.

Planning this big effort are committee co-chairmen June Haver MacMurray and Frances Franklin. And helping them are committee members Joann Westerling, Dolly Granatelli, Beverly Rogers, Michelle Mazur (she and husband Sherman are underwriting the entire gala--now that’s being a real friend), Vita Cortese, Evelyn Haver and JoAnn Klauer. Backing them up are “special friends” (the Reagans, Vice President and Mrs. George Bush, former President and Mrs. Gerald Ford, Gov. and Mrs. George Deukmejian, Mayor and Mrs. Tom Bradley, Police Chief Daryl Gates and more), Childhelp Ambassadors (Cheryl Ladd and Mike Connors) and executive advisers (Bob and Dolores Hope, Alice Tyler, George Page and others.)

Add to that the “friends and angels” round up (Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Kelly, Mr. and Mrs. Pat Boone and daughter Debby) and “Our Champions Against Child Abuse” (Willie Mays, Bruce Jenner, Don Drysdale, Rafer Johnson, Carl Lewis and other champs) and you’ve got some team. This one’s going to be a blockbuster. Mark our words.

The Gorme-Lawrence harmonizing will be followed by a gala gourmet supper at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel. Mario Machado is honorary chairman and the trio pulling it all together consists of Muriel Slatkin, Katherine Price and Polo Roth. SPRINT founders are Dr. Barbara Crandall, Maxine Goldenson, Dr. Judy Howard, Mr. and Mrs. Ronnie Leif, Mr. and Mrs. Danny Schwartz and Mr. and Mrs. Lew Wasserman. You can bet your boots that group is pulling hard to make this fund-raiser a winner. The benefit committee includes, among loads more: Mrs. Sol Laykin, Angie Dickinson, Carole Ekstrom, Randy Fuhrman, Mrs. Ed McMahon, Mrs. Geoffrey Nathanson, Susan Reynolds, Mrs. Lawrence Rosenbloom, Norma Florin Smith. How can they lose?

It’s been a hectic few months for Marcia and Larry Israel, who keep busy socially, travel constantly and run close to 70 Judy’s stores from California to Texas. So what else is new?

Between trips to Nassau, New York, Washington, Paris and Morocco they had a few days at home. And that always means small dinner parties for friends.

Mrs. Lloyd Hand, who lives in Washington, was in Los Angeles for a quick visit. The first Chinese dinner was for her. Bikran Choudhury, the yoga guru, has become a friend and since he prefers the Israels’ dining room to any local restaurant, the second party was for him.

Ann Hand’s close friends--Marianne Rogers, Joyce Flaherty, Herbert and Juli Hutner--mingled at Ann’s party with USC School of Business Dean Jack Steele, Si and Virginia Ramo and Mrs. Bradley Jones.

Bikran pretty much had the floor at his dinner--talking about the beneficial effects of yoga exercises and breathing. But every once in a while the conversation turned to Bikran’s wife, Rajashree, who will be representing India in the Mrs. Universe competition in Hawaii. The son of Bikran’s Calcutta guru, Vasi, the Israels’ daughter Judy who has been a Bikran disciple for three years, Jayne and Henry

Berger and Anne Jeffreys and Bob Sterling listened intently between bites of Szechuan chicken, sweet-and-sour fish and the other Chinese dishes prepared by chef Dai, who left the following day for a month’s holiday in China.

The Louis Roederer Cristal champagne was poured first, for the toasts to Jackie Applebaum’s guest of honor Line Renaud, the French actress and singer. And the toasts were accompanied by pledges that everyone there would reunite in Palm Beach for the opening of Line’s play, “The Incomparable Loulou,” in January. (In Paris the play was called “Folle Amanda.”)

The real Lou Lou (Gaste, Line’s composer husband) played the piano and some of his own songs. The talk centered on recent trips and gourmet experiences. Don Appel, French Consul General Francois Mouton (he was back from the archaelogical digs at Mesa Verde), Judy and Don Tallarico (his jewelry salon adjoining the Bistro Garden opens next week), Ronnie and Nina Leif (back from Paris), Line’s mother Simone Boutte, all praised Jackie’s menu, which included cream of cucumber soup and chicken with tarragon accompanied by Chateau Latour. Producer Larry Kasha and Veronica and Ernie Chamber rounded out the group. And Virginia Ferry stopped by briefly with her sister, Mireille, and Mireille’s husband, Peter Noone.

The next night Jackie gave a Sweet Sixteen party for daughter Libby. The day after that mother and daughter headed for the East to enroll Libby at Choate, the formerly all-male prep school.

The Social Scramble: When John Crean (he’s the head man at Fleetwood Enterprises, manufacturers of mobile homes) received the Horatio Alger Award in New York recently, Wally and Bijou Durden were there as guests of Crean and his wife, Donna. Well, the celebrating hasn’t stopped yet. Just the other night the Durdens gave a party for the Creans at their home and a lot of people were there: Jane Withers and her new husband Tom Pierson, Robert Cohn and Patricia Fox, Pat and Dick Van Patten, Dona Powell and Pete Summers, Annabelle and Dr. Robert Kositchek. And that’s just a sampling.

If you haven’t seen Mrs. Harry Abramson around much these days, it’s because she’s busy in her kitchen (it’s as big as most hotel kitchens, maybe bigger) preparing the hundreds of delicacies she’ll serve, buffet-style, at her Sept. 14 Virgo party. All her Virgo pals--and some that weren’t born under the sign--will be nibbling happily that night.