Free Clinic Friends to Roast Bud Grant

Joan and Joel M. Cohen of Beverly Hills will host a very private kickoff party Wednesday to announce that B. Donald (Bud) Grant, president of CBS Entertainment, will be the honorary roastee of the Friends of the Los Angeles Free Clinic’s ninth annual benefit dinner roast Dec. 13 at the Beverly Wilshire.

To be “roasted” one must have a sense of humor, and Bud Grant does. Steve Allen headlines the entertainment as master of ceremonies, reigning over an all-celebrity dais.

This will be the major fund-raiser for the clinic, which provides free health care and mental health and legal counseling to more than 30,000 people annually in Los Angeles County.

Prize-winning author Harriet Doerr (“Stones for Ibarra”) and Taylor Wang, a JPL scientist and Space Lab III astronaut, have been named honorary chairmen of “A Stroll Through the Decades,” the Pasadena Centennial Coordinating Committee’s major festivity coming Sept. 17.

Horse-drawn carriages, Burt Jones’ Dixieland Band, dancing and gourmet cuisine from Pasadena’s finest restaurants (and that’s a growing group) such as Cafe Jacoulet, the Chronicle, the Ritz Grill and Maldonado’s are but a few of the enticements planned by event chairman Jean Kulli.

The stroll is defined as “from Holly and Marengo to the front steps of City Hall.”

Tickets are $100.

Party sponsors are listed by age, spanning the 1880s to the 1980s. There are just two in the first decade: the Valley Hunt Club and Lloyd’s Bank of California. Close behind, dating to the 1890s, are the Annandale Golf Club, Caltech, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn., Turner & Stevens and C. Lewis Edwards Mortuary. It isn’t every day a mortuary gets to help sponsor a party.

Bright pink, purple and green invitations announce “Now We Are Six.” That’s the tie-in with UCLA Child Care Services sixth annual Friends’ Day Sept. 22 honoring Mrs. Franklin Murphy and Sen. Art Torres and distinguished guests Sue Young and Coach Walt Hazzard.

It will also be the occasion for Mrs. William R. Pagen (the former Barbara Pauley), a Friends board member, to present a fourth endowed child chair “to our special friends, Michael and Lerena Kreiss,” for their generous contributions.

Wine tasting in the garden and entertainment by West Hollywood Improvisation are planned by co-chairmen Suzy Klemer and Leslie Parris. So are prizes, including a spectacular day for six with catered lunch aboard John Wayne’s former yacht, the Mojo, donated by Mrs. Pagen.

“The Beautiful Lady,” which kicked off the 19th season at the Mark Taper Forum, is a tribute to seven pre-Revolutionary Russian poets. So, where did the Taper’s artistic director and producer Gordon Davidson lead the cast, crew and guests for the opening-night party but Mischa’s Restaurant and Cabaret, the acclaimed Russian restaurant in Los Angeles.

Among guests were Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows, Karl Malden, Susan Clark and Stella Adler, Earl Holliman, Tyne Daly, James Di Pasquale, Norman Cousins and composer Robert Lee.

The Lennon Sisters will perform in Los Angeles for the first time in more than five years at an afternoon garden party Sunday at the Beverly Hills home of Margo and Irwin Winkler. It’s a musical fund-raiser for Jack Elliott’s New American Orchestra and the Foundation for New American music.

Janet Lennon Bahler and her husband, John Bahler, are co-chairmen.

We hear the sisters will sing “One Less Bell” and “Sophisticated Lady” with the orchestra.

A giant balloon in the sky and a flower-filled boat on the pool will create ambiance for “An Evening of Mediterranean Magic” on Sept. 28 when the Merle Bantas in San Marino turn their lovely gardens over to Pasadena Planned Parenthood Committee for a dinner dance.

Hot pinks, Rococo catering and the traditional famous dessert table will be mixed with Dean Bottdorf’s orchestra, Jacob Maarse’s flowers and Trader Joe’s wines.

Angie O’Brien is benefit chairman, assisted by board president Mrs. Charles G. Bakaly Jr., and Mmes. James Caillouette, John Knox, J. Stanley Johnson, William Gantvoort and Joseph C. Brashares.

The committee provides low-cost family planning services to low-income residents, has clinics in Pasadena, Azusa and Monrovia and plans to open an additional clinic in Alhambra within a few months, according to Louise Eldred.

Rabbi Moshe Tutnauer, Sinai Temple’s rabbi-in-residence, will present his views on Israel today when he speaks at the Los Angeles chapter of Hadassah’s Champagne Dinner at Sinai Temple.

The minimum gift for the event is $650, according to Mary B. Scovis and Gertrude Tapper, major gifts chairmen.

According to Rhoda Balton, chapter president, the speaker is on leave from the David Yellen Teachers College in Jerusalem, where he is head of the Judaic department.

The Young Californians, one of Los Angeles’ newest volunteer groups, tries its wings with a theater supper party at the performance of “Food for Love” at the Los Angeles Theater Center on Sept. 27.

President Ann-Marie Villicana, and officers including Marc Saleh, Mark Geraty, Jiva Mody, Matthew Grayson, Annette Contreras and Brad Yates, plan a nightcap supper next door at Irwin’s.

Celebrations:

A Festival Picnic on Cheadle Hall Green at UC Santa Barbara headed by Gail Berkus and Barbara Kent Cooke helped to launch the campaign for a new University Art Museum. Gail and Barry Berkus head the art museum campaign committee.