Foundation Dinner Will Honor Cowles

Characteristically, the bright-eyed chimpanzee in Fleur Cowles’ painting has a sprig of flowers between his teeth and a happy smile on his face. Fleur, the author-artist who created Flair magazine in the ‘50s, always sees her animals surrounded by flowers.

“Mr. Wise Guy,” as Fleur calls him, is reproduced on the cover of the invitation the trustees of the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation have sent out for their Nov. 21 dinner at the Beverly Wilshire honoring Cowles, the multi-talented American who is married to an Englishman (Tom Meyer) and lives in London.

A few of Fleur’s friends, like Ladybird Johnson and Jimmy Stewart, will speak that night, revealing in a few well-chosen words what flower reminds them of Fleur. (It’s an idea they picked up from Fleur’s book, “The Flower Game.”) Fleur will follow up with a few words of her own. Choice ones, we’re sure.

The evening will raise money for the creation of the Fleur Cowles Great Apes Research Fund. Harvard University’s Dr. Irven De Vore explains the importance of such a fund in words quoted on the party invitation: “If we, in our travels in space, should encounter a creature that shares 98% of our genetic makeup, think of the money we would spend to study this species. Such creatures exist on Earth and we are allowing them to become extinct.”

It’s the Leakey Foundation Associates (Mrs. Robert K. Wrede is chairman) that is pulling this one together. Co-chairing the evening are Mrs. Samuel Bowlby and Mrs. Richard W. Muir. And on their committee are Mrs. James W. Stewart, Mrs. George D. Jagels, Mrs. Kenneth Leventhal, Mrs. Francis Dale, Mrs. Justin Dart, Mrs. Thomasine Koehler and Elizabeth Waldron.

Trustees chairman Gordon Getty is expected to fly down from his home in San Francisco for the dinner, although his wife, Ann, may not. That very same night in San Francisco there’s a major benefit for the San Francisco Symphony starring Yves Saint Laurent, the French designer.

The Leakey Foundation has another big event coming up in 1986. That’s when Richard Leakey, director of Kenya’s National Museums and the palaeoanthropologist son of Louis and Mary Leakey who has continued their research into the origins of man, shows up in November.

The little ones are an important part of the “family event” planned by the Entertainment Committee of the Music Center around the Joffrey Ballet’s “Taming of the Shrew” on Oct. 5 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The three co-chairs--Mrs. Henry Mancini, Mrs. Leonard Goldberg and Mrs. Peter Strauss--are all bringing their husbands and an assortment of children. Shakira and Michael Caine will bring their two offspring; Dareth and Tony Newley will be accompanied by their daughter; Rhonda and John Davidson will have two tiny ones with them; Stacey and Henry Winkler will be with two small Winklers, and Lili and Richard Zanuck will arrive with two junior editions. Others who may or may not be accompanied by small fry--the new president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Robert Wise; Jaclyn Smith; Beverly and Lionel Smith; Patricia and Steve Tisch, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Todman Jr.

The evening starts early and will include refreshments, a Dixieland band, mimist Tina Lenert, a magician and a balloon artist in the Pavilion’s main foyer. A buffet dinner will be served in the Grand Hall where Robert Joffrey, the Joffrey’s founder, will talk about the ballet. And then it’s hush-hush for the performance.

And still another Kennedy surfaces. She’s Courtney Kennedy Ruhe, daughter of Ethel and the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, and she’s making her debut as a fund-raiser here Tuesday. That’s when she’s staging a major benefit for the newly established Robert F. Kennedy Human Arts Award. (The first award carried a cash prize of $30,000. This year’s award will include a $50,000 check, the sum the foundation would like to be able to donate annually.)

Courtney won’t have to worry. She’ll have a strong backup team: mother Ethel, older brother Joseph P. Kennedy II and younger sister Kerry. Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, producer of the James Bond pictures, and his wife, Dana, are hurrying back from New York to host the fund-raiser at their home. And among those who’ve already said they’ll show up are Armand Hammer, John Ritter, Jane Fonda, Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear.

Social Backtracking: A flaming redhead, Greer Garson, wore a red dress by Victor Costa the night the Meadows School of Arts of Southern Methodist University honored her with “A Tribute to Greer Garson: the MGM Years.” And the report from friends like Bill Frye, Frances Bergen and Juli and Herb Hutner who were there is that she looked “stunning . . . a knockout.” The next day Greer conducted a workshop for SMU students, and that evening, dressed in green taffeta and velvet, she was the guest of honor at a dinner party at the Meadows Museum.

Greer’s husband, oilman Buddy Fogelson, was front row center for the tribute with her cousin, Dr. Sophia Sloan, who lives in Canada. Other colleagues and friends participating in the tribute: President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan and Jessica Tandy--all on film--and in person, Gregory Peck, Van Johnson, Lew Ayres and Christopher Plummer. There was a big turnout from Dallas and Ft. Worth, including Margaret (Hunt) and Al Hill and Mrs. Amon Carter.

Last week’s garden gathering at the home of Tony and Sophie Mastor brought together members of the L.A. Pops board (including its president, James J. Foster, and his wife, Royce), the Keynote 88 Committee (headed by Mrs. John I. Moore) and the Pops’ junior group (co-chairing it are Madison Offenhauser and Adrienne Sully). Quite a few more fans of the Pops showed up--George Page, Dr. John and Marilou Yoell, Julie Maxwell with Manny Harmon, Florence and Marion Malouf, Michael and Virginia Kazanjian, the John Raitts, Lucille Taylor, the William Oldknows, Ted and Bonnie Lever, Dick and Norma Coyle.

The Social Scramble: Jimmy and Anne Murphy of Jimmy’s went to Toronto to pick up their Travel Holiday Award. And then a romantic thought struck and they moved on to Niagara Falls to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Lunching at the Bistro--Ceil Moore in a sunny yellow Andre Laug suit; Lucy Bonorris talking business with Baccarat’s Ralph Fields; Martha Kilroe with Flip Fullerton; Lucy Battson at her regular corner table with Onnalee Doheny and Jane Gosden; Gwen Hornburg with John Good; Maureen Dean hosting a table that included Muriel Slatkin and Ruth Yablans.

And over at the Bistro Garden where they have a monopoly on the kiss-kiss lunch action: Kirk Kerkorian with Arthur Kassel and Beverly Hills Police Chief Edward I. Brown; Ingrid Ingram with Nancy Ittleson, Natalie Robinson, Virginia Milner; Arthur Spitzer with Herbert Hutner; Betty Wagner Casarini, back from Paris, lunching with Stella Stambler; Erlenne Sprague with Barbara Richardson, Sue Somermeier, Marie Windsor Hupp; Fran Stark with Clotilde Alvarez; Meshulam Riklis with Marshall Cogan, the new co-owner of New York’s 21. And at dinnertime Nancy Ittleson was back again, this time with the Jerry Oppenheimers to wish Myles Lowell a “Happy Birthday.”