High Hopes for Next Year’s Mercado

In spite of rain last year, the Music Center’s biannual Mercado (an open-air marketplace right in the Music Center’s Plaza) drew 75,000 eager shoppers and netted $750,000 for the Music Center’s Unified Fund, which supports the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Center Theatre Group-Mark Taper Forum, the Joffrey Ballet, the Music Center Opera Assn. and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

For the 1986, Mercado, which opens with a fancy outdoor dinner-dance June 6 and carries on with much brio for two more days, co-chairmen Sandra Ausman and W. M. (Marc) Marcussen have even higher hopes. And why not. Even at this moment buyers are in Europe searching for merchandise, retailers are being solicited, contributions willingly accepted. And everything, the team of Ausman-Marcussen assures us, will go for less than retail.

Next year’s Mercado has also added two new features. One is a Mercado poster designed by the winner of a contest open to 9th- through 12th-grade students from private and public schools in the city and county. The other is a book fair (new and used books, quality magazines, recordings) for the benefit of the Music Center Education Division and co-chaired by Marco Weiss and Joyce Rosenblum. The fair’s sponsor is Vons Grocery Co.

The opening night party will include silent and live auctions for such luxurious necessities as a 1960 Rolls-Royce, a fox fur coverlet from Caesars World, a week at the Golden Door, a Yamaha grand piano, an Arabian show horse, a suite on a Pearl cruise to China and an inlaid conference table by Carl Springer Associates. Plus more. For the general sale the items will include toys, wearing apparel, china, appliances, frills and fancies.

The Mercado team is a powerful one. Sidney Petersen is acting as financial consultant. Lee and Hope Warner are in charge of the live and silent auctions. And on the executive committee are more who make this town shake and move--Robert Abell, Allan Colman, Toni Corwin, Marjorie Fasman, Joy Fein, Jack Galen, Muriel Gluck, Roberta Haft, Diane Keith, Betty Ann Koen, Henry Kramer, Barbara Marcussen, Barbara Marshall, John Martens, Jackie Rosenberg, Joni Smith, Nancy Vreeland, Esther Wachtell, Lee Warner and James E. Weeks.

The Social Scramble: Mrs. Gabriel Barnett and actress Anna Lee Nathan are planning a cocktail reception at the home of British Consul General and Mrs. Donald Ballentyne on Saturday. It’s for the Royal Oak Foundation, which preserves some of Great Britain’s natural treasures, a cause that’s dear for these two charming Brits and will honor Angus Stirling, director general of the National Trust. Sometime during the party there will be a drawing for some pretty sumptuous prizes (raffle tickets are $3 each) like a star ruby, some lovely amethysts and a 12-day cruise around the British Isles aboard Cunard’s Vistafjord.

On Sunday, the children of the Hathaway Home will be enjoying their third annual outing to the Vidal Sassoon salon where the staff will trim, curl and restyle their hair, offer lunch and present some entertainment for their guests. The Auxiliary of Hathaway Home for Children has plans for December too--next month’s Christmas party and the Christmas Boutique where the children can do their gift buying. Some of those working on one or more of these holiday plans are past president Donna Wolff, current president Lucy McBain, Auxiliary founder Lucy Toberman, past Auxiliary Ball chairmen Geraldine Chutuk, Bitsie Jennings and Linda Allen Reed and new members Susan Carr, Kathleen Finucane, Kimberly Harrison, Ellen Kessler, Cynthia Laverty and Penny Nelson.

Sol Laykin, president of Laykin et Cie, and James Lopp, chairman of Andrew Grima Ltd., London, helped make Christmas shopping luxuriously easy earlier this week with a two-day showing of the Grima jewelry collection at Laykin et Cie in I. Magnin, Beverly Hills. And Harry Winston has another amusing Christmas gift to offer--jewelled policemen’s whistles hanging from a silk cord.

Dining at Benson Fong’s Ah Fong in Beverly Hills--regulars Robyn and Fred Astaire; Robert Merrill; Betty and Gene Barry; Wayne Rogers and Tess Harper; Jack Haley Jr. with Judy Lewis who is Loretta Young’s pretty daughter. As for Fong, his acting career has picked up and he’s been super busy with a cameo role in Blake Edwards’ “A Fine Mess,” shooting a “Crazy Like a Fox” segment in San Francisco and a reprise of his original role in “Kung Fu: The Movie.”

Ann Jardine and her daughter Jackie Gold are traditionalists, which means they’re doing a repeat on their annual Christmas luncheon. This year it’s on Dec. 12 upstairs at the Bistro. Happy Holidays ahead.

Wallace Seawell, photographer to the stars, is back from Palm Springs where he took some candid shots of his good pal Carol Channing and the incomparable Mary Martin. Mary has a condo in the Springs and Carol and her husband Charles Lowe have taken a house there. And they’re busy rehearsing their “Legends” act, which they’ll break in around the end of January in Dallas and then bring to L.A.’s Ahmanson. “They are getting along magnificently,” reports Wally. “And they’re having the time of their lives.”

John Irwin, the 4-year-old son of Sachi and Larry Irwin, scored points at school by not only inviting his Buckley classmates, but also the school’s founder Isabelle Buckley, headmaster Walter Baumhoff and Buckley PreSchool principal Evelyn Taboco to his birthday party. While their elders (Dale and Chuck Snodgrass, Cyndy Garvey, Anne Jeffreys Sterling, Marie and Steven Tramz, Joseph and Victoria Bolker, Jasmine Runnels, Chris and Kathy Matsumoto) enjoyed more sophisticated fare, the little ones (the Matsumotos’ Michael, the Bolkers’ Alexander, the Garveys’ Krisha and Whitney) played and lunched with Winnie the Pooh and a magician under a tent filled with balloons. Flower Fashions did the decor.

Social Backtracking: The International Committee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. gathered at the home of Mrs. James E. Wilson for the first meeting of the new season. Mrs. Joseph L. Ventress, the group’s newly elected president, presided like a pro. And new officers presented their reports. Mrs. Boris Guinkh reported on the Festival Fly-Away, one of the committee’s fund-raisers; Mrs. Harold Cohen talked about the committee’s contribution to the Music Center’s Unified Fund and Mrs. Charles Snodgrass made her report on next year’s annual ball, which takes place April 11 at the Beverly Wilshire with Ruben Panis’ collection as the star attraction. Virginia Dib took charge of the luncheon, which followed the business meeting.

Last week’s Imperial Grand Sweepstakes luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel chaired by Zena Hoffman raised $310,000 for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and made all the ladies happy with its bonanza of gifts. Besides all the goodies on the table--Judith Leiber bags, Mastey hair products, Sisley cosmetics--there were really big prizes from the drawing. Contributing to the loot were Lowell Furs, Regent Air, Giorgio, Bill Blass, Neiman-Marcus.

Mrs. Thomas Bancroft and real estate tycoon Lewis Rudin co-chaired the Breeders Cup Ball at the Museum of Natural History, the social cap to the Breeders Cup Series at New York’s Aqueduct Race Track. Surely you’ll recall that Hollywood Park inaugurated the series last year. The races will be run next year at Santa Anita. Attending the ball were some 800 horse breeders and owners plus the creme of New York and international society. John R. Gaines, founder of the Breeders Cup was there, naturelment , along with his wife and the George Plimptons, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, former New York Gov. Hugh Carey and his wife Evangeline, Stavros Niarchos who is as rich as Croesus, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney escorted by John Le Boutillier, the Bertram Firestones, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Helmsley (he’s the big real estate owner, she’s the “queen” of New York hotels), Helen B. Chenery (owner of Secretariat), Daniel Galbreath of Darby Dan Farm, actor Albert Finney, playwright Neil Simon, Carole Bayer Sager Bacharach and Carrie and Pete Rozelle, who is commisioner of the National Football League.