Gourmet Gala Is Frosting on the Cake

Those three dynamos--Mmes. John Van de Kamp, Roger Kozberg and Thomas Vreeland--Andrea, Joanne and Nancy--can, naturally, take the heat in the kitchen, and they are happily stirred up about the benefit dinner they chair March 4 at the Sheraton Premiere in Universal City.

Monday evening at Spago, they’re hosting a kickoff celebration as frosting on the cake for 1986 Gourmet Gala, the party for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. “Such a worthy cause,” Andrea Van de Kamp says. Invitations are in demand; they go out Thursday.

This is the fourth gala here (Washington, San Francisco and Dallas also do the party). The financial goal is at least as high as last year’s net, $183,000. That should be easy with Mrs. Ronald Reagan as special honorary chairman, Hannah and Ed Carter as dinner chairmen, and the Armand S. Deutsches, Virginia Milner, the William French Smiths, the James M. Stewarts and the Harry Wetzels as honorary chairmen.

Plans are cooking for 13 kitchens--all custom designed. In each, celebrity cooks will create yummies, which will be judged, while the dues-paying crowd hovers and later sits to dine. The talk is that last year’s pumpkin brandy snaps, a raging success concocted by Kate and Brooks Firestone, will be served for dessert. Meanwhile, couture aprons by David Hockney, Peter Alexander, Billy Al Bengston, Laddie Dill, Robert Graham, Chuck Arnoldi and Ed Moses will be auctioned.

Who’s cooking? Songwriters the Alan Bergmans, state Sen. William Campbell, the Norman Cousins, George Hamilton, the William Kieschnicks, the Jess Marlows, Vilma Martinez, Tony Thomopoulos and Cristina Ferrare, the De Wain Valentines, Kate Jackson, Lyn Kienholz and the Vidal Sassoons.

They’ll be in kitchens designed by Kalef Alaton, Val Arnold, Jack Lowrance, Tom Allardyce and Illya Hendrix, Karen Blake, Tom Buckley, Louis Cataffo, Barbara Lazaroff, Mimi London, Anthony Machado, Jackie Morgen, Janet Polizzi and Smith, Cleary Inc.

Just a few on the committe are Mmes. John Hotchkis, Timothy Childs, Frank Johnson, Douglas Kranwinkle, Robert Maguire II, Sidney Petersen, LeRoy Rahn, Jack Quinn, Gwynn Robinson, Earl A. Powell, Thomas Wachtell, Edgar Wyatt Ward, Richard Zanuck and Mark Lipson.

David R. Brown, the new president of the Art Center College of Design (the group that always has stunning invitations), will be introduced to Center friends Tuesday evening when the board of trustees, the executive board and the advisory board host cocktails and dinner.

Among those who have already indicated they’ll be there are the Royden Axes (he’s director of design, Austin Rover, England), Xavier Karchers (director general, Citroen, France); the Robert A. Rowans, the Melville Shavelsons and the Timothy Walkers.

Board chairman John Rex is also announcing three new trustees for the Art Center: Alyce Williamson, Christopher N. Madison and Timothy H. Walker.

Worldwide women’s activist Madame Jihan Sadat, widow of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, will be the honoree March 5 at the Century Plaza.

The Crittenton Center for Young Women & Infants honors the social activist, poet, scholar and originator of SOS Children’s Villages, designed to help Egyptian orphans lead a normal life.

Alana and Michael Jackson are dinner chairmen. Joanna and Sidney Poitier are dinner hosts.

The committee includes Mmes. Christopher Cord, Ron Cey, William Wellman, Arthur Park, Suzanne Marx, Regina McConahay-Orr, and Dr. Larry Schwartz, and Peter Knudson and Richard Gardner.

Supporters include John and Deborah Landis (they’re taking two tables), the Lew Wassermans, Ernest and Tova Borgnine, Ray and Frances Stark, David May II, John Veitch, Kirk and Ann Douglas, Mrs. Walt Disney, Frank Price and the Henry Mancinis.

It’s almost unheard of for every single member of the board of directors to turn out for a gala. They will, says Phyllis Bernard, Saturday when Sen. Barry Goldwater is master of ceremonies and the David Bernard Memorial Foundation awards its second Air Safety Medal to Gen. Charles E. Yeager in recognition of his lifetime contributions to aviation safety.

The party is aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor with dining in the Grand Salon. Dancing under the wings of the Spruce Goose, to the music of Les Brown and his Band, follows.

Generals will be in abundance, including Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, who will come from Carmel with his son John and John’s wife Priscilla.

An airline passenger over San Diego Sept. 25, 1978, David Bernard died in a mid-air collision with a private aircraft. A 1958 UCLA School of Law alum, he was a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Belcher Henzie & Biegenzahn, specializing in aviation litigation.

Phyllis’ goal is to endow the David Bernard Memorial Law Library at UCLA with $55,000 and to endow the Southern Methodist University Air Law Symposium speakers fund with $25,000. Tickets are $175.

Among those attending will be Marshall and Loretta Foreman, Herbert and Fran Ehrmann, Paul W. Engstrom, Joseph and Judi Asselta, Billie and Jacob Daugherty, William and Pat Delhagen, Supervisor Ed and Mari Edelman, Robert and Betty Forgnone, Bernard and Lenore Greenberg, Don and Juanita Madole, Allan and Judy Moltzen Jr., Municipal Court Judge Ronald Schoenberg and his wife Barbara, Charles A. Tarpley of Dallas and Eugene and Jeannie Wooley.

It was “girls night out” for the Los Angeles Spinsters at Prego in Beverly Hills. Nancy Griffith Baxter of Pasadena planned the event, the only one for members only, says Melina Eversole.

In the spotlight was president Nancy Suzanne Townsend and Spinsters leaders including ball chairman Pamela Ann Kerns. More on the executive board are Mary Lynn Harrison, Nancy Baxter, Patricia MacLaren, Susan Lynch, Melanie Lester, Heidi Hickson, Susan J. Ramos, Melina, Teresa Hoffman, Ellen Edwards, Ellen Wise and Susan Yaru.

Newest members are Davon Anderson, Wendy Andrews, Avery Dayle, Marti Brock, Grace Bruns, Kim Carson, Jeanine Dalis, Sandra Davis, Lyn Dignam, Susan Feehan, Nancy E. Fellows, Betsy Hamilton, Kathleen Hepps, Leslie C. Herdman, Sonja Ledergerber, Clara Maehara, Kathleen McCarthy, Letitia Quinn, Kristen Rights, Cathy Schmidt, Lorretta Seyer, Janis Smith and Brooke Wilkins.

Seeking to raise $50 million, John Maguire, president of the Claremont University Center and Graduate School, and the Board of Fellows celebrate the inauguration of the “Campaign for Preeminence for the Claremont Graduate School” on Feb. 11 with a black-tie festivity at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center.

Maguire’s friend, news correspondent Bill Moyers, will be featured speaker.

The campaign to enhance faculty resources and expand scholarships and strengthen programs has a two-fold purpose: to ensure long-term financial security and to enable CGS to become recognized as a member of the inner circle of the country’s top graduate institutions.

Judy Haskins, daughter of Mrs. Harrison Chandler of Arcadia and the late Mr. Chandler, was married last weekend at Old St. Hillary Church in Tiburon to John McDonald Webb of Lafayette, son of Mrs. Werner Schwyzer of Pasadena. Her children--Scott, Eliza and John Haskins--attended the family ceremony, as well as his children--Suzanne, John III, Kimberly and Belynda Webb. Friends joined them later for a luncheon at the San Francisco Yacht Club in Belvedere, where the couple will live. The bridegroom owns the advertising agency, Webb & Associates in Lafayette, and is an active sailor and sports car enthusiast.

Nearly 1,000 are expected for the 69th annual recognition dinner of the Los Angeles Area Council, Boy Scouts of America next Thursday.

Anchorman Jess Marlow of KCBS-TV will be master of ceremonies at the Westin Bonaventure, and 32 Silver Beavers will be awarded by Art Linkletter. That’s the highest honor a local Boy Scout council can bestow upon an adult for outstanding service to youth.

Pepperdine University President David Davenport will accord “doctor of philanthrophy awards.” The council’s Good Turn Award, the Guardian Eagle Award, will go to John F. Llewellyn, chairman of scouting for the handicapped. William S. Simpson, council vice president, will present the Young American Award.

A few months ago Bill Martin and Lud Renick enjoyed the hospitality of Marc and Catherine Chevillot at their renowned Hotel del la Post in Baune, France. The other night the Martins reciprocated by converting Renick’s la Couronne into a Burgundian festival of wine, food and music for a dinner party upstairs.

With both U.S. and French flags hanging from the rafters, a merry crowd was led in old French folk songs by musicians in Burgundian caps. Enjoying were the Jerry Simpsons, the Tracy Pulverses, the Wayne Griffens, the Joseph Coulombes, the Hubert Laughrans, the Donald Crowells (Suzy is running for San Marino City Council), the James Craigs, the Kenneth Childses, the Robert Bells, the Donald Willhites, the Steve Busters, the Lawson Martins and the Renicks.

The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art will charge $50 per person for its fashion show and party Feb. 7 atop the the Westwood Gateway Building in West Los Angeles. Then the next day it stages a clothing sale--JAG, Esprit, Fred Segal, Camp Beverly Hills, Dennis Goldsmith and Theodore’s--free to the public, planning cash sales of $5-$10 per item. The sale is at 1739 Pontius in West Los Angeles.

Masterminding the duo events are Eugenia Butler Malitz, art furniture designer, chairman, and artist Hally Miller. Peggy Orr will choreograph the fashion show coordinated by Elyse Grinstein, Sepp Donahower, Julie Stone and Rebecca Marder.

The intent with “The Best Jewish Show in Town” on Saturday evening at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is to establish an annual variety show to sustain interest in Yiddish and Israeli music and dance. Sandy Rake and Michael Isaacson will co-produce the show starring Hedva, Dave Barry, Keshet Chaim, Hale Porter and Herschel Fox.

Funds will assist community institutions.

KUDOS: To Dr. Richard J. Bing, director of Experimental Cardiology at Huntington Medical Research Institutes in Pasadena, for receiving the Great Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from Dr. Gunter Joetze, German consul general . . .

To Ronald W. Lee, Security Pacific senior vice president, named chairman of the Los Angeles real estate industry’s fund-raising campaign for the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine . . .

To Leo Lerner, new president of Gateways Hospital Men’s Club . . .

To Nina Melching, new president of The Docent Council of the Pasadena Historical Society . . .