Valentine’s Day Comes to Pasadena

The calendar is crowded with hearts, flowers, love, lace and all that sweetness. After all, Valentine’s Day is about here.

As a salute to Pasadena’s Centennial, the Pasadena Art Alliance has named its third Valentine benefit dinner dance “My Heart Belong to Pasadena.”

Co-chairmen Lois Boardman and Kathy Gillespie decided to stage the party at the Tanner Car Barn and Stable in Old Pasadena. There, more than 70 important contemporary Southern California artists will show off works created especially for the benefit--artists such as Peter Shire, Roland Reiss, John Okulick and Alexis Smith.

The idea will be to bid your heart out and raise funds for the visual arts in Southern California, swelling the $1 million raised by the alliance since 1974.

But first the art will be exhibited today through Feb. 13 at Polytechnic School’s new Garland Theater and Fine Arts Center. Silent bidding begins there and will be completed at the party. Today, also at Polytechnic, the alliance is hosting an artists’ reception and a symposium on creativity featuring printmaker June Wayne, neurosurgeon Dr. Theodore Kurzy, television producer Stuart P. Erwin Jr., Dr. Albert R. Hibbs of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Melinda Wortz, chairman of the UC Irvine art department.

In a school outreach, docent tours for children will be organized by Nancy Farrand during the next two weeks.

Latham Williams was ahead of Valentine’s Day romance when he proposed to Suzanne Finch. He wrote “Will you marry me?” and had the paper sealed in a fortune cookie. Of course, Suzy broke open the cookie and said yes.

Now the UC Berkeley graduates are both attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying for their masters’ degrees in real estate development.

On the California scene, her parents, Jean and Tom Finch (he’s president of San Francisco Financial Group and an investment banker), officially announced the engagement at a large cocktail party and are planning the Sept. 20 wedding in Orinda.

Latham, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, is the son of Joan Armstrong Williams and Walter David Williams, corporate executive director for Northrop Corp.

Frank Sinatra is playing Cupid for “Love-In III,” the black-tie gala Feb. 15 at the Palm Springs Hilton Riviera to benefit Palm Springs Desert Hospital.

This is Sinatra’s third “Love-In.” The first two galas raised about $5 million. Starring with him will be Dionne Warwick, Julio Iglesias and Red Buttons as well as Murray Korda’s Monseigneur Strings and the Irv Cottler Band.

More than 1,000 people are expected to dine on traditional Italian cuisine planned and even supervised by Sinatra.

The Fashionettes salute William and Barbara Klove as their Valentine Sweethearts on Feb. 16 in the Century Plaza Los Angeles Room. A nice choice: Klove has been chairman of the board of directors of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center for 18 years.

The 41st annual Valentine luncheon is a benefit for the center’s oncology unit.

Mrs. Joel Freeman is chairman, assisted by Mrs. Owen Crompton and Mrs. John Mills.

Dancing and entertainment are being planned by Mmes. Arthur Anderson, John Atwill, Joseph Blasco, Jacqueline Bristol, Owen Crompton, Richard Drummy, Joseph Gregoire, Jacquolene Hursey, Hans Kretschmer, Don Rice III, Earl H. Schafer, and Garth Young, and by Aliene Stinde and Jeanne Trepanier.

The Valentine Fashion Show Sherry Tea to benefit the Senior Care Network at Huntington Memorial Hospital will be a hearty party.

It’s Feb. 13 in the Braun Auditorium. Harold Grant stages the fashion show with models including Ernie Avery, Eleanor Barker, Amytis Barrett, Marilyn Boyle, Ginie Braun, Otilia Collins, Betsy Edwards, Phyllis Hjelte, Miriam Kipnis, Margarethe Knoblock and Jean Schmid.

Fashion show committee headliners are Nancy Payne, Weta Mathies, Lois Matthews, Betty Weis, Biji Wilcox, Zan Thompson, Jean-Anne Hawley, Jeanne Garrison, Joan Dietrick, Kay Quinn and Betty Barnett.

The Girls’ Club Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Southern California hosts a Valentine’s spring luncheon and fashion show Feb. 13 at the Ann Banning Community House, according to Mrs. Lee Wright, chairman.

Mrs. Harold Henneberry, luncheon chairman, has asked the Mannequins of the Assistance League to model. Assisting with arrangements are Mmes. Frank Burke, John Broughton, Albert Forn, Harry Anhorn, John Bauer and Dorothy Wood.

Special guests will include Mrs. Robert Hemmings, Assistance League president; Mrs. Larry Thrall, vice president of the auxiliaries; Mrs. Richard Nelson, Girls’ Club liaison; and Geraldine Mertens, club director.

The official naming of the Alfred Hitchcock Center for Cystic Fibrosis Research at the UCLA Medical Center is set for Feb. 13. The center hopes to raise millions in support of research projects to solve the mysteries of CF.

Chairman of the honorary Hitchcock Center Committee is Lew Wasserman of MCA Universal, one of the many life-long friends of Mrs. Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell, the only child of Alfred Hitchcock and the grandmother of a CF child.

Among those attending will be Robert Dresing, president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; Dr. Larry Shapiro, center director; Dr. Robert Beall, executive vice president of medical affairs; and Cary Grant, John Forsythe, Janet Leigh, Jimmy Stewart and Sam Goldwyn Jr.

Additionally, the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles/Orange Counties chapter of the foundation will hold its annual meeting and awards dinner Feb. 18 at the Airport Marriott. Dr. Shapiro will speak.

Mrs. John Morris, president of the Braille Institute Auxiliary, has announced S. Charles Lee of Beverly Hills will become the eleventh recipient of the auxiliary’s Light Award for exceptional service to the blind.

A Sunday Supper Soiree Feb. 23 in the California Room at Chasen’s celebrates the occasion. Net proceeds go to help the sight handicapped.

As one of Los Angeles’ most prolific architects of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, Lee designed and was recognized as a master of Art Deco in theaters and public buildings, among them the Fox Wilshire Theater and the Max Factor building in Hollywood.

He’s been a Braille Institute director for 28 years.

Mrs. Woodrow W. Meier is party chairman. Assisting are Mmes. Samuel F. Bowlby, Ashton Castle, Richard S. Johns, Max G. Kolliner, W. Dickerson Milliken, William Poindexter, Gordon Polimer, Ronald Roeschlaub and C. Patterson Thee.

Mrs. Howard Edgerton heads the patron committee with Mrs. Rodney Williams, aided by Mmes. Robert Christensen, Walter Lantz, John Glessner and Edmund McClure.

Bookworms Auxiliary of the Assistance League approaches the half-century mark of its Storybook Balls Saturday at the Bel Air Country Club. “Rhapsody in Spring” will be the 49th. Kenny Sheldon and his orchestra will play for dancing.

Planning bowers of flowers are Mrs. William H. Van Leeuwen, auxiliary chairman; Mrs. Frank McEntee, ball chairman; and Mmes. John B. Parkin, Glenn Cantlay, John Van Der Zee, Ben L. Franklin and Jack C. Smith.

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