Having a Ball for American Heart Assn.

The Heart Ball at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom was good for the heart. Everyone was saying “Bless your heart,” twirling to Joe Moshay, singing gospel and shaking tambourines (distributed through the audience) with Neil Sedaka.

Even the dinner committee members--Richard J. Pearson, Richard M. Ferry and Dr. Eliot Corday--weren’t stressing. The trio had sold out two weeks early. Instead, they were thanking “dynamic donors.”

So were dinner chairmen Mmes. Charles D. Miller and Jacklyn Tilley Hill, who decorated the tables with Paris Blooms anthurium, Giorgio perfume, Neiman-Marcus cakes, William Hill 1981 Cabernet Sauvignon and 1983 Chardonnay (the prize-winning wines sipped for President Reagan’s inaugural)--something for everyone.

When Dr. Gregory Polito won the Continental Mark VII LSC, Jackie Hill piped: “He lives in Whittier. Our winner last year lived in Whittier. Don’t you wish you lived in Whittier!” Happy too, Dr. Ted Vidmar of South Pasadena, who took a $100 chance on the Sitmar Cruise (with a choice of Mexico, the Caribbean, Alaska or the Panama Canal), and won.

Lance Alworth edged out Raylene and Bruce Meyer with $2,700 for the Dodgers honorary bat boy/girl chance; Morgan H. Harris Jr. paid $2,000 for the Lakers adult weekend super camp (in August in Palm Springs); Harry Magnes won the Barbados eight days. Michele and Michael Shaw paid $15,000 for the Loire Valley week at Chateau Plessis-Fortia. Consortium bidding on springtime for 10 in the Highlands of Scotland (in the castle donated for a week by Mr. and Mrs. Peter Mullin) was spirited, though no one seemed sure who had won. Was the transportation for 10, or just two? These things do happen.

In the silent auction, Bill and Eileen Zimmerman tenderly carried away Harry Jackson’s sculpture of John Wayne for $2,300, and a coterie of Gamma Phi Betas (in sorority black, and including Carolyn Lee, Karen Jones, Rachel Minster and Susan Partovi) tallied all the results.

Carolyn Miller estimates a gross of $300,000, a net of nearly $250,000, and that was music to the ears of American Heart Assn. supporters such as Jim and Linda Dickason (everyone cornered him because he’s on the board of Wells Fargo), Owen and Cathy Harper (everyone cornered him because he’s executive vice president at Crocker; he’s also chairman of the heart Advisory Council), the John C. Argues, Fred Hartley (who had a dance with his pretty daughter Marnie Gruen), Phillip and Jane Williams, Jim and Pam Boswell, Peggy and Donn Miller, Bill and Sharon Doyle, Joanne Kozberg, Ernestine and Stanton Avery, Meta and Byron Campbell, Joan and Don Hanley, the Leonard H. Strauses, the Paul Colonys, Michael and Pat Moy (chairman of the AMA Greater Los Angeles Affiliate Inc.), Dr. James H. Fleisher and Ruth, Robin and Jerry Parsky, Dr. Clifford B. Cherry.

When Neil Sedaka sang “Breakin’ Up Is Hard to Do,” every heart in the audience that had a crack was, as they say, reunited.

Mentioning Moshay: what a schedule! The night after the Heart Ball, he played for the Bishop School 76th Anniversary Ball in La Jolla. On his agenda, too, the Braille Institute Auxiliary Light Awards at Chasen’s on Feb. 23, the Mary and Joseph League Mardi Gras Ball on March 2 at the Beverly Hilton, the Right to Life dinner March 3 at Chasen’s and the American Ballet Theater and Music Center Dance Presentations supper dance following the gala performance March 4 at the Shrine Auditorium to benefit the ballet’s five-week annual season.

On their first official visit to Los Angeles, Ambassador for France to the United States His Excellency Emmanuel de Margerie and Madame de Margerie (she’s Helene) are getting their wish--a heavy dosage of art.

UCLA’s College of Fine Arts Dean Robert H. Gray hosted a luncheon for them Wednesday in Westwood before they toured the campus Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, the Wight Art Gallery and the Belt Library of Vinciana.

Gray assembled cultural leaders including Consul General of France Francois Mouton, Alexandre Tolstoi (French cultural attache), Dr. and Mrs. Murphy, Pierre Boulez, Earl Powell, Richard Koshalek, UCLA executive vice chancellor William Schaefer, Dr. Edith Tonelli and Dr. and Mrs. Earle Arlette Crandall.

Before Friday morning, the visitors (his great-uncle, Edmond Rostand, wrote “Cyrano de Bergerac”) expect to view the Huntington Library, the Norton Simon Museum, the Getty Museum, and possibly the Picasso film opening at the County Museum of Art. Also, Consul General Mouton fetes them at a reception this evening, and then they fly to Palm Springs for a breath of desert air at Sunnylands with former Ambassador Walter and Mrs. Annenberg.

Should she be happy or sad? Mrs. Miguel Llanos doesn’t know. The retrospective of Yves St. Laurent fashions planned by the Costume Council of the County Museum of Art for Feb. 24 is so popular that at least 250 responses must be rejected. That will ruffle fashion feathers. But, there’s no alternative: the Bing Auditorium, by fire department regulations, is limited to 600 seating.

Hosts for this special afternoon are David Narva, owner of the St. Laurent boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and Marc Vincent, YSL president in the United States. They’re presenting the spring and summer collection of Yves St. Laurent Rive Gauche in a duplication of the Paris show and film retrospective of the couturier’s 25 years of design.

Mrs. Franklin Johnson is program chairman. Mmes. Brian Corbell and Donald Pennell plan the tea. During the tea, Mrs. Timothy Vreeland will chair the annual bookathon for members to purchase books for the

Costume Library. Mmes. James McIntyre, Russell Keely, Patricia Ketchum, Philip Koen, Peter Bing, Vernon Underwood and Arthur Greenberg are assisting.

Dorothy Kirsten French rushed back from Washington, where she spoke to senators’ wives, to make sure invitations went into the mail just so for the second gala March 16 at the Century Plaza of the Founding Associates of the John Douglas French Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Dinner chairman Fred Hartley already has sold 66 tables. Mmes. Jerome Fein and Alexander Varga have the black-tie night star-studded with a galaxy including Bob Hope, Helen Hayes, Marvin Hamlisch and Anthony Newley. John Green will direct the night’s music and entertainment. Dorothy, founder and chairman of the foundation, will sing an aria, but, more inportant, she’ll receive the Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Achievement. Miriam Nelson Meyers is producing the evening.

Tables already have been purchased by John C. Cushman III, James F. Dickason, Lawrence R. Tollenaere, Peter de Wetter, Lodwrick Cook, Robert Anderson, Jeffrey Barbakow, E. H. Clark Jr., Robert R. Dockson, John F. Harrigan Jr., Preston Hotchkis, Henry Y. Hwang, Charles D. Miller, J. J. Pinola, Peter O’Malley.

Mrs. French founded the foundation in honor of her husband, a distinguished neurosurgeon and co-founder of the UCLA Brain Research Institute where he served as director from 1960 until he contracted Alzheimer’s. The organization supports the nation’s first Alzheimer’s hospital, to be open in Los Alamitos in 1987.

On the gala committee are Mmes. Charles Luckman, Rodney Williams, John Green, Arthur Neelley, Arthur Chester, A. J. Carothers, Vernon Smoots, George Wasson and Miss Diane Downey.

Abby Dalton, four-medal Olympic gymnast Mitch Gaylord, Gregory Harrison and Richard Mulligan want to win back the America’s Cup yachting championship from Australia. Thus, they’ll be among those at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado Wednesday for Sail America Foundation’s big black-tie banquet in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom on its 98th birthday.

About 1,400 supporters are joining the city of Coronado to raise $8 million to complete building Stars & Stripes, a yacht that could bring back the trophy.

M. Larry Lawrence, chairman of Del Coronado, is foundation chairman, and Malin Burnham is president. Lawrence is expected to announce his donation of “$1.5 million value” at the party.

Members of the San Diego Yacht Club, the challenging club, and some sports fans from 40 affiliated yacht clubs around the country will mix with celebrities, industrialists and those who make things happen.

Because they have a heart for scouting, George and Katherine Pardee, longtime scouting supporters, were honored as the founders of the endowment fund for the Western Los Angeles County Council, Boy Scouts of America, this week at a dinner at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Tamkin in Pacific Palisades.

Also thanked for their involvement were the Mike Curbs (he is capital campaign chairman), Richard H. Breithaupt Jr., the Arthur Burdorfs, the Michael Lannings, Jack Real, Dr. and Mrs. George Roberts (he’s president of Teledyne Inc. and the 1984 recipient of Scouting’s Americanism Award) and Ed Story.

Emotionally and educationally handicapped children benefit from the Oscar Reiss Children’s Workers theater party at the Westwood Playhouse Wednesday. Planning a pre-theater dinner at Bullock’s Westwood Tea Room are auxiliary president Lucille Fuhrman and co-chairmen Dore Gold, Milli Salter and Sylvia Trust.

Corinne Entratter is hosting a Valentine’s Eve party today in the Pavilion at the Bistro Garden to introduce composer Barbara Smith Reed and to celebrate the debut of her romantic new album, “Riding the Sea Wind.”

Songwriter Carol Connors co-hosts her fourth annual St. Valentine’s Day party at the Touch Club on

Sunday. Ernie Barnes, an official artist of the XXIII Olympiad, will be there to unveil his new painting, “Love’s Private Moment,” and to autograph lithographed posters for guests.

Friends Bob Marlin and Susan Stafford will co-host the black-tie affair. A lot of celebrities are invited, and, it seems, two will be announcing their engagement. “This is a very close friend of mine,” Connors says.

Southwest Museum trustees host an opening preview reception Feb. 28 for images in “Fred E. Miller: Photographer of the Crow People.”

More than 100 photographs are Miller’s original prints or those made from his glass negatives. The collection only recently was recovered and assembled by the artist’s granddaughter Nancy Fields O’Connor.

Miller, who died in 1936, worked beside noted painters Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. He was clerk and recorder for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Crow Reservation between 1898 and 1912, and he was a friend of the famous Crow scouts who survived the Custer-Reno battles of 1876, photographing them and the battleground. Post-opening, the show continues through April 27.

KUDOS:

To the Dance Gallery, which celebrated its site dedication with champagne in the lobby of the recently completed One California Plaza Tower at 300 S. Grand. The “Downtown at Dusk” ceremony spotlighted Bella Lewitzky, Mayor Tom Bradley and The Partners of California Plaza. William Hatch, president of Metropolitan Structures West Inc., announced the gift of the site, valued at more than $3 million. The Dance Gallery will be a key cultural element of California Plaza, located on 11.2 acres of historic Bunker Hill . . .

To David Wilstein, recipient of the Eternal Light Award of the University of Judaism’s Patrons Society, honored at a tribute dinner at the Century Plaza . . .

To the volunteers who plan and staff Camp Whittle, the summer camp for the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California. Dr. David Sherman arranged the black-tie event at the Beverly Hills Hotel . . .

To tournament director Charlie Pasarell, who has accumulated $405,00 in prize money for the 10th annual Pilot Pen Classic at La Quinta Hotel Tennis Club Feb. 24-March 2. There’s a winner’s purse of $55,000. Proceeds will benefit the pediatrics division of Desert Hospital in Palm Springs . . .

Last year Westridge School raised nearly $2,000 for victims of Ethiopia’s famine. On Friday, students honor their AFS exchange student Asa Hemborg from Sweden to produce funds for survivers of the Colombia volcano eruption and Mexico earthquate.

International cuisine will be prepared and sold by students and parents; representatives of international relief programs will speak.

heart ball