Good Lesson in Fund Raising for St. Vincent’s Schoolhouse

The St. Vincent de Paul Center’s proto-typical “one-room schoolhouse” benefited from Saturday’s “The Miracle on 15th Street,” an elegant and amusing production staged before about 450 people in the Hotel Inter-Continental Grand Ballroom.

The gala’s numerous diversions included a dramatic monologue performed by actress Mercedes McCambridge and a surprise (and, for that matter, quite unplanned) spoof that came to be called “the mystery of the missing musician.” A cocktail reception, an elaborate dinner and hours of dancing to the Wayne Foster Orchestra took up the balance of the program.

The man of the hour, and in many ways the star of the show, was the St. Vincent de Paul Center’s director, Father Joe Carroll, for whom the center’s proposed schoolroom has become a pet project. At one point in the evening, he rose and told the crowd: “I love taking your money and going out and spending it. That is a lot of fun, and I hope you’ll continue to keep me happy.”

And he presumably was quite happy by the end of the evening, since the event raised about $125,000 for the schoolroom that will be installed in the new center at 15th Street and Imperial Avenue. Construction will start soon on the building, which is expected to be completed in 1987, and its schoolroom will serve the children of transient and homeless families living in the emergency residence. A similar school, staffed by teachers supplied by the San Diego Unified School District, has been in operation since 1983 in the temporary quarters leased by the St. Vincent de Paul Center in downtown’s Travolator motel.

One of the current school’s staffers, teacher Jeannette Tarpley, attended the party and said that she can’t wait to move into the new location. For one thing, she will be working in an environment that will be partly her own handiwork; Carroll invited her to assist the architect in designing the room.

“After 38 years of teaching, this is the first time I’ve ever been asked to help plan a schoolroom, and it’s going to be a fine one,” Tarpley said. She added that the hardest part of her job is that the children can stay with her for no more than two weeks and she never knows where they go after leaving her. “But we see definite steps of growth while they’re with us,” she said.

The guest list included much of the county’s Roman Catholic Establishment, including Bishop Leo T. Maher, but extended to encompass an ecumenical crowd. Maureen Balsam and Joanne Warren served as the event’s chairman and co-chairman, and among chief sponsors (listed in the program as “PTA Membership” and “Teacher’s Pets”) were Jan and Mike Madigan, Richel and Tawfiq Khoury, RoseLee and Harold Kvass, Virginia and Jack Monday, Tommi and Bob Adelizzi, Eileen Zirpolo, Kathy and George Pardee, Betsy and Doug Manchester, and Diana and Eric Sievers.

Sievers, a San Diego Chargers tight end, sponsors a St. Vincent de Paul benefit program each season called “Sievers’ Receivers” in which he and others contribute a certain sum for every pass he catches. The Chargers also were represented by tackle Drew Gissinger, who attended with his wife, Gloria.

Master of ceremonies Bob Arnhym had no cause to suspect, when he launched the formal portion of the program, that events would go somewhat differently from what had been planned. “It was God’s way of teaching me fund raising to introduce me to Father Joe,” he said as he opened his address. The remark earned him the laughter he may have expected, but he earned even more when, after giving a lengthy, grand and glorious introduction to concert pianist Roger Torrison, the musician failed to appear. This momentarily left Arnhym dangling like a misplaced participle, but he quickly delved into his substantial repertoire of jokes and thus saved the situation.

McCambridge rushed to his aid when it became evident that Torrison (it later was revealed that he had been taken ill quite suddenly) would not be appearing. After turning to a tablemate and exclaiming, “I can’t stand it when the show stops going--the show must go on,” the actress swept up to the stage and offered a moving, curiously melodious monologue that combined memories of her own childhood with recitations from Shakespeare (“The quality of mercy is not strained” speech from “The Merchant of Venice”) and Joyce Kilmer.

McCambridge said she became interested in the St. Vincent de Paul Center after watching a television public service announcement. She decided to visit the schoolroom, where she met Carroll, who invited her to participate in Saturday’s gala. She resides in San Diego from time to time.

Among others attending “The Miracle on 15th Street” were Bill and Lollie Nelson, Jim and Ruth Mulvaney, Bill and Beverly Muchnic, John and Judy Comito, Art and Nancy Johnson, Ned and Carol Baumer, Jack and Loraine McDonald, Robert and Carol Tuggey, Terry and Mary Case, Dick and Donna Doyle, Al and Mim Sally, David and Shirley Rubel, Al and Betty DeBakcsy, Bill and Lillian Fishman, and Alma and Bill Spicer. (Bill reported that he has promised a supply of fresh salmon, caught by himself at his place on the banks of Oregon’s Rogue River, for a St. Vincent de Paul auction to be held in June.)

Vangie and Dick Burt perhaps gained membership in the gang that couldn’t shoot straight by scheduling their “St. Valentine’s Massacre Party” a week after the anniversary that commemorated the grisly shoot-out, sponsored by mobster Al Capone, on Feb. 14, 1929, in a garage on the North Side of Chicago.

But in other respects, they did quite a job with the Friday event. Given as the kickoff fund-raiser for the proposed San Diego Automotive Museum, which will be located in Balboa Park, the party appropriately was held in the “Evans Garage and Laundry,” a classy, custom-designed structure that houses part of the massive automobile collection assembled by the late William D. Evans. Members of the Evans family, including Anne Evans and her son, Bill (William L.) Evans, hosted the event, which was catered by their Bahia Hotel.

The party raised more than $30,000 for the museum, Vangie Burt said.

More or less by definition, the party had a Gangland-era theme, which the 400 guests found quite to their liking. Most complied with the dress code, which requested period (Roaring ‘20s) attire, and headache bands and fedoras blossomed all over the two-story garage. (The building, which includes a parquet dance floor and other handsome features, is anything but a typical garage.) Bill Evans added an appropriately menacing tone to the event by carrying a genuine, bona-fide and most fearsome-looking 1927 A-1 Thomson submachine gun, which was the sort favored by the tonier Chicago gangs.

The invitations listed Al Capone as honorary guest host. His staff limousine did show up; loaned by the collection of the Imperial Palace hotel in Las Vegas, it was displayed inside a glass enclosure, and it caused quite a stir. The 1930 V-16 Cadillac has, among other features not usually included in the average sedan, bulletproof windows, a tube in the floorboard through which nails could be dropped in the path of pursuing police cars, and an exhaust system capable of creating a smoke screen.

Ira Cobb’s Jazzbo played more or less non-stop through the evening and featured the music of the ’20 and ‘30s. The dance floor periodically filled with people who knew how to do the Charleston, as well as with people who faked it reasonably well.

Anne Evans felt a certain connection to the era the party celebrated. Her father was a surgical resident at Chicago’s famous Cook County Hospital during the ‘20s, when the early mob wars were supplying the hospital with plenty of patients.

“My father’s big moment came when he had enough money to buy a white fedora with a snap brim,” she said. “It turned out that the white ones were ‘in’ with the mobs, and he got a lot of respect because of it.” Her eyes then traveled to where her son stood; sure enough, he was wearing a fedora with a snap brim.

Among those present were Philip and Lyn Gildred, Paul and Jinx Ecke, Gene and Celeste Trepte, Peter and Cecily Young, John and Ann Davies, Jacques and Annyce Sherman, Mike and Carol Alessio, Tom and Louise Guarnotta, John and Grace Barbey, Emma Lee and Jack Powell, Terry and Susan Sheldon, Lawrence and Mary Austin Bame, Gaynor Pates, Sandra Brokaw, Harold and B.J. Williams, and museum President Reid Carroll and his wife, Lee.