Other Arts Are on the Music Center’s Program

The Music Center, which has its own extensive permanent collection of art, is dedicated to fostering the visual as well as the performing arts. That’s why Katherine Keck Moses has put together a rather extraordinary collection of more than 40 works--”A Celebration of California Art”--by some of the state’s top artists to be sold at an auction at the Mercado Preview Party on June 6 and displayed throughout the Mercado ’86 weekend June 7-8.

Of course, the Mercado will be the gigantic open-air public marketplace at the Music Center Plaza featuring $1.5 million in merchandise and services, much of it 50% below retail. The event is expected to net more than $750,000.

Kitty Keck has the knowledgeable Marcia Weisman and Joan Mackey as key members of her art committee. Artists Woods Davy and Ed Moses have been supervising acquisitions. Submitting artists include Billy Al Bengston, David Hockney, Laddie John Dill, Sam Francis, Larry Bell, Ann Thornycroft. Peter Alexander, David Amico, Chuck Arnoldi, Tony Berlant, Bill Brice, DeWain Valentine and Mary Woronov.

Lots in the art world will be attending a reception Wednesday in the Atrium of the Crocker Center Court. It’s the only chance to preview the show.

Celebrities in the book world also will take major roles in the two-day Mercado. For the first time, the event features a Book Fair--more than 200,000 volumes at rock-bottom prices. A dozen of California’s most prominent authors, including Irving Stone and Louis L’Amour, will participate in “A Celebration of California Writing,” a series of panel discussions.

Everything gets launched at the June 6 preview gala with dining, dancing and live and silent auctions of luxury items, including an eight-day safari in Botswana.

Not too many years ago, the Spinsters of Los Angeles were among the first to open the Beverly Wilshire’s Ballroom. At their 60th ball Saturday, they’ll follow tradition and salute the newly renovated Biltmore Hotel. Ball chairman Pamela Ann Kerns and her assistants Ann Hoffman and Melina Lucy Eversole are transforming the setting to resemble New Orleans at the height of Mardi Gras. Invitations that arrived with gold masks specify masquerade attire or white tie. Festivities begin in the Rendezvous Court, to be transformed into a French Quarter by Debbie Karrenbrock of Los Angeles Party Designs, with music provided by the Jim Fox jazz combo. Trumpets will announce the transition into the Crystal and Tiffany rooms for dinner and dancing. Gold lame tablecloths, wrought-iron centerpieces and beads and coins spell Mardi Gras fun.

Helmut Schmidt, chancellor of West Germany between 1974 and 1982, has been invited by Whittier College President Eugene S. Mills and the board of trustees to address the fourth annual dinner of the John Greenleaf Whittier Society on May 28 at the Century Plaza.

More than 1,000 friends of Dr. Sherman M. Mellinkoff will honor the retiring dean of the UCLA School of Medicine Saturday when the Aesculapians support group hosts its annual dinner dance in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton.

Dr. Franklin D. Murphy is honorary chairman. Dinner-dance co-chairmen are Robert Ahmanson and Caroline W. Nahas. Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager will provide music and entertainment, including dance music by the Burt Bacharach Orchestra. By the way, Aesculapians are named for Aesculapius, god of medicine in Greek mythology.

Such fun the other night at Jimmy’s at a party celebrating the marriage of Pat Crowley and Andy Friendly (he’s producing “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Evening News,” which premieres Sept. 13 on CBS). Tony Thomopoulos and pretty wife Cristina Ferrare never stopped smiling at each other (she’s expecting). And Sherry Lansing and David Niven Jr. and Joanna Carson and Frank Nicoletti and Joe and Donnie Smith had one terrible time besting Dear Abby (Mrs. Morton Phillips), cutting a very mean rug on the dance floor. Tommy and Patti Skouras were there, and Wallis Annenberg (en route to Washington to see her father, former Ambassador to Great Britain Walter Annenberg, receive the President’s Medal of Freedom) with Joel Brisken. Hosts Cliff Perlman and Nancy Hutson welcomed Lynn and Stanley Beyer, Buddy and Carol Morra, Gil Friesen and Susan Ashbrook, Russ Sarnoff (who’s moving here from New York), Jon Hookstratten (Pat’s son) with Marion Cardenas, Jim Mahoney Jr., Dr. Josh and Joyce (Bogart) Trabulous, Marianne Rogers (Kenny was performing in Long Beach) with Pat and Finn Moller (who are entertaining the Diadames May 24 at a Calypso/Caribbean party at their Rancho Mirage home), David and Gail Nochimson and Jane Rosenthal and Paul Abramowitz.

Jim and Linda Dickason hosted black-tie cocktails and dinner at the pavilion of the Huntington Library to acknowledge the generosity of United Way Pacesetter Circle members. . . . Don and Jane Quinn welcomed their new neighbors Dede and Ted McCarthy at a cocktail buffet in their home, including neighbors Marcia and Stan Hayden, Gerald Lynch and Peter and Marni de Wetter. . . . Charles and Pat Bakaly joined with Marilyn Duque to host a reception at the Valley Hunt Club to honor Colorado College’s Glenn Brooks, dean of the college, and greet supporters such as Harriet and Bill Plunkett and Linda and Dr. Ben Massey. . . . Jaclyn Tilley Hill feted her younger sister Anita Tilley Althouse at a “Barely Believable 43” party at the Assistance League of Southern California. . . .

Mrs. Stuart Davis, president of ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Inc.), has announced more than 200 members are attending the national meeting in Dallas through Friday at the Mandalay Four Seasons Hotel. Among those from California are Mrs. Chandler Harris, Mrs. Hugh R. Brownson, Mrs. Albert E. Schlesinger, Mrs. Robert A. Bowden, chapter presidents from Los Angeles, Northern California and San Diego. Among the many from the Los Angeles chapter are Mrs. Edward Spillane, Mrs. John Richardson, Mrs. John Bowles, Mrs. William Burgess, Mrs. William Burch, Mrs. Alva Lane Herd, Mrs. Bert Malouf and Mrs. Thomas Malouf, Mrs. Mike Hollander, Mrs. Art Linkletter, Mrs. Curtis King, Mrs. Howard C. Ramser Jr., Mrs. Kennedy B. Galpin and Ruth Clayburgh. Among the parties is the cocktail reception hosted by Art and Lois Linkletter and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Bowles of Dallas.

Weekend Affairs:

The Los Angeles Orphanage Guild entertains at “The Party of the Century” on Friday to celebrate 36 years of service to Maryvale (Los Angeles Orphanage). The black-tie event is at the Century Tower. Mrs. Vincent Henry Lupo and Mrs. James Famechon Le Sage are co-chairmen. . . . Abstract ebony carvings from Tanzania are among the art to be auctioned at the Museum of African American Art’s second annual fund-raiser Sunday at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. Jacob Lawrence will be hailed, too, for his drawings and graphics. . . . Spring in all its glory is attracting nature lovers to the South Coast Botanic Garden, Palos Verdes Peninsula. Some 10,000 are expected for the annual Fiesta de Flores benefit plant sale Saturday and Sunday. Volunteers, headed by Rowe Prideaux of Palos Verdes Estates, are planning the event. Those at the membership preview party Friday get a head start, according to Kay Conrad. . . . The 34th annual St. Matthew’s Town Fair Saturday is a family affair. Parents’ Council members, headed by CeCe Baise, whistling while they work, include co-chairmen Jan Shortz and Clare Webb. . . . Episcopal Home Alhambra’s 37th annual Spring Festival goes Hawaiian on Saturday. In on the planning are Helen Buck, William Knox and Ruth Ridgway. . . .

Marty and Elise Pasetta co-own the luxurious passenger yacht, the “Maxim’s des Mers,” with Pierre Cardin and a select few. It’s set for its christening May 25 in Monte Carlo. The new superlux ship (with 15 stateroom suites, Pasetta pals are jockeying for reservatioins) will make several cruises from New York to Bermuda in June, then dock in Manhattan for the July 4th Statue of Liberty festivities before returning to Monaco.

More than 55 celebrities will compete in the Aku Cup charity celebrity golf and tennis event Wednesday through May 26 at the InterContinental in Wailea, Maui. Jackie Cooper, Barbara Eden, Burt Lancaster and Hal Linden are hosts for the affair. Danny Arnold is producing the event to memorialize his golfing buddy Hal (Aku) Lewis. Proceeds go to UCLA’s John Wayne Cancer Clinic and the Maui Community Theater.

Notables: President Susan Blumental turns over the gavel to Rusty Chandler when the Auxiliary of the Hospital of Good Samaritan meets Monday at Bullocks Wilshire Tea Room. . . . Dr. Philip Johnson, executive director of CARE, will be in the spotlight with Dennis Weaver at a reception at 385 North on Monday evening. . . . Burt and Marie Epstein turned ringmasters to present a showtime under the Big Top at Twentieth Century Fox Studios, celebrating their Lucky Entertainment’s 20th anniversary. . . . Andrea L. Van de Kamp was keynoter for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Museum Service Council’s annual luncheon. . . . The Women’s Council of Verdugo Hills Hospital danced the night away to Clark Keen’s Orchestra at their “Magical Mystical Evening” at the Westin Bonaventure. . . . Alan Shepard was honored on the 25th anniversary of the first U.S. manned space flight by his fellow Mercury astronauts at a black-tie dinner at the California Museum of Science and Industry. The Mercury Seven Foundation (Bob Hope is honorary chairman) was formed two years ago to award scholarships to outstanding students. Shepard is president.