Charity Will Treasure Catalogue Caper, Too

Summer leisure is negligible for the Committee for the Neiman-Marcus Great Catalogue Caper benefiting the American Diabetes Assn. Benefit chairwoman Barbara Prober, dinner chairwoman Nancy Bresler and 50 committee members including Evy Lutin and Disne Scheinbaum have been detailing how about 1,000 guests will wine, dine and be entertained Sept. 21 at “An Evening to Treasure” at the Beverly Hills store.

Guests will become detectives and turn downright sleuthy as they sift through real and bogus clues for 120 prizes from Baccarat crystal to designer fashions (David Hayes, Perry Ellis, Calvin Klein, Vittadini, et al.). The idea is to preview the legendary Neiman-Marcus Christmas Catalogue.

First Lady Nancy Reagan has agreed to honorary chairmanship, inasmuch as proceeds go to summer camping and research and education for the Los Angeles chapter.

The Board of Governors of the Bachelors has elected the following officers: Charles Rodney Wilger, president; Andrew Eban Woodward, vice president and ball chairman; John Meade Corby, secretary; and Mark Patrick Hennessy, treasurer.

Christmas will be white for Juniors of the Social Service Auxiliary at their Candlelight Ball on Dec. 13 at the Beverly Hilton. How about white gardenias in the Christmas tree pinned to silver bows? That’s just the tip of the holiday iceberg floral designer John Daly promises for Winter Carnival.

A chic crowd of Juniors accepted the invitation of Patricia Lorne (she’s now vacationing at Lake Arrowhead) and Rose Ann Casagrande for a unique luncheon the other day in Salon I of Le Bel Age Hotel to see new president Peggy Fletcher introduce her new executive board. Chris Newman (whose husband is the president of DMJM, the engineering architectural firm that readied the airport for the Olympics), is first vice president and Candlelight Ball chairwoman. It was a sneak preview to see the sparkling decorations that decor co-chairwomen Margaret Larkin and Diane Purdy have in mind.

Such a scrumptious lunch. Grilled chicken, stuffed with herbed goat cheese, garnished with asparagus and baby carrots, a cooling cold potato and leek soup, and a double white and chocolate mousse garnished with a red raspberry and green mint.

Among those admiring were Sister Rochelle Mitchell, the retiring director of Regis House who’s going off to get a Ph.D. Regis is the recipient of the Juniors’ proceeds, which are considerable, and they’re used to run the community center, which currently employees 25 teens working in a day camp program for 300 youngsters.

Before the ball, juniors will host a fashion show luncheon Oct. 21 at the Beverly Hills Hotel Crystal Room. Bernadette Murray and Mrs. John Daly will head that. Also taking roles in the efforts will be Carolyn Johnson (she heads the Juniors’ Review magazine, which turned a profit last year), Kate Bachmann, Donna Melone, Gerri Lang, Sandra Hobson, Mary Jo Bernard (former president and just back from Mackinac Island), Toni Hodgkiss, (also a former president and ball chairwoman), Barbara Overland, Debbie Parker, Suzanne Branchflower, Eleanor Purcell, Barbara Barnoski, Pat Burns, Janie Crane, Terry Davitt, Sally Kroener, Karen McGovern and Judy Salz.

It’s just ducky. The set from Duck World is being rebuilt into the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. Klieg lights in the shape of a feather will perch on the top of the Hilton. Party favors will include Marvel Comic books, posters, slippers, pajamas, sound-track albums and calendars. Live rock band, videos. Ducky perfume?

That’s the package when Lucasfilm Ltd. and Universal Pictures host the world premiere of the live-action comedy “Howard the Duck” next Wednesday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills, for the UCLA Film, Television & Radio Archives.

Having fun are members of the gala committee: Theodora Cornyn, Marilyn Ehrman, Mimi Freedman, Susan Greenfield, Ruth Kraft and Dini Ostrov. Tickets are $100 for the night, or just $20 for the screening.

Proceeds go to the Archives preservation program and public service programs. The Archives house one of the world’s major collections, second in size only to the Library of Congress. Because nitrate, the film stock on which motion pictures were produced before 1950, rapidly deteriorates, funding is urgently needed to save priority parts of the Archives’ collection that are in immediate danger of being lost forever. Sadly, some are lost already.

The comedy is a George Lucas presentation of a Willard Huyck film and a Gloria Katz production.

There will be 37 debutantes at the 38th Coronet Debutante Ball on Nov. 29 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. They’ll meet one another at the mother-daughter announcement luncheon Aug. 9 at the Bel-Air Country Club chaired by Mrs. Kenneth Ruck. Mrs. Terrence Richard White is Coronet Debutante Ball director for the Los Angeles chapter of the National Charity League.

The Scopus Society, the young leadership group of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, has elected attorneys Dale S. Gribow and Joan R. Issacs co-chairmen of its board, which also includes Dennis Beck, David Lewis, Steven Needleman, Daniel Pearlman and Richard S. Ziman. They plan an evening Wednesday at the Beverly Hills home of Ruth and Joseph Sinay. Sinay was a White House visitor twice in one week recently: first, to present the Variety Club Lifeline Medallion to Nancy Reagan, and second, to receive the Presidential Citation for Excellence in Private Sector Initiative, meeting with President Reagan in the Rose Garden.

The shade of the grand old avocado grove at the home of Dionicio Morales will be the setting for the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation’s annual Fiesta Ranchera on Sunday in Pico Rivera.

Spain’s preeminent film director, Carlos Saura, will be saluted Monday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Academy Foundation and the UCLA Film, Television and Radio Archives at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Guests can expect excerpts from his films including “Carmen,” “Blood Wedding” and “Love, the Magician.”

About 150 old but unwrinkled rare and vintage vehicles will be displayed by the Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories of Beverly Hills at the Beverly Hills Antique Motor Car Society sixth annual Car Show Benefit from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at El Rodeo School, 605 Whittier Drive, Beverly Hills. Adults, $5. Proceeds will go to the Blind Children’s Center. The society has been chosen to restore a 1948 MGTC for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. At the show, it will be presented as is, then, again in the 1987 show after it is restored. Inmates of the California Rehabilitation Center, the medium-security state prison in Norco, will complete the restoration.

PLAUDITS, KUDOS:

Trustees of the Southern California Center of the Coro Foundation have named public relations and marketing executive Richard B. Lippin, chairman; Terri Childs, vice chairman, and Keenan Behrle, treasurer. Joan Wilson Anderson has been named executive director of the foundation . . .

Patti Morris drove in from her Gopher Canyon Ranch in San Diego County, Jessie Blakeston from Diamond Bar and Marie Verheyen, Olga Newton and Marie Rasch from Newport (and Jerry Fairbanks flew from Montecito) to attend the Orphanage Guild’s luncheon at Jimmy’s and greet new president Ruth LeSage, and welcome new provisionals including Margaret Thalken and Sally Forbes. . . .

Polly Bergen is the first recipient of the Spirit of American Enterprise Award from the Women & Business Enterprises Inc. of Denver. . . .

William J. F. (Buck) Francis is new president of the board of the United Cerebral Palsy/Spastic Children’s Foundation of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, providing residential programs and services. “Our primary goal for the coming year is the construction and support of our two new residential centers in the Conejo Valley.” Francis recently served as executive vice president of the National Petroleum Refiners Assn. of Washington . . .

Coro Yuja will head the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, which recently donated its record $300,000 to the hospital, plus 49,000 hours in service. . . .

Saturday evening the Los Angeles chapter of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation will host a dinner at the Riviera Country Club to welcome new officers, including Hy Walters, president, and Saul Morell, executive vice president. . . .

Los Angeles-born Arleen Auger was chosen by Buckingham Palace as the American soprano to sing Mozart’s “Exultate Jubilate” at the wedding of Price Andrew and Sarah Ferguson at London’s Westminster Abbey . . . When Auger sang the title role of Handel’s Alcina in the Opera State/Los Angeles Music Center Opera co-production at the City of London and Cheltenham Festivals, the Standard reported, “The Sensational American soprano stole the show, rising to greatness consistently.” “Alcina” will be performed at the Wiltern Theatre Nov. 2, 4 and 6 in the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Production . . . Citing special visits by Marie Claude Lalique of the famous French crystal firm and by Senor Juan Lladro of the Spanish ceramic firm, the Gifts and Decorative Accessories annual award by the Table Top Industry of china, glass and silver, is going to Beverly Hills’ Geary’s. You can be sure Geary’s president Bruce Meyer will be in New York in August at the Plaza Hotel to accept the honor. . . .

Past Perfect:

Jacque Heebner celebrated her birthday with a party for favorite friends, over tea and champagne at Spago.