‘Mame,’ Society Provided Something to Chew On

Audiences at productions of the popular musical “Mame” usually can find a memorable line or two to take home and chew on for a while.

One of the most popular is Mame Dennis’ coyly exasperated utterance, “Life is a banquet, and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death!”

And while Mame’s lament may carry a modicum of truth, it would be incorrect to suggest that any of the 160 guests at last Thursday’s dinner staged by the Starlight Society, before the opening night performance of the San Diego Civic Light Opera Assn.’s production of “Mame,” went home hungry. A few may have taken along doggy bags containing the remnants of veal cordon bleu and berries in cream.

Event chairmen Marilyn and Vince Benstead designed the dinner as a breezy prelude to what surely ranks as one of Broadway’s frothiest plays. Held in the expansive court of the Aerospace Museum, as are all Starlight Society pre-performance frolics, the sunset-hour entertainment included the jazzy piano playing of Charlie Cannon. Cannon, one of Starlight’s four founders, sang while he played, delighting his audience with a medley of the tunes he has offered up in a career of Starlight Bowl appearances that commenced in 1946. Perhaps in deference to his venerable talents, relatively few airplanes--the accepted bane of Starlight productions--swooped overhead during the dinner.

A few of the faces in the crowd displayed signs of opening-night jitters. These belonged to Starlight principals who attend these dinners as habitually as they do the cast parties that follow the first-night performances. Among those whose visages betrayed a trace of anxiousness to get the show on the road, as it were, were “Mame” director Ole Kittelson, choreographer Dom Salinaro, executive producer Leon Drew and artistic co-directors Don and Bonnie Ward.

The guest list also included Civic Light Opera Assn. board chairman Reba Brophy and her daughter, Rebecca; Starlight Society President Nell Swanson and her husband, Cal; Bill Seaton; Chris and Kathy Hamilos; Jean Rauchle; John and Chris McLean; Leni Arnhym; Jim and Cindy Ingham; Robert and Melanie Dean; Marilyn Johns with Bill Purves; Gil and Jane Mombach; Patti Milligan; Dale and Alice Saare; Rich and Margaret Darby, and Kent and Nancy Thompson.

Imagine a ballroom filled with guests--nearly 200 of them--but completely empty of sound, so hushed, in fact, that one could almost hear the whir of a rose petal gently spiraling from blossom to linen tablecloth.

It sounds as if last Thursday’s luncheon at the San Diego Hilton was a meeting of the International Society of Somnambulists, but of course it wasn’t, and the crowd in fact included some of San Diego’s leading chatterboxes.

Following the example set by Howard Craig and his daughter and son-in-law, Stephanie and Don Starks, the guests kept their mouths shut for a simple, good reason: The luncheon was mounted as a surprise birthday tribute to community activist Leonor Craig.

Leonor Craig thought she was coming to the Hilton for a photography session to be used as publicity for an event to be given by the California Ballet, of which she is president. She was escorted by ballet buddies Diane Metzler, Carol Schraeder and Virginia Chasey, all of whom played a role in the deception, as did the Hilton catering department. The hotel staff kept the guests apprised of Leonor’s movements from the moment she arrived until the moment she stood at the ballroom door, which amusingly declined to open on the first few tries and made the guests struggle to suppress giggles of delight.

When the door did open, it revealed Leonor in a state of some shock, the result of the crowd’s massive roar of “Surprise!” She stood beaming through her tears while everyone crowded around and sang “Happy Birthday.”

Since it was her day, Leonor was led to a throne on the stage, where more surprises lay in store for her, including the appearance of her son Flavio de la Vega, who flew up from Mexico City for the event. Later, a group of preschoolers from the Salvation Army’s Door of Hope, the auxiliary of which Leonor long served as president, marched in to sing songs and offer flowers to their benefactress.

Although this was a birthday party, Leonor showed some reluctance to discuss just which birthday it celebrated. But even though a lady never will tell her age, her friends always will, and master of ceremonies Bob Arnhym informed the crowd on this important point by welcoming it to, as he said, the “49th anniversary of Leonor’s 21st birthday.”

Phyllis Parrish, Rose Mary Taylor and Helen Decker joined Stephanie Starks in organizing the luncheon, which attracted friends from the San Diego Symphony, the Starlight Society and other groups with which Craig has been associated. San Diego County Salvation Army administrators Major Bill Love and his wife, Betty, were on hand to offer their birthday wishes. The guest list also included Mary Brito, Kay Rippee, Sally Thornton, Jean Morse, Anne Ratner, Bea Epsten, Merrilyn Arn, Shirley McQuerter, Joan Bowes, Betty Mabee, Sara Finn, Karen Saltzmann, Dian Peet and Athena May.

CORONADO--That evening, Eleanor and Al Mikkelsen treated some 150 of their pals to an informal supper and entertainment at the Officer’s Club at the North Island Naval Air Station.

According to Eleanor, she and Al gave the party for no particular reason, which often is the best reason of all. She added, though, that it marked the couple’s 16th anniversary of living in San Diego. “The evening honors all the lovely friends we’ve made in these 16 years,” she said.

The Mikkelsens have been heavily involved with the Globe Guilders (the auxiliary to the Old Globe Theatre), the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera, and many of their guests came from the rolls of groups that support those organizations.

Among those present were Anne and Bob Plachta, Lois and Don Dechant, Annyce and Jacques Sherman, Janis and Page Jones, Mary Jane and Warren Thompson, Audrey and John Morava, Vicki and Haley Rogers, Rita and Dan Grady, Eleanor Maund, Janie and John Pendleton, Irene and Sylvan Cooper, Tom Fleming, Clarice Kuck, Jill and Mike Holmes, Lee and P.J. Maturo, Priscilla Moxley and Mary and Irby Cobb.

Jacque Powell and Nancy Hester nipped over to Gustaf Anders the other night to share a quiet dinner with super-chef Pierre Franey and noted food editor Pat Brown.

Franey and Brown had flown out from New York to discuss details of the Oct. 19-20 “Fete X Five,” a food-oriented fund-raiser to be chaired by Powell and Hester for the benefit of the March of Dimes. With a name that could be translated as “Feast Times Five,” the pair of events will focus on a reception and five separate banquets to be prepared by a quintuplet of internationally acclaimed chefs from New York and California. Nibbles prepared by all the chefs (the list includes Alain Sailhac of New York’s Le Cirque and Wolfgang Puck of L.A.’s Spago) will be served at the Oct. 19 benefactors’ reception to be given in the Piret’s in downtown San Diego; the following evening, guests will decamp to their choice of one of the county’s five Piret’s bistros to sample a meal prepared by one of the chefs.

Franey seemed enthusiastic about the first-time-ever gala as he munched through a meal of oysters and duck. Brown, the former editor in chief of Cuisine magazine, now edits food books for Harper and Row and is a consultant to the March of Dimes on special events; she was entranced by her serving of anchovis roulade, a kind of short souffle filled with marinated sprats. Between bites, she shared the information that the list of celebrity chefs also will include Jeremiah Tower of San Francisco’s Stars, Larry Forgione of New York’s ultra-chic An American Place, and Seppi Rengli, the creator of the venerable Four Seasons’ new spa cuisine.