Tux Redux at Century II Fund-Raiser

Here was a crowd born to the tux.

And, as they partied Friday night, their very-black-tie presence put to rest fears that L.A. will experience a graying of the charity circuit.

Barely a wrinkle could be seen among the members and supporters of the newly formed Century II group at its first fund-raiser for the 100-year-old Good Samaritan Hospital. Amid frolicking at the downtown Fine Arts Building, it became clear that Good Sam was in the process of picking up a heap of current and future charity chips. And, with hints all evening about a massive still-to-be-announced building and heart institute program, this newly connected source of both money and influence had been established just in time.

Good Sam--in the person of its recently named President John Westerman--had been smart enough to go after business types with well-known names (and philanthropic family histories). Stockbroker J. M. Taylor heads up Century II, assisted by Loring Rutt, president of Rutt Steel. And his wife, Jenny Jones Rutt (the daughter of Mary and Bradley Jones) had done all the party work, lining up the Stepp Sisters, getting Milo Bixby to create gold lame and flower centerpieces and making sure the Seventh Street Bistro served up a non-modest six-course repast.

Dancing and eating were Pam and Don Bowers (one of the owners of the Art Deco building), Philip and Irene Fowler, Penny and Adam Bianchi, Barkley and Susan Perry (he heads up Kidder-Peabody’s West Coast office), Hollywood Park’s Don Robbins, attorney Skip and Nevada Cook, Mary Daly, whose finance Reese Milner Jr. was out flat with a disc problem, but was escorted by his good buddy Brad (Fargo) Freemen, newly recruited angioplasty specialist Dr. Steven Osterle (“he’s another Stanford man,” several of the guests were heard to pronounce).

It was that kind of crowd.

BLUE-BOOKS NOTES--At least some people don’t take the social registers as seriously as their inclusion in them makes you think they would. In both of the local “blue books,” the L.A. Blue Book and the Southwest Blue Book, construction magnate Claire Leverett Peck lists his clubs in the following manner: “Los Angeles C.C., Eldorado CC, California, Bohemian, Gemco.” Kudos, C. L.

MORE BARBRA--Regardless of the persistant Gotham gossip, Barbra Streisand is attending the fund-raiser for congressional candidate Bella Abzug in New York City on Sept. 28 in a non-singing capacity. Look for her at the home of Jo Sullivan Loesser (the widow of noted songwriter Frank Loesser), but Streisand will not be repeating her recent sensational singing stint. Streisand is in N.Y.C. to start preliminary work on Warner Bros.’s production of “Nuts.”

EATING FOR CHARITY--When Spago first sponsored the American Wine and Food Festival, Wolfgang Puck tented his parking lot and imported chefs to cook for the crowd to benefit Meals on Wheels. Four years later, “We’ve learned a lot,” organizer Tom Kaplan said last Saturday as 850 people (at $125) ate their way along the length of the Pacific Design Center balcony. New York’s Jonathan Waxman (Jams, Buds) doled out caviar-topped red-pepper pancakes while Lydia Shire wrapped up her Moroccan bluefish and lobster pastries--although not in the 400 leaves of homemade warka dough she’d brought from Boston. “When I arrived,” she sighed, “I discovered that they had all stuck together. I had to go and buy phyllo dough.” A minor hitch in an evening that raised $100,000.

And then the chefs went off to celebrate at Silvio’s, hosted by the Doumanis of Stags’ Leap Winery. Eating again? “You’d be surprised,” pastry whiz Lisa Doumani said, watching Berkeley’s Alice Waters construct a snack. “All the chefs work so hard at the festival that none of them ever has time to eat” . . . The annual brunch of the Rape Treatment Center racked up $190,000 Sunday. Mark Harmon and Victoria Principal each paid $2,500, after a spirited bid, to sign up for a “walk-on” part in an upcoming episode of “Cagney and Lacey.” The show’s producer, Barney Rosenzweig, and his wife, Columbia’s Barbara Corday, hosted the event at their home. The money raised will go in part toward funding a new Latina treatment program, details to come later this fall.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO--David Harris, the Stanford student body president who started the draft resistence movement? Hey, he’s found employment as a successful writer. About politics? Kinda. Harris has a new book out from Bantam on what he calls “the power struggle within the NFL,” but which carries the title “The League.” Next stop--the authorized biog of back-in-the-hot-seat-at-CBS William Paley.

WEEKEND TICKETS--Carrie Rozelle, the wife of the NFL’s Pete, brings her first fund-raising effort for the Foundation for Children With Learning Disabilities here Sunday with a benefit tennis match at UCLA. On the phone from New York, she said there were still lots of good seats, because the match conflicts with two major entertainment industry functions--the Emmys and the wedding of MCA’s Sid and Lorraine Sheinberg’s son, Billy, who is marrying Shoshana Claman. Founded in 1977, the foundation has raised more than $2.75 million, both to increase public awareness of learning disabilities and to support model programs, such as the Sprint project at UCLA. The official name of the event is the Volvo Tennis/L.A. Tournament Presented by Paine Webber--an event on the Nabisco Grand Prix at the Thrifty Corp. Stadium at UCLA.

POLAROIDS, PLEASE--Any attendee who doesn’t bring a camera Saturday night for the lavish Commitment to Life Dinner is just mad. Organizer Barry Krost has assembled dozens of top-name stars for the benefit to help the AIDS Project/L.A.--like Anjelica Huston, Michael Ontkean, Diane Keaton, Elizabeth Montgomery--who will be ushering at the Wiltern, as Liz Taylor gets the honors from Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt sings, and Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal do their bits.

FYI--New names on the Southern California Center for the CORO Foundation--Richard Lippin of the Lippin Group, its new chair who also is vice chair of the national Coro foundation, joined by Bettina Chandler, Marcia Hobbs, South Bay College President David Horn, Coro Fellow Rita Lynch, longtime Coro supporter Christina Rose and Susan Stockel. In addition to Lippin, named to the national board are Lockheed’s Stephen Chaudet, Joseph Drown Foundation’s Terri Childs and Arco attorney Alberto Hernandez.