Center Stars to Glow for Arts Center
Benefit galas are moving out of the ballroom and into the private club. In recent weeks, both the Center Club in Costa Mesa and the Pacific Club in Newport Beach have been welcome sites for ballroom-sore eyes.
Making its own clubby splash last week was the Center Stars, an all-women support group of the Performing Arts Center. No silk-padded walls for its Holiday Dinner-Dance, just the homey sanctum of the newly refurbished Pacific Club.
“A very personal touch, that’s all we wanted,” said Kathryn Wright, co-chairman. “I didn’t want to have an organizational party, so to speak.”
Wright and co-chairman Christine Rhoades, a Pacific Club member, wanted people to feel at home. “I’m used to entertaining in my own home (in the chic Lemon Heights area near Tustin),” Wright said. “So, I’m very critical. Christine and I simply wanted to greet our guests and let them have a lovely time.”
Lovely time, phase one, began with cocktails taken by 125 guests in the club’s sofa-appointed living area. With a fire smoldering on one side and a Christmas tree glowing on the other, guests ambled between, huddling to speak party-ese.”No diamonds under 12 carats for Christmas,” teased Center Star member Karen Hardin, eyeing husband Victor, owner of Hardin Oldsmobile & Honda in Anaheim.
“You just checked in your Christmas present,” Victor Hardin reminded, nodding toward the coat check area. Karen confessed that she had--a full-length, cocoon-shaped white fox.
And what would Victor get for Christmas, friends wondered. “Can’t tell,” Karen whispered.
“The bill,” deadpanned good friend Donna Bunce.
Phase two included dinner and dancing in the club’s dining room. Long, rectangular tables had been set with pomegranates (the pinkish red fruit has been the most popular decor item of the season) accented with sprays of small white orchids, evergreen and white stock. Gold-flecked burgundy and green ribbon highlighted each arrangement.
“No large portions tonight,” warned Wright, who sat down to dine beside husband Cecil, an attorney. “Just several small courses. This way, we can eat a little, rest, chat, dance and eat a little more.”
Courses included seafood sausage swimming in a feather-light sauce, butternut squash soup, a quartet of asparagus trickled with lemon butter and the piece de resistance --filet Sophie, a beef tenderloin with mousseline of veal wrapped in a pouf of pastry.
“This group is unique,” said Center Stars president Betty Belden, sipping white wine. “We have single women, married women, widowed women. And I’d like to make that (last category) very clear. We welcome widowed women. Having been a widow myself for 10 years, I know what a stigma it can be. We want the woman alone to feel comfortable, to feel very welcome.”
Center Stars membership will top out at 200 members, Belden said. At present, it has a 116-member roster, she said. Each member pays annual dues of $1,500. The group holds no fund-raising events per se, only social ones. “Our members want to be involved with the Center, but they don’t want to put in a lot of time.” Get-togethers revolve around rehearsals, lecture series, museum visits, functions tied to Center performances and special occasions.
Diane Dailacis, the Center board vice president who organized its support group network, pointed out that Center Stars is the female counterpart to the Performing Arts Fraternity, the center’s all-male support group.
“We’ve found support group women to be more interested in the education aspect of the performing arts than (are) support group men,” said Dailacis, a Center Star member. “The women like to meet conductors and performers and discover their life styles. They want to devote their time to special projects and make things happen.
“The majority of the Center Stars don’t have careers. They’re the ones who help establish projects and make them happen. And the working women add the business dimension that makes projects profitable and effective. It makes a very nice mix.”
Dailacis said support group men were primarily businessmen.
After dinner, two desserts: One an incredible edible, a white chocolate mousse cradled in raspberry sauce. The other, a feast even for adult eyes, a live Santa Claus bearing a golden ornament for each guest. “A star (with a pearl center) to symbolize the Center Stars,” Wright said, dangling the beaded keepsake before her eyes.
Also among those at the affair were members JoAnn Boswell (chairman of the guilds of the Center) with husband Thornton, Ronnie Allumbaugh (husband Byron is chairman of the board of Ralphs Grocery Co.), Nicole Ronald (husband Eugene is a partner with Crowell Weedon), Bill Palmer (Belden’s longtime friend, a veep with Young’s Market in Los Angeles), Jeffrey Rhoades (Christine’s husband), Douglas Bunce (Donna’s husband), Neal Denkler (attending with Dailacis) and Kathleen Rhynerson (mother of a 2-week-old baby girl) attending with husband John.
Top Hats ‘N’ Tiaras, a New Year’s Eve celebration sponsored by the Medical Research and Education Society of the UC Irvine College of Medicine, will be staged at the Irvine Hilton Dec. 31, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The event, at $175 per person, will include a silent auction, gourmet dinner, tango demonstration, singing by the Sizzlers and dancing to the Team band. Attire: formal to flamboyant. For information, telephone 856-5487.
