Tables Turn As Bachelors Go on Block
Jeff Platt said he felt nervous. Very nervous.
The 33-year old real estate broker certainly looked nervous, his cheeks flushed to a shade of crimson that matched the little Valentine hearts embroidered on his cummerbund and tie.
“I didn’t know it would be like this,” Platt explained as he gestured at the 800 women who were giving him and 19 other formally dressed bachelors the once-over in the Sheraton Harbor Island’s Champagne Ballroom. “I feel like a piece of meat!”
The tables, as more than a few women pointedly commented, were turned at Thursday’s second annual “Bid for Bachelors,” a fund-raiser for the local March of Dimes chapter that allowed women to bid on dates with some of the area’s more eligible single men.
After a two-hour inspection period that had several men wriggling uncomfortably under the stares of the opposite sex, the guys were put on the auction block one by one by veteran auctioneer Chet Whalen, who normally auctions antiques. Among the bachelors were Navy Lt. Cmdr. George Dom, an instructor in the “Top Gun” aviation program; attorney Mark Hagarty; San Diego Police detective Vincent Krolikowski, and marketing consultant Brad Smith.
If words could be considered bullets, it would be fair to say that a few skirmishes in the eternal battle between the sexes were fought during the inspection period.
“These women are sizing each guy up like they were buying a brassiere,” commented Dennis Muckerman, whose business partner, Tom Alexander, later fetched a bid of $625 at auction.
Another male observer, John Michaels, (there were a surprising number in the crowd, drawn both by curiosity and by the fact that the party provided a good opportunity to meet the opposite sex), said, “It’s very sexist what these women are doing to these poor guys. These are female sexist pigs, very tacky. But,” Michaels added as his face broadened into a grin, “there’s nothing to say that a woman can’t smile and ask a guy out.”
Stock broker Nadine Tomasek, who pulled out her credit card as evidence of her readiness to bid, countered by saying, “Why shouldn’t women be able to do this? Did you ever watch what happens when a woman walks by a construction site? It’s time we turned the tables.”
The presence of the 20 men, some of whom looked as nervous as brides, proved that at least some men are willing to have those tables turned. But event chairman Cathy O’Brien, who bought two men at the 1986 “Bid for Bachelors,” commented that it was difficult to assemble the inventory auctioned Thursday.
“You’d be surprised how hard it is to find a group of 20 attractive, eligible bachelors,” she said. “If it was easier to find men like these, we wouldn’t have so many women here tonight.”
The program devoted a page to each bachelor, and included his vital statistics (age, height, hair and eye colors); his preference in women (more than half cited the necessity of a sense of humor); his leisure time activities (Walt Borland, president of Wendy’s of San Diego, listed shopping for suspenders and labeling the shelves in his linen closet), and the date package he had assembled. The packages all seemed to have been put together with some thought, and included get-aways to San Francisco, yacht cruises, and the like.
Just before the auction commenced, observer Joe Harmon commented, “If you tried to do this with women, I wonder how much scandal it would cause, if you’d get picketed? I know some women who would bring pretty high prices. But I think you’d have a lot of problems on your hands from women’s lib types. They’d scream like hell.”
San Diego-Imperial March of Dimes chapter President Dick Daniels hastened to point out that no matter what perspective one took of the event, it was not the men who were being auctioned.
“We’re not selling people,” he said firmly. “We’re selling social engagements.”
And, as things developed from the first moment of the auction onward, the women were eager to buy. First up on stage was Channel 10 producer Mark Walton, who goosed along the bidding by removing his jacket and tie in order to affect a more casual, typically San Diego look. Bidding cards flashed around the room as auctioneer Whalen successfully drove Walton’s price up to $350.
After he had stepped out of the spotlight, Walton admitted that he had found the experience grueling.
“When they told me it was time to get up on the auction block, it was like being told to step off the plank. To look out there and see all those women and wonder which one you’re going to get is pretty nerve-wracking,” Walton said. “But I know I’m going to have a nice date.”
His date will be with Melody Drown, a woman who said she had come determined to walk away from the evening with at least one bachelor. Walton’s position at the top of the line-up helped assure her success, since prices tend to go up as the supply of bachelors decreases. After she had paid the cashier, Drown commented, “I didn’t think I’d get him that cheap.”
The consensus decreed Channel 8 anchorman Stan Miller to be the auction’s hottest property, and his arrival on stage was greeted with whistles, yells and a furious bidding duel that raised his price to $2,600--the high mark of the evening that raised $24,000.
Several guests confessed themselves amazed by the amount bid for the bachelors. “You wouldn’t think people would spend their disposable income this way,” one said.
Yet the bidders by and large seemed unfazed as they handed over their checks and credit cards. When asked if she didn’t think herself extravagant, a woman who made one of the highest winning bids said, “Not at all. I spend more than that on clothes.”
The young woman who wandered around the cavernous B St. Pier Cruise Ship Terminal on Friday muttering, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” was not, no matter what appearances may have implied, auditioning for a role at the Old Globe.
She was simply looking for the man who matched her own name tag, which read, not surprisingly, Juliet.
Names belonging to about 700 romantic couples from literature, history and the present were handed out as ice-breakers to the 500 guests attending the Single Professional’s Society’s “B Street Ball,” held on Friday the 13th as a romantic precursor to Valentine’s Day. The event benefited the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sushi Performance Gallery.
The quest to match name tags resulted, as planned, in the introduction of the opposite sexes. (This was one announced intention of the fund-raiser, the invitations to which exhorted guests to “Bring or find your Valentine at the B Street Ball.”) Those who successfully hunted down their mates won prizes, but the issue was complicated by duplications; for example, at least two Jane Jetsons were combing the crowd in search of George.
Among other diversions were a roomful of psychics who foretold the guests’ future lives in a variety of manners, including one who made her predictions by reading the bubbles in guests’ champagne glasses.
Karen Kaye chaired the event; among her co-chairmen were Ellen Choisser, Lynne Krepak, Heather Metcalf, Patti Mix, Lynne Schuette and Larry Oviatt. The committee included Donna Schmitt, Philip Sibley, Susan Clifton, Penny Clarke, Tom Huber, Jackie Gladfelter, Anne Farrell and Lyman Dennis.
A tale of romance gradually unfolded during the afternoon tea dance given Saturday by Dorene and John Whitney in the Versailles Room at the Westgate Hotel.
Dorene has made a practice of giving Valentine’s luncheons for women in recent years, but this time around she decided to include the men, as a tribute to the circumstances under which she and her husband met.
The host and hostess regularly recited the first portion of the story of their meeting as they received their guests and directed them towards buffets laden with scones, finger sandwiches and other tea time necessaries.
“It was exactly 28 years ago when we met,” Dorene said. “It was Valentine’s Day, and, like today, a Saturday. We both had been invited to a 2 p.m. tea dance.”
John added a little--but not, as it turned out, all--to his wife’s story. “It took me a year to get her lassoed, but pursuing her was a pleasant task, believe me,” he said.
It was not until after the guests had had a chance to mingle, dance to the Steven Spencer Combo and compare one another’s blazing red outfits that Dorene went to the microphone and finished the story. It seems that a few days after they met, John called her and proposed a date. Dorene accepted, but when John arrived, he looked at her and asked, “Where are your glasses?” He thought he had made a date with a different young woman. Obviously, the situation resolved itself.
Among the guests were Kay Martin, Lollie and Bill Nelson, Dolly and Jim Poet, Jean and Jack Morse, Mary and Irby Cobb, Suzanne and Jim Turner, Georgette and John McGregor, Janie and John Pendleton, Lee and P.J. Maturo, Gloria and Ed Self, Ruth Carpenter with Bradley Smith, and newlyweds Francie and Bill Starr.