Philharmonic Committees Serve Up a Seminar

If ecstatic applause can be used as an indicator, the Spyglass Hill and Big Canyon committees of the Orange County Philharmonic Society may have hit upon an innovative fund-raising idea: the seminar-luncheon.

Mary Sabatasso, co-chairman with Judy Rose of “Celebrating Women Today,” said the committees decided to combine forces and feature three speakers at their luncheon because they were tired of fashion shows. “We wanted to do something different,” she said. “Something edifying. This is a time of change. Women can use good information.”

Added committee member Margit Christiano: “We are inundated with fashion shows in Newport Beach. All of us are seeking to know ourselves better, to learn different things about ourselves, so, we thought, why not tap into something else? Into the brain, into how we can improve physically, into how we can use humor to make our lives more enjoyable.”

So along with a fashion show last week at the Irvine Marriott Hotel ballroom, the committees offered 400 members and guests something extra:

“Go with what you’ve got!” exhorted humorist Angie Papadakis from the podium. “Don’t feel bad because you’re out in front. The view only changes for the lead dog!” Instructed Dr. H. George Brennan, a Newport Beach cosmetic surgeon: “The prerequisite of beauty is the underlying skeletal structure. While beauty is skin deep, ugly goes clear to the bone.”

Advised Loriene Chase, clinical psychologist in Los Angeles: “As she develops, each woman should fulfill two basic needs: the need to make a difference to others and the need to seek confirmation from others. If not confirmed for her real self, a woman develops a strategy to secure confirmation from a false self.”

Fashion Show

Members and guests paid $40 each to hear the speakers. Afterward, they enjoyed a cocktail social and salmon lunch accompanied by a casual show of fashions from Lina Lee of Newport Beach. Proceeds were expected to be in the $10,000 range, Sabatasso said.

Speaking first of each woman’s uniqueness and her chance to succeed in life, Papadakis of Palos Verdes went on discuss how to handle success once it’s attained. ‘When you’re out in front you make a bigger target, but that’s OK. Don’t waste time on self-criticism. Others will be happy to do that for you. A success is someone who makes something out of all the sticks and stones thrown at her.”

One of the humorist’s biggest laughs came when she spoke of charity commitments. “I have this speech impediment,” she said. “I don’t know how to say ‘no.’ I once did a charity ball with a woman who called me on the phone and insisted she know the label of the dress I was going to wear. I told her blue chiffon. She said it had to have a label and went on to tell me the designer labels the rest of the committee members were wearing. I told her I’d take another look at my gown. Then I said, ‘Oh yes. I’m wearing a Dry Clean Only.’ ”

Brennan dimmed the lights for a presentation of before and after slides of cosmetic surgery which left the audience breathless. And he explained a surgeon’s concept of perfectly proportioned facial beauty: “There is the rule of the thirds. The nose should occupy the medium third of the face. And the distance from the beginning (top) of the nose to the hairline should also be the length of the nose, as should the distance from the bottom of the nose to the chin.

“There is also the rule of fifths. A face can be divided into five vertical columns, each of which (should be) the width of the eye.”

Rescuing ‘Self’

Chase discussed rescuing the “self” through the use of visual imagery in psychotherapy. “The therapist’s goal is to help a person’s true identity emerge. And to do this, we need to see how feeling looks. We work with emotion. And we start with how a person feels about their eight belief systems--the male, the female, marriage, the body and sex, food, money, death and God. Everybody has a belief system about every one of those. And our behavior stems directly from the way we feel about those systems.”

Serving on the benefit committee were Pat Jones, president of the Spyglass Hill Committee; Margit Christiano, president of the Big Canyon committee; Fritzie McClintock, JoAnn Kenton, Marie Deremiah, Christel Schar, Kathy Taketa, Jackie Lokka, Anna Hilliard, Carol Pilger, June Polner and Phyllis Meyer.

Among those attending were Erich Vollmer, executive director of the Philharmonic; Eva Schneider, president of the board; Jane Grier, chairman of the women’s committees and Joyce Reaume. Sabatasso is chairman of the Big Canyon Committee and Pat Rose, chairman of the Spyglass Hill Committee.