Reagan Library Contributors Feted
It isn’t often that you get the option to spend $100,000 for luncheon. About 100 did Saturday, getting together with Henry and Caroline Singleton on their rolling lawns in Holmby Hills. There were absolutely no speeches, except a few from President Ronald Reagan when he thanked friends and supporters pledging $100,000 (it can be spread over five years) to the President’s Library. Some of the elite contributors: Tom and Sue Somermeier, Dr. Armand Hammer, former Ambassador William and Betty Wilson, the Earle Jorgensens, Giney Milner, Bunny Wrather, Marje Everett, Armand and Harriet Deutsch, William and Onnalee Doheny, Tucker and Chardee Trainer, Robert and Betty Adams, Stanton and Ernestine Avery, Candy and Aaron Spelling, former Ambassador John and Connie Gavin, Margaret Brock, former Atty. Gen. William French and Jean Smith, David Murdock, Mary Jane and Charles Wick. Sen. and Carol Laxalt also attended; Marion and George Scharffenberger couldn’t, because he had a USC trustees retreat.
DAIS POSITIONS: The Friday before, when the President spoke to the World Affairs Council (more than 1,700 at the Century Plaza Ballroom), the dais was a powerhouse pack. This is how they were arranged, according to a capital P Protocol: The President had on his right Bill Smith (William French Smith), who was given the honor for the fourth time of introducing the President to the council. Roy Anderson, chairman of Lockheed and chairman of the World Affairs Council, was on his left. Going right from the center, it was the President, Smith, then Armand Hammer, Thomas B. Jones (council vice chairman), Henry Singleton (past chairman), John Hotchkis, Mary Jane Wick and Armand Deutsch. Left from center, it was the President, Anderson, Caroline Ahmanson (council vice chairman), Charles Wick, Marion Jorgensen, Tom Johnson (council vice chairman), Diane Glazer, Erlenne Sprague, Robert Dodson, Jean Smith and Edmonde Haddad. There were second and third tiers, too. Police Chief Daryl Gates was on the second tier; Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Councilman John Ferraro and Los Angeles Chief of Protocol Bee Lavery (a first cousin to Secretary of State George Shultz) were on the third.
THE FIFTH SCORES: About 30,000 fifth-graders will see the Joffrey II Ballet on stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during the 17th Blue Ribbon Holiday Festival on May 7, 11, 12, 14 and 15. Holiday Festival, the annual project of the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center, is underwritten this year by Lorimar Telepictures Corp. Students have been pas de deux-ing and more in classrooms recently. That’s because the finale on the Music Center Plaza will have them dancing with Joffrey II performers. Keith Kieschnick called a working breakfast in the Eldorado Room the other a.m. to finish plans. She was meeting with Suzanne Marx (who was off for another Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Commission meeting for the restoration of the island), Sandra Ausman (festival chairman), Louise Escoe, Betty Ann Koen and some Lorimar executives.
PAST PERFECT: Sue Cummings honored Dr. Michael DeBakey at a garden party. The elements of successful entertaining were all there: Della Reese to sing, David Jones to arrange the flowers, Milton Williams to cater, and 150 friends, including Simon Ramo and Virginia Ramo. . . . This week Earle and Marion Jorgensen hosted a dinner party to fete Flora Thornton, who’s been in Australia.
PREMIERE GLITTER: Moonlit romantic elegance is on the minds of those planning Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee’s Premiere Night on April 25. The night is the black-tie preview of the 23rd annual Showcase House of Design. This year’s house is the 1916 Mission Revival manor at 700 Berkshire Ave. in La Canada Flintridge. The party is invitational for 600, but the Showcase opens to the public April 26-May 24. (Wednesday and Friday hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed to the public Monday and Tuesday. Tickets at the door are $10, but there’s no parking at the residence--viewers will be shuttled from the Rose Bowl on weekdays, from Jet Propulsion Laboratory on weekends.)
Benefit chairwoman Christine Varner and her husband Ronald will shine at the party. Party chairman Lisa Battaglia plans that Premiere Night guests will tour the property by moonlight, then be escorted to the Rosemont Pavilion for the after-party.
Logistics assisters include Kathleen Martin, Linda Cantwell, Ann Jones, Linda Mitchell, Judy Trefry, Margie Lindbeck and Julie Condon. About 48 designers have transformed the Showcase into the attraction that will swell committee coffers, which already have raised $2.4 million to support the Philharmonic and youth music education in the San Gabriel Valley.
TO THE POINT: “You are what ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) is all about,” Gay Goerz said, handing a crystal prism to Dr. Leroy Hood of Caltech, the ARCS 1987 Man of Science Award winner at the black-tie dinner at the Beverly Wilshire.
Art Linkletter, newly named commissioner general with all the rank of an ambassador to the Australian World’s Fair in Brisbane in 1988, had just interviewed Hood before the audience, about his pioneering research in “deciphering the message of DNA,” and in the process had revealed the biologist’s (he’s chairman of the institute’s biology division) passion for mountain climbing, the fact he had grown up in Montana (the son of an electrical engineer) and had been sparked into science by two exceptional teachers who helped him get a General Motors scholarship. ARCS follows suit: It gives funds to 10 universities for scholarships, has contributed more than $800,000 to Caltech alone.
Ball chairwoman Mrs. Thomas F. Bergin ran a beautiful ball. Designer John Daly had imported a live pepper tree to the center of the dance floor, but that didn’t deter active dancers from the Clark Keen rhythms. Mary and Stuart Davis (she’s president of the ARCS National Executive Board) had a dance-floor table. The Kenneth Morgans, the David McIntyres, Royce and Anne McKinley were nearby. Robert (he’s president of Gumps) and Alex Leitstein flew down from San Francisco and were being introduced by Shelton Ellis, executive director of Gumps (Beverly Hills), who had arranged for ARCS to have cocktails (even a sushi bar among the Oriental porcelains) at the store before walking across the street to the hotel for the ball. Joan and Peter Eichler (just back from the Boulders in Carefree, Ariz.), Barbara and John McCoy and Idell and Charles Bannan were among those checking out the Gold Boxes--buy a Gold Box and get a surprise. Joan Eichler won a $250 photo album, and Olive Varga accepted her IOU.
More in on the fun were Marilyn and Bill Schulte, Fred and Sandi Edwards, Tom and Sandy Midgely, Jack and Joan Mackey, Shari Black, Vi Nason (who won the Caribbean tour), Jim and Carol Collins, Shirley and Don McGurk and the Thomas F. Grojeans (she’s president of ARCS Auxiliary).
SAVE THE DATES: Five Acres (the Boys’ and Girls’ Aid Society of Los Angeles) in Altadena celebrates its Centennial Preview Gala May 21 at Louise and Tom Jones’ home in San Marino. It’s a friend-raiser, not a fund-raiser. . . .
In celebration of the legendary De Milles, the Auxiliary of Hathaway Home for Children clues us in on the “ . . . ready when you are, C.B. . . . “ Ball (the Epic Hollywood Party) May 29. They’re advising “Dionysian Splendour” or black-tie.
EASTER: The Los Angeles Mission at 5th and Wall will serve Easter dinner Saturday to about 5,000 homeless and hand out Easter eggs provided by Boy Scouts. Diners will also be entertained with celebrity interviews; among those on hand will be Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Cesar Romero, Charlotte Rae, Robert Hedges, Michael Beck and Gary Kroger.
SALUTE: Willard and Margaret Carr will receive the 1987 Jurisprudence Award at a dinner dance in their honor May 14 at the Century Plaza, sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. Stephen Chrystie, chairman of the legal division, has also announced that Deputy Attorney for the U.S. Arnold I. Burns will be featured speaker. Carr is a partner in the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher and a past chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; Margaret was the first woman to serve as foreman of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury and the first to serve as commissioner of the Los Angeles County Board of Parole. She was also county chief of protocol. Honorary chairs will be Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and lawyers Maxwell E. Greenberg and Paul Ziffren. Dinner co-chairmen are Howard Friedman and Stanley Wainer.
TRIBUTES: Directors of the California Museum of Science and Industry and trustees of the California Museum Foundation spotlight their California Scientist and Industrialist of the Year at a black-tie dinner at Edgerton Hall on April 29.
RED LETTERS: Renowned architect Helmut Jahn is flying in from Chicago to be feted at a cocktail reception at the Regency Club on Tuesday by the Prospect Company, real estate arm of the Travelers Companies and Platt Development. He designed their 23-story office building, the Tower in Westwood, and the reception will tout the Tower as well as art and architecture by announcing a statewide competition resulting in a new major exhibit for the Museum of Contemporary Art. Richard Koshalek, MOCA director, and artist Billy Al Bengston, flying in from Hawaii, will also be honored. Executive chef Joachim Splichal is laying on the cuisine for a crowd including Tim and Nancy Vreeland, architect Frank Gehry and others. . . .
The executive committee of the Hollywood Bowl Volunteers kicks off the season with its annual luncheon Monday at the home of the Ragnar Qvales in Fremont Place. The Weiss Duo--Sidney and Jeanne--will entertain. . . .
Mothers of some of Hollywood’s celebrities will be honored by Los Angeles Chapter of Hadassah’s Hadassah Israel Education Services at a luncheon April 27 at the Beverly Hilton, according to Bess Karniol, chapter president. Tributes will be paid to Sophie Caan (James), Gerry Dreyfuss (Richard), Laura Hawn (Goldie), Diana Kind (Barbra Streisand and Roslyn Kind) and Betty Sassoon (Vidal).