Variety Charity to Salute the Disneys

Everything changes. At first, it seemed Variety Children’s Charities’ Variety Big Heart Community Achievement Award and Pre-Telethon Dinner honoring Roy and Patricia Disney would fall on Memorial Day weekend. Not so. Memorial Day is Monday, May 25, and that frees May 31 for the big wingding in the Ballroom of the Registry Hotel (formerly the Sheraton Premiere, Universal City).

Tickets are $350 or $3,500 for a table. And the attractions arranged by Joe Sutton and David Tebet are big: Lily Tomlin, Joe Williams, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman and George Segal.

Dinner chairmen are Howard M. Bernstein, president, Variety Club of Southern California, and Bruce C. Corwin, club chairman of the board. Asked to be honorary dinner chairmen are Michael D. Eisner, Frank G. Wells, Stanley P. Gold, Robert Fitzpatrick, Brother Mel Anderson, Dr. Richard G. Gilman.

PLAUDITS: Leonard H. Straus, chairman of Thrifty Corp., will receive the Aesculapians Service Award on Saturday in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. Aesculapians are the friends, alumni and faculty of UCLA School of Medicine. Straus has been chairman of the School of Medicine Campaign, which supports educational and research programs.

Elton Rule and Susan Covel, wife of Dr. Mitchel D. Covel, associate dean of clinical affairs of the school and chairman of Aesculapians, will co-chair. Dinah Shore will provide music and entertainment.

BIG STAKES: Actress Shirley MacLaine will receive the sixth annual Vision Award of the Center for the Partially Sighted on June 5 at the Night for Sight gala at the Beverly Hilton. Clark Keen will play for dancing, and Steve Edwards will be master of ceremonies.

PAST PERFECT: We hear the Spinsters had one wonderful time at their ball in the Crystal Ballroom of the Biltmore. Chairman Patricia MacLaren and her assistants, Letitia Quinn and Helene Heglund, placed a towering gold Buddha surrounded by Oriental maple trees on the dance floor, hung Chinese face masks from the balconies, used bonsais in earthen pots for centerpieces and arranged Chinese teacups with black lacquered chopsticks for table favors. Los Angeles Party Designs sketched the design.

More than 700 Group Effort fans raced through their silent/oral auctions the other evening at the Beverly Wilshire, enthusiastically raising about $425,000 for arthritis, diabetes, leukemia and Loyola Marymount University. Among the crowd watching John and Donna Crean give Andy Granatelli the Spirit of Love Award were the Carl Karchers, the Thomas Leaveys, the Charles Von Der Ahes, Hon. and Mrs. Evelle Younger, the Charles Hovorkas, Jane Withers and Tom Pierson and the John Blands.

GARDEN TIME: Acceptances have come in quickly for the Huntington’s spring luncheon and garden party Saturday. The trustees, overseers and directors will be greeting members of the Society of Fellows for tours. Expected are the Donald Albrechts, Thomas P. Pikes, the Roe H. Powells, the E. L. Shannons, the John A. Sturgeons, the Harry Wetzels, the Richard Granthams, the Theodore Barrys.

KUDOS: Sculptor Richmond Barthe, 86, lives in Pasadena on a street named for him. Among his commissions have been busts of Booker T. Washington and Dr. George Washington Carver for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. His 9 1/2-foot eagle spreads over the doorway of the Social Security Building in Washington. The Museum of African American Art will honor him next Sunday at its annual benefit dinner/art auction at the Airport Stouffer Concourse Hotel. Actress Madge Sinclair, also busy with the TV series “Ohara,” is chairman. Ed Bradley returns as an auctioneer. Works by contemporary black artists, including Varnette Honeywood and Elizabeth Catlett, will be auctioned to raise funds to sustain the museum.

MAJOR MOVER: Mary R. Ripley, in New York the other day for a national volunteer meeting, has been chosen by the Junior League of Los Angeles to receive its first Spirit of Voluntarism Award. It’s to be bestowed May 19 at the Riviera Country Club.

SUPPER CLUB: The Sunday Night Supper Club--Series No. 2--holds its 19th annual dinner-dance May 21 at Jimmy’s, according to chairman Mrs. Wayne Dinsmore. Members will dance to Ray Moshay, and pledge funds to the Emphysema Foundation. Over the years, the group has sponsored hundreds of breathing classes for the handicapped and conducted an asthma camp for children, among other projects. Hosting will be the Warren B. Williamsons, the Felix Farwells, the John H. Hadleys, the Robert Barrys, the Frank Davidsons, and Mrs. Luppe Luppen, Mrs. Ben Lohrie, Mrs. Richard Lund, Mrs. Everts Moulton and Mrs. Vernon Underwood.

ESCALATION: Three private schools are fund raising: Campbell Hall hosts Campbell Country and a Western Plains soiree Saturday on campus, a black-tie/Western garb affair. . . . Crossroads School staged a sold-out “Cabaret ‘87” Saturday with Susan Anspach, John Astin, Anne Bancroft, Mel Brooks and Ali MacGraw in the spotlight at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater. Richard Kagan produced. . . . The Tartan 400 of St. Margaret’s School in San Juan Capistrano are seeking African adventure in their “Passport to the Serengeti” benefit Saturday at the Birtcher Compound in San Juan Capistrano.

UPDATE: Mrs. Lawrence Irwin of Bel-Air feted Les Dames at their annual meeting and luncheon last week. . . . Mrs. Douglas Campbell, wife of the deputy consul general for Canada, entertained at a luncheon in Hancock Park honoring Isabel Rosenbaum, docent director at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and her classmates who have completed 10 months of study and training.

CIRCLE IN RED: Diadames, that coterie of 50, host their annual Jewels Award dinner May 21 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Skouras. On hand for the Greek cuisine and dancers will be Margaret Ponty, Lois Linkletter, Marilyn McDaniel, Millie O’Green, Sue Somermeir. Benefiting will be the Mirman School scholarship fund. . . . The Camp Rainbow Club of the Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children will stroll down Dream Street at the Burbank Studios on Saturday for cocktails, dinner and dancing. Patty Grubman is the camp founder. . . . CBS Affiliates celebrate the 60th anniversary of the network at a welcome party May 18 at Chasen’s. Bob Gail and his 12-piece orchestra have been booked for dinner and dancing. . . . Dinner chairman Steven J. Ross will be joined by August A. Busch III, Lee A. Iacocca, Quincy Jones, George L. Mallory Jr., James O. McBeth and Barbara Walters for the “It’s in Every One of Us” Roy Wilkins Award Dinner on Thursday at the Century Plaza. Frank Sinatra gets the Life Achievement Award. Others honored will be the Xerox Corp., Vivian McDonald, Maudine Clark, Alice Harris and Joseph Duff.

BUSY MAY: Peninsula Auction Committee of the American Cancer Society takes over the grounds of the Rolling Hills estate of Gerald and Linda Katell for their “Bid Against Cancer” benefit next Sunday. Auctioneer John Pappas will sound the gavel at 12:30 p.m. For reservations--a must--call Jean Hewitt, (213) 541-1474.