A Jumping Happening’s Set at Oaks Classic in San Juan

Those who attended the Inaugural Oaks Classic last year said it was not only a top West Coast equestrian jumping happening, but also a spectacular social affair. Joan Irvine Smith and her mother, Athalie Clarke, are doing it again. The second prestigious $70,000 Oaks Classic is May 30-31 at Joan’s The Oaks in San Juan Capistrano.

Schooling sessions on May 29 all lead up to the May 30 $6,000 Open Jumper Welcome Stake and then the May 31 $7,500 Acorn Junior Amateur Grand Prix, Joan’s and Athalie’s Grand Prix luncheon under the canopy and the 2 p.m. $50,000 Oaks Grand Prix. (The luncheon’s private, but they expect 2,000.)

Hermes is sponsoring the Acorn and members of the Hermes family will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Hermes of Paris with the hostesses and trainer Jimmy Kohn, who’s balancing arrangements, and Marty Cohen, managing the show.

BALBOA RENDEZVOUS: The 13 original founders of the Newport Harbor Art Museum will be feted at an elegant “Rendezvous in Balboa” on June 2. The evening will also salute the museum’s 25th anniversary. A commemorative poster, “Rendezvous in Balboa” by Rex Brandt, has been commissioned by the steering committee: Judy Hurndall, Sally Somers, Betty Steele and Snoozie Ullman. Those illustrious founders: Dorothy Ahmanson, Mrs. Rexford Brandt, Mrs. Howard Chastain, Mrs. E. Avery Crary, Mrs. David Curtis, Mrs. Lyman Farwell, Mrs. Rolla Hays Jr., Mrs. John Hurndall, Mrs. Myford Irvine, Mrs. Howard Lawson, Mrs. Alan Mickle, Mrs. James Stoddard and Mrs. Richard Winckler.

INNOVATIVE: Consider the costume possibilities! The splendor of Samson and Delilah, cowboys from Oklahoma, trapeze artists, lion tamers, Indians, Scottish Highlanders, gladiators, Cleopatra . . . the list goes on. And in celebration of the legendary DeMilles, Hathaway, the Auxiliary of Hathaway Home for Children and its clever supporters celebrate “The . . . Ready When You Are, C. B . . . Ball” May 29 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Benefit chairmen Geraldine Gleason Chutuk, Donna Wolff, Mary Robin Redd and Ellen Donaldson Kaiser have suggested black-tie or Dionysian splendor or “. . . put on one of those cowboy rigs and get a horse,” to quote Cecil B. DeMille.

President Mrs. Harry Langdon has given the chairmen free rein, and they’ve lined up stellar support from James Stewart, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Anna Bing Arnold, Jackie Gleason, Larry Hagman, Dorothy Lamour, Gregory Peck and Julie Andrews. More in on the planning: Mrs. James Myers, Mrs. Robin von Tscharner, Mrs. Christopher Cazenove, Mrs. Alan Kessler, Mrs. Daniel Govern, Mrs. Terrence Palczer. Remember, this is the crowd that re-created the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary, Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca and Carnaval in Rio.

The DeMille significance is noteworthy: In 1963 the family of the late pioneer film maker gave Hathaway 300 acres of land that had been DeMille’s Paradise Ranch. It marked the beginning of a new era for Hathaway, which has cared for severely emotionally disturbed and abused children since 1919. Today the setting flourishes as Hathaway Children’s Village.

HAIL HOLLYWOOD: Diamond Circle for the City of Hope hails the legendary Hollywood Canteen and salutes Bette Davis for her contribution as a canteen founder Saturday at the Filmland Center, Culver City. Co-chairs Barbara Katz and Dale Olson say Florence Henderson, Johnny Ray and Tex Beneke and His Orchestra, plus the Modernaires, will headline the “red, white and blue” black-tie party. This becomes the 10th “The Last Great Hollywood Party,” notes president David Z. Marmel. The original Hollywood Canteen, matching starry-eyed servicemen with stars, no long exists, but the memories linger to raise funds for medical research.

SOCIAL RAGING: The romantic songs of Frank Sinatra and Julio Iglesias and an Italian courtyard lined with 20 vintage Ferraris, will enhance the setting May 30 for Una Notte sotto le Stelle (Night Under the Stars) at Universal Studios. The gala is a $1-million effort for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. and the American Friends of the Dino Ferrari Center. Co-chairing are Consul Gen. of Italy Alberto Boniver and Carlota Busch Giersch. Honorary co-chairmen will be First Lady Nancy Reagan and Anna Craxi, wife of Italy’s prime minister. A mass is expected to browse through an Italian movie-set village before sitting for Rococo’s four-course Italian cuisine. Generously underwriting is the Montedison Group of Italy, the country’s major producer of specialty chemicals.

BIG HUNT: The Music Center plans to engage with Circuit City Stores in what must be the biggest city-wide Scavenger Hunt ever on Oct. 11. Circuit City’s president Kenneth Antos and Music Center’s executive vice president Esther Wachtell said the hunt will feature several hundred teams.

Prizes will be awarded to teams of five for most items located, most sponsors accumulated, most sponsorship dollars solicited. Phyllis Hennigan, chairman, and Carol Goldberg have dreamed it all up with Ellen Lipson, Marcia Caden, Joyce and Kim Floyd, Carol and Doug Mancino, Robert Gold, Joyce Rosenblum, Lori Grant and Debbie Tellefsen.

RED LETTER DATES: International designer Diane Freis, a Los Angeles native, is coming home from her Hong Kong base of operations next Thursday to accept the Woman of the Year Award at the Medical Center Aides for the City of Hope luncheon at the Century Plaza. Chairing are Elsa Felzer, Marge Berchin, Shirley Prince and Millie Selber. . . .

Big Sisters of Los Angeles have “Spring Fever” (doesn’t everyone?) but they’re not dallying. They’ve got Robert E. Wycoff, Arco president, for dinner chairman, and Steve and Kitty Moses as “Couple of the Year” as well as three Women of Achievement: Alice Coulombe, Music Center opera organizer; Marj Everett, Hollywood Park magnate, and actress Carmen Zapata. The black-tie ($250) carnival affair has as honorary dinner chairmen Mayor Tom Bradley, Gov. George Deukmejian, Sen. and Mrs. Pete Wilson and Sen. Alan Cranston . . .

The Virginia Robinson Gardens are bursting with bloom. New foundation president Robert S. Scott plans the dedication June 3 of the newly replanted Rose Garden, a famous spot in Beverly Hills. Other new foundation officers include Phoebe Vaccaro, Fred Quinby Jr., Mrs. Will Ward, Polly Biedebach and Lolette Starkey.

HIGHER PURPOSES: John Dillon and others who support the Chrysalis Center, hoping to make a difference for the homeless on Skid Row, will honor Chrysalis Friends at a cocktail reception next Thursday at the Design Center . . .

Noted international architect Alexander Girard of Santa Fe becomes the first recipient of the Annual Designers West/Ray Bradbury Creativity Award at a dinner gala next Thursday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The evening, coinciding with Girard’s 80th birthday, is a salute to the California Legislative Conference on Interior Design . . .

The Friends of Music at Cal State L.A. sponsor its second “Night of Nostalgia” Friday in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt. Accordionist Nick Ariondo will be honored, according to Traude Winik . . .

The birthday party Wednesday evening at the Anaheim Marriott celebrated Marriott’s 60th anniversary, benefited Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, and was just one element in the hotel’s national drive to raise $600,000 for children’s hospitals in a network telethon May 30-31 at Disneyland.

KEEPING UP: Dr. Ernst Katz, founder-conductor of the Jr. Philharmonic Orchestra of California will be honored Wednesday for his half century on the podium at a jubilee concert in Scottish Rite Auditorium. As part of the ritual, Dr. Katz will wear the same shoes he wore at the first performance in 1937 (They’re AAA, and he’s now a B!) . . . Van Cleef & Arpels is exhibiting its private collection of magnificent jewelry through Friday in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive, highlighting the publication of a book on the jewelry . . . The Italian boutique Antonio da Pescara raised glasses this week to celebrate the opening on Rodeo Drive . . . The mayor of Deauville, France, Countess Anne d’Ornano and Ruda Dauphin, U.S. Director, Deauville Festival, join Paul Zuest, managing director of Hotel Bel-Air, for Perrier Jouet champagne Tuesday, celebrating the 13th anniversary of the American Film Festival at Deauville.

PAST PERFECT: A bird walk led by Robert Middlekauff brought out a fine-feathered group for The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens spring luncheon and garden party. Strolling, then lunching on the loggia near the Shakespeare Garden were the Donald H. Albrechts, the Dwight C. Baums, Mrs. Homer D. Crotty, Doris Fields Heller, the Richard H. Keatinges, Dr. and Mrs. William Lattin, the Richard F. Millers, the Thomas P. Pikes, the John A. Sturgeons and the Harry Wetzels . . . Ruth Le Sage and Sharon Black had the Century Ballroom looking very Versailles for the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild ball, for a crowd including Audree and Stan Penton, Pamela Rothschild and Shelton Ellis, Jack Hilton and Lucy Taylor, Harriet Weaver Vasque, Don and Margie Hoffman . . . Thanks to the relentless work of co-chairs Melinda Winston and Eileen Zimmerman, and Marla Carter, patron chairman, the “grazing” gala proved most nourishing for the Pasadena Mental Health Center. Proceeds also included calories, with the crowd sampling all from chocolate confections to grilled sausages. Proceeds will help the center operate its crisis hotline for counseling.