Aquatics Supporters Plan ClassicSplash

The private citizens who announced last summer that they intended to rebuild the old Brookside Plunge at the site of the Rose Bowl (it deteriorated and was closed in 1983) into the Rosebowl Aquatics Center with a four-pool complex of Olympian proportions, are making a splash with three major grants in order.

Now they set about raising $600,000 more in private funds, and the first affair is Sunday--a “Classical Splash”--at the Huntington Sheraton pool and gardens. Supporters of $100 tickets will informally dine on the lawn and watch the Coast Savings and Loan-sponsored performance of the U.S. Synchronized Swimming Team, which swept the gold medals in solo, duet and team events last month at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis.

Mark Pisano, president of the nonprofit corporation and the executive director of Southern California Assn. of Governments, has been a major mover in already landing a $220,000 grant from the City of Pasadena, a $200,000 grant from state parklands funds and the largest grant yet given by the Amateur Athletics Foundation--a matching grant of $200,000. The latter must be matched by private funds. It is hoped two pools will be ready next summer.

Working the Midas touch on fund raising and involved with Sunday’s party are Olympic Gold Medalists John Naber and Candie Costie Burke. Also board members Nicholas T. Conway, Ernest L. Messner, Ralph Carmona, Norman B. Chandler, Brian Murphy, James Robenson and Christine Cook. Others are Tina Martin, executive director, and Pasadena’s Mayor John C. Crowley.

BRAVO! Emotion was flowing all over the place the other evening at “Bravo Bernstein,” the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Southern California musical tribute at the Century Plaza. There were hugs and kisses galore between Leonard Bernstein, Harvard Class of ‘39, and Patty Andrews (of the Andrews Sisters); Bernstein and conductor John Green; Bernstein and, well, you get the idea. The maestro was here to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at a dinner dance to benefit Southern California scholarship students.

And he couldn’t exude thanks enough for the super-duper efforts by the cast of entertainers--Gene Kelly, host; actor Dudley Moore, Green and Charles Champlin, co-entertainment chairmen, and the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra and its conductor, Lucas Richman. Bernstein repeatedly leaped on stage to embrace presenters, without mishap or broken bones, but surely with bruised knees.

A clue to the night’s tempo came when Bernstein arrived at the pre-cocktail party chairman Suzanne Marx planned. He greeted Patty Andrews and proceeded to sing every word of Andrews Sisters hits “Hold Tight” and “I’ll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time,” much to the amusement of the crowd.

It was the kind of bash that collected patina as the night moved along: the overture to “Candide” by the orchestra, commentary by 93-year-old musicologist Nicholas Slominsky (both he and Bernstein studied music with Slominsky’s aunt), the incredible talents of 9-year-old violinist Leila Josefowicz, John Green conducting “Westside Story” arrangements, coloratura Donna Robin (“knocking them dead at the Vienna Opera”), friend Nancy Walker, Dudley Moore (he accompanied Leila in a scherzo-tarantella before his incredibly funny parody of Beethoven), the finale by the H-R Club Jets with Parmer Fuller conducting, then the entire audience singing “Fair Harvard.”

Bernstein’s daughter Jamie flew in as a surprise to present him a crimson “Colossal Dad” jacket. And everyone agreed Bernstein was a magical genius as he was delivered a Cartier obelisk. Said Bernstein: “I have never attended a benefit that was as painless as this one.” Said Jane Kramer, who attended as Dr. Joe and Suzanne Marx’s guest:, “This is the best evening I have ever spent.”

Among the crowd were Robert Hastings, executive director of the Harvard Alumni Assn.; Paul Weissman, president of Harvard Alumni Assn., and his wife Harriet; Renee Landers, president of the Radcliffe Alumnae Assn., and her husband Tom Barrette; Radcliffe trustee Sue Labiner, Herb Tobin, Brogan Lane (Dudley Moore’s friend chatting about his just released “Father Like Son”), Charles Shuken with Elisabeth Familian, honorary benefit chairman Frank Price and his son Roy, Father Maurice Chase, Judi and Gordon Davidson, Dolly and Bobby Vinton, Peter and Diana Bollero, Bob and Susan Tourtelot, Bob and Lois Erburu, Charles and Barbara Schneider and Royce and Jennifer Diener.

The nutty chocolate tart was delivered, Dudley Moore noted, with only the chocolate H for Harvard, lacking a Radcliffe R. But one nibble, and all was forgiven.

HAPPY 100TH: The ice sculptures were big 100s in numerals and the birthday cakes glowed with ample candles last week when the National Institutes of Health celebrated 100 years as the world’s

largest biomedical research organization. Dr. Mitchel D. Covel and Phillip L. Williams co-chaired the party at the Los Angeles Hilton. It was also a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. All the appropriate recognitions were paid: to Dr. William Raub, deputy director, NIH; Dr. Peter Frommer, deputy director of the NHLBI; to Dr. Kenneth Shine, dean, UCLA School of Medicine, and to Dr. Robert Tranquada, dean of USC’s School of Medicine. Honorary co-chairman Franklin Murphy and his wife Judith attended with their son, also Dr. Franklin Murphy (he’s on the UCLA faculty) and his wife, Wendy.

Burt Bacharach entertained when his wife Carole Bayer Sager got the last-minute flu. Dr. Mitchel D. Covel and Phillip L. Williams, organizing co-chairmen, decided that the audience should not be limited to medical major movers, but that Los Angeles corporate and civic types should become acquainted with NIH goals, too. The crowd included Justice Mildred L. Lillie, presiding justice of the California Court of Appeals, and her husband A. V. Falcone, Wallace Booth, Sue and Chancellor Charles Young of UCLA, Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana and Kennedy and Bobbie Galpin.

NEW PLANS: Under the leadership of Paul A. Miller, chairman of the board and CEO of Pacific Lighting Corp., the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and its board of directors is enmeshed with activity. There are a multitude of luncheons: His Excellency Kwang Soo Choi, foreign minister, The Republic of Korea, appears Friday; U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speaks on “AIDS and American Values” Sept. 21; Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.) speaks Sept. 24; Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain Don Juan Carlos I and Dona Sofia are scheduled Oct. 1, and Secretary of the Navy James H. Webb is scheduled Oct. 9.

Miller and interim president Adrienne Medawar (council president Edmonde A. Haddad is on leave of absence as deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy) are currently implementing the board’s decisions to increase membership, promote two annual fund-raisers and raise a working capital fund of $3 million.