Duchess’s Father Joins Polo Fund-Raiser

Invitations have come from Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul General Donald F. and Elizabeth Ballentyne for a reception Nov. 6 at their Hancock Park home to meet Maj. Ronald Ferguson and other members of the Guards Polo Club Windsor Great Park. It is much ado about something--the charity match the polo club will play in Southern California in the spring of 1988 will aid the Old Globe Theatre Project to rebuild the Shakespearean Theater in Southwark, England. Maj. Ferguson is the father of the Duchess of York, the former Sarah Ferguson.

ARTMATCH: An impressive group of community leaders is supporting Artmatch ‘87, the exhibit, live auction and dinner dance Oct. 25 for the arts program at Pacific Oaks, the nationally recognized college, school and research center for early childhood development.

Jim and Priscilla Gamb and Steve and Annette Serrurier co-chair the effort to meet a $150,000 matching grant for the school’s art-in-education programs. That evening art donated by 200 artists and collectors (including Walter Askin, Jasper Johns and David Hockney) will be up for silent bidding during cocktails in the lobby of the Variety Arts Center.

Later, guests will sashay upstairs to the Roof Garden where Sotheby’s will conduct the live auction before dinner and dancing to the Art Deco Band. Collectors Hannah and Russel I. Kully, Adelaide Hixon, Robert and Vivian Rowan and Lois Boardman are all involved. So are Carlos Almaraz, Elsa Flores, Beverly Ballard, Olin (he’s chairman of Pacific Oaks’ board of trustees) and Ann Barrett, Lisa Clement, Miller and Jetty Fong, George and Gretel Stephens.

The affair is the third of a series of art events, including “The Big Picture” art conference continuing Saturday at Pacific Oaks, and a silent auction, exhibit and reception for the public Sunday at the Art Center College of Design Gallery.

SPORTY: Leonard Straus, Thrifty Corp. board chairman, is a real sports fan and an avid (daily) tennis player. That’s enough to make him vice-chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s newly formed Sports Committee. If he has his way, about 2,000 will attend the chamber’s 1987 NBA Champion Lakers luncheon celebration Wednesday in the California Ballroom of the Westin Bonaventure. Coach Pat Riley, announcer Chick Hearn, the Lakers and the Laker Girls will be there for pasta primavera and the Lakers’ anti-drug video “Just Say No.”

PAST PERFECT: Last year for the Breeders’ Cup, the Oak Tree Racing Assn. recorded a one-day pari-mutuel betting total of $15,410,409--the largest in American history. The Oak Tree--brainchild of Clement Hirsch 19 years ago to provide California horsemen with racing between Del Mar’s closing and Santa Anita’s opening--then ended its final three days of thoroughbred competition with another racing high: $31 million in wagering. Such success brings glows.

With the annual Oak Tree autumn season opening the other day at Santa Anita Race Track, the Oak Tree directorate (all of its members are owner-breeders of thoroughbreds) were in the Directors Room, devouring executive chef Anthony Pope’s magnificent buffet. In the crowd: Oak Tree vice presidents and their wives--Harold and Betty Ramser (he wearing his 18-carat Tiffany Oak Tree tie tack) and William T. and Sally Pascoe III of Newport Beach, Secretary-Treasurer Louis and Susan Rowan, and Georgia Ridder. Dr. Jack K. Robbins, another vice president, was in Long Island, N.Y., at Belmont, escorting Nostalgia’s Star to the Gold Cup race, but his wife Maggie was there for the luncheon at Santa Anita.

The San Gabriel Mountains were draped in smog, but that didn’t stop the fun for Jimmy and Martha Kilroe, Ray and Dorothy Rogers (as Oak Tree general manager, he noted New Jersey has only a 0.5% tax on wagering, but California about 7%), Lynn and Clement Hirsch and their guests Barbara and Joe Harper, Betty and John Mabee, Diane and Harry Rinker, Bob and Betty Strub and Tony and Jan Vitti. Danzey Treanor and Judith McGilvray both had those desirable rail seats.

CENTENNIAL: Pomona College’s centennial celebrations have been non-stop in recent days. Torchbearers headed by chairman Franklin E. Ulf (that’s the major gift segment of the college alumni annual campaign) launched the 100th-anniversary events with a celebration dinner at the Huntington Library and words from President David Alexander. Former Yale University President Kingman Brewster addressed the crowd for the Centennial Founders’ Day Celebrations this week.

Another highlight was the presentation of the Barrows Award to 35 alumni. David Prescott Barrows was a member of Pomona’s first graduating class and president of the University of California from 1919-23. Among awardees: Roger Revelle, R. Stanton Avery, Milford Zornes, H. Russell Smith, Nancy M. Neuman, Robert Shaw, David E. Bell, Roy E. Disney, Richard Chamberlain, Andrew Hoyem, Kris Kristofferson and Karen Nicholson Horn.

CARNIVAL: The Inner Circle, sole support group of the Los Angeles Children’s Museum, has Halloween on its mind. The fourth annual Halloween Carnival and Fashion Show is Sunday at the Century Plaza. Both adults and kids will be in costume for the Saks Fifth Avenue children’s holiday clothing show and one-of-kind costumes. Committee luminaries involved include Susan Clark, Nancy Sinatra Lambert, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, John Ritter and Jaclyn Smith. Jeanne Reynolds is president and Cindi Gilbert chairman.

UPSCALE: Benefit co-chairs Judie Barrow and Donna Walker will produce “Big Al” with gambling tables and dancing to the Sentimentalists Saturday evening at the Green Hotel. The Sisters for Haven House will be fund-raising for the shelter’s new program dealing with the problems of homelessness faced by battered women and their children.

The California Medical Center-Los Angeles stages “A Return to the Golden Age” for their Grand Affair marking not only the 100th birthday of the medical center but the 65th birthday of the recently expanded Donald P. Loker Cancer Center. The committee expects to raise $100,000 on its dinner auction, according to William Hatch, general chairman.

Masks, whether creative or commercial, are de rigueur for the Braille Institute Auxiliary of Pasadena Masked Ball Saturday at La Canada Flintridge Country Club, say Amy Davidson and Mary Burns.

Shirley Goldman of Encino coordinates Las Primeras Guild to Children’s Hospital fashion show at the Biltmore on Saturday.

Bob Lorsch chaired the fund-raising Third Annual President’s Council Banquet for the California Museum of Science and Industry. It was planned to salute the new special effects exhibit, but after Southland rumblings, the museum opened its earthquake exhibit too.