The Fun’s Never Over When You Prop Up the Party for a Living

Sometimes Robert W. (Bob) Babcock, 44, has 40 to 50 parties a week. No wonder he’s known as the Original Orange County Party Man.

No wonder “I’m tired,” he says.

Actually, Babcock and his force of 15 workers scurry endlessly in a 72,000-square-foot building in Orange, making, repairing and preparing props used to create party themes, many of them gigantic, sometimes elegant and always colorful for gatherings in backyards, halls, clubs and hotels.

“I’ve been doing this full time for 25 years, and it’s strenuous--meeting deadlines all the time,” said Babcock, a Vietnam veteran, who even made props there for parties thrown by officers.

“Actually, what I did then and do today is take junk and make it into party props,” said Babcock, a Woodbury College graduate. “I can’t even call this a profession. My father once told me to get into something else. Well, he’s retired and working for me now and having a lot of fun.”

Babcock’s huge building, a one-time orange-packing plant, holds thousands of theme props that create settings for space, futuristic, Hawaiian, Western, speak-easy and Hollywood parties and even New Orleans bashes. An 11-truck fleet delivers the props.

And besides parties, his R.W.B. Party Props rental business is becoming known to people who rent them for television commercials. The movie industry is a big client, too.

“If I don’t have the prop someone wants, I can just sit down with some lumber, nails, a hammer and some paint and make it,” he said, describing the inside of his building as “Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm compressed into one.”

But he’s trying to get away from doing it all himself. “There are some other things I’d like to do,” he said, such as taking outings with other antique car and railroad buffs. Babcock owns 17 antique cars and has a full-size steam train that runs on 1,000 feet of track on a ranch he owns.

“What I like to do is trace the history of the cars,” he said. “I have a file on each of the cars as well as the background on a number of horse-drawn wagons he owns and sometimes uses for parties.

Married with two children, Babcock said, “We’ve been working all our lives, and we’re going to travel a bit.”

And no doubt after that, he’ll be back doing what he’s been doing all his life. “It’s an up business, everything is fun time,” he said. “Besides, I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Those clever people at the Natural History Museum in Newport Beach are planning to have a free dinosaur Christmas party, its way of sneaking in some information on dinosaurs to kids during the holiday season.

“Dinosaurs are an intriguing topic for children, and they can’t get enough of them,” museum director Dudley Varner said. “This is an opportunity for us to let this fascination be part of a little celebration this time of the year.”

Mark Roeder of Costa Mesa, an authority on dinosaurs, will talk and show some slides Saturday at the 10 a.m. to noon party.

And after that? The kids will decorate a Christmas tree with dinosaur ornaments.

You want class? Two surfers who checked into the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel had their surfboards valet parked. “At times, we get some novel requests,” hotel spokeswoman Linda Adams said.

If one family’s experience is an indication, it doesn’t appear UC Irvine will suffer a student enrollment shortage in future years. Chancellor Jack W. Peltason just became a grandfather for the fifth time. “I’d like six,” said Peltason, father of two daughters and a son.

Virginia M. Bash of Santa Ana was nearly a one-woman show at the recent American Heart and Soul Classic held in Irvine. She collected $2,300 of the $80,000 total donated through pledges and other means in a 5- and 10-kilometer run.

“I know a lot of people,” said Bash, who won a trip for two to London as the top fund-raiser. “I just collected a lot of donations.”

Bash, 77, rode a bicycle for 14 miles instead of running, and it was quite a feat. She recently underwent a quintuple heart bypass operation.

Acknowledgments--Her efforts to improve science education through innovative science programs has earned Mare Taagepera of Irvine honors as the 1987 recipient of the Service Through Chemistry Award from the Orange County Section of the American Chemistry Society. She is a UC Irvine chemistry lecturer.