A Group Effort Auction in the Works
Los Angeles--the hardest-working charity city in America--rates Midas-touch congratulations on a billion benefits. Not the least of which, April 30, will be the bright lights and “going, going, gone!” of the ninth annual Group Effort Dinner Auction at the Beverly Wilshire.
Bob Abell, premier auctioneer, gets the fun of auctioning off a personalized violin autographed by Jack Benny, an Alaskan fishing trip, a Shar-pei puppy. . . .
Ed and Lynn Hogan are chairmen. (They own seven resorts, including the Kona Hilton Beach and Tennis Resort.) Proceeds go to the Arthritis Foundation, the Diabetes Unit for Cedars-Sinai, Loyola Marymount University and the Los Angeles Children’s Museum. Last year’s event raised $425,000.
LADIES WHO LUNCH: The Luminaires of the Doheny Eye Institute got together this week for a lovely afternoon detailed by Cynthia Yost (rhymes with hostess with the most) and, presto, $100,000. Cynthia, whose husband is the restaurateur, buzzed back to New York with high hopes of getting Geoffrey Beene to attend. He didn’t, but with the help of Jack Miles of I. Magnin, she cornered the spring fashions of Mr. Beene--a bright, bouncy collection that had the audience moving skirts above the knee to gauge how much they’d chop off to be au courant. There were gasps, however, when a model reared her shoulders and bared both breasts. “I’ve been to fashion shows all my life,” one lunchgoer commented, “and I’ve only seen that happen once before. Did her zipper break?”
Luminaires is the group Mary Crary launched in 1976 to support vision research. It brings out the chic-est of the lunch bunch--about 550. Among them were Tamra Dickerson, Luminaires president, and generous table hostesses--Mary Louise Crowe, Alice Avery, Topsy Doheny (who had Elizabeth Doheny at her table, while Onnalee Doheny lunched at Caroline Singleton’s table with Natalie Robinson, Flora Thornton, Marion Jorgensen and Erlenne Sprague). Other hostesses were Alyce Williamson, Gabriella Santaniello (who had Carolyn Fox and Joanne Albrecht with her), Nancy Petersen, Susan Rowan, Gloria Renwick, Alice Hart (with Lois Erburu and Esther Laventhol).
Luminaires Juniors were supportive--Candida Genzmer, Debbie Yost Hoffman, Mary G. Morphy. More enjoying--Ada Watson, Betsy Mullaney, Raylene Meyer, Virginia Dickinson, Muriel Cameron, twins Beverly Thrall and Betty Cook and Madge Burford. Hostess Cindy Yost took four tables that included Julie Pizzinat, Laura-Lee Woods, Mary Lou Crocker, Kay Renwick and Sophie Mastor.
PLAUDITS: The House of Harry Winston will honor Ann Getty and the San Francisco Opera Assn. at an elegant cocktail reception at the Stanford Court Hotel on March 23 in San Francisco. Winston’s Count Enrico Carimati di Carimate of Los Angeles will present “Rare Jewels of the World.”
Among the 400 guests--members of the opera’s Medallion Society--will be Charlotte Mailliard and former Angeleno Denise Hale. Ann and Gordon Getty will host a private black-tie dinner for the count the evening before.
SPEAKING OF: Countess Kiko Carimati (wife of the count) wore a fabulous 35-carat sapphire for the royal polo matches honoring the Duke and Duchess of York. The countess and Edd and Penny Jacobs (who donated a full-length fox coat for the polo benefit for the Royal Shakespeare Globe Theatre) rented a limousine bus for the jaunt to the desert, and included Alan and Patricia Brown, Jackie Applebaum and Bernard Stolar. They polished off the trip home with dinner at Spago, where they spotted Rob Lowe.
OVER 800: USC’s Town and Gown expects 800 for its “Sophisticated Ladies” luncheon March 23 in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. They’ll be meeting TV’s Sharon Gless, who happens to be a fifth-generation Californian from an active Trojan family. The group, say co-chairmen Mary Coates and Margaret Morrell, has netted $5 million for scholarships over the years.
REAL WORLD: Already with $55,000 in patron support, Nancy Kerckhoff expects to raise $150,000 March 25 at the “Palm Trees, Moonlight and Mel Torme” dinner dance in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Dinner chair Pat Payonzeck envisions tall, neon palm trees. More involved are Terry and Roland Seidler, Carolyn and Jim Fox, Jane and Bob Malone, Deb and Norm McAbee, Pam and Jim Boswell, John and Jackie Jorgensen, Lucy and Don Crumrine. . . .
Harvard School goes Western on Saturday at the Mark Taper Pavilion on the school campus. Rococo will cater. The auction will be a first for Harvard, and the auctioneer will be none other than the school’s new headmaster, Thomas Hudnut. Busily planning are Pat Stanton, Joyce Hameetman, Linda Janger, Rini Kraus, Patti Kraus, Kathy Macker, Susi McConaghy, Pat Moller, Judy Needham, Chris Newman, Katie Osterloh, Vicki Panagiotis, Pat Stinehard and Susan Temple. . . .
The Rainbow Guild presents couture fashions March 22 at the Beverly Wilshire under the tutelage of Judy Felsenthal, Debra Finnerman, Roberta Goldberg and Karen Todman. Children with cancer benefit. . . .
On March 29, Judge Robert H. Bork will make his first West Coast appearance since resigning from the U.S. Court of Appeals. It’s a fund-raiser at the Miramar Sheraton in Santa Monica for the Foundation for the Defense of Free Enterprise. . . .
President Lillian Casady chairs the Orthopaedic Hospital Children’s Service League 40th annual Rainbow Luncheon on Wednesday at the Beverly Wilshire. . . .
ALAS: When the Society of Junior Fellows ordered up beer, popcorn, pretzels and peanuts for their afternoon of hot-air ballooning at the Huntington, library officials OKd the beer, but lawyers considered the consequences and vetoed the balloon flights on the lawn, allowing a smallish balloon to hover. It was fanfare for Tom Lange, associate curator of the rare-book department, to discuss daring balloon escapades in war and peace dating to the 16th Century.
In the young crowd were Ann Babcock, Christy and Charles Bakaly, Darrell and Bert Banta, Susan and John Frost, Jennifer Holladay and Steven Reich, Nancy and Ray McCullough, Dr. Daniel W. Keatinge, Kate and Joe Regan (he chairs the Fellows), Melinda and Bruce Byers.
KUDOS: To Hugh Colvin, new Associates of Caltech president . . . to Marion Malouf, heading the California Scientist and Industrialist of the Year Awards Banquet on May 4 for the California Museum of Science and Industry . . . to new Art Center College of Design trustees--Richard N. Frank, Michael L. Tenzer and R. Thomas Schorer . . . to new Pomona College trustees announced by President David Alexander--Stewart Smith, Richard Pearson and J. Patrick Whaley . . . to Astrid E. Blaker, who will be named Woman of the Year by the Muses of the California Museum Foundation at a luncheon Wednesday. . . .
