Luminaires Launch a Sea Fantasy

“And that,” Judy Hewson said, “is Mary’s moon.” Indeed, Mary Taylor--now in Scaasi blue ruffles--had glittered and re-glittered the decoration in her garage (never once removing her diamond and ruby engagement ring), then had the 10-feet-high half-moon elevated to the twinkly top of Filmland in Culver City. And there it was hanging among the silver stars for the Luminaires Juniors’ “Fantasy at Sea.”

Some fantasy. The crowd was young, young, young, handsome and beautiful, pouffed and fluffed, giggling and happily bidding to raise funds for the Estelle Doheny Eye Institute. Old-line, new-line, main-line. Lawyers, entrepreneurs, stock brokers, farmers--like Joe and Gail Boskovich of Boskovich Farms, the biggest green onion growers anywhere (as well as 23 other vegetables).

Uninhibited president Candida Genzmer was captain of the ship. She and co-chair Barbara Fisher (who postponed her marriage to William Aldrich a few days to stage the party with Cindy Hall; the same night he was picking up an award for his father, Robert Aldrich, at the Directors Guild dinner) dribbled basketballs on the dance floor to encourage bidding on the Lakers/Seattle SuperSonics party.

Candida coaxed her husband, George, a lawyer’s lawyer in malpractice cases, to bid $7,000 on the Tahiti vacation. The Van Cleef and Arpels gold and diamond watch went for $4,000; the Giba-Noblia mink for $3,600 and the gourmet cruise for 12 for $3,500. Auction chairman Patty Kouba (in a long, emerald-green gown accented with Van Cleef diamond and emerald lion heads on matching necklace, bracelet and earrings, presents from Tony) was ecstatic about proceeds.

For starters, the decks bounced with reggae by Sunshine. Later, they danced to music of Tom Thumb and the Hitchhikers. All those strapless Victor Costas kept the night cool: Irene Fowler in Costa black-and-white polka dots; Mimi Owen in Costa blue flowers; Wendy Green, Stephanie Bennett and Barbara Anglin, a Costa trio. Then there were the silver lames--Libby Doheny in Carolina Herrera puffed sleeves and Cynthia McRoskey in Susan Fries. Katrina Cord was in gold lace, Suzy Niven in black lace with a taffeta skirt printed with Monet-like water lilies, discussing her recent trip to Finland and Russia and her stay with Ambassador Rockwell and Marna Schnabel in Finland.

The Sebring, Fla., races were the big topic for Chris Cord (he won the 1987 GTO International Motor Sports Assn. championship driving Toyota race cars for Dan Gurney) and cousins Will Doheny and Michael Niven. Randi Rolle and Brian Mohr were the Genzmers’ guests. Since losing her sight a year ago to diabetic retinopathy, Randi is making speeches for the Doheny Eye Institute, and she and her sister, Jody, who attended with Bobby Kramer, director of the Southern California Tennis Assn., have helped to start the new Orange County Luminaires chapter.

The spirited crowd included Peter and Claire Eichler, Carol and Rusty McDonnell, David and Elizabeth Hasbrouck, Jenny and Loring Rutt, Donn and Melinda Conner, Raylene and Bruce Meyer, Steve (in a ship captain’s suit) and Brent Kanaly, Margot and Mark Arbruster, Chery and Kenton Horacek, Nani and Bradley Bush, Lucy and Donald Hromadka, and a hard-working committee, including Cindy Laverty, Chandra Leck, Debbie Foster, Kathy Macker, Susan Ehlers, Diane Moller, Leigh Davis, Linda Cole, Jill Young and Lisa Youngblood, who gets to write the thank-yous.

BIG COUPLE: At Spring Fever, the Big Sisters Annual Gala at the Beverly Wilshire, Bill Pagen said something really nice as he and his wife, Bobbe Pauley Pagen, were named Couple of the Year.

About their association with Big Sisters, the group that matches successful women with younger girls in trouble, he said: “We like to think of this as our involvement in the future.”

Dinner chairs Bill and Noelle Siart sat at the center table with the Pagens and the three chosen as Women of Achievement--Barbara Corday, Patricia Nettleship and Joy Picus. Oilman Robert O. Anderson, former Arco chairman, and his wife, Barbara, were there for the Pagens.

With Sarah Purcell as mistress of ceremonies, 12-year-old little sister Nicky Giles saying grace, Clark Keen’s Orchestra, stars Caryn Richmond and the Step Sisters, and support from Sandy Bilson, Judi Hochman, dinner coordinator Carey Lachman, Sheri Sadler Wolf, Beth Abare, Michele Dean, Barbara Frate, Penny Fulton, Linda Reimann-Katz and Julie Thomas-Lowe, the estimates are a net of $90,000.

THE FRENCH: The British are gone; the French are here. French Consul General Bernard Miyet and his wife, Dominique, hosted luncheon at their Beverly Hills residence honoring Mme. Danielle Mitterrand before she departed for New York for meetings of her foundation’s American branch, France-Libertes Inc., which supports human rights and economic development in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

A few days later they were hosts to the delegation of Friends of Vieilles Maisons Francaises and Mme. Michele Le Menestrel, its founding president, and Contesse Sabine de Bonneval, mixing in such Francophiles as Dr. Franklin and Judith Murphy and Kacey and Peter McCoy and Jacques Camus.

For the Friends, it’s been one whee of a view of Los Angeles--the Huntington, the Norton Simon, the Getty, even the Old Mill in San Marino, mixed with countless dinners and receptions arranged by Edie Frere (chairman, Southern California chapter) and Mary Lou Boone of San Marino.

Mary Lou and George Boone, Georgie and Paul Erskine and Harriet and Jim Fuller entertained. So did Ed and Clarice Ellis, Jimmy Murphy at Jimmy’s, Ed and Joan Bowen, Fred and Suzanne Rheinstein, Dona and Dwight Kendall, Patsy Ketchum and Greg and Mary Beth Brundage. There was a harbor tour chez Susie and Nelson Gross in Newport Beach, luncheon in San Juan Capistrano with Gep Durenberger and a tour of the Mission and the Graves Library, before a progressive dinner party at St. Malo and an excursion to Palm Springs.

Now the group is off to Pebble Beach as guests of the Reginald Keartons, will visit Stanford, the Filoli Estate, the Haas-Lilienthal House in San Francisco and visit the Napa Valley and the Grgich-Hills vineyard with Erica and Austin Hills before returning to Paris. The Friends’ goal is preserving French architecture; but they’re pro-U.S. The French group has made a gift of $3,500 to El Pueblo for the restoration of the north bay of the Garnier Building, built in 1890 by Frenchman Philippe Garnier, and they’ve also given a stipend to purchase two sets of French entry doors for the Study Center for the Decorative Arts in San Juan Capistrano.

COVETED AWARD: In its 56th year of rewarding its graduates for outstanding achievement, the USC Alumni Award Celebration today at the Beverly Wilshire will serve to bestow the Asa V. Call Award, top honor for achievement, on a journalism graduate who began his career as editor of the Daily Trojan--Robert F. Erburu, chairman and CEO of Times Mirror.

The awards will be presented at the Beverly Wilshire at a dinner hosted by USC President James H. Zumberge and his wife, Marilyn, and by the Alumni Assn. board of governors. The four Merit Awards will go to Leo F. Buscaglia, former syndicated columnist; Thomas N. Fuelling, business executive; Jon Jerde, architect; and Harold Moulton, retired petroleum industry executive. Ronald Orr, alumni president, and Nancy Hoffman, dinner chairman, will participate.

ESCALATION: The 85.91-carat D-flawless diamond, anticipated to sell for about $8 million April 29 in the Magnificent Jewelry Sale at Sotheby’s New York, will be displayed between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday at Sotheby’s Beverly Hills.

So will jewelry and memorabilia from the estate of the late stateswoman Clare Boothe Luce. Neil Letson, noted gemologist and jewelry historian, values the diamond as superior to the famed Spoonmaker Diamond, now in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, and only slightly below the Cullinan III diamond, now among the British crown jewels.

Mme. Sylvia Wu hosts cocktails and dinner Thursday to honor Willy Bauer, managing director of the Savoy Hotel in London. . . .

Pinafores of the League for Crippled Children, headed by Elizabeth Rodriguez, will stage their annual Egg Roll at the Beverly Hilton today, inviting young patients from Orthopaedic Hospital.

PAST PERFECT: Lou Dougherty and Biji and Toby Wilcox hosted a cocktail buffet at the Valley Hunt Club. . . .

H. Preston Hawkins and his wife, Carrie, attended the dinner hosted by Secretary of the Treasury James A. Baker III and his wife, Susan, in Washington. . . .

Rosalie Hearst celebrated her birthday at the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs. . . .

The French Ladies of Charity celebrated its 85th anniversary at the Roosevelt Hotel, and continues to contribute monthly to the welfare of the poor, according to Hazel Jenkins, la secretaire.