Guests Have Wild Time at ‘Jungle’ Bash for Guild Chapter

It’s a jungle out there--especially on Saturday night at the Newport Beach Marriott, when the Sound of Music chapter of the Guilds of the Performing Arts Center tossed a bash Tarzan and Jane could love.

The 335 guests who swept into the hotel’s atrium for “Jungle Fever” entered to the throb of jungle drums and the sound of Travis Winsor--dressed in a real monkey suit--chanting: “Gunga! Gunga!” (Monkey see, monkey do?)

And that was only Phase One. Before the night was over, guests tracked paw prints into a ballroom brimming with foliage, dined on tropical salad, watched the Rhythms of the Village dance troupe perform, and bid on auction items that included a gold watch by Bulgari, jeweler to the very rich and famous.

New Yorker Marta Ortega (once jeweler to Andy Warhol), Bulgari representative, proclaimed the party “wonderful.”

“Not that different from New York,” said the statuesque blond, who glittered in an ensemble by Andre Laug. “Though New York galas are a bit more subdued.”

Gala chairwoman Mary Raymond, stunning in a slinky, sequin-shot cheetah print, said: “I think we’ve had more fun with this theme than any other. We don’t have a ball committee, you know. All 47 members chipped in to make the invitations, the decorations and the programs. We’re a paws-on group.”

Benefit proceeds were estimated at $50,000. Seen around the hut: co-chairwoman Kathy Merriman, sparkling in a spangled, jungle-leaf print, with husband Ron; Catherine and Dr. Delane Thyen, who said he had practiced tying his bow-tie that day by wrapping it around his knee; Bob and Gayle Anderson, a standout in white jersey with African-print fling; Henri and Eve Foussard, in a grrrrrr-print and peacock feathers; and Jim and Barbara Glabman--chapter president--in jungle-print gold lame.

Underwriters included Ed and Jean Awad, Karen and Dr. John Betson, Shari and Harry Esayian, Ellie and Barry Faber, Janet and Robert Lind, Candice and Roger Schnapp, Larry Wurth, Maxine and Morris Stark, Kathryn and William McGrath, Dorothy and Patrick Hurley, and Ruth and Robert Fyke.