Pomp and Circumstance--and Parties
We’ve been involved in a week of family graduation festivities. Wonderful. But sorry to miss a week of Los Angeles’ fabulous parties--like the “The Afternoon in Horse Country” at Jackie and Jay McMahan’s Hidden Valley Ranch hosted by the Angels for Autistic Children. Also UCLA’s fabulous tribute to its Nobel laureate Donald J. Cram at the Beverly Hilton (and the celebration of $1 million raised for chemistry graduate fellowships at UCLA, the program headed by the College of Letters and Science provost Raymond L. Orbach).
And there was Linda and Jim Dickason’s buffet supper to promote the exciting plans for Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena (and spotlight its CEO Dr. Allen Mathies and Kim and Bob Rollo, co-chairs of the annual giving campaign), and Joan Thompson’s “Let’s Have Lunch” drop-by for friends.
UPWARD, ONWARD: Ball chairman Connie Van Vorst and Veva McKee head the June Debutante Ball for the Pasadena Guild of Childrens Hospital on June 18 at the Registry Hotel (that’s a change after years at the Beverly Wilshire).
A raft of debutantes will be revealed. The committee producing the very white-tie soiree includes Joni Baker, Betty Tarleton, Carol McGhee, Nancy Payne, Isabel Arnett, Bobbie Galpin, Jean Crabtree, Joan Caillouette, Lois Matthews, Peggy Crull, Sally Boyle, Patty Duckett, Sally Hunter, Helen Whitehead, Peg Stewart, Marie Jones, Cynthia Coleman, Patty Burschinger, Petrie Wilson and Bobbie Guglielmo.
The same evening Alice O’Neill Avery hosts dinner and dancing for her granddaughter Trina Moiso and Trina’s fiance Mac Shattuck at her Los Angeles home. (The couple will be wed July 30 in the Old Mission at San Juan Capistrano with the reception at Rancho Mission Viejo.) And the Valley Club directors host dinner and dancing at the San Gabriel Valley Country Club.
PLAUDITS: Well, Susan Hutchison did it again. Flying on her horse, Livius, she won, for the second year in a row, the $50,000 Grand Prix Jumping Classic (first prize $15,000) at The Oaks Classic in San Juan Capistrano Sunday while an excited luncheon crowd under a tent and a huge bleacher crowd around the course applauded.
Irvine heiress Joan Irvine Smith, who stages the annual event on her gorgeous property, almost never took her eyes from the array of riders and equestrian glamour, even when friends dropped by to congratulate her on the competition. When Athalie Clarke, her mother, and co-hostess (widow of Joan’s father, the late James Irvine), failed to appear at the luncheon, it was divulged she was resting, recovering from a recent bout with pneumonia. But, when Livius and Susan appeared, a big dusty Mercedes revved up, and Athalie stepped out to present honors and be photographed with the family--including Joan’s son Russ Penniman (a Navy F-14 pilot at Miramar), his wife Carol and daughter Elizabeth, and Joan’s sons Morton Irvine Smith and Jim Swinden (who had just returned from the Bohemian Grove as a guest of John Bowles).
The straw hats to block the sun weren’t necessary; it was a coolish day, but the kind that fills with warmth among old friends. Biji and Toby Wilcox and Henry and Ginie Braun had just returned after a visit to the home of Harold and Matilda Stream in Lake Charles, La. Mimi and Durward Howes, Missy and Malcolm Stuart, Bob and Gwen Cheesewright, Dudley Wright, Monty and Jo Fisher, former Sheriff Pete Pitchess and his wife Pidge were all there.
Orange County residents such as Clement and Lynn Hirsch and Alex and Barbara Bowie joined jeweler Sol Laykin; Chrysler Fisher, president of Hermes for North America, and his wife Gayle flew from Manhattan, presiding at the $10,000-purse Hermes “Acorn” Junior/Amateur Grandprix in the morning.
Prominent when the El Toro Marine Color Guard marched in and the call to the hounds sounded were Angelenos Rita and Ross Barrett, Vi Nason, Jane Mock, Eleanore Phillips Colt, Nancy Dinsmore, Wanda Henderson and Bill Holzhauser.
Seen about Rococo’s plush seafood tables and the tostada tables were Jimmy Roosevelt, Linda Starkman (she’s president of the West Hills Hunt and her horse, Black Market, looked stunning in his jumps), Linda Gaede (Joan Smith’s cousin), Bobbie and Bob Grant and Rococo’s own Bob Ehrman and his daughter Debbie.
In the crowd, too, were Orange County developer Henry Segerstrom and his wife Renee, exuding enthusiasm for the South Coast Repertory’s Tiffany Ball (Tiffany’s is underwriting all), a 25th anniversary affair Oct. 8 at the South Coast Plaza. She’s honorary chairman.
COUNTRY II: And, speaking of horse events, Afternoon in Horse Country II was a super affair, says Eleanor LaVove. Accolades, she said, go to the Lippizan exhibition and the exhibitions by the Institute of Equestrian Therapy (which teaches children with autism and cerebral palsy to ride), as well as the Foxfield Drill Team and the West Hills Hunt hound race.
Horsing around and then indulging in steaks and the trimmings were Steve Kanaly, master of ceremonies, Hubert and Shirley Laugharn Jr., Grace Miller, president of Angels for Autistic Children; Cindy Hall, who brought Pat Ireland from San Francisco to sing; Margie and Dick Moore, Manny and Diane Sheridan, Joan and Roger Laverty, Janis and John Kelley, Maxine and Tom Ridgway, Emily Peck (who raised $50,000 as chairman of the patronesses for the event).
PAST PERFECT: Long red banners were fluttering from the tower of Saint James Episcopal Church Sunday welcoming home long-time parishioners, dignitaries and friends for a celebration of the mid-Wilshire church’s 75th Diamond Anniversary.
Family names in the parish--past and present--have been synonymous with the growth of Los Angeles in the 20th Century: Rindge, Toll, Farwell, Carpenter, Evans, Mudd, Warmington, Koll, Burnaby, Whiting, Clark, Christy, Seaver, Chandler, Hill, Lawler, Coberly, Brant.
After the elaborate service, presided over by Bishop Suffragan of Los Angeles Oliver Garver, long-time Saint Jamesians were treated to a reception and multimedia exhibit chronicling the church’s 75 years. Today, Saint James Center supplies a food closet that feeds 3,000 families a month. The church’s ethnic mix is 40% Anglo, 40% black and 20% Asian. . . .
The American Cinema Awards Foundation benefited from the “L.A. Show Modernism” opening at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, with Someone’s In the Kitchen catering to top donors, and Ken Kercheval, Cesar Romero, Jane Greer and Anne Jeffreys hosting exhibition work ranging from Greene & Greene and Bauhaus to Warhol and Katji.
