Art Roundup for Operation California

Operation California board member Tony Adams, standing back while Julie Andrews spoke to “Entertainment Tonight,” looked around the room and called it culture shock. But then he was from Ireland, he said. He didn’t know that much about the Wild West.

Actress Sandra Currie confessed this was her first heavy dose of cowboy art and she was enthralled. And the 17 artists--all members of the Cowboy Artists of America--who had brought 77 of their best pieces to Operation California’s 9th anniversary benefit Saturday at the Playboy Mansion took in all this surprise and pleasure and grinned.

As benefits go, this one was low-keyed. The some-400 guests arrived in their Saturday afternoon clothes--the men in jeans, chinos or Giorgio Armani linen suits, the women in white slacks or silk dresses or Prairie-length skirts and blouses--for a few hors d’oeuvres and glasses of wine or water as they strolled the exhibit which was set up in a tent between the mansion and the gardens. The auction part was silent with bids placed in little silver boxes by each artwork.

Time for Pictures

All in all, a nice friendly little get-together where if you paid your $100 for a ticket, you found that actors John Ritter or Burt Reynolds or even Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross weren’t offended if you took their pictures.

There were a few official words about the cause, Operation California, from its president, Richard Walden. He told how, in its nine-year history, it has delivered more than $53 million worth of donated high priority supplies to crisis areas worldwide and how none of the monies come from a government.

Never predictable, Operation California one year staged Julie Andrews and Placido Domingo in concert, a television special another year and in 1987, Julie Andrews, who’s been Operation California’s spokesman since its founding, opened her tennis courts and Michael Feinstein played the piano. “We don’t want to be one of those groups that has a big event at the Beverly Hilton every year and people come only because they think they ought to,” Walden said.

People went home with some art too. Twenty-two pieces were sold. John and Nancy Ritter and Patrick Terrail bought E. E. Helbig bronzes; The Southwest Museum’s Bob McCarthy bought a Gary Miblett oil painting; Diane and McDonald Beckett bid against each other so as not to lose out on a Bill Moyers bronze; stunt man Conrad Palmisano came away with a Fred Fellows bronze.

Operation California made $155,000 from this little three-hour gathering. And Richard Walden and his volunteers have their fingers crossed and prayer beads out that two guests who wanted to sleep on the idea of buying a Gordon Snidow painting for $38,000 and a Fritz White bronze sculpture for $18,000 will decide yes. That will raise the day’s profit to $185,000.

The Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA will reap the proceeds from Epicurean Gala ‘88, a celebrity studded $300-a-person benefit dinner on June 25 at the Century Plaza.

That evening, the California Institute for Cancer Research will present its Life Achievement Award to Occidental chairman Armand Hammer. Sammy Davis Jr. will head a roster of star hosts.

Former Dodger Steve Garvey will be honored as retiring campaign chairman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at the 15th annual Dinner of Champions on Friday at the Century Plaza. Leslie Uggams will headline the entertainment. Among those on stage--the Raiders’ Marcus Allen and Mike Haynes.

A social highlight of the weekend was the union of Washington political consultant Robert Shrum and Los Angeles Times society columnist Marylouise Oates. The couple was married in a morning Mass on Saturday at St. Victor in West Hollywood.

Afterward, more than 300 guests attended a reception at the home of Roz Wyman. Among those from California and Washington who feted the newlyweds at the garden party were Pamela (Mrs. Averell) Harriman, Marvin and Barbara Davis, Peg Yorkin, Lt. Gov. Leo and Jackie McCarthy, former Presidential candidate Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), Lew and Edie Wasserman, California Atty. Gen. John and Andrea Van de Kamp, Jerry and Jane Weintraub, Rosemary Clooney, Warren Beatty and San Francisco Mayor Art and Sherry Agnos.