An Artful Fund-Raiser for Museum

Picture this: On Wednesday, June 29, 160 patrons of the fine arts prowled the lofty hallways and residences of the Meridian tower, poking permitted noses into elegant boudoirs, waxing ecstatic over exciting kitchen tile and racing from floor to floor in elevators that rose almost as swiftly as bubbles hurtling toward the surface of a Champagne flute.

This extravagant home and aerie tour was the first course in a lengthy program of diversions offered by “Take Five,” an unusual fund-raising gala that celebrated the fifth birthday of the Museum of Photographic Arts.

When not examining the view from penthouse windows or the fine art collections boasted by each of the five residences, guests retreated to the garden-level Meridian Room for canapes and chatter.

Other Half of Other Half

“Take Five” chairwoman Kathi Howard credited banker Murray Galinson and his wife, Elaine, Meridian residents and longtime MoPA supporters, with suggesting the home tour. It turned out, not surprisingly, to be a natural, since seeing how the other half of the other half lives always seems to hold an utter fascination for those of us who reside closer to terra firma.

Guests could view the apartments in any order they chose; those who worked their ways down from the top began on the 24th floor in the residences of leading arts supporter Danah Fayman and of Meridian builder Walt Smyk and his wife, Mary.

Fayman’s residence, a cozy personal art gallery that sports, among its many pieces, works by such local artists as Russell Forester and Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss), is furnished in a way that hints that Fayman likes to take leisurely, loving looks at her former home, La Jolla. A long table placed against a north-facing window offers a full view of La Jolla and the mists rising over the cove, and looks the perfect spot for contemplation of the city over coffee and the morning paper.

The Smyks’ residence, like that of Terry and David Hodgman on the floor below, is decorated in a manner that constantly pulls the eye outside to the not-so-distant sea and mountains.

Some residents (evidently not stay-at-home types) fled their own apartments to join the parties on other floors, but the Galinsons remained at home on the 17th floor for most of the viewing period. Elaine pointed out her view, which she referred to as “home television,” and the unusual “Art Ducko” sculpture of a family of ducks, undersides only, swimming across her kitchen ceiling. Murray led tours of his “political war room,” otherwise known as the library, which features photographs of leading Democratic politicians of this and at least one previous generation.

The tour concluded with the exceptional loft-style apartment that Michael Krichman and his wife, Leslie Simon, carved out of a more conventional space. By reducing the number of rooms in their residence to two, they created a gallery large enough to hold museum-size works of contemporary art, beyond which they have very little furniture at present. Simon said the size of the artworks makes conventional furnishings rather hors de combat .

Cake Reduced to Crumbs

All the barreling up and down elevator shafts made it impossible to encounter more than a few of one’s fellow guests, a situation rectified when all assembled in the Meridian Room to share observations and join in singing happy birthday to MoPA. This moment was occasioned by the entrance of a multitiered cake arranged as a collection of gift boxes wrapped in chocolate and silver, most of which was quickly reduced to a few scattered crumbs.

The cake, as it doubtless was intended to do, relaxed the audience for the final part of the program, an auction of five extraordinary portrait sittings offered by an international collection of renowned photographers.

First on the block was a session with La Jolla’s own Tony di Gesu; the package included a week at the Golden Door (so, said Howard, the subject could be in shape for the session), and it fetched a winning bid of $5,500. Also offered were sittings with Arnold Newman in New York, Joel Meyerowitz in Cape Cod, Jack Welpott in San Francisco and Bernard Plossu in Paris. The Plossu package attracted such excitement that a second offering was made and promptly sold, with the result that the auction raised the evening’s net gross to a very respectable $60,000. Not a bad figure for a party that attracted 160 guests.

Helene Roberts was the evening’s co-chair and was joined by her husband, San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts. Others present were Norma and Sam Assam, Judy and Tom Carter, Roz and Ted Odmark, Bud Fischer, Susan and Michael Channick, Katy and Mike Dessent, Karen and Warren Kessler, MoPA President Arthur Ollman, Barbara and Hal Stephens, Carol Randolph and Bob Caplan, Barbara and Scott Ferguson, Barbara and Joe Harper, Eleanor Forester, Sandy and Bob Kritzik, and Anne and John Davies.

CORONADO--Quite a number of fund-raising groups have suggested they will be the one to host the party that marks the social opening of the new Le Meridien hotel, but the Coronado chapter of the Children’s Home Society of California took the honors by presenting Friday’s St. Tropez Soiree in the hotel’s handsome St. Tropez Ballroom.

Chairman Barbara Mouton said she chose the gala’s name before she learned that the room would share the same title, a case of serendipitous planning indeed. She said Coronado has always reminded her of the Riviera and that the hotel’s designers must have been similarly inspired, because the place does look to have been lifted from the shores of the Cote d’Azur.

Theme and season also conspired in the choice of entertainment, which revolved around a dramatic ramp show of swimsuits from swimwear mogul Anne Cole. Cole, whose show was presented by Bullocks Mission Valley, turned out for the occasion and commented, rather reluctantly, on the burning question, “Swimsuits: What’s next?”

‘Get on With the ‘90s’

“We’re going back to the ‘40s, much to my dismay,” said Cole. “Swimsuits are revealing less and covering more--they’re getting very conservative. A lot of ladies will misinterpret it. I myself am ready to get on with the ‘90s.” So, doubtless, are the rest of us.

The 280 guests buzzed and bubbled more or less uniformly about the hotel, which in some ways was the evening’s biggest star. In some respects, it is a different sort of place for San Diego (the kids who park cars and carry bags wear modified versions of French sailor suits, and several looked as if they felt quite silly), but it is localized somewhat by a nautical theme stressed especially in the bar, where a scale model of the Stars & Stripes was installed by Malin Burnham, a principal in both the hotel and Sail America.

Co-chairwoman Anne Hamrick seemed especially captivated by all the glamour, perhaps because she and her fellow committee members were required to wear hard hats when they made early party-planning expeditions to the site.

In order to emphasize the room, the decorations were kept simple, and amounted to understated groupings of pink anthuriums rising out of opaque tubes. The menu was quite another story, however, and began elaborately with pistachioed duck pate before heading on to stuffed game hen, a complicated chocolate mousse and, finally, petits fours.

The Wayne Foster Orchestra played between courses and after a raffle for prizes that included, quite naturally, a weekend stay in one of Le Meridien’s secluded villas.

The guest list included Neil and Bess Reagan; Fabio and Joelle Piccirillo; Jack Larson; Coronado City Councilwoman Mary Herron; Port Commissioner Ray Burk and his wife, Ramona; Jack and Nancy Fetterman; Buck and Nancy Verhage; John and Phil Sarber; Tenny O’Connor; and committee members Charlotte Harris, Jean Grote, Joan Ogle, Lynn Walsh, Bobbie Cetti and Kitsy Mitchell.