Las Madrinas Debs Gather for Tea
There was just the slightest tinge of guilt. Tally Mingst wondered aloud--if Las Madrinas members weren’t wearing white gloves, why should the new debutantes? Why? Because it’s traditional. And even the debs, holding wispy bouquets at the tea honoring them and their mothers and grandmothers and aunts at the home of Dorothy Booth in Bel-Air, didn’t object.
Las Madrinas president Jane Ackerman, colorful in a Valentino silk dress, headed the receiving line as guests introduced themselves to the line-up of debutantes. There are 22 to be presented at the Debutante Ball on Dec. 21 in the newly redecorated International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton.
However, many are traveling this summer. Missing the tea were Lynn Crabtree, in Spain; Leigh McGilvray in Mexico; and Anne Sturgeon and Jennifer Hees on the vacation circuit; Laura Booth opted to attend her high school graduation in Newport Beach; and Hilary Werdel didn’t make it from Bakersfield.
But the smiles were gracious (proving that debutantery instills charm) from the rest--Caroline Reich, Kathryn Bucher, Katherine Galbraith, Kate Neville, Carolyn Hotchkis, DeDe Alexander, Katrina Browne, Spencer Holberton, Lisa Johnson, Karen Meyler, Marilyce Pace, Dana Reinisch, Victoria Schroeder, Angela Toberman, Angela Westwater and Wendi Worthington.
Caterer Isabelle Linenberger provided the irresistible pecan bars, lemon tarts and chicken and watercress sandwiches and marmalade sticks at the tea table. No one wanted to leave, not even Brooke Young, on her way to Lake Arrowhead, or Tally Mingst, headed for Moose, Wyo., or Lyn Grier, packed for La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club or Nancy Munger, thinking of her Danube cruise and July at Prout’s Neck, Me. (where Winslow Homer painted).
The ball in December will be special because whirlwind Janice Carpenter is chairman. Debs recently met at her house to hear former debutante Gianna Bosko describe her experiences as a volunteer at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles. Later the same day, debs and their fathers and grandfathers toured the hospital, hearing Dr. Lynn Morphree explain the Las Madrinas-supported program--molecular pathology--and how it improves the survival rate of children with certain cancers.
DEB SEASON: Summer socializing is going on among the 26 debutantes of the National Charity League, San Marino Area chapter, announced in June at the tea planned by Sue Seden at the Biltmore Crystal Ballroom and headed by Julie Condon, director of the Dec. 22 ball.
Debs and dates recently partied at Disneyland and dined on Mexican food. The coterie includes Nancy Addis, Jill Barry, Jana Bunn, Barbara Coberly, Lynn Crabtree, Melinda Fedde, Christa Gledhill, Mary Hanzel, Jennifer Hemming, Kristen Horgan, Michelle Hoy, Beverly Johnson, Grace Kibler, Mary Knaphurst, Michele Knechtel, Wendi Lind, Anne Milias, Stephanie Pearson, Kerri Ross, Julianne Saxton, Monica Seares, Julie Shannon, Nicole Tyler, Michelle Varner, Jennifer Weyand and Lisa Wines.
DEBS TOO: And six will be presented at the National Charity League of San Fernando Valley debutante ball Nov. 26 at the Beverly Wilshire. All proceeds will go to the Rancho del Valle, the crippled children’s facility in Woodland Hills. The six are Wendy Bell, Catherine Brookins, Elizabeth Dadanian, Rosanne Gamez, Heather Hamby and Laura Ramsden.
PLAUDITS: And cheers to the National Charity League Laguna Chapter’s 19 debutantes who curtsied at the Ritz Carlton: Claire Andrews, J’Amy Bates, Jennifer Burns, Christine Crandall, Kristin Draper, Christy Foley, Sarah Fosberg, Deirdre Gumb, Allison and Bren Hammond, Katie Jones, Melinda Leach, Jennifer Lindley, Stephanie Mueller, Lindsay Nunnikhoven, Michelle Rea, Melissa Rush, Lisa Stemmler and Carrie Wright.
MUSIC MEETS STARS: Volunteers chairman Vera Panosian and her opening night chairmen Aurora Durr and Leah Rotermund are prepping for the 66th season of the Hollywood Bowl Summer Festival and the gala opening night concert on Tuesday with flutist James Galway and the West Coast debut of Soviet conductor Yuri Temirkanov.
Fifty young hostesses from the Assisteens Auxiliary in San Pedro and Palos Verdes will wear ribboned hats to greet concert-goers and distribute Hollywood Bowl buttons before a display of balloon artistry by Treb.
Hollywood Bowl Volunteers are celebrating its 37th year of service. Activities include the numerous carriage clubs that bus people to the Bowl, staffing the Children’s Open House festival of performing arts, publication of the Hollywood Bowl Cookbook, and a new program, “Mornings on Peppertree Lane,” which revives a long-time tradition of bringing volunteers together at the Bowl to meet guest artists.
That first Peppertree Lane program July 18 will be preceded by a brunch, and features conversations with cellist Lynn Harrell, artistic director, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and David Allen Miller, assistant conductor of the orchestra. A “Behind the Orchestra Shell” Peppertree Lane morning is scheduled Aug. 16 with Bowl superintendant Pat Moore. Planning the new events are DeAnne Hayes and Louise Peebles, Friends co-chairmen, and Debbie Grossman, Nancy Wayte, Joan Stubbs and Lucille Kerhulas.
ESCALATION: Eighty of Charles and Harriet Luckman’s friends were invited to their Sunset Boulevard penthouse to celebrate the publication of his autobiography, “Twice in a Lifetime: From Soap to Skyscrapers.” There’s a 50,000 advance printing, and Luckman will soon tour the country.
Insiders invited for the author party dined on miniature hamburgers and hot dogs and toasted with champagne. Among them were Norman and Ellen Cousins (who introduced Luckman to his publisher, W. W. Norton & Co.), Waller Taylor, Frank Dale, Dorothy and Warren Crowell, Robert and Jeanne de Kruif, Jean Trousdale with Todd Dickey (she dashing off to give her own dinner party), Nancy Hogan, Glen and Marilyn McDaniel, Charles and Denise Luckman, Virginia and Simon Ramo and Stuart and Mary Davis.
POSTSCRIPT: Blanche Seaver was, a few years back, named Sweetheart of Sigma Chi by the USC chapter of the fraternity, but she didn’t write the song, as we indicated recently. It was written by Dudleigh Vernor (music) and Byron D. Stokes (lyrics), as every good Sigma Chi pledge learns.
The other evening, nonagenarian and educational philanthropist Blanche, Olvera Street’s La Madrina, thrilled her friends at the pueblo party organized by Vivian Bonzo and El Padrino John Bowles by playing “Just for Today” not once but twice when the piano was rolled up to her table at La Golondrina.
GREAT TIMBERS: In the shade of the huge English oak at the Huntington Gardens, the Society of Junior Fellows got a break. Usually visitors are not allowed to picnic on the manicured lawns, but an exception was made for the Huntington’s new and young (under 40) support group to join with picnic hampers and children in tow, spread their blankets and listen to Scottish, Irish and English folk tunes on a dulcimer, concertina and Irish drum.
The children spilled snow cones on the grass and sat for caricature portraits. Chairman Joe Regan found himself more than once hiking down the hill to retrieve his and Kate’s boys as well as Nancy and Ray McCullough’s offspring. Joining in the fun--Duncan and Marie McDuffie, Charles and Christie Bakaly, Katie Darnell, Amanda Goodan, Victoria Howe, Brian and Shelley Kadison and Gordon Pashgian.
SAVE THE DATES: For the Beastly Ball, Sept. 10 to benefit the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. . . . For the stupendous new Philharmonic Ball at the Beverly Wilshire, Oct. 19 (waltzing to the music of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn, other dancing to the music by Doc Severinsen and his band.) Invitations arrive later.
TAKE BOWS: Dorothy and Leonard Straus have endowed a chair in gastroenterology at UCLA School of Medicine with a gift of $500,000 in memory of her mother, Gussie Borun. . . . The third annual Cedars-Sinai Drexel Burnham Lambert Sports Spectacular at the Century Plaza raised more than $500,000. . . . Union Bank’s Heart of the City 5-K Run for the American Heart Assn. tallied $170,000. . . . Mount St. Mary’s College reports $140,000 garnered on its “Les Miserables” gala.
PACIFIC RIM: Caroline Ahmanson cut the ribbons for the first American exhibit of contemporary Malaysian painting at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. It featuress 41 artists.
On hand for the welcomes were Rashid Khan, vice president of Malaysian Airlines and the Malaysian Consul Gen. Zainal Azman. More were Sharifah Syed Zubir, curator from the Malaysian National Art Gallery, and New York-based Consul Gen. Sallehudin Abdullah, joining the museum’s board chairman George Brumder, who hosted a dinner party following the reception. The exhibit runs through Dec. 31.
