Ostrich Eggs Are Big at the Beastly Ball

There’s a new attraction in the auction for this year’s Beastly Ball on Sept. 10--ostrich eggs. Unhatched eggs, as well as behind-the-scenes tours of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo, will be added to the cute, cuddly and exotic animals for bid at the 18th annual ball. Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. President Bruce Nasby, association chairman Tom Tellefsen and ball chairman Helen Maher are hoping for the association’s biggest fund-raiser.

This year a hedgehog, a red-ruffed lemur, a red fox, a salmon-crested cockatoo and a DeBrazza monkey will be adopted. Although the adopted animals remain at the zoo, adoptive parents have the privilege of naming them. Small plaques with “parent” names are displayed in front of the animal exhibits.

Betty White Ludden and Peter McCoy (duo auctioneers), Jimmy and Gloria Stewart, Marvin Davis and Shari Lewis will star among the 500 guests for cocktails and the caravaning through “South America” to view the wolves, jaguars, monkeys and new baby tapir. Later Clark Keen’s Orchestra will play for dancing under the stars, and, let’s hope it doesn’t sprinkle, like last year.

Tickets are $250 (available through the zoo); proceeds will go toward final construction of Adventure Island, the new children’s zoo.

WAY TO GO: William Randolph Hearst Jr. and his wife, Austine, of New York City sent a plane here to pick up Father Maurice Chase and Jimmy and Gloria Stewart and whisk them back to the Hearst Castle for their annual summer weekend together. The Hearsts collect Arabian horses, and one morning they led the weekenders out for an equestrian picnic, interspersing the weekend with candlelight dinners at the Victorian ranch house built by the late Sen. George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst Sr. More in on the fun: Paul and Eloise MacNamara of Beverly Hills and their son, Mark, and Kathryn McDonnell of New York.

SPEAKING OF THE DESERT: A special edition of the Desert Rat arrived from Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs, and it proves that not all Angelenos head for the cool mountains and ocean breezes in the summer. Napa Valley’s Tom Moore, former ABC Television president and former Angeleno, heads the ranch board of directors, and we hear this year San Marino’s Bill and Sally Wenzlau will be carrying on her family’s long Smoke Tree Ranch tradition in the home of her mother, the late Sylvia Kinney Bundy. Prominent bachelor John Welborne has purchased a home, and, thus, becomes a “colonist” (the colonists own houses on the ranch; and the Guest Ranch with its quaint cottages is the allure for non-owners. It opens for the season with all sorts of changes Oct. 21).

Friday, Welborne is inviting friends to meet his lifelong Smoke Tree Ranch pal, Lynn Wilson Rivard, at his home in Windsor Square. Lynn has assembled a 25-minute slide show that features photos that her grandfather, Ted Slocum, took in the early days of Smoke Tree. It was established in the late 1920s by the Pasadena Markham family, is still represented as colonists by Lisa and Dr. Charles Markham and Charlie’s sister, Mariana Markham Wiggins, and visitors from Grosse Pointe to Buffalo to Seattle.

PLAUDITS: Los Angeles is a bulwark of charitable giving: The Los Angeles-based W. M. Keck Foundation is at the helm. Last year, grants to 29 institutions exceeded $7.2 million, more than double the 1987 total of $3.5 million. Of those, $1,155,000 went to the foundation’s Southern California grants program.

NEW NEW: Chairman Clint Eastwood and co-chairs Lionel Hampton, Peggy Lee and Dudley Moore have invitations out to join great jazz stars of the music world and some key jazz fans of the entertainment world Thursday at the home of Dale Olson. It’s a party to launch what they say will be the annual “Los Angeles Jazz Festival--”L.A. Jazz ’88.”

FAST LANES: The celebrities will be in the fast lanes Saturday for “Rock ‘n’ Bowl for Options House.” Hollywood types such as Stephen J. Cannell are supporting the cause because it provides invaluable assistance to Hollywood homeless, abandoned, runaway and abused 12- to 17-year-olds. Options House is a structured shelter program emphasizing therapy, education, recreation and medical care. It aids 300 youths each year.

Kingpin Bruce Jenner will be bowling. More promised are Deidre Hall, Mary Hart, Dean Butler, Jennifer O’Neill and Florence Henderson.

The pins will be flying at Pickwick Bowling Center in Burbank. A perfect score for bowling, dining, dancing and prizes calls for casual attire and $80 tickets.

SLIDING IN: The highlight, we hear of the 10-day Camp Rainbow, the summer camp for child cancer patients at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center financed by the Amie Karen Cancer Fund, is the celebrity softball game. It’s today, and celebrities expected include Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, Lucy Arnaz, Missy Gold, Christopher Hewett and a bunch more.

KUDOS: Fritzy and Richard Roeder brought friends from near and far to celebrate the 40th birthday of Tina Beesemyer, in town from Twickenham, Middlesex, England. She’s Fritzy’s sister and the party was at their San Clemente beach house with much toasting.

Kudos, too, to Charles C. Reed of San Marino, president, Ahmanson Services, Inc. He hass been elected chairman of the Independent Colleges of Southern California, the organization which raises funds from corporations and foundations for 15 independent liberal-arts colleges in Southern California. President Andrea L. Van de Kamp made the announcement.

LUNCHING WELL: Before she left for the Republican convention, Helene Irvin gathered a coterie at the Regency Club for cuisine par excellence --shrimp wrapped in chicken with a basil-and-tarragon dressing--to complete plans for the Saks Adolfo Preview and Dinner to benefit Sonance and the House Ear Institute on Aug. 29 at David H. Murdock’s Bellagio House. Dr. Howard House, Pat and Dr. William House were joining Saks’ Martin Fischer, Patty Fox and Suzanne Cavlovic. And Carolyn Singleton and Gloria Holden (plus Helene) were loyal to Adolfo, in his prettiest couture. Helene and Robert Irvin will be among those at President and Nancy Reagan’s Western attire party Saturday at the Reagan ranch. Joachim Speichel, the Regency Club’s former chef, has been invited to handle the barbecue. It’s a fund-raiser with a $1-million goal, we’re told. More lunching were Susan Turtelot, Lyn Rae McClintock, Patsy Moller, Barbara Miller and Elizabeth Hirsch.

RED-LETTER DATES: CARES, the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center Auxiliary, presents “Fandango under the Stars” on Friday at Lawry’s California Center--for its child care centers. . . . Fred and Joyce Hameetman will be hosts at the Princeton Parents Assn. of Southern California reception Wednesday, with Jason Marx, John Hameetman, Loren Montgomery, Vanessa Marshall and Lindsey Kozberg joining trustees Gerald Parsky, Lloyd Cotsen and Bill Lucas. . . . Beverly Hills merchants and celebrities unveil “Beverly Hills Goldenopoly,” “the official board game of Beverly Hills,” Tuesday evening at the Twenty/20 Club by the Shubert Theatre in Century City. It benefits the Beverly Hills Lions Club. . . . The ACLU Foundation of Southern California premieres United Artists’ “Betrayed” (with Debra Winger) Tuesday evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They are honoring director Costa-Gavras with the 1988 Torch of Liberty Award. Jack Lemmon will present the award.

HEADLINER: The Loren L. Zachary Society’s Fledermaus Ball under auspices of Consul General of Austria Dr. Franz Cede was launched when ball chairman Nedra Zachary announced over luncheon at the Four Seasons (where the ball is set Oct. 28) that guest of honor will be Giorgio Tozzi, Metropolitan and San Francisco opera star.