An Elegant Night for Childrens Chain

The white columns of the stately home were lit, and the feeling was definitely Southern elegance for the 29th Childrens Chain Dinner Dance at the home of Danny and Myrna Villanueva in Hancock Park. That’s the well-known landmark where the late Hugh Hinton Evans Sr. played tennis into his 90s and radiated charm.

Much to everyone’s pleasure, the Villanuevas graciously allowed the crowd of 400 to meander through the house and see the decorating (lots of Clarence House fabrics) and the wonderful new kitchen designed by Chuck Watkins. That was a special treat for Elizabeth (daughter of Hugh Evans) and Matt Cameron, who danced the night away to Lewis Malin sounds on the tennis courts, around tables with masses of roses from Silver Birches. “So pretty,” Kasey McCoy exclaimed about the work of decorations chairmen Brooke Young and Cuchi Clark.

Chain chairman Susan Miller and her husband, Llewellyn, and dinner chairman Margaret Larkin with her husband, Thomas, were up front greeting the black-tie crowd, some in furs as a farewell to summer. The crush around Somerset Catering’s coconut deep-fried shrimp was intensive--Norman and Peter Barker, Edie and Christian Frere, Carlotta and Rusty Keely, Bonnie and Art McClure, Nancy and Ray McCullough, Jo Ann and Wayne Ratkovich, Cheryl and Peter Ziegler, and Tally and Bill Mingst, who were concerned about the fires near their ranch in Wyoming.

Finally, the crowd moved in on the barbecued tenderloin, chile souffles, salad with marinated goat cheese and chocolate ganache selected by Cheryl Baker and Caryn Harb. Then everyone was quite fit to participate for the drawings with Wendy and John Siciliano coming off with prizes, Martha Duque winning doubly (a Cartier watch and a $200 Geary’s certificate) and her sister Mary also winning a prize.

A chic young crowd: Debby and Spike Booth, Jenny and Dick Schrieber, Carolyn and Randy Stockwell, Kathy and Walt Rose, Jim and Peggy Galbraith, Peter and Cheryl Ziegler, Liz and Buzz Mendel, Jack and Bettina Walker (Buzz and Jack, dining at the same table, discovered they were Notre Dame University classmates), Dan and Joni Baker, Tink and James Cheney, Nancy and James Birdwell, Sam and Cynthia Coleman.

SCENT EVOCATIVE: “Scents of Time,” the exhibition organized by the Museum of the City of New York, comes to the California Museum of Science and Industry on Oct. 6-Jan. 3. Its opening will be the highlight of the California Museum Foundation’s President’s Council social calendar on Oct. 5. In their imaginative ways, longtime CMSI supporter Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson and Kitty D’Alessio of Chanel have ordained that the black-tie gala will be set under the stars in the Rose Garden at Exposition Park.

Rosemarie and Robert Stack are celebrity co-chairs. The Fragrance Foundation and major Southern California leaders in the retail industry have promised support. For this, they will be called Patrons of Scent. They are: Rose Marie Bravo, chairman of I. Magnin & Bullocks Wilshire; Richard C. Clayton, president, the Broadway; J. Lynn Dunkley, Los Angeles area manager, J. C. Penney; Rick Leto, senior vice president, Bullock’s; James Nordstrom, president, Nordstrom; Kenneth F. Sokol, president, May Co.; and Michael Zeigler, senior vice president, Robinson’s.

Scents, perfume flasks and bottles, books and labels, drawings and photographs are all a part of the exhibit. So, smell the roses, the lavender and the bergamot .

NOBEL LAUREATE: The Associates of the California Institute of Technology will hear Nobel Laureate Robert M. Solow, professor of economics at MIT, Oct. 5 before their annual dinner in the Athenaeum, Caltech’s gracious Italian Renaissance-style faculty club. Associates gave Caltech $6.5 million last year.

HALL OF FAME: Dress will be casual elegance, Ron Rubin and His Orchestra will play for dancing, and it’s all going to be very gala next Sunday when the Winners Foundation and the California Thoroughbred Breeders Foundation honor the second group of inductees into the California Horse Racing Hall of Fame on the infield at Santa Anita Race Track.

New members include jockeys Lafitte Pincay, John Adams and Jack Westrope; breeders George Pope, Connie Ring and E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin; owner Fred Hooper; trainers R. H. McDaniel, Farrell Jones and M. E. Millerick; special recognition, Col. F. W. Koester, Bing Crosby and Mervyn LeRoy; California-bred foals Morvich, Ancient Title and Emperor of Norfolk; and stallions Determine and Fleet Nasrullah. Gino Roncelli is chairman.

BIG DATES: Los Angeles Area Council Boy Scouts of America pay tribute “to a great lady of Los Angeles--Andrea Van de Kamp” when she receives the Crystal Award at the “My Fair Lady” gala Oct. 18 at the Beverly Hilton. . . .

The Res Publica Board of Governors and Claremont McKenna College host a luncheon with Pierre Salinger speaking on “The Kennedy Era in Retrospect” on Oct. 6 at the Biltmore. . . .

Wallis Annenberg entertains Wednesday at her home in Beverly Hills for the Metropolitan Museum of Art office of film and television.

B’DAYS, ANNIVERSARIES: Biltmore executives Carlos Lopez, Eric Prevette and Richard Delaney celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Biltmore on Oct. 7 with a dinner concert featuring the Los Angeles Pops Orchestra. . . .

Dubnoff Center honors William Fenning for service at the group’s 40th birthday dinner dance Monday evening at Chasen’s.

KUDOS: Honorary campaign chairman Michael J. Fox launched the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industries 44th annual Campaign Kick-Off for $3 million at a luncheon this week at the Beverly Hilton. On hand were Alan Rachins of “L.A. Law,” KCBS-TV’s Kevin O’Connell and charities president Paul C. Masterson. . . .

Robert J. Fitzpatrick has been elected to the board of California/International Arts Foundation, and Richard B. Lippin has been named vice president. . . .

Sara O’Meara Sigholtz and Yvonne Fedderson are in Rio de Janeiro for the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse convention. In Washington this month they gave Sen. Pete Wilson (R, Calif.) Childhelp’s first legislative award. . . .

Charmaine Gordon and Teresa Gross are new presidents of Reiss-Davis Child Study Center’s Golden Key Foundation.