Big Hearts for Reagan Homecoming
The invitations, with a string of three red hearts from the Colleagues, Saks Fifth Avenue and Adolfo, are out for “A Valentine Luncheon” honoring Nancy Reagan on Feb. 14 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Special events chairman Erlenne Sprague and Colleagues president Marjory Miller have been all but polishing the silver to make sure this is a very red-letter date welcoming Mrs. Reagan, a Colleagues member, home.
Adolfo is supposed to give a glorious item from his spring collection as the door prize. Luncheon chairmen--all the First Lady’s close friends--Betty Adams, Betsy Bloomingdale, Harriet Deutsch, Marion Jorgensen, Giney Milner, Chardee Trainer and Betty Wilson are taking tables.
So are co-chairmen Dorothy Clark, Onnalee Doheny, Lupe Hinckle, Marilyn McDaniel, Beverly Morsey, Natalie Robinson, Marion Sharffenberger, Carolyn Singleton, Frances Skipsey, Barbara Thompson, Mary Jane Wick and Marcia Wilson Hobbs.
MORE TO DO: At the Regency Club this week Nina Leif, Ilona Sherman, Aileen Scotti and Hilary Mandel were noting that 80,000 infants are born each year with serious abnormalities and developmental defects. More needs to be done, and, as leaders of Sprint, they are immersed in raising $700,000 more ($2.6 million total) plus a $1-million endowment for research for the new Medical Plaza on the UCLA campus at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Le Conte Avenue. Sprint is responsible for the third floor of the new facility--15,000 square feet.
That’s why they and Kate Gianopulos, co-chairman with Ilona Sherman, simply looked across the street at Bullock’s Westwood for a tented party site and began negotiations with Robert Friedman, chairman and CEO of Bullock’s, for a special evening Jan. 26 honoring Louis Dell’Olio, the designer of Anne Klein.
Because Dell’Olio likes white, the ambiance will be white tulips for the first West Coast showing of the Klein spring 1989 collection. Michael Huard, who produced the last Jewel Gala, will stage the show, says Bullock’s Aileen Scottic. The champagne buffet preceding the show will be catered by Parties Plus.
The new building, scheduled to be ready by mid-1990, will unify services, now scattered across campus, for infants with defects and their parents.
Sprint was founded by Nina Leif after she lost a child and a second was born a borderline hydrocephalic requiring brain surgery at age 1. She turned to UCLA where she found support for her daughter Marisa, who is now 14, speaks four languages and has made enormous strides in sports. “I have a lot to be thankful for,” Nina says.
At a cocktail party Sprint hosted last year, Lew and Edie Wasserman spontaneously donated $325,000 to the cause, prompting a $100,000 anonymous donation that evening, resulting in a total $500,000. Who knows what’s next?
Angie Dickinson is celebrity chair, working with Bonnie Franklin, Richard Anderson, Jerry Douglas, Pat Morita and Marlee Maitlin. Committed to the evening also are Jerry and Virginia Oppenheimer, James and Pascal Regan, Mickey and Mary Carol Rudin, Chuck and Ava Fries, and Muriel Slatkin.
FLURRY OF WELCOMES: A flock of Ambassador Lester B. and Carolbeth Korns’ friends arrived at the Regency Club in black tie for dinner and dancing and a royal welcome home from Walter and Speedy Beran and Richard and Eileen Eamer. The honored guests and the hosts stood at the cocktail reception greeting arrivals before moving into the dining room for an elegant repast, dancing and toasts from Beran and Eamer.
Former Ambassador to Mexico John Gavin and his wife, Constance Towers, made a brief stop-by. Staying through and talking political appointments, national issues and business were a prominent crowd, including Henry and Aileen Gluck, Dr. William Banowsky, Mary Alice and Richard Frank, Esther and Thomas Wachtell, Roy and Betty Anderson, Russell and Jeanne Smith, Richard and Maude Ferry, Leonard and Dorothy Strauss, Charles Schneider, and Mardee and Peter deWetter.
Also joining in were UCLA Chancellor Charles and Sue Young, who host their own dinner for the Korns on Jan. 23, again at the popular Regency Club.
A CHANGE: Instead of the Host and Hostess of the Year revelation, Les Dames de Champagne broadened the impact and changed the name of its annual awards given at its traditional Twelfth Night fete. Now, members are bestowing Hostess and Host Humanitarian of the Year Awards.
Honorees the other evening were Jill Halverson, founder and director of the Downtown Women’s Center, and Dr. Howard P. House, chairman emeritus and founder of the House Ear Institute.
It was also a night to announce nine new Les Dames: Katherine Domyan, Roberta Haft, Lois Howard, Kay Lau, Bonnie Leaver, Barbara Michael, Nance Mitchell, Biene Ogner and Penny von Kalinowski.
UPCOMING: It’s back to the classroom for 750 women Jan. 25 when they convene on the USC campus for the 1989 Women’s Day. Chairman Nancy Edelbrock plans three morning sessions, lunch and an afternoon session--all to be moderated by former news anchor Susan Hahn, a Trojan graduate. In the sessions Dr. Alexandra Levine will give an “AIDS Update.” Dr. Albert Sonnenfeld will speak on “The Utility of the Useless.” Dr. Harold Slavkin will present “New Vistas in Biological Research.” Tawny Little, former USC journalism student, will talk about broadcast news.
Putting it all together are Donna Gibbs, Regina Leimbach, Elise Ebbert, Barbara Meyers, Donna Devine, Gretchen Schumacher, Carol Porter, Alli Solum, Katie Hare, Marilyn Atha, Sigrid Allman, Linda Maudlin, Sharon Merz, Dee Dee Moffat and Lorna Reed.
ALL GIRLS: The Sustaining members of the Junior League of Los Angeles are popping down to the desert later this month to welcome the newly formed Sustaining Members Group of the Desert (officially part of the Los Angeles league, says chairman Helen Sargent).
WINE AND MUSIC: Jennifer and Royce Diener give their Santa Monica home this afternoon for a private musicale, concert, wine and dessert. In the spotlight will be the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and its music director Iona Brown.
WHIRL: City of Hope president and CEO Dr. Sanford M. Shapero and his wife, Evelyn, have returned from London and Torino, Italy. In London they were the guests of Norman and Sadie Lee, British subjects and longtime Beverly Hills residents, who were honored guests at the opening of the Lee Research Center at the National Institute for Medical Research. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales officially opened the center.
DOUBLE DATES: Neighbors of Watts celebrated its 20th anniversary with a tea for members this week at the home of board chairman Suzanne Turman. In the spotlight was lithographer Phoebe Beasley.
Now the members turn their attention to the 20th annual star-studded fund-raising dinner and concert Feb. 4 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Proceeds will go toward funding the Neighbors’ two South-Central Los Angeles free-of-charge day care facilities for low-income families with parents who work or are in school or vocational training.
KICKOFF: At a luncheon this week at the Regency Club hosted by Esther Wachtell, president of the Music Center, the Entertainment Council of the Music Center kicks off plans for its second special performance series for children--”A Children’s Afternoon at the Music Center With . . . “
Susan Strauss, chairman of the concert committee, says it all begins Jan. 28 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Symphonies for Youth, continues with that group and “Mozart at the Opera,” April 1. On April 29 the Mark Taper Forum’s Improvisational Theatre Project presents “La Llorona” and on May 21, the Joffrey Ballet LA/NY performs “Petrouchka,” “Parade” and “Le Sacre du Printemps.”
The cost per person is $60 for the series, and purchasers will be urged to donate $10 to allow a child from the MacLaren Children’s Center to attend.
The committee includes Kathryn Davis, Annie Gilbar, Wendy Goldberg, Shelley Kirkwood, Barbara Marshall, Dareth Newley, Joanna Poitier, Karen Todman, Lauree Turman, Nancy Vreeland.
