A Record for Golden Thimble Benefit
Already the Golden Thimble Committee of the Auxiliary of the Hospital of the Good Samaritan has $70,000 in patron money. That’s a record, says chairwoman Kate Regan, who lunched with Deborah Booth, co-chairwoman, and Catherine Krell at the California Club last week, before the March 1 preview of their needlework show for exhibitors and patrons.
This will be the 10th biannual event. More than 500 needlework entries are expected. Jeweler Sol Laykin is pounding out gold and jeweled thimbles for category winners--as he has since the show’s inception at the hospital 20 years ago.
Said Maxine Ridgeway, co-chairwoman of the exhibit committee (she’s been hanging the entries and arranging the exhibits since the show began): “This show has consistently perpetuated itself as one of the largest and best needlework shows in the country.”
And that’s why the auxiliary claims Golden Thimble has raised more than $1 million. Add that to the $1 million from the auxiliary’s gift shop proceeds, and more proceeds from the annual Valentine appeal, and it’s impressive.
Among those stitching the benefit are Hilary Mynatt, Mindy Byers, Sally Woodward, Carroll Sue Anawalt, Linda Posner, Shirley Benson, Dody Booth, Jan Clayton, Kay Meserve, Christy Bakaly, Vicki Pozzi, Vicky Strickland, Robin Barker and Cheryl Baker.
PLANNED: As if on cue, Helen Bing, big benefactor of the Planned Parenthood Men’s Dinner 10th anniversary celebration at Spago, giggled her way into the kitchen at the restaurant, delivered a beribboned sack for the baby Spago’s Wolfgang and Barbara Puck are expecting in May, and found herself with a hug from Wolf, who had his finger in the coffee ice cream he was preparing for dessert.
“But we did not plan it!” the famous chef laughed.
It was a funny touch to the wall-to-wall, turn-away party crowd, there to sup and dine on cuisine prepared by the husbands of women who are Planned Parenthood members. Under the tutelage of Puck and his restaurant sous-chefs, Planned Parenthood’s chief sous - chef Kendell Bishop, assisted by Michael Berk and 19 others, chopped most of the day to make pizzas, lobster on vegetable salad, Alaskan salmon with ginger, Sonoma lamb with black olives and Tuscan beans.
The dinner committee, chaired by Diane Bishop and Karen Berk, already had lined up enough wines and Champagne for an army. All could only marvel at the Walter Mitty fantasies of chefs Hugo Standing (president of Los Angeles Planned Parenthood), Donald Alschuler, Dr. Harlan Amstutz, Gordon Bodek, Laurence Cowan, Orville Golub, Lawrence Goodman Jr., John Osgood, Ewing Seligman, Dr. Norman Sprague and the rest.
Guild president Sue Allen reports the event should raise $125,000.
When it was time to leave, each guest received a replica of Puck’s trademark, a baseball cap with the Spago logo. Among those departing with same were Jean Standing, Dr. Eugene Stern and his wife, Libby, Janice Rusack, Dody and Otis Booth, Bob and Beth Lowe, Charlie and Nancy Munger, and Ann Petroni, who also carried home a tin plate of pizza, ordered up by Puck for Donald Petroni, who had a cold.
VENICE BEQUEST: World Trade Bank Chairman Roy Doumani and his wife, Carol, have pledged to bequeath their unique Venice, Calif., house designed by artist Robert Graham to UCLA.
A dinner Friday celebrates the landmark gift. In addition to UCLA Chancellor Charles and Sue Young, the guests expected are Dudley Moore (next-door neighbor to the Doumanis), Eli and Edye Broad, Henry and Ginny Mancini, Franklin and Judith Murphy, Jack Nicholson, Fred Weisman, Bob Graham and a lot more.
VALENTINES: The Cultural Society president Leslie Kimball and Sona Rosenberg and Marlene Gurewitz were knee-deep in Valentine plans this last week, preparing for comedians Tom Dreesen and Fritz Coleman and the Lettermen to entertain at their Valentine Gala at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel.
KUDOS: To Arrola DuBridge. She received the ARCS LITE for her “incredible resources” at a luncheon at Jimmy’s where speakers included Julian Von Kalinowski and Edward C. Stone, discussing the Keck Observatory. . . .
To William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, honored at the 33rd Man of the Year Dinner Dance hosted at the Beverly Hilton by the Beverly Hills Charitable Foundation and the Beverly Hills B’nai B’rith Lodge 1325. . . .
To Barbara Katz and Elaine Marmel, new co-presidents of the Diamond Circle for the City of Hope. . . .
To Alicia Appleman-Jurman, named Woman of Valor by the Beverly Hills Hadassah.
COOKIE WATCH: Watch for the Girl Scouts’ cookie sale. It’s Feb. 24 and March 13 at various sites. And on two Saturdays, Feb. 25 and March 4, the girls will sell cookies at Thrifty Drug Stores between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. There are seven kinds, and, we’re told the traditional thin mint leads the pack, followed by old-fashioned shortbread. Buy some.
FORGIVING: Elin Vanderlip is not one to be put off, but even she couldn’t get famous garden book author Penelope Hobhouse to leave her husband, John (after his second knee operation at Oxford, England), long enough for a scheduled talk to La Coterie of Friends of French Art at the Four Seasons luncheon this week.
Substituting with Mrs. Hobhouse’s slides and her speech and an entire slide/lecture of his own on significant California landscapers was Robert Fletcher, well-known in the Southland. Among those mingling were Jean Louis Rysto, French deputy consul general in Los Angeles; Yvonne Segerstrom (she and Elin were flying that evening to Europe, Elin to ski in Gstaad), Franklin (his UCLA Sculpture Garden was in the slide show) and Judy Murphy, Joyce MacRae, Alice Avery (who assembled two tables of her garden club, The Snails, who travel all over the world together), Patty Pillsbury, Patti Skouras, Frances Brody, Hannah Carter, Nancy Dinsmore.
BUSY TOWN: Loyola Marymount University sponsors its annual Wine Classic in the Gersten Pavilion on campus this afternoon (tickets $40). . . .
Oscar Reiss Children’s Workers, an auxiliary of the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center, goes gala Wednesday evening at the Wiltern Theatre with a Johnny Mathis evening preceded by a cocktail buffet at the Los Angeles Club. Sylvia Trust and Dorie Gold are co-chairs. . . .
Japanese paintings and drawings from the Harari collection star in the opening reception hosted by the Pacific Asia Museum trustees and staff Tuesday evening. . . .
The Center for the Partially Sighted Associates will hear Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times arts editor, at their luncheon Wednesday. . . .
The Costume Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will hear Elsa Klensch, CNN anchor, on Monday.
BE MINE: The Fashionettes host their Valentine luncheon today at the Beverly Wilshire honoring Jack and Elaine LaLanne. . . . The Los Angeles Consular Corps will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a private viewing of the Pavilion for Japanese Art (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and dinner later hosted by Al Amir restaurant. LACMA and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are extending the invitations. . . .
The Paulist Women’s Club of St. Paul the Apostle Parish and School in Westwood plans a Valentine luncheon Wednesday at the Riviera Country Club.
