Cedars-Sinai Gala: Many Causes for Cheer
“If my mother were alive,” said Carina Courtright Quasha, “this is the way I imagine she would have done it.”
It was, perhaps, the nicest compliment given all evening.
The occasion was a black-tie gala at the Beverly Wilshire--make that the Regent Beverly Wilshire, since Regent International Hotels bought it--to thank the six-figure donors who contributed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s successful $90-million endowment fund campaign.
The evening celebrated other things as well: George Burns’s 93rd birthday, and the re-opening of a landmark hotel.
But the opening was something of a celebration-within-a-celebration, as former employees and owners of the hotel were reunited and spent hours reminiscing about life under the late Hernando Courtright, who sold the hotel in November 1985 to Regent for $125 million.
“I’ve been back a number of times but this time it’s totally different,” said Courtright’s daughter, Carina, whose mother, Marcella, was responsible for the old interiors. “It’s a whole new hotel. . . . But the important things about the hotel--the architectural features--are all the same. The cosmetic aspects have been changed.”
Indeed, the hotel on the outside remains unchanged. The interior, however, of the building on Wilshire was gutted and redone in a regal, lavish style. The hotel isn’t quite completed; some furnishings have yet to be installed.
The ballroom had been spruced up, although not as dramatically as other parts of the hotel.
A “refreshment” is how interior designer Eric Glenn Texeira put it. “It’s a refreshment of existing surfaces and new lighting, new carpeting,” he explained. Texeira even kept the chairs that Marcella Courtright designed years ago, merely re-painting and re-fabricating them. The room’s peach-colored marble and carpeting were accented with huge garlands of roses on the walls that matched the table arrangements.
Guests were greeted with glasses of champagne as they handed their car keys to the valets, and attentive waiters refilled bread plates as soon as a roll was torn.
Did Texeira feel competitive with the Waldo Fernandez-ed refurbished Beverly Hilton down the street?
“We’re way above that,” he said with calm confidence. “The Regent’s place in the world is as an international hotel. The standards are high, and the expectations are even higher.”
The unveiling didn’t have any of the Regent people breaking a sweat, not even hotel manager Kurt Stielhack, who said, while wringing his hands, “It’s done, it’s well-rehearsed, and I’m
Puffing on Huge Cigars
Stielhack was among 100 or so guests at a VIP reception where the center of attention was, naturally, birthday boy Burns, who shared a table with Danny Thomas as both puffed away happily on huge cigars.
Also on hand were Dinah Shore, Barbara and Marvin Davis, Wendy and Leonard Goldberg, Cyd Charisse and Tony Martin, Ruta Lee, Carol Channing, Ed and Victoria McMahon, Don and Barbara Rickles, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Red Buttons, Bob and Dolores Hope, Army and Selma Archerd, former head of public relations for the Beverly Wilshire Helen Chaplin (she’s now at the new Checkers Hotel) and Fawn Hall with her William Morris agent, Norman Brokaw.
“I’m just here because my agent invited me,” said Hall. “As you know, I haven’t been in the press much lately.”
Those representing Cedars’ “campaign cabinet” were Bram Goldsmith (also dinner chairman), Robert Silverstein, Ernest Friedman, Steve Broidy, Larry Baum and Harvey Silbert.
Goldsmith had high praise for Burns, who has contributed $2 million to the endowment fund, which actually exceeded the $90-million goal, reaching $94,235,000.
Burns’ salute included several musical tributes from Melissa Manchester and Sammy Cahn (singing special lyrics with Dinah Shore). But it wouldn’t be a true George Burns tribute without a birthday cake, and this event was no exception. Even though the entertainer’s birthday is Jan. 20, that has never stopped this city’s well-wishers from giving Burns several birthday celebrations a year.
As one guest put it, “He’s 93. He’s entitled.”
Quasha, who flew from New York with her husband, Wayne, for the gala, said she had done some reminiscing while walking through the hotel that she had grown up in.
“From the lobby you can look up to the mezzanine, and that always reminds me of my father. Sometimes I’d work at the front desk, and he used to walk that way to the office. And when I first saw the lobby I didn’t recognize it. But then I looked up at the balcony,” she said, her eyes misting over, “and I could sort of see him.”
George White, former part owner of the hotel, added that “I couldn’t have lived a more interesting life than the life I lived here.”
Said Robert Burns, president of Regent International Hotels: “It’s going to be a great hotel--when the furniture gets here.”
