Bachelors Have a Ball With ‘Transylvania Nightmare’

The Bachelors Ball in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton was, well, sort of unbelievable, and that may have been why, almost without exception, post-ball chat was rating it a 10--one of the best Bachelors balls in years.

This was the 84th anniversary fancy dress affair. Members of the prominent organization of young men host the annual party, they say, to pay back social obligations incurred during the year.

This party sizzled, even with the theme “A Nightmare in Transylvania,” which led arriving guests through an eerie tunnel, through a graveyard where prominent bachelor John Welborne found his name on at least four tombstones. “It’s some sort of in-joke,” Welborne, costumed as the devil, said. “Only I am not the devil; I am a devil.” He had hosted his four tables--32 guests, $220 a couple--at a pre-cocktail party at Trader Vic’s. The entourage included Spike and Debby Booth, wearing authentic Japanese robes.

It was the sort of night that found Elvis with Priscilla (Martin Spencer and Tracy Sanders), Laurel with Hardy (Randy Carroll and Susan Dick), the Prince of Wales with Princess Diana (Pat McKoskey and his fiancee, Kathy Lee), King Tut with Cleopatra (Steve Hobbs and Lori Parrish), a conquistador with a Spanish dancer (Grafton Tanquary III--his father was a Bachelor--with Robin Wood).

Pamela and Robert Kidney came as Mr. and Mrs. Mac the Knife. Lisa Dennis and Bachelors treasurer William Bessolo were Indians. Stephanie and Mark Reuter were handsome space police--or were they cats? Lyn Vandegrift wore a Chinese costume and a snake mask, escorted by Gordon Pashigan. But when Vern Monroe walked through the cocktail party carrying a huge python, there was near pandemonium as guests all but fell over one another to avoid contact.

The “Dangerous Liaisons” costumes were abundant. Laura Perkins was one, flirting with “Napoleon” David Brittain, a new Bachelors board member. John Thompson and Tracy Verna were drum majors, Adam Bianchi a gangster and Penny Bianchi a flapper (Missy Wilkins was a flapper too), joining Nancy Davis, Donald Spitz, Jerry Zorthian, in elegant regalia, at Peter Adams’ table.

Elsewhere, partygoers fussed with their costumes. Bachelors president Walter Wilson found his Dracula face peeling as he stood at the receiving line, awaiting his date Dr. Patricia McKeever (on professional duty as an intern at County-USC Medical Center) to glue him back together. Not only is Wilson a Bachelor, but his late father, Philip Wilson Jr., was one and so were two of his brothers, Philip III and Joseph.

Some of those costumes must be uncomfortable. A mock television set on the shoulders of one guest prevented communication, though the picture was clear. But even with a horse costume on his head, Dan Palmer “jumped” the entire night with his date, Ashley Bren, in hunter togs. On the other hand, there was a comfy table of laid-back Brooklyn Dodgers, handing out baseball cards, another table of more intense ‘20s golfers (Mark Hennessey and Julie Dalton and Paul and Mopy Locker), handing out tees.

Most authentic, perhaps, was the Air Force jacket, hat and wings worn by Richard Hadfield (escorting Gabrielle Gottlieb), which was worn by his late uncle who was killed in a training air crash at Bakersfield during World War II.

Arriving at their tables, guests found rock ‘n’ rolling bats with red eyes gyrating on the ceiling above them. Programs at the tables were cutout mummies lying on cotton balls inside paper coffins. They became collectors’ items, disappearing from tables about 1 a.m.

That was all after dinner was served at a leisurely 10:45 p.m., and after the men at Bachelors Hugh Evans’ (with Jeanne Crowley) and Chris Liebes’ tables of camouflaged jungle fighters slid down the railings to the dance floor in high spirits as Bob Gail’s orchestra struck up “She’s a Honky Tonk Woman,” a favorite Bachelors’ song.

And, it was after Arthur McClure was complimented that he looked “most bucolic,” sitting at the Bachelors’ Patroness table with Bonnie McClure, Penne and Bill Durst, Margaret and John Given, Judy and Steven Jones, Jo and Bob Kroger (whose son Jim flew down from San Francisco for the party).

And it was also after Briant Howes’ table of sailors, including Henry Williamson and Robin Ferrante, whirled to “Celebration,” after the juggler juggled grapefruit, after a duck popped out of a silver tray.

By then, Santa Claus was dancing with the Easter bunny, and Bachelors vice president Chip Stuart, ball chairman, and his co-chair Casey Griffin were dousing the dripping candles.

It’s the sort of party that sends the young crowd to the airport. Carllyn Haldeman, daughter of Sue and Tom Haldeman, flew in from New York to be Richard Mogan’s date. New Yorker Joan Cavalero flew in to join Neil McCathy. And Leslie Graham, moving here from New York, came feather-boaed with Madison Offenhauser, sitting at Scott Albrecht’s table.

Funniest line of the night, we hear, came from the men’s room: Two gangsters were reportedly washing their hands. One well-heeled gangster says to the other, “Nice suit. C&R;?”

ROMANCE: Eugenia Erskine of San Francisco (she’s the daughter of Paul and Georgianna Erskine of Pasadena) and her fiance, Don Jesberg of the Bay area, have been widely feted in the Southland with prenuptial parties.

Sally Lewis and her daughter, Carey MacNiff, gave a luncheon with violet nosegays at each place. Joan and Jim Caillouette, Roberta and Sandy Huntley and Elizabeth and Steve Algermissen invited guests to bring a bottle of wine for the young couple at their dinner. Now, Sandy and Maria Mallace, Patty and Roger Burschinger, Jane Simpson and Jakie and Ted Engs join to host a Mexican fiesta before the wedding here April 1.

RECEPTION: Happy that the Grammy Awards will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Mayor Tom Bradley and the Los Angeles Host Committee, headed by Sheldon I. Ausman, host a welcoming celebration for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the 1989 Grammy nominees on Monday evening at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum. NARAS will honor Gene Autry with the President’s Merit Award.

KUDOS: To Bruce Meyer, honored by the Beverly Hills CPR with its “From the Heart Award” at a ‘50s party at Ed Debevic’s in Beverly Hills. . . .

To Carl Terzian, a founder nearly 30 years ago of California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, saluted for nine years as a regent. . . .

To Jeanne and Bob Morrissey, who hosted the California Wine Patrons gourmet dinner at the Four Oaks restaurant.

RED LETTER DATES: British Consul General Donald and Elizabeth Ballantyne will be at the forefront of the second of three foreign motion picture screenings by American Film Institute Associates next Sunday. Skouras Pictures hosts a supper after the L.A. premiere of “High Hopes.”

Earlier, in a tie-in with consular groups in Los Angeles and an effort by AFI to increase membership in its International Film Society, the consul general of Denmark presided at the supper hosted by Ava and Chuck Fries, Didi and Fernando Gelbard and Sybil and Jim Goldrich after the showing of “Pelle the Conqueror.”

Consul General Ma Yuzhen of the People’s Republic of China is in the spotlight March 19 for the screening of “Woman Demon Human.”