Nancy Reagan’s Phoenix House Is Half-Way There

Spring is here with new funds, new ideas, new debs, openings, garden parties galore. Everything’s coming up roses and tulips.

Suzanne Marx is still working night and day, sighting a goal of $10 million for Phoenix House, the Nancy Reagan Center for drug rehabilitation. “We have $5 million to go, but I know we will do it,” she said.

Marx has added some prominent names to her advisory committee: Arianna Huffington, former ambassador to Iran, and former CIA Director Richard Helms, Ginny Mancini, Robert S. Strauss and Mike Wallace. Thursday she’s invited them and prospective donors to an “Enchanted Evening Under the Stars” for cocktails and buffet at The Penthouse of the Wilshire House. (Jack Lowrance decorated The Penthouse, which is on the market for $14 million.)

This party will be a push for new donors, with Charles and Mary Jane Wick, Ed and Victoria McMahon, Ann and Gary Lieberthal, James and Doreen McElvany, Debbie and Thomas Tellefsen, Melinda M. Winston, Lydia and Roscoe Webb and Laura and Steve Dunn and David Dunn on the scene.

NOVELTY: Mystery guests will take to the auction block April 29 for Group Effort’s 10th affair. The Big Birthday Bash is at the Beverly Wilshire. Paula Kent Meehan, the founder and CEO of Redken Laboratories Inc. (manufacturers of hair and skin products), is chairman. (Some will remember her as the hatcheck girl on the “77 Sunset Strip” TV series.)

More than $4 million has been raised over the past 10 years, making Group Effort one of the biggest philanthropic events in the city. The unique group includes the Arthritis Foundation, Diabetes Unit for Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles Children’s Museum and Loyola Marymount University.

THE DEBUTANTES: The Yule season and springtime signal debutante seasons. Parents of the senior class of the National Charity League, Whittier chapter, have a spring presention May 21 at the Whittier Hilton and are expecting a crowd of 300. The affair will signal completion of six years of volunteer service (Meals on Wheels, Whittier Museum, Salvation Army, Women’s Crisis Center) by the young ladies.

To be honored, according to Betty Hays, are Lori Bartscherer, Denyse Bennett, Stephanie Brenan, Heather Bushman, Kim Campbell, Catherine Cross, Elise Futterman, Stephanie Hacker, Erin Hays, Heidi Johnson, Christy Kirkpatrick, Eva Maldonado, Jacquie Melnick, Annie Mestas, Susie Miller, Naomi Ono and Alison Poulson. . . .

Friday evening 31 members of the Assistance League of Southern California’s Junior Mannequin Assisteens and Valley Deb Assisteens receive honors for volunteer service at the league’s black-tie Medallion Ball at the Beverly Hilton. Anna Mae Kass is chairman and Laurie Griff is Junior Mannequin Ball adviser.

Receiving gold medallions will be Diana Rea Boyle, Luz Canas, Jennifer Given, Christine Kugler, Elizabeth Lambert Warner, Christie Henricks, Julianne Liautaud, Christa Patch, Tanya Patsaouras, Holly Reu, Tiffany Robinson, Jennifer Samaria and Michelle Soubaralian, all of the Valley League.

Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Westside presentees will be Laura Bradley, Kimberly Griff, Elizabeth Chandler, Katherine Javelera, Julia Coppersmith, Colleen McCarthy, Emilie Terry, Harriet May, Courtney Perry, Stephanie Clark, Lauren Kass, Kristin Olivier, Kari Eisaman, Jennifer Smith, Elizabeth Bradley, Wendy Judd, Jessica Needham and Jennifer Webb.

THE GARDEN PARTIES: Kitty Bartholomew, Cindy Connolly, Josselyn McAdam and Pat Rauth host their fifth Garden Gathering to benefit the Children’s Chain of Childrens Hospital Wednesday at Villa Narcissa at Portuguese Bend. They’ll be visiting the Mediterranean estate on the bluffs overlooking the ocean, tour the historical site with the engaging owner Elin Vanderlip and have lunch. . . .

Then, April 22, The Huntington in Pasadena honors members of the Society of Fellows with the traditional Spring Luncheon and Garden Party in the loggia of the Virginia Steele Scott Gallery.

THE OPENINGS: The Regent Beverly Wilshire hosts a preview tea April 17.

PAST PERFECT: Intimacy was the ambiance at the candlelight dinner at the Hale Solar Observatory in Pasadena to honor Heritage Circle donors to the Friends of Banning Park Floriade. (The flower show will be held May 5-7.)

Observatory owners William and Christine Shirley welcomed the four-table coterie. The Shirleys built a home on the observatory grounds while preserving the original landscape design created by Beatrix Farrand in 1928. Among the group were John and Jane Campbell, Bitsy and Richard Hotaling, Nancy and Dr. Richard Call, Alyce and Warren Williamson, Laura Lee and Robert Woods, Phoebe and Joseph Vaccaro, Donna and Don Gibbs, Fred and Peggy Hartley, Gordon and Connie Fish and Daphne and Rudolph Munzer. . . .

The Westside Center for Independent Living Associates benefited from the preview of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Driving Miss Daisy” (starring Julie Harris and Brock Peters) at the Henry Fonda Theatre and the after-theater supper party at the Mondrian Hotel.

KUDOS: Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman is honorary chairman of the sixth Project Rembrandt exhibit of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which concludes its national tour in Pasadena. The exhibit, organized by Kathleen Capalbo at Rusnak Automotive Centers in Pasadena, showcases professional artists who are linked by the common disability of MS. It concludes April 23. . . .

The Entertainment Industries Council Inc. salutes Lee A. Iacocca at a dinner Wednesday at the Century Plaza. . . .

Mary Ann Arnett, Dorothy Blair, Betty Grant, Mary Greene and Barbara Jameson sparked the preview tea of the Spring Garden Show, which continues through today at Descanso Gardens (37,000 tulips have popped for spring).

CIRCLE RED: The dinner Wednesday saluting John Sculley, chairman and CEO, Apple Computer Inc. He will receive the premier award for exemplary leadership in management from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA at the Beverly Wilshire. . . .

The Big Bands at the Biltmore benefit for the American Diabetes Assn. Foothill Associates (Tex Beneke, the Duke Ellington reunion quintet, the Step Sisters) Friday. It’s black-tie and chaired by Meredith Babeaux Brucker, Augusta Parrington and Cherie Susnar--working with personal motives. All three have 19-year-old sons with diabetes.

ESCALATION: Friends of Robinson Gardens are introducing James J. Yoch Jr., author of the new “Landscaping the American Dream,” at a tea at 4 p.m. Friday. They’re also celebrating their upcoming garden tour (more about that later). . . .

Michael Landon receives the Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin God and Country Exemplar Award on Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton. Proceeds will benefit the Boy Scouts of America programs. Susan and Kent McCray co-chair. . . .

Both social and civic leaders gather for the Great Western/Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation Invitational Golf Tournament Monday at the Calabasas Golf and Country Club to raise funds for the foundation (HOBY) programs.

PLAUDITS: Constitutional Rights Foundation proffers awards April 17 at its 27th annual spring dinner at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom. Recipients will be Byron Allumbaugh, chairman of Ralphs Grocery Co., and Gene Kaplan, foundation founding member. Tom Brokaw keynotes and Jess Marlow will be master of ceremonies. Harry L. Hufford is chairman.

CROSSTOWN BUS: Belle and Seymour Owens of Beverly Hills own a luxurious bus, which they use to take friends to the Music Center and social events. When friends charter it, they pay a rental fee, which is donated to the Foundation for the Junior Blind.

The Owens were aboard a few days ago when Westwood’s Ellen Clark and Wilburt Fenner chartered the bus to take pals across town to the Fine Arts Gallery at Cerritos College in Norwalk for Wilburt’s opening show of ceramics. On board were Billie and Roger Converse, Barbro Taper, John and Louise Good, Doris Fields Heller, Carlo and Rosanna Pedretti and Nell and Gordon Curtis.