Hearty Party Launches Showcase’s 25th

Originally, Shirley Goldsmith, chairman of the sparkling Premiere Night of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, had planned the gala for the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee on the site of the 5-acre Mediterranean villa Showcase site in La Canada Flintridge. But, it was discovered, the grounds slope; that meant 700 first nighters last Saturday would have been sliding off their white garden seats into the newly planted flower beds.

At first, there was panic. Not the dilapidated Rosemont Pavilion, due for earthquake shoring, again. But, yes, the Pavilion. Shirley and Alison Slattery worked magic, installing a black-and-white checked dance floor, camouflaging the ceiling with black silky shirring and pink and gray swags with glitter and twinkly lights, erecting more Roman columns than Rome has.

It was first rate for the dancingest crowd--Steve and Marcia Cannell and John and Gabriella Santaniello, who buzzed up from Emerald Bay in the Cannells’ limousine (getting lost between the Showcase and the Pavilion), and folks such as Jess and Phyllis Marlow, who danced the night away to Jay Sterling’s music.

At the celebration of the Showcase 25th anniversary, chairman Brenda Owen and her husband, Bruce, and president Christina Varner and her husband, Ronald, were among the last to lock up the Showcase house (which some were pronouncing the very best that the committee has yet produced), before leaving by minibus for the party. The ice carving of the Botticelli Venus with oysters on the half-shell at her feet was left to melt in the courtyard.

Many of the committee’s past presidents and Showcase chairmen graced the affair: Carolyn Fox, Charlene Liebau, Barbara Maxwell, Paddy Grant, Lynn Day, Mireya Jones, Weta Mathies, Susie McConaghy and Molly Siefert, like the other guests, taking home miniature silver picture frames that doubled as place cards.

Showcase aficionados raised $480,000 last year and are glowing already over the all-time high presale ticket record of $210,000 for tours of the house, which is open to the public through May 21.

Last weekend, too, Sandpipers, who have raised $1 million in the last 22 years on their Sandpiper Design House, launched their 1989 version before gathering at the Redondo Beach Sheraton for a Masked Ball chaired by Kenna Smart.

The Sandpiper house is open to the public Friday to May 21 at 903 Via Coronel, the home of Gloria and Phillip Pisani in Palos Verdes Estates. Kathi Altamura and Lori Walpole are co-chairs. The philanthropy has served the South Bay more than 57 years.

GLITTER: Invitations are out for the formal opening tea of Buccellati May 5 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Gianmaria and Rosie Buccellati have imported 18th-Century French paneling and designed the shop to fit it. Inside will be the Buccellati gold/silver/jeweled one-of-a-kind handmade pieces touted throughout the world.

The evening before, members of the Colleagues have been invited to a black-tie dinner in the Grand Trianon. The Buccellatis’ daughter, Maria Christina, and sons, Andrea and Gino, will be among the guests, according to Colleagues Marcia Hobbs and Erlenne Sprague.

TO DARE: Pam and Peter Mullin have joined the throngs who are committed to D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and they saluted its founder, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, and the Most Rev. Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, at a black-tie, black-and-white tented party at their home. (The Catholic diocese has recently integrated the D.A.R.E. program into some of its schools.)

Police officers were at every table to spread the message and talk about education. When the Archbishop pronounced the invocation, he asked everyone to hold hands. And Pam Mullin asked everyone to wear their D.A.R.E. pins. Almost everyone unwrapped the pins and stuck them in either black-tie lapels or on dresses.

Among the crowd: Jane and Steve Ackerman, Sheldon Ausman, Sally and Paul Conn, Clarisse and Ed Ellis, Hugh and Lynn Evans, Jane Gosden, MaryAnn and William Gould, Cindy and John Hall, Bobby and Carter DeHaven, Jayne and Glenn Levant, Linda and James McCallum, Bruce and Raylene Meyer, John Thomas Dye School headmaster Raymond Michaud, Milan and Matie Smith, and Debbie and Tom Tellefsen.

THINK WARM: Chilly weather doesn’t stop Hollywood Bowl Volunteers. They hosted their kickoff luncheon at the Assistance League Fountain Court restaurant on Wednesday. Volunteers president Vera Panosian, kickoff chairwoman Sue Smigel and Joan Stubbs will be jazzing up the season next summer, celebrating 37 years of dedicated service.

BIG DATE: “ Feliz Cumpleanos !” Why? Armand Hammer is turning 91. The fiesta will be muy grande . It’s May 28 in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton.