Garden Party Comes Up Full Bloom
And the glory of the Garden . . . it shall never pass away.
--Rudyard Kipling
And, it hasn’t. Friends of Robinson Gardens enjoyed the glory of the foxgloves and the Bonica roses and rosemary hedges--and the arbors and walkways and even the lemon trees--on their meanderings through six unique gardens during the magnificent inaugural garden tour put together by Donna Wolff and Bridget Martens.
Months before the fund-raising event ($70,000 net), Bridget Martens raved over lunch at the Bistro Garden, “This will be wonderful--w-o-n-d-e-r-ful.” And, it was.
The star, of course, was the Virginia Robinson Estate, set off with towering palms. Friends founder Joan Selwyn stood at the front door in Ungaro marigold silk welcoming all to the late Virginia Robinson’s stately Beverly Hills home, the scene of countless August Moon parties for which Mrs. Robinson would whisk to Paris and return with apropos ballgowns.
Ivo Hadjiev, Mrs. Robinson’s major domo for 20 years, was in second glory at the tour, seeing the house and gardens with their balustrades restored under the direction of Ray Givergian. Among the guests were Peggie Bales, Eileen Eamer, Hope and Bette McLaughlin and Pat Isaacs. Sheila Weisman and Lynne Karsin bought floral bouquets.
For $5 each, Joan Leibowitz, Carolyn Butler and Dr. Francis Ching placed stakes in the garden where they thought Friends president Barbara Reilly had planted the 30K amethyst donated by Neiman Marcus, but Janet Loveland won it. Marcia Cannell buzzed up from Emerald Bay with Gabriella Santaniella in a black limousine, picking up Carolyn Fox in Pasadena. And Edward and Patty Turrentine sat on a garden bench eating Rococo-catered blinis and strawberries and remembering the last Friends benefit when white doves were caged on dinner tables as centerpieces. (Some of them escaped.)
Continuing the tour, over at Judith Krantz’s gardens designed by James J. Yoch, were Joann Ganz, Barbara Miller, Geraldine Chutuk, Sandy Bongard and Kathy Hill. The kudos were profuse for Joan and Fred Nicholas’ tropical paradise designed by David Sarfaty, where Jane Monkman, Marian Cook and Marianna Ames toured, as well as Joyce Hameetman and Marge Johnson.
Honorary benefit chairman Helen Bing ambled slowly through the ritual garden designed for Nick and Felisa Vanoff by Pamela Burton and Katherine Spitz. Then it was off to Fred and Magda Waingrow’s Japanese-inspired environment, created by Robert Fletcher, and over to Santa Monica to designer Nancy Goslee Power’s whimsical garden with morning glory rampant and the yellow mermaid roses setting off the gray Dusty Miller.
INTIMATE: Los Angeles’ new French Consul General Gerard Coste and his wife, Naomi, have moved right onto the social scene. They invited prominent citizens the other evening to a dinner to honor France’s former President Jacques Chaban-Delmas and his wife, Micheline.
Patrick Terrail’s dinner at his Ma Maison was fit for a president, especially the coquilles au caviar de saumon . Among the coterie: Dr. Armand Hammer, Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Boulanger (he is former president of the French American Chamber of Commerce), Dr. Earle and Arlette Crandall, organist Lynne Davis, Dora Fourcade (owner of L’Ermitage restaurant and president of the July 16th Committee for the French Day at Hollywood Park), Jean-Michel Harzic (director, French Government Tourist Office), Claude Latour (trade commissioner) and Francois Perrin (director, French Industrial Development Agency). Dr. Jonas Salk and his wife Francoise (she is a painter and the mother of Paloma Picasso) were also among those dining.
WEDDING LINEUP: The photo of Joan Benny (Jack Benny’s daughter) in the wedding dress she wore in 1954 was on the invitation for the Costume Council’s annual meeting, a fabulous presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art of 13 decades of bridal fashion.
Chairman Anne Johnson and Maggie Pexton Murray imported Ann Du Pont, professor of textiles and clothing at the University of Texas, Austin, to talk chantilly lace and satin, the over and underpinnings of bridal couture.
It was an afternoon of raves; raves over Katie Williamson, wearing Ginny Mancini’s gown of 1948; raves for the ballgowns worn by three generations of one family--Rose Leisure, Jackie Leisure and Charlotte Morgan; raves over Megan Burschinger’s 1985 dress worn by Suzanne Neal; raves over Georgie Erskine’s 1957 version of her mother’s dress and then the Michael Novarese worn on stage by her daughter Eugenia Erskine Jesburgh.
A piece de resistance was the photograph of Josephine Saenz Wayne in her wedding dress of 1933 with her bridegroom, Marion Michael Morrison (the late John Wayne), and her maid of honor, Loretta Young. Then on came the photo of the Waynes’ daughter, Tony Wayne La Cava.
The finale was Patricia Kennedy Sheinbaum, wearing the Christian Lacroix she was married in at the Biltmore last year. Lacroix sent over teams of designers. Patricia wouldn’t tell the cost--a friend giggled, protectively, “$40,000,” but there were estimates of $125,000 and even $400,000. Then the ladies chatted over alfresco tea and wedding cake while discussing how to store wedding gowns (acid free paper--no plastic).
