Jorgensen’s Pals Want a Lively Farewell

Her pal Dorothy Lamour is invited. And so are friends Sybil Brand, Martha Raye, Kathryn Grayson, Gretchen Wyler and Rusty Warren. So is her attorney, Donald Segretti. And so is John Hansen of Fullerton, the man who played her on the silver screen.

About 270 of the late Christine Jorgensen’s faithful are expected to assemble at a secret south county locale June 11 to bid her farewell. Jorgensen, who arched a zillion eyebrows when she was surgically changed from male to female in 1952, died of cancer in San Clemente on May 3.

Hansen, who is going to the gathering with his wife, Sue, says he wants to attend because Jorgensen “was a definite part of my life.”

“She knew I was uncomfortable in the role,” says Hansen, 37, who starred in “The Christine Jorgensen Story” when he was 18. “And she was extremely kind. Incredibly brave. She never left my side. I was extremely grateful.” The movie did poorly in the United States, says Hansen, now a real estate developer, but it did big box office in Europe.

There will be no crepe-hanging at this bon voyage party. No brave flowers. No torch songs. Not one tear, if Jorgensen’s friend Dame Brenda Smith has her way. “Christine didn’t want anybody weeping and moaning,” says the English-born Smith. “She enjoyed her life and wants her friends to enjoy theirs.” Skoal!

A trend begins?: Videotape invitations are being used to lure celebs and corporate types to the Coca Cola/Ritz-Carlton Classic beginning June 9. And they’re working. So far, Robert Wagner, Jill St. John, Paul Anka, Cheryl Ladd, Frankie Avalon, Elliot Gould and Telly Savalas have said oui to the private weekend that will benefit the Ronald McDonald Camp Good Times program.

Jackie, oy: The zany author of the autobiographical “Jackie, Oy” opened his own theater-district bistro, called Jackie Mason’s (what else?), in Manhattan last month with the likes of Malcolm Forbes, Donald Trump, Claire Trevor and Mikhail Baryshnikov sampling its continental fare. And on June 12, the man himself will be noshing with prominent locals on the kind of food they order (if they’re lucky) before sweeping into the Orange County Performing Arts Center. For $1,000 each, supporters of the Jewish Senior Center of Orange County get to converge at the Center Club and dine on, among other items too continental to mention, Dover sole with truffle mousse and breast of pheasant with sun-dried cherries. The piece de resistance? Chocolate pyramid cake embellished with candy masks of tragedy and comedy (but of course). Tickets for Mason’s one-night-only sidesplitter are on sale to the public.

Let them eat cake--and pate and crepes and . . . : Nothing like a little junket to get a party going. Elizabeth Carr Tierney, chairwoman of the Newport Harbor Art Museum blast that will commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution on July 14, did some research for the celebration during a recent trip to Paris. “In fact, I did a lot of research,” said Tierney, a resident of Santa Ana Heights, “peeking in department stores to see what kind of displays and souvenirs they had.” Tierney had hoped to bring some home to help decorate the party site--Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach. But what she found was mostly “red, white and blue ticky tack”--such as men’s briefs decorated with guillotines.

So she asked Parisians what they do to celebrate Bastille Day. “They told me it depends on which class you’re in. And I thought, ‘Things haven’t changed much since the revolution!’ ” Members of the working class dance in the streets and enjoy fireworks and picnics in the park with their families, Tierney was told, while members of the upper class dine formally behind closed doors.

For Tierney’s crowd--1,400 can be accommodated--there’ll be jugglers, bands, caricaturists, accordionists, violinists--and food, glorious food, all over the place, for everyone. Now that’s class.

Looking ahead: It was a quote from Fluor Corp.’s David Tappan that did the trick. In a December article in The Times about the Newport Harbor Art Museum, Tappan said: “When the museum is dedicated 3 years from now, it will join South Coast Repertory and the Performing Arts Center as the third leg of a cultural triangle for Orange County.” Community activist Ginny Smallwood read that and wondered: Why doesn’t the museum have support groups similar to those that raise funds for the two theaters? The result: Visionaries, a support group that will, it is hoped, number 500 women who will pay initiation fees of $1,000 and annual dues of $500. The goal: to hand the museum a check for $500,000 when it opens. The idea was introduced to a roomful of Orange County community activists during a luncheon Thursday at the Four Seasons Hotel. Among those on the Visionaries board are Smallwood, Judy Hemley, Mary Lou Hornsby, Jeanne Tappan, Maria Crutcher, Judie Argyros, Marilyn Nielsen and Nora Hester.

On the town: Dr. Jonas Salk and his wife, Francoise Gilot (she was once married to Pablo Picasso), visited Santa Ana on Saturday night and enjoyed dinner with Salk’s son, Peter, and his wife, Ellen Schreibman Salk. The Salks visited Gustaf Anders restaurant, where Ellen’s oil paintings are on exhibit.