R.S.V.P. : Co-Presidents to Share Center Theatre Duties

‘Tis the volunteer season when new presidents are elected in Los Angeles. For the first time Center Theatre Group Volunteers will have co-presidents--Kim Peterson and Ellen Price. The Volunteers support the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre and an Improvisational Theatre Project for children.

Outgoing president Beth Pressman will exit in style June 6 at the installation luncheon at Brentwood Country Club. She’s invited Michael Crawford and Dale Kristien, stars of “The Phantom of the Opera” at the Ahmanson, to be special guests, and they’ve accepted.

AND KUDOS: To the Blue Ribbon board of directors--Tally Mingst, Rhonda Fleming Mann, Pam Mullin, Robin Parsky, Caroline Singleton, Deborah Tellefsen. They’ll be on the team of Blue Ribbon president Joanne Kozberg, joining returning directors Ginny Mancini, Beverly Mitchell, Harlyne Norris, Annette O’Malley, Peggy Parker and Lili Zanuck.

FLASH: His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, proved again that he’s a man in control when the British Aerospace 146 (an executive jet of the Queen’s Flight) landed at Burbank Airport for the prince’s visit to Los Angeles last week.

As the jet breezed in, Prince Philip could be seen as a co-pilot at the controls, just as his own personal standard (flag) popped up. Los Angeles County protocol chief Sandra Ausman was among the first to shake hands.

ON THE FREEWAY: Long Beach cultural leaders and members of Phoenix, a Long Beach Museum of Art Foundation Affiliate, piled into five buses and trekked to the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

It was a night of viewing, then alfresco dining with Ridders in large numbers--Elaine Ridder (Phoenix chairman Bernard Ridder was in Venezuela fishing), Frani and Dan Ridder and Peter and Cathy Ridder, plus Long Beach leaders including Alice and John Wallace, Liz and Don Wallace, Margie and Jon Masterson, Harold Nelson, Frank and Marilyn Blum, Linda McCullough, Pat and George Wise.

They have a goal: to raise $5 million to establish a new Long Beach museum to replace the current ocean bluff estate that is too old to redo.

EXTRAORDINARY: The Bronx housewife who made good--Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow, who received a Nobel Prize in 1976 for her development of radioimmunoassay (the way scientists measure substances in blood and body fluids)--was named Scientist of the Year at the ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation, Inc., Los Angeles Founder Chapter.

WAY WITH WORDS: The French, such as couturier Bernard Perris, have a way with words. The ladies giggled the other noon at Neiman Marcus general manager John Martens’ luncheon feting Perris and welcoming Los Angeles’ new French Consul General M. Gerard Coste and his wife Naomi.

Said Perris: “I hope to seduce you with my clothes.” Everyone laughed including Patricia Kennedy Sheinbaum (who had been in tears coming in from interior designer Kalef Alaton’s memorial service), Jackie Applebaum (new vice president with Saatchi’s entertainment division), Erlenne Sprague, Betty Wilson, Jayne Berger, Barbro Taper, Katherine Domyan, Judy Rudderman, Frances Klein and the mother/daughter duo Mary Jones and Jenny Rutt.

OLD IS BEST: It was warm and wonderful for Charles Luckman’s 80th birthday. “Cherish friendships; old is best,” Art Linkletter said in tribute to his architect friend as friends circled the dance floor at Los Angeles Country Club for the affair staged by son Jim Luckman and his wife Alison.

Said Linkletter: “Chuck is handsome. He’s successful. He’s rich, and if he weren’t so damn smug, he would be perfect.” There were hugs galore from wife Harriet Luckman and friends including Vern and Adrienne Underwood, Onnalee and Bill Doheny, Howard House, Flora Thornton, Lois Linkletter, John Raitt, John and Maureen Barrett, Frani and Dan Ridder, David Rose, 95, and Paquita Machris, Norm and Susie Barker, Joe and Beverly Mitchell and Libby and Will Doheny.

NEWEST: That new City Club on Bunker Hill expects to reach 700 in membership by Thursday and then the membership fee jumps to $5,000. The club interior is almost completed for the member preview June 8.

ESCALATION: Athalie Clarke tells us that more than $500,000 was received in donations for the House Ear Institute even before the ball . . .

H. Ross Perot got the Marco Polo Award from the People’s Republic of China and Volunteers of America/Los Angeles at the Century Plaza with dinner chairman Robert R. Dockson . . .

Former First Lady Betty Ford was the honoree at the United Hostesses’ Charities luncheon and Genny fall collection show from Greta at the Beverly Hilton . . .

Spotlighted at the Woman of the World Awards Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton--Phyllis Diller, Mary Ann Mobley and Dorothy Leavy, who received the Angel award for financial generosity.

SPINSTERS: Youth was rampant the other evening at the Spinsters’ Ball at the Beverly Wilshire. Spinsters’ board members called it “Illusion” and put kaleidescopes on the tables for party favors. Among the crowd of 600: Kathleen McCarthy and Ed Allen, Kathryn Richer and Derrick Paine, Angelica Kusar and Richard Wackerbarth, Beth Pearson and Simon Aplin and Colleen Kettenhofen and Kirk Snyder.

SPOTLIGHT: Sheldon Ausman has been named chairman of the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum’s advisory board . . . Judith Murphy received the coveted Spirit of Volunteerism Award from the Los Angeles Junior League and Judy Horton the President’s Award at the JW Marriott . . .

Art Center College of Design has elected new trustees--Warren Williamson, Phillip Joanou and Ralph Osterhout . . .