Gala Auction at Southwest Museum

Tally and Bill Mingst bought a Southwestern suede purse with tin dangles to showcase on the wall of their Wyoming ranch house. Joyce Evans purchased a Pima basket woven with a black eagle. David and Holly Davos were high bidders on the old Hopi kachina. And Darrell and Lang Veloris happily carted away Indian prints.

Auction bidders seemed, in fact, to be in a rather generous mood the other evening at Southwest Museum’s Mountain Spirit Gala. Also, after dickering with caterers and parking attendants and changing the party style from sit-down to a less-expensive buffet, chairman Margaret Byrne was saying the event should net $90,000.

Supporters caught the spirit generated by Mountain Spirit patron Charmay B. Allred, who, according to Southwest Museum trustees president James F. Dickason, keeps volunteers revved up. Among trustees in on the fun were Anne Crotty, Elisabeth Dentzel, Dawn Douglas, Dr. Richard C. Gilman, Dr. Ann Reynolds, all crowding around to see the fire dancers from Mexico City.

On the patio, Hugh and Melba McNeil never missed a dance step. Elsewhere, Joyce and Dave Evans explained Southwestern symbols, while Steve and Carol Meier, Marilyn and Bill Simpson, Maria and Sandy Mallace, Cheryl and Bill Doyle, Suzanne and Brian Gilman rushed about, keeping up with Collectors Club president Michael Heuman’s progressive closing of auction sections.

THE GENEROUS: Floral fantasies turned to reality this week when the Center for Applied Rehabilitation Technology was dedicated at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center. Las Floristas gave $200,000 earlier this year and this week presented another $320,000 from the Floral Headdress Ball. . . .

And well-known civic leader/china expert Ruth Nathan Meyer, who founded the Beverly Hills Geary’s, has endowed her alma mater, Mills College, with $400,000.

THE PILLARS: The Huntington Library is welcoming new Overseers--Alice O’Neill Avery, a sixth-generation Californian, and Barbara Davis, who founded the Denver Children’s Diabetes Foundation and cuts a newer swath on the social scene.

PAST PERFECT: Canadian Consul General Joan Winser welcomed Canada’s Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his wife, Alexandra, at a reception in Hancock Park. . . .

Norma and John Bowles honored Pat Hitchcock O’Connell and Robert K. Dresing, president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, at their Beverly Hills home to celebrate the discovery of the CF gene. . . .

Vanya Foster Rohner and Marcia Mohler introduced Jennifer Faulds Goldsborough, chief curator, Maryland Historical Society, at a luncheon at the Four Seasons to talk about antique table decorations and benefit Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.

SOCIAL PACE: Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson and his wife, Anne, were in the spotlight at the Regency Club. . . .

The new Mayfield Junior School headmaster, Dr. Jim Griesgraber, was introduced by Mayfield Parent’s Club president Dottie Clougherty at the home of Robert and Ann Hamilton. . . .

Malcolm Forbes dropped in on photographer Linda Solomon’s evening at the Regency Club when she showed her portraits of the famous. . . .

Los Angeles civic maven Jane Mock celebrated her 80th birthday with a flock of friends and offspring at a dinner-dance at the Beach Club. . . .

The Los Angeles Arts Council stages its first honors presentation Nov. 9, honoring Eli Broad, Gordon Davidson, Ernest Fleischmann, Bella Lewitsky, Robert Wise and Mayor Tom Bradley.

QUAKE: Less than an hour before he was to appear at the Associates of the California Institute of Technology black-tie dinner, Gordon E. Moore, chairman of Intel Corp. and a Caltech trustee, got word that his son, who lives in Los Altos, was fine, but that 18 inches had slopped out of the pool and that every book in his library was on the floor.

Like a trooper, Moore persevered at Caltech, mesmerizing the Associates with his comments on “The Computer Chip--Keystone of Modern Electronics.” If the automobile industry, he said, had made the same progress as the electronics field, we’d have “autos that were getting a million miles to the gallon and going 500,000 miles an hour.”

In the crowd were Moore’s wife, Betty, trying to stay calm; Associates president Joanna Muir and her husband, Downie; Caltech president Tom Everhart and his wife, Doris; Dr. Lee and Arrola Du-Bridge; Arthur Adams; Robert and Joan Banning; Amytis Barrett; Charles and Nancy Munger and Nancy York.

THE BEST: Elin Vanderlip calls Romanian Princess Sturdza “the best gardener in Europe.” Sturdza’s 18-acre garden, Le Vasterival, on France’s Normandy shores, attracts gardeners worldwide. “I haven’t a weed in my garden,” said the blue-eyed princess, enchanting the likes of the Henry Segerstroms, Frances Brody, Alice Avery and Yvonne Segerstrom at The Friends of French Art luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The Friends got support from the House of Guerlain, and that’s why guests were walking out with bottles of the new fragrance, Samsara (almost $200 a bottle). Now, Elin plans ahead for the Friends’ May House Party, in which she leads 30 to France for helicopter tours of chateaus and gardens.

CIRCLE RED: Gloria and David L. Wolper kick off the People Assisting the Homeless 1989 Imaginary Feast on Thursday at Lorimar Studios in Culver City. The Imaginary Feast is a non-event, allowing people to donate without attending a charity dinner. . . .

Jayne Seymour is honorary chairwoman of the Mary and Joseph League’s fashion luncheon Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton with Fe Zandi haute couture . . . .

Diana Jacobs honors artist Peter Ritzer this evening, and husband David honors Fred Lazarus, president of the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Monday evening at their home.