Starlight Shines on ‘Kids’ for a Change

Hollywood and the demands of a screenplay in progress denied guests at Saturday’s “Affaire aux Folles” the chance to see just how a tough-guy novelist would have presided over a party themed around the adventures of a couple of hommes fatals .

Writer and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh, who maintains a Del Mar residence, signed on as honorary chairman of “Affaire,” which benefited the Starlight Musical Theatre and anticipated Starlight’s production of “La Cage aux Folles.” (The musical covers the adventures of a female impersonator and his best pal; it opened Wednesday night at the Civic Theatre.) The novelist had to dash off to Hollywood, however, and sent his son David in his place.

The 400 guests at the new Del Mar Hilton seemed happy enough with the father-son switch and happy enough with the party, which was given a 1930s mood that, among other things, dictated that the hotel’s pale ballroom be decked with sufficient black and white balloons to make it seem the prototypical Art Deco nightclub. The theme evidently caught the popular imagination, because the black-tie dress code was honored more fervently than usual; banker Kim Fletcher actually donned white tie and tails, which still ranks as the correct “full evening dress” costume but is almost never seen in these parts.

Fletcher and his wife, Marilyn, attended as part of a table organized by Sara Jane and Tom Sayer as a sort of generational bow to “Affaire’s” organizers and the vast majority of its guests.

The Sayers’ daughter, Julie Darling, said she planned the event as the first shot of Starlight’s newly conceived social outreach program aimed at what Darling called “kids.”

Darling said that her guest list--mostly young professionals in their 30s and 40s--is the group that will be called upon in coming years to take leadership roles in fund-raising efforts, but is not often invited to be involved at present.

“It’s the first time Starlight’s ever done this type of event for this kind of crowd,” she said. “Tonight is black tie, but for kids and with rock ‘n’ roll.”

“Starlight Society has traditionally been kind of an older peoples’ group, and we thought it would be fun to start something younger,” added committee member Kathy Major. “We wanted to make a couple of points: that Starlight is important and that there are a lot of younger people in San Diego who are interested in theater, music and culture. Tonight proves all that.”

The mood may have been 1930s, but none of the guests seemed to find anything incongruous about the performance by the Mar Dels, which rocked out as usual with choruses of “she-bop doo-waps.” Later, the San Diego Opera’s Martin Wright offered songs from “La Cage” and “Phantom of the Opera”; the Starlight cast, in rehearsal that night, was unavailable.

The guest list included Fran and Ken Golden, Clarice and Bill Carls, Margaret and Larry Mayo, Rosemary and Bill Logan, Starlight Society President Kristi Pieper, Cary and George Damoose, Amy Gamble, Jim Mulvaney Jr., Coralinn Young, Bob McGlade, Mary Ingram and Ray Hall.

Luba Johnston learned last Thursday that it is best to be cautious with wishes, because they may be granted.

Johnston said that she had hoped that 400 guests would attend her “A Night in Baja” benefit for the Stevens Cancer Center at Scripps Memorial Hospital-La Jolla, and daydreamed that 500 might show.

In the end, more than 600 eager Scripps supporters passed through the door of Epazote, the new “Baja cuisine” eatery in Del Mar Plaza that isn’t quite open yet, but held its grand opening anyway as part of its commitment to the cancer center’s video project. The event’s net proceeds of $30,000 will permit the Stevens Center to produce an educational videotape on the prevention and early detection of skin cancer.

Fund-raising regulars noted the difference between this crowd and those found at more formal, main-stream events and decided that a lot of the action may gravitate to North County in the near future. Much of the crowd was young and very chic; Jeanne Brace, whose late husband, Clayton Brace, managed San Diego’s ABC affiliate, said she’d never seen a group like this one in San Diego. “Whenever we went to ABC parties in Hollywood, people took the trouble to look this glamorous,” said Brace. “Tonight is very Hollywood.”

The clothes may have been Sunset Strip, but the theme was down-home Baja, and guests mobbed tables serving fancy quesadillas, Mexican tea cakes and shrimp soaked in tequila. Those who fought their way to the dance floor hopped to the peppery sounds of a new group named, appropriately for the evening, the Haute Chile Band.

Among those present were Wendy and Brad Evarts, Carol Barnett, Rochelle and Joe Capozzi, Gina Zanotti, Michael Sunstein, Marcia and John Trombold, Dolly Maw, Lucille and John Lindsay, Connie and John Desha, Heidi Scott with Richard Cook, Sandra and Jeff Schafer, Pam Kobrovsky, and Ewa and Larry Robinson.

SAN DIEGO--A pair of out-of-the-ordinary events will compete for whatever fund-raising dollars may be in circulation Nov. 18.

The UC San Diego Medical Center Auxiliary will continue its annual and highly successful “An Evening With . . . “ series, which previously has featured such speakers as Sir Edmund Hilary, Jacques Cousteau and author Tom Wolfe, with a black-tie dinner dance at the San Diego Marriott featuring Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

The diminutive authority on sex--who styles herself as a promoter of “sexual literacy”--will hold forth on the topic at length, and co-chairs Jean Johnson and Joany Mosher have predicted that the discourse will be more than a little different from that usually heard on the mashed potatoes circuit. Tickets to the event, which commences at 7 p.m., are available from the UCSD Medical Center Auxiliary. For further information, call the medical center at 543-6499.

“Fiesta La Bamba,” another of the still-rare but increasingly frequent cross-border galas co-hosted by groups in San Diego and Tijuana, will take place the same evening.

Tijuana’s Casa de los Pobres and La Jolla’s All Hallows Parish building campaign will share proceeds from the two-tiered event, which for top-ticket patrons includes dinner at a showcase private home in Tijuana’s exclusive Chapultepec neighborhood. Other guests will be given a buffet dinner at the new Iguana’s nightclub, and all later will be entertained by singer Trini Lopez before repairing to the discotheque’s dance floor.

Tickets cost $100 and $200 per person, and round-trip transportation to the Tijuana party sites is available. Festivities begin at 7 p.m., and the dress code specifies cocktail attire. For further information, telephone 459-2975.