Something New Adds a Twist to Something Old

Radical sentiments and the Charity Ball are as uneasy in one another’s company as herring and chocolate mousse, and many of the 980 guests at “Swing Into the ‘90s” may have been surprised and even scandalized by the revolutionary changes they encountered upon entering the Hotel del Coronado Grand Ballroom.

Among the radical innovations at Saturday’s version of San Diego’s longest-running and most traditional event were the introduction of dance cards and boutonnieres, which may have been taken for granted at the ball’s inception in the first year of the Taft Administration (1909), but vanished as the event evolved through wars, the Great Depression and ensuing societal changes.

Even more startling was chairwoman Barbara Brown’s decision to replace the playing of “The Blue Danube,” the official “chairman’s dance” that has always marked the formal opening of the ball, with “Serenade in Blue.”

Brown stoutly defended this departure from tradition.

“We’ve made a lot of changes tonight; this is a new Charity Ball for the ‘90s,” she said. “I changed the chairman’s dance because a lot of the young people don’t know how to waltz.”

Brown may have challenged some of the bedrock foundations of the Charity Ball, but she said her intention was to focus the event on its beneficiary, Children’s Hospital and Health Center.

“My theme this year emphasizes that this ball is for Children’s Hospital, and I think that’s been lost sometimes,” she said.

Her theme was expressed rather literally by the two bands, Columbus and the Bill Green Orchestra, which played a lot of “swing” music and even offered rock ‘n’ roll and Hank Williams. The decor celebrated youth through a life-size reproduction of the ball’s logo, a swing-borne child heading for the stars, and the entertainment featured the Music Machine from Bonita Vista High School, which burst into the room in a flash of sapphire sequins and raw energy.

The spotlight focused most tightly on the hospital when Ernest Rady, chairman of the board of trustees, took the stage to inform the audience of a major capital campaign that will be formally introduced to the public in several months. The hospital intends to build a new emergency room and a 114-bed wing, and, in addition to seeking $35 million from federal and state sources, it hopes to raise $20 million in contributions from the residents of San Diego County.

Despite such innovations as dance cards (annotated to allow engagements to waltz, fox trot or rock ‘n roll), various Charity Ball constants prevailed. The most important of these was the guest list, replete with the names of the city’s oldest families and very representative of the San Diego Establishment. Many of these individuals occupied the ringside “boxes,” or wedge-shaped seating arrangements that replace the round tables used at most events and are a Charity Ball institution, in many cases having been held for generations.

This audience makes the Charity Ball unique among San Diego fund-raisers for more than the apparent reasons. The ball is one of the larger annual earners, but the relationship it maintains between the community and Children’s Hospital is far more important than the funds it raises.

“Many people stay involved with Children’s because of the Charity Ball,” said hospital President Blair Sadler. “The ball has a longstanding commitment to Children’s, and every year it reminds leading San Diegans about the hospital’s role in the community.” Sadler emphasized the event’s relationship to the newly announced capital campaign by adding, “Tonight, we’re alerting the leadership of San Diego to our needs.”

The Charity Ball program remains a classic of its kind, and many of those who called time out from the dance floor turned eagerly through its 222 pages. A sort of yearbook that keeps track of growing families through full-page photographs, the program also is thick with words of encouragement from prominent businesses. A reminder of the Navy’s role in San Diego appeared on Page 49 in the form of a photograph of the amphibious transport dock Cleveland, whose officers and crew raised $5,000 for the ball and were represented on the scene by Capt. Richard Cloward. Page 41 carried a message that read “Best wishes from the shareholders of San Diego Gas & Electric.” However, Southern California Edison, which has maintained a conspicuous presence at many San Diego bashes since it instituted its bid to acquire SDG&E;, was conspicuously absent from this most Establishment of events and did not advertise in the program.

Mary Anne Marquis co-chaired the ball, and the committee list, as always, ran to the greatest length of any in the year. Among its principal members were Joanne Stevenson, Marie Collura, Pam Palisoul, Nancy Bayer, Chrissie Brannen, Debbie Daley, Marilyn Cleator, Grace Cherashore, Carolyn Waggoner, Richel Khoury, Christine Friel, Jo Murphy, Vangie Burt, Allison Tibbitts, Carol Dickinson, Grace Allen and Ruth Mulvaney.

The guest list included the Robert Adelizzis, the Craig Starkeys, the James Robinsons, the Douglas McColls, the Dean Blacks, the Steven Porters, the Edgar Herveys, the Michael Alessios, the Howard Busbys, Georgia Borthwick with Tom Fleming, Justine Fenton, the Hugh Carters, the Judson Grosvenors, the Dallas Clarks, the George Gildreds, the William Newberns, the Robert Sedlocks, the Daniel Larsens, the Philip Whites, the Frederick Links, the Philip Gildreds, the Milton Chevertons, the Robert Callicotts and the Charles Bielers.

SAN DIEGO--At least a few of the 2,500 attendees at the “1990 Chocolate Festival,” given Friday at the Sheraton Harbor Island as a benefit for the Voices for Children Auxiliary, must have gained an insight into what it feels like to be a chocolate truffle.

The nearly intoxicating scent of chocolate so pervaded the Champagne and Grand ballrooms that purveyor Michel Malecot said: “After a while, the smell of all this chocolate goes to your head. It’s a kind of osmosis.”

Even so, few took breaks while making the rounds of the dozens of booths set up by local chocolatiers and pastry shops and by major national concerns. KyXy Radio and Big Bear Markets co-sponsored the fund-raiser; proceeds will support the Voices for Children program, which recruits and trains volunteers to serve as special advocates for children who have been made wards of the court system.

The mounds of candies, cookies and pastries provided all the visual stimulation that seemed necessary, but the committee aided the project by decorating the rooms in a “Victorian Valentine” theme. “We wanted people to feel relaxed while they overdosed on chocolate,” explained co-chair Pam Sullivan.

General chairwoman Karen Nugent kept her distance from the booths.

“I’ve been on a really strict exercise and diet regimen, and I’m not about to blow it,” she said, though she admitted to having sampled one sweet. “That one was to die for,” she said.

Claudia Munak oversaw a related, higher-ticket event in a partitioned corner of one ballroom that was provided with a pianist, champagne and tables laden with the extravagant efforts of some of the city’s best pastry cooks.

“Tonight is sweet because it’s helping my kids,” said Munak, who added that boxes of pastries would be taken later that evening to the Food Bank and the Hillcrest Receiving Home.

The committee included Betty Mabee, Karen Cohn, Jadzia Goulet, Lynn Mabee, Mag White, Judith Harris, Julie Sarno, Virginia Napierskie, Ann Martinet, Pat Cunningham, Charlotte Roberts and Julie Maiorano.