As Expected, Jake’s Author Forgoes Fun

Playwright Neil Simon, blithe spirit that he is, attended Thursday’s Globe Guilder dinner only as a ghostly abstract, but his physical absence nonetheless infused a certain Manhattan-esque joie de soir into the dressy proceedings that anticipated the world premiere that night of “Jake’s Women.”

Simon’s absence in the San Diego Museum of Art’s Sculpture Garden was expected and well understood by the formal but chatty crowd. Authors virtually never attend pre-premiere festivities, the available supply of rabbit feet evidently being too limited to deal with the kind of luck a display of confidence might invite, and the Globe Guilders, whose occasional pre-theater dinners always coincide with important openings, understand this quite well.

In addition, it was widely supposed by this gathering of insiders that the king of the one-liners was busy applying last-minute polish and elbow grease to his cerebral two-acter.

Adding Jake’s women--Stockard Channing, Joyce Van Patten and the other actresses in the sextet that plays opposite Peter Coyote’s Jake--to the dinner list would have swelled the attendance to more than 200, but, according to chairwoman Dotty Turner, their equally traditional absence precluded potential havoc in the arrangements.

“I didn’t know how to get six women into the dinner’s theme and have any harmony in it,” Turner said. “I just chose black and white and played it safe.”

Turner’s two-toned theme expressed itself in the tipsy congregations of black and white balloons that bobbled above guests’ heads at the Sculpture Garden reception, and in the upturned top hats--filled with ivory tulips--tossed on the dinner tables in the Copley Auditorium. The menu, a pleasant one of winter salad and truffled roast sirloin, paid attention to the theme only at its conclusion, a carefully sculpted dessert of light and dark chocolate.

The nearby presence of a major playwright--it was known that Simon would be in the audience at the play--and name-brand stars always up the excitement level at Guilders dinners, and this one bubbled along rather merrily. It certainly drew a crowd, prompting one longtime Globe loyalist to comment: “You see people tonight who never come opening night but are here because it’s a ‘splash.’ That’s a change for the Old Globe.”

Simon did send a message to the diners. It was delivered by Guilder President Yvonne Lindroth, who quoted the author as saying: “I love it that you feel a little bit of England in this (theater). The audiences are wonderful, and I’m sure I’ll be here again.”

Globe angels Donald and Darlene Shiley, whose grant partly underwrote the production of “Jake’s Women,” attended a smaller dinner backstage but were part of the opening night hubbub that percolated through the theater before the curtain rose. Darlene, cheerful in crimson, added a little Simonesque froth to the moment by assuming an usher’s stance at the doorway and informing several of the black-tied that no seating was available.

The dinner’s guest list included Anne and Sam Armstrong, Yvonne and Borys Orlowsky, Sharron and Neil Derrough, Barbara Iredale, Laurie and Dick Blackington, Rachel and Judson Grosvenor, Annette and Dick Ford, Lyn and Stephen Krant, Ruth and Clifford Grobstein, Kathy and Ken Newton, Betty and Dick Meads, Naomi and Paul Overton, Merle and Phil Wahl, Rosemary and Eliot Pierce, Lois and Donald Dechant, Linda and Edgar Canada, Eleanor and Art Herzman, Mary and Irby Cobb, Betty Bass and Sally and John Thornton.

Astronaut Sally Ride, a veteran of two flights aboard the space shuttle Challenger and now director of the California Space Institute at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was named 1990 Scientist of the Year on Tuesday at the fourth annual scholarship benefit and luncheon given by the San Diego chapter of ARCS Foundation Inc.

ARCS, a national women’s organization whose acronym stands for Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, was founded in 1958 in direct response to the surprise launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union, which caused concern in some circles that the United States was losing its technological superiority. The groups’ present purpose remains the granting of financial assistance to students in the fields of natural science, medicine and engineering at 50 leading U. S. universities.

According to member Yvonne Larsen, the 1990 goal of the San Diego chapter is to provide minimum awards of not less than $5,000 each to at least 10 graduate students at UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and San Diego State University.

About 400 guests attended the luncheon at the La Jolla Marriott, a figure that chairman Kathy Buoymaster estimated would result in a $30,000 addition to the ARCS coffers. She credited the guest of honor for the turnout.

“We’ve never had so many attend this affair, but then it’s Sally Ride’s first public appearance since she took her position at Scripps Institution,” Buoymaster said. “Getting her to speak today was an outstanding achievement for us, because she is rather shy of attention. She came because ARCS represents the best and brightest of college scientists.”

Several of those “best and brightest,” all current ARCS beneficiaries, were on hand at the luncheon as visible reminders of the organization’s purpose.

Ride took the podium after the dessert of berries in cream had been cleared, and, having assuring the ARCS members of the importance of their work, proceeded to announce that she had scrapped her 20-minute prepared speech in favor of showing a film of her exploits in space. The revised format proved a surprise hit with the audience.

Among those present were Paula Ray, Karon Luce, Gloria and Robert Wallace, Nancy Podbielniak, Betty Hubbard, Margaret Roulette, Virginia Monday, Anne Poovey, B. J. Williams, Mary Jane Bennett, Dottie Georgens, Doris Ellsworth, Joy Frieman, Becky Etess, Carol Muller, Joan Evangelou, Kay Redmond, Elinor Oatman, Dottie Howe, Jinx Ecke, Barbara and Bill McColl and Rita Atkinson.