Starry, Starry Night Makes Warner Bros. Bash an Occasion to Remember : Movies: Studio throws a spectacular party to mark the reclaiming of the lot it had shared with Columbia.

Saturday night, Warner Bros. threw itself a glittering party that even Hollywood veterans said was without compare. One-thousand invited guests, including a larger contingent of stars than the Oscars customarily draw, were greeted by a marching band, 300 costumed extras and countless singers and dancers re-creating production numbers from such vintage Warner movies as “The Jazz Singer,” “Hollywood Hotel” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” All this--and much more--served as mere prologue to the elaborate banquet and show on Stage 18, which had been transformed into an outsize Rick’s Cafe Americain from “Casablanca” but was actually more reminiscent of the Cocoanut Grove in its heyday, even to the palm trees.

The occasion--which drew everyone from Mae Clark (who had that grapefruit shoved in her face by James Cagney in “The Public Enemy,” 1931) and Ronald Reagan (who starred or was featured in more Warner movies than any other living actor) to Sylvester Stallone and Jack Nicholson--was a “Celebration of Tradition,” produced by David Wolper, Jack Haley Jr. (who also directed) and Steven Spielberg to commemorate Warner’s reclaiming of its entire lot, which for the last 18 years it had co-owned in Burbank with Columbia. A high point was the unveiling of the studio’s water tower, once again bearing the Warner logo.

The evening was pure Hollywood: one extravagant number after another, big and brassy, sentimental and nostalgic, tremendously affecting clips and personal appearances, spangles and sequins, humor and foolishness and self-congratulation, elegance and glamour. It was like the Oscars minus the awards and with far better musical numbers. (Clearly, there’s a terrific TV special in all this.) A radiant Ruby Keeler, the studio’s first female musical star, said it all when she remarked: “Reporters always ask me how it used to be. After tonight they won’t have to ask anymore.”

What made the evening, with Clint Eastwood greeting the guests, truly special was that its producers, writers and choreographers had done their homework and made an all-out attempt to call attention--in under three hours yet--to the studio’s key contributors in its nearly seven-decade history. Indeed, opening the show was a group of studio staffers, whose terms of service ranged from eight months to well over 50 years, singing “We’re the Warner Brothers.” When Loretta Young graciously read off a roll call of departed Warner stars, the roster included not just Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, but also such invaluable character actors as Allen Jenkins and George Tobias. And when a clip of Busby Berkeley’s “By a Waterfall” was followed by a live contemporary-style re-enactment, Keeler’s sister Gertrude was introduced at its conclusion as one of the original Berkeley Girls.

Reagan, who was introduced by Spielberg as “the star of ‘Girls on Probation’ and the 40th President of the United States,” hosted a segment of memorable moments from Warner movies--and then found himself spotlighted in the hilarious “Best of the Bloopers” segment that featured him struggling unsuccessfully with the pants zipper on his Army uniform. (This was during the shooting of “John Loves Mary,” 1949.) There was a heavy emphasis on musicals--salutes to songwriter Harry Warren, to Warner films of Broadway musicals, to Busby Berkeley, to Warner composers from Max Steiner to Danny Elfman, and a medley of songs from Warner movies sung by Liza Minnelli, who capped the evening by reading off the names of every star present, all of whom then came forward for an historic group photograph. (Notable by their absence: Lauren Bacall and Doris Day.)

While waiting for his car, Cesar Romero, who has probably been to more Hollywood galas than anyone else, said that the evening was wonderful and that he was thrilled to have been included, yet added wistfully: “I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like it again.”