Moon Shines on Junior Fellows Arabella Ball

Sprinkles at 2 o’clock in the afternoon turned into stars and a full moon for the members of the Society of Junior Fellows Arabella Ball. With a 50% chance of evening showers, chairwoman Victoria Howe calmly “rolled the dice” in favor of the outdoor South Terrace rather than moving the party indoors. The Huntington agreed to allow dancing in the Art Gallery if things got really damp. A tent wasn’t in the budget.

To complicate matters, the Junior Fellows (most under age 40) are of a baby-producing age. Coming home from the hairdresser, Howe, who is expecting her first baby in five weeks, was rear-ended, and had to dash to Huntington Hospital’s emergency room for a stress test. She and baby passed, and danced the night away with husband Jonathan to the Art Deco band.

The party, says chairman Joe Regan, is “a net revenue generator” because patrons flowed in at $500 a couple. Revealing it’s almost summer, O’Malley Miller and Ray McCullough both wore white dinner jackets for the black-tie occasion. Junior Fellows were in abundance--Tom and Susan Fleming, Catherine and Paul Tosetti, Victoria and David Rogers, Jeb and Anne Stuart, Susan and John Humphrey, Charles and Christy Bakaly, Katie and Gary Darnell, Rob and Bobbie Arnott, Don and Linda Hale, Susan and Frank Osen.

It was a night for desserts of chocolate gift boxes filled with raspberry mousse and for pretty gowns--Lynn Brengel in ruffled Nolan Miller green (with husband Doug); Nancy Schiff in pink taffeta (with Jamie Fleming), Gwen Brenninkmeyer (with husband Heinz) in Parisian polka dots.

ALL CHIEFS: What made the Club 100 of the Music Center Distinguished Artists Awards Luncheon at the J.W. Marriott so special was that each of the awardees--conductor David Alan Miller, instrumentalist Doc Severinsen, dancer Beatriz Rodriquez, actress Dale Kristien, songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (her husband Burt Bacharach was ill and couldn’t be there), architect Frank Gehry, cellist Lynn Harrell, screenwriter A. J. Carothers and actress Rita Moreno--proved to be exceptionally fine speakers. There wasn’t a dud in the bunch.

Club 100 president Connie Abell and luncheon program chairs Shirley Levine and Judy Bedrosian earned bountiful kudos.

Said Moreno, “I’m 58, and for that alone I think I deserve this award--and for looking good.”

BRAUNARAMA: Anyone who knows Henry and Ginie Braun of San Marino knows there’s “never a dull moment.” So that’s what their offspring--Mike Braun, Barbie Walker and Cyndy Murphy--called their surprise 50th wedding anniversary celebration for their parents.

It was an “exclusive engagement” on stage at the Wiltern Theatre. The family marched down the aisle to Lohengrin--all the ladies in white, Hank and Mike in gold bow ties. Ginie gave Hank a pot-bellied pig. Phyllis Diller brought greetings: “It’s wonderful to be in love 50 years.”

A video flashed their adventures--on motor scooters, yachts, dance floors. Then the crowd moved to the lobby and balconies for dining and dancing under masses of gold balloons. Wayne Foster’s band vibrated. When lambada instructors flounced on, some of their partners were septuagenarian and older guests with amazing grace. Age is in the mind, kids.

AND NEXT: The Blue Ribbon members at the Music Center ushered 32,000 fifth-graders through the Children’s Holiday Festival for the operas “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Higglety Pigglety Pop!” Thanks went to festival co-chairwomen Joyce Rosenblum and Sheila Weisman, also to Joan Boyett and Barbara Haig at the luncheon on the plaza terrace. Present was Barbara Cirkva, Chanel Inc. senior vice president. Then Blue Ribbon President Joanne Kozberg left to catch a plane with husband Roger, celebrating his birthday in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

PAST PERFECT: Lucy Toberman coordinating the Los Angeles Sunday Night Supper Club at Jimmy’s . . . Art Center One Hundred hosting luncheon with Alyce Williamson and Art Center president David Brown . . . Gretchen Sherman heading Los Angeles Orphanage Guild’s luncheon at Jimmy’s . . . .

Encore’s Jan Corey at the helm for the spring luncheon . . . Foothill Family Service’s Summer Safari with Mary Pinola and Holly Frank in charge . . . Elizabeth Jennings hosting the Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center Foundation donor dinner and introducing William C. Hromadka, new chairman (and grandson of the late hospital co-founder, August B. Hromadka) . . . .

The President’s Circle Appreciation Dinner honoring Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp (introduced by trustees chairman Donn Miller), hosted by Occidental president John and Bernice Slaughter . . . Hope and Dr. Roger Boonshaft-Lewis’s cocktails to honor poet Elizabeth Alexander, daughter of Adele and Clifford Alexander (former Secretary of the Army) . . . The champagne reception to open Pasadena Art Alliance’s Community Art Gallery at the Pasadena Hilton.