Buildup to Bowl Opener

Andre Watts plays Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl gala July 10. President Kathie Elowitt of Hidden Hills and opening-night chairwoman Lynn Dorland of Tarzana plan a starry night for the Friends of the Hollywood Bowl.

The Patroness Committee of the Hollywood Bowl builds momentum tonight at Ragnar and Mollie Qvale’s Fremont Place estate (Mary Pickford lived there) when the group, under party chair Carlotta Keely and president Barbara Harris, hosts its traditional Bowl kickoff. It honors pianist Nina Gobelek and County Supervisor Ed Edelman. Spotlighted will be new patronesses Marilyn Schulte, Beverly Thrall, Peggy Galbraith, Margaret Hancock, Nancy Wayte, Mary Carpenter, Susan Rhoades, Joan Salveson, Fran Muir, Debbie Brown, Elizabeth Sobelle, Joy McCarthy, Betty Burril and Gladys Jones.

DREAMY: All the racy stories about Lucky Baldwin and his five wives were the buzz of the tour of Queen Anne Cottage (built for wife No. 4, who left him before the house was finished) at the California Arboretum Foundation’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” party in Arcadia.

“All his wives were tiny,” announced guide Siby Minton. “He liked trees, peacocks, horses and young girls, and not in that order,” she said. Baldwin, she added, didn’t pay his bills unless taken to court, and he was once shot in the arm in court. He was also the first president of the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.

Baldwin didn’t permit trees to be cut (he used coal instead of firewood), so that made him an early conservationist and preserved the towering trees encircling the party site. Sis and Lou Jones and Jan and Bill Clayton (the women’s mothers accumulated many of the Victorian antiques for the cottage) toured the house, noting that “Gilligan’s Island” was filmed on the adjacent ponds.

Alice Thomas (former trustees president who has led the fight to keep the arboretum independent) and new president Richard A. Grant Jr. met the crowd.

Chair Fred Schoellkopf arranged for trolleys to transport guests through the arboretum and to see the Glendale Community College Players’ Shakespearean spoofs.

Joan and Jim Caillouette, David Davis, Doug and Susan Kranwinkle, Veva and Kingston McKee, Arthur and Mary Louise Crowe, Ray and Nancy McCullough, Susie Miller, Rocky and Carolyn Moss were there.

EVENTFUL: It’s been an eventful month for Las Madrinas, its president, Janice Carpenter, and the board of directors: Susan Hull, Cynthia Baise, Ann Barrett, Kay Onderdonk, Sally Keon, Louise Griffith, Nancy DeNero, Carlotta Keely and Mary Adams Reinisch. Las Madrinas is in its fourth year of a five-year drive to raise $3 million for molecular pathology at Childrens Hospital.

The key fund-raiser is the Christmas debutante ball, the oldest, most elegant deb ball in the city. Last week, 26 debutantes were introduced at a tea at Nancy Munger’s Hancock Park home. They are Allison Adams, Erin Browne, Stephanie Chandler, Kathryn Cooper, Jennifer Davidson, Jessica Davis, Alexandra Foley, Katrina Hanson, Katherine Harahan, Margaret Hayden, Elizabeth Hillman, Laura Johnson, Rebecca Langan, Kathleen LeRoy, Barbara McBain, Margaret O’Keefe, Katherine O’Malley, Katherine Peterson, Jennifer Pinckert, Gabrielle Porter, Anna Ratkovich, Dana Richards, Jennifer Ryan, Laurie Somers, Francesca Toberman and Kelsey Wegge.

HIGH GOALS: The Los Angeles Archdiocese has established an Education Foundation with a goal of raising $100 million for Catholic schools. Sally Conn, Marcia Hayden and Kathleen McCarthy lunched at the California Club to discuss a gala on Sept. 17.

IN LOVE: Wearing Ungaro white moire with red roses, Mary Jones, widow of the late H. Bradley Jones and a prominent Colleagues, Blue Ribbon and Children’s Bureau volunteer, married Century City dweller Boyd Marshall, a Florida real estate developer, this week in the presidential suite at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Marshall is an aeronautical engineer with two Caltech degrees.

There were so many parties, it was a wonder they had time to say “I do.” The related events: Henry and Jayne Berger’s black-tie party, John and Joan Hotchkis’ Trader Vic’s soiree, John and Louise Good and Midge and Bob Clark’s co-hosted affair for 48, Diane and Bob Anderson’s Bistro do.

After the wedding, the pair flew back for Jerry and Virginia Oppenheim’s party in their honor that night. Next, it’s Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Corwin and Nanci Denny’s Teton Pines dinner, then a week in Sun Valley, Ida., before Wallis Annenberg, Arletta and Don Tronstein and Jean Truesdale do more toastings.

THE MONEY-GO-ROUND: Group Effort grossed $500,000 for the Arthritis Foundation, Diabetes Unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles Children’s Museum and Loyola Marymount University at its annual dinner-auction June 16 at the Beverly Hilton.

KUDOS: To the Beverly Hills Family Y, honoring Tichi Wilkerson-Kassell . . . To Sally Stewart, Marlborough School’s Woman of the Year . . . To the American Food and Wine Institute, saluting Julia Child at the Regency Club . . . To L.A. Clippers owners Donald and Shelly Sterling, hosting dinner in Beverly Hills to announce a charity basketball match between the Lakers and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv team at the Forum Oct. 16 . . . To Hal and Cynthia Gershman, Phyllis Diller, Danny Thomas and Ruta Lee, feting Gloria Nagy and her book “A House in the Hamptons” at Jimmy’s . . . To Nordstrom and Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, fund raising over fashions at the Biltmore . . . To George and Marilyn Brumder, feting Smith College President Mary Maples Dunn.