Four Presidents Agree to Do Lunch

It’s going to be a power lunch dished up on power plates by a power restaurant on Thursday at the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

Following the facility’s dedication ceremonies, President George Bush and former presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan, along their wives, will sweep into the John M. Olin reading room to dine on fare presented on Boehm china by Chasen’s.

For bistro buffs, it’s no mystery why the restaurant founded by Dave and Maude Chasen was chosen to cook up the menu--watercress and pea soup, Dover sole with lemon butter sauce, and three kinds of fresh berries dolloped with Devonshire cream. The Los Angeles eatery that sits on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Doheny Drive has been a prized haunt of politicos and celebrities for 50 years. (The Reagans are habitues. And who can forget that Elizabeth Taylor, hungering for the famous Chasen’s chili, had some airlifted across the Atlantic when she was filming “Cleopatra”?) History buffs will know why the Boehm Studio of Trenton, N.J., was chosen to fire up the commemorative plates for the occasion. The Nixons have collected the company’s prized, lifelike porcelains of animals and flowers since Nixon served under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And it was Boehm that created the life-size Birds of Peace sculpture that Nixon presented to Mao Tse Tung during his history-making 1972 visit to China.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime project for us,” said Helen Boehm--widow of Boehm Studio founder Edward Boehm--during a recent telephone interview. “The plates feature a white eagle with a silhouette of pure gold surrounded by 16 stars. Above the eagle are five stars, making it a 21-star salute!

“And this eagle is a very special one. It holds olive leaves in both of its claws. We have eliminated the arrows that you see on the eagle portrayed on a one-dollar bill. This eagle grasps only olive leaves, for peace.”

History takes over when the plates are turned over, Boehm said. Along with the dedication date, presidential signatures will be on the back of each president’s plate. “President Bush will dine off of a service plate that has his signature in gold on the back of it,” Boehm said, “and Reagan will have his, and Ford, his.”

But Nixon’s plate will feature the signatures of all four presidents. “We wanted to do something special for President Nixon,” Boehm said, “so we decided to present him with a plate with signatures of four friends.”

In order for the plates to qualify for their exclusive “clear white bone china” status, Boehm said, the clay used in their creation had to consist of 21% bone ash. “They were fired in a kiln five times,” she added, “first at 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, then at lower temperatures when the gold and the designs were applied. At any time, the plates might have cracked. But so far, no loss!” The plates are expected to arrive at the library on Tuesday. “We’ve needed to do all of this very quickly,” Boehm said.

(Until very recently, library dedication organizers didn’t think President Bush would have time to stay at the facility for lunch. Then Bush informed Nixon that he would love to break bread in the new facility. So plans for the luncheon were set into fast-forward motion.)

According to Dorothy Bendetti, entertainment director for all of the social gatherings that will surround the dedication, the presidents and their first ladies will lunch at an oval table spread with a custom-made tablecloth of white moire silk featuring a white-on-white design of small stripes and flowers.

The library has purchased bone-china serving pieces from Tiffany & Co. to coordinate with the commemorative plates (which will eventually go on display at the library). The luncheon centerpiece will consist of a rainbow of roses done up in a European-style bouquet. “Lots of lovely roses with lots of greenery,” explained Bendetti, who lives with her husband, Donald, in Emerald Bay. “We thought Pat Nixon would enjoy roses.”

Power breakfast: Before he hits the dedication trail in Yorba Linda on Thursday, President Bush will preside with Sen. Pete Wilson over a power breakfast for 100 couples at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers. It’s a good thing the lunch Bush will enjoy later will be on the light side. The breakfast menu that will fete boosters of the California Republican Party sounds like it was conceived to keep them jogging mightily along Wilson’s gubernatorial campaign trail. On the groaning board: mountains of fresh fruit and muffins, along with spinach quiche and petit filet mignon. Not to mention eye-openers such as brut bubbly and Bloody Marys.

Anne Cox feted: Thelma Thomas of Newport Beach is staging a luncheon at Big Canyon Country Club on Tuesday for Anne Cox, mother-in-law of Tricia Nixon Cox. About 40 of Thomas’ friends will gather to honor the mother of attorney Edward Cox.

“Anne and I have been friends for 40 years,” said Thomas, who is married to artist Glenn Thomas. “We both used to live in New York.”

The women were introduced at a party given by Florence Roosevelt, whose husband was a cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt. “Florence gave a party for me; Anne was there, and we have been friends ever since,” Thomas said.

Cox will stay at the Thomas home during her visit to Orange County to attend the festivities surrounding the opening of the Nixon library.

One of Thomas’ favorite memories is the wedding of Tricia to her best friend’s son. “It was beautiful,” Thomas said. “Tricia is a darling.”

Speaking of Americana: It was a lump-in-the-throat audience that enjoyed the dazzling premiere of “Show Boat” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Friday night.

Afterward, at the Center Club, members of Opera Pacific’s prestigious Impresario Circle met to honor “Show Boat” underwriters John and Donna Crean of Santa Ana Heights.

What keeps standing-room-only audiences coming back to see the old classic again and again? “It’s such a nostalgic musical,” said David DiChiera, director of Opera Pacific. “It takes us back to a troubled time in American history. It hasn’t always been easy for America.”

“Show boat” star Eddie Bracken said he has adored playing Captain Andy again and again because his part is about “love.”

“Andy spreads a lot of love and understanding around,” said Bracken, who knows something about love himself. Last year, he celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary.

Winner of the Seen “Show Boat” More Than Anyone Else at the Party award: actress Jane Withers, a guest, with her husband, Thomas Pierson, of the Creans. “I’ve seen it 27 times,” she said. “Who couldn’t love that show?”