Nearly 500 Protesters Jeer Guests Arriving for Nixon Banquet

While friends and admirers of Richard M. Nixon gathered to honor the former President on Thursday night, a boisterous crowd of nearly 500 demonstrators--representing an eclectic mix of causes--loudly protested the event, blocking traffic for a short time as they lay in the street.

The protest was nonviolent but police arrested at least 14 demonstrators in front of the Century Plaza Hotel as the Nixon gala was beginning inside.

The demonstrators, many of them in costume, chanted “Stop GOP death squads,” and yelled “Shame, shame,” as limousines unloaded guests in front of the hotel. When tuxedoed party guests leaned off balconies to eye the commotion from above, demonstrators yelled for them to jump.

The group appeared to represent about 30 different causes. Malathion spraying, anti-abortion legislation, American support for Latin American regimes and the federal government’s efforts to combat AIDS all came under vocal attack.

Katie Meyer, a spokeswoman for the hotel, looked on in amazement. “It looks like something out of 1969,” she said.

Indeed, the angry rhetoric, riot-geared police and vehemently anti-Republican sentiments of the protesters summoned up images of Nixon’s presidency, which only hours earlier had been glowingly lauded by Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush during the dedication ceremonies for the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

But the demonstrators at the Century Plaza found the dedication ceremonies offensive.

“Basically we find it outrageous that the Republican Party is spending so much energy to resurrect a man like Richard Nixon who many of us think is a criminal and should be in jail,” said Catherine Suitor, from the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

Maurice Stans, a former Nixon secretary of commerce who pleaded guilty to violating federal elections law while working for Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign, dismissed the protesters: “I say it’s the democratic process, and what they’re doing is unimportant. It’s a sign of the times we live in.”

Several dozen helmeted police stood by as the protest began and did not interfere until demonstrators blocked access to the hotel.

“It was peaceful, but it was also unlawful,” said Fred Nixon, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. “They were blocking the street.”

The protest dwindled shortly after the arrests, and dissipated after the hotel began routing the guests through a second entrance.

Once the melee outside ended, the 1,500 guests still had to grapple with one last inconvenience: The hotel’s air conditioning failed for several hours before the party, and by the time guests arrived, it was nearly as hot inside as it had been during the dedication ceremonies earlier in the day.

Still, guests mingled in an atmosphere of reunion, many commenting on the sense of family that bound Nixon’s followers and on the joy of the day’s dedication.

“The library allows for a cleansing of the Nixon record in a way that both Nixon and the public can understand and appreciate,” said Gary Hunt, executive vice president of the Irvine Co., who was at the party representing company president Donald Bren. “It’s going to allow Americans who see it to make up their own minds as to what place Nixon should have in history, because it shows the good and the bad.”

The black-tie event, sponsored by movie producer Jerry Weintraub and Los Angeles lawyer Gerald L. Parskey, featured remarks by the former President and several of his most prominent supporters, including former Ambassador Walter Annenberg and comedian Bob Hope.

Members of the Nixon family were also present, and as they walked onto the dais, Pat Nixon stopped to hug Delores Hope, Bob Hope’s wife.

Among the other guests at Thursday night’s party were Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and his wife, Emma Jane; former Rep. Robert E. Badham and his wife, Anne; and George and Judie Argyros, who were also included in a special VIP reception with the Nixons before dinner.

George Argyros is chairman of Arnel Development and is one of the chief sponsors of the Nixon library.

As guests finished their cocktails, they crossed into the hotel’s Los Angeles Ballroom, where tables for 10 were set with floor-length forest green linen cloths and towering silver candelabra. The main course was roast loin of veal with forest mushrooms and Maderia sauce.

Nixon entered to the tune of “California, Here We Come,” and the Rev. Billy Graham delivered the invocation.

Staff writers Jeffrey A. Perlman, Lanie Jones, Ann Conway and Dana Parsons, and correspondent Laura Michaelis contributed to this report.