Edifice Openings: How to Build a Fete
You almost need a hard hat to attend all the social affairs tied to grand openings of the Southland’s newest edifices.
Last week, Maguire Thomas Partners celebrated the topping off of the Gas Co. Tower at 5th and Olive streets with an 8 a.m. breakfast. Now Joni Smith and Carolyn DeWald are deep in plans for the Bunker Hill Steps Dedication party Oct. 3. It’s to be a fete for the Music Center Unified Fund, underwritten by Maguire Thomas Partners. Invitations (we won’t spoil the surprise) go out Labor Day. The steps are reminiscent of the Spanish Steps of Rome; thus the party will have a Mediterranean theme. cThe imaginative committee: Susie Maguire, Joan Hotchkis, Judy Bedrosian, Connie Abell, Nancy Mishkin, Robin Parsky, Sally Thomas, Debbie Tellefsen.
PUTTIN’ ON: The Junior League of Los Angeles is heralding the opening of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. The league is giving up its antiques show after using it for years as a primary fund-raiser. Instead, over lunch at Checkers, Janet Nichols O’Neil, Andi Anderson, Mollie Shea and Kathleen McCarthy revealed they’re “Puttin’ on the Ritz” Oct. 12 with gaming tables of blackjack and roulette in the Ritz ballroom decorated as a Monte Carlo casino.
$100-MILLION GOAL: Richard Stegemeier, chairman of the United Way Campaign for the greater Los Angeles area, has called on United Way supporters to rally Sept. 4 at Dodger Stadium with the L.A. Dodgers and Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang to celebrate his new goal--expected to exceed $100 million. “With cutbacks in government funding . . . it is up to . . . our community to take up the fight against illiteracy, catastrophic illness, drug abuse and homelessness by supporting the United Way campaign,” said Stegemeier, president and CEO of Unocal Corp.
JAZZ: Meanwhile, Dodger Orel Hershiser and wife Jamie entertained at their Pasadena home to kick off “Baseball, Apple Pie and All That Jazz,” the L.A. Dodgers’ 65 Roses Club fashion show Sept. 8 at the Sheraton Grande. It’s a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation benefit.
NO SUMMER SLOUCH: Chairwoman Helen Maher of the Beastly Ball for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., has been penning notes to supporters with gusto. “Last year 830 people attended and we broke all records raising over $450,000. We hope to do even better Sept. 8 on our 20th annual ball.” Colleen Casey’s Orchestra is writing “zoo tunes.”
PLAUDITS: It was unanimous for John R. Stahr, elected 15th president of the South Coast Repertory. He’s a partner in the law firm of Latham & Watkins and replaces Arden Flamson. SCR will open the Orange County theatrical and social season with a Sept. 15 event titled “Theatre Internationale.” Gala chairman is Kathleen Allen.
KUDOS: To Helen M. Shepherd, new president of the YWCA of Los Angeles. (She’s audit partner, director of professional standards, Deloitte & Touche) . . . To Carl R. Terzian, receiving the Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award at the Arthritis Foundation black-tie dinner Sept. 14 . . . To Burton S. Levinson, retiring Anti-Defamation League national chairman, honored at the home of Jane and Robert Kramer . . . To Charles Buchta, new to the Weingart Center Assn. board.
PAST PERFECT: The black-tie dinner Arletta and Donald Tronstein gave for newlyweds Mary and Boyd Marshall, with Rhonda Fleming Mann and Marilyn McDaniel singing toasts, and good friends such as Dorie and Joe Pinola, Louise and John Good, Mary and Reese Milner there . . . The dinner-dance Peggy Ward gave for newlyweds Arden and Nancy Day . . . Joan and David Traitel’s party at Glenbrook at Lake Tahoe, with friends such as Linda and Jim Dickason hosting house guests nearby.
CORONETS: Silk and linen frocks were de rigueur for the Coronet Debutante Ball mother-daughter luncheon at Bel-Air Country Club. Arranging the fete: Gretchen Schlegel, Coronet ball director; Loretta Lindholm, Nadine Acker, Frances Remmes and Nancy Breuer.
WILD: Three Santa Fe operas, the 69th American Indian market, Indian dancing, gallery-hopping and chamber music--it’s a bold itinerary for the Music Center crowd led by Marlene Billington this weekend and including Gloria Renwick, Astrid Rottman, John and Joyce Penido, Bernard and Jill Kramer, Virginia Lord, Erna Schulhofer and Toni Webb.