Magic Spell Cast Over Fund-Raiser at Hazard Center

The wizards who regularly toil and trouble to raise funds for the UC San Diego Cancer Center promised supporters an evening of “Magic in Mission Valley” on Saturday, and delivered more than they expected.

A group led by Anne Otterson and George Goudy built a sort of brick caldron on the grounds of the new Hazard Center, a 42-acre office, hotel and retail development on the site of the former Hazard Brickyard, and fortified the requisite, bubbling brew of eye of newt and toe of frog with Cajun popcorn, a performance by magician Harry Blackstone and unintended but astonishing lighting effects.

The effects of the spell cast over Friars Road and California 163 were potent and varied. Among them, the cancer center earned about $125,000, while former city councilman and perennial political candidate Michael Schaefer lost his shirt. The partners in the sprawling project, the Trammell Crow Co. and the R.E. Hazard Contracting Co., underwrote the expenses of the benefit.

San Diegans have become adept both at staging parties on parking lots and at attending them with sang-froid.

Slightly more than 1,000 guests spent the evening in the two open-air ballrooms constructed on the Hazard Center’s lots. In the first of these, dominated by a statue of Hazard Co. founder R.E. (Pappy) Hazard Jr. (the motto on the plinth advises “Be Just and Fear Not”), guests toured a double avenue of hors d’oeurves stations almost profligate in their offerings.

Among the nibbles were freshly prepared crab cakes, a vast assortment of Chinese stuffed dumplings, beignets of Brie and bacon, assorted shellfish and even Thai chicken curry.

Shirley Rubel and her husband, past cancer center President David Rubel, were among those exploring the gourmet possibilities; David explained that the fund-raiser was the result of a lunch he shared with contractor Bruce Hazard in early 1989.

Hazard was on hand with his wife, Mary, and in-laws Jane and John Murphy.

“I’m the new kid on this block,” he teased, since the brickyard was established more than 60 years ago.

“Tonight is our version of magic in Mission Valley, and I hope no-one goes home disappointed.”

Hazard had little to fear. The dining room--fronted both by a massive stage draped in black cloth and a pair of dance floors--stretched out comfortably under the canopy of night, warmed by gas heaters that on this occasion proved redundant.

Jumbles of glittery decorations and votive candles created suitably magical gardens in the centers of the tables.

The civic ordinance that decrees the use of street lights that cast a yellow glow created one of “Magic in Mission Valley’s” most startling illusions by draining everything--faces, food and clothes--of color.

One well-known blonde woman pulled a mirror from her purse, grimaced and said, “I look like I’ve been exhumed! This is kind of like ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ ”

In the eerie light, the caprese salads of ripe, red tomatoes, sea-green “spoon leaf” lettuce and cream-colored buffalo mozzarella looked like photographic negatives, unearthly pastiches in black-and-white quite unlike anything anyone had ever seen on a plate.

An unnamed hero earned one of the evening’s more sustained rounds of applause by throwing a switch that cut off the lights and reduced the party to the more subtle illumination of candles and star-power.

Magician Harry Blackstone, son of the Great Blackstone and a performing illusionist since the age of 7, followed on the heels of the beef tenderloin and chocolate-hazelnut mousse dinner.

He found himself facing a surprisingly tough crowd, which he facetiously thanked on several occasions for its “under-whelming applause.” Among his more noteworthy feats were sawing a chap in half and making half the audience disappear before the conclusion of the show.

For his finale, Blackstone invited nine men on stage, and while performing card tricks with several managed a neat sleight-of-hand in which he yanked Michael Schaefer’s shirt from his back, even though the latter’s arms were at his side and his coat buttoned. The audience was impressed by that one. Dancing to the Bill Green Orchestra followed.

The guest list included many of Hazard’s fellow builders and developers, including Ernest and Jean Hahn, George and Kathy Pardee and Donald and Toni Daley.

Among others in attendance were acting cancer center director Dr. Gerard Burrow and his wife, Ann; UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson with his wife, Rita; Maury and Charmaine Kaplan; Neil and Joan Kline; Trammell Crow’s Ron Nelson; Robert and Cheryl Rohde; Frank and Elsie Weston; John and Sally Thornton; Audrey Geisel; Karl and Barbara ZoBell; Robert and Joan Tukey; George and Alison Gildred; David and Dorothea Garfield; Elliot and Lynne Schulnik; Willis and Ruth Allen; Joe and Jane Baker; Rolf and Mary Benirschke; Dallas and Mary Clark; Lou and Jane Metzger; John and Ann Davies; Pat and Dottie Haggerty; Jack and Virginia Monday, and Blair and Georgia Sadler.

Even though one of the bars at the Sept. 13 “Roller Coaster Rock ‘n Roller” benefit at Belmont Park was located directly beneath the tracks of the Giant Dipper, no-one dropped in for a drink.

However, quite a few of the 700 guests at the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation fund-raiser hobbled over to the bar after screaming and yelping through the plunges and high-speed turns of the coaster, which held its grand opening that evening.

The Giant Dipper reopened after a 14-year hiatus, and a common comment among the native San Diegans in the crowd was that the coaster seemed quite a bit faster than when they were children.

“I think age does that to you,” admitted one.

Lyn Kuerbis recalled a private party given during the wig craze of the early 1970s; hers blew off in mid-ride and sent guests scrambling under the coaster in a mad search for her elusive hair.

Belmont Park developer Graham MacHutchin chaired the event and was joined by partner Paul Thoryk.

“Gosh, it’s great to see the center being used,” said MacHutchin with a broad grin untinged by the faintest hint of facetiousness. “It’s so electric with people in it!”

Added Thoryk: “It is fun to see people here.”

(Thus far, the Mission Beach retail and amusement center has failed to draw crowds as sizeable as its backers anticipated.)

MacHutchin added that he hoped to establish the coaster event, which raised about $35,000, as an annual benefit for CAPF.

Besides riding the coaster and whirling more calmly on the carousel, guests posed for photographs with impersonators of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor and President George Bush and browsed buffets laden with food donated by 32 restaurants and bakers.

The table nearest the Giant Dipper offered chocolate chip cookies, but not a single individual took advantage of the rather obvious opportunity to toss his cookies from the coaster.

Four major groups--the Coasters, the Nostalgics, the Legends and Ricky Nelson look-alike Gary Schorelle and his band--took turns on the stage and kept the dance floor hopping.

The attendance included Valerie Preiss with Harry Cooper, Barry McComic, Kathryn and Michael Murphy, Vicki and Scott Carstens, Kathleen and Colin Haggerty, Lisa Butterbrot with Bill Waite, CAPF President Norma Hirsh with her husband, Gary; Melanie Cohrs; Jeannette Day; Joy and Jim Furby; Gloria Penner and Bill Snyder; Diane Larson; Charlotte Kobey; Myra and Bruce Beare and Roger and Cindy Hedgecock.