Romance in Leaps, Bounds : Ballet: Underwriters John and Sally Thornton put a personal touch on ‘Sleeping Beauty’s’ opening night with a 35th anniversary party.

Sally and John Thornton successfully executed the exceedingly rare and enormously tricky ballet step known as the pas de deux double Tuesday by celebrating their 35 years of marriage in step with the opening night presentation, at the Civic Theatre, of the San Francisco Ballet’s new production of “The Sleeping Beauty.”

Through their John M. and Sally B. Thornton Foundation, the prominent Point Loma couple underwrote the local performances of the San Francisco company’s centennial production of the Tchaikovsky classic. Perhaps through simple serendipity (or, given the circumstances, it may have been more like a back-stage nudge of fate), the opening night coincided with the 36th anniversary of the day the couple met. Their wedding anniversary falls on Aug. 20.

The couple invited a roster of 280 pals, fellow board directors of various cultural and educational institutions and assorted notables for a theater party that commenced with a reception and formal dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the U.S. Grant hotel. Many guests in turn greeted the evening with a palpable, well-defined sense of anticipation founded upon experience. Those who arrived promptly at 5 p.m. confidently assured one another to expect something out of the ordinary by offering variations on the phrase, “When Sally gives a party, it’s always first class.”

For the occasion, Sally Thornton borrowed the romantic tone of “Sleeping Beauty” rather than any specific trappings of the piece. The simplest yet most dramatic effect was produced by the trio of poster-size enlargements of photographs of the couple’s wedding stationed in the cocktail area; several guests noted that while Sally looked much as she does today, the blond, crew-cut John Thornton of 1955 was a close double for Tab Hunter.

The Thorntons surprised many guests by eschewing a grand entrance and quietly slipping through one of the ballroom’s side doors. They were accompanied by Lynn and Chuck McFadden; Sally and Lynn, who attended the Our Lady of Peace academy together, obliged one another as maids of honor at their respective weddings, held just one week apart.

“Oct. 2 is the anniversary of the day John and I met,” said Sally. “It was at the wedding of Ann and (the late) Bill Evans. I was gift hostess, John was a dashing young naval officer and a former classmate of Bill’s at Pomona College.”

She added that the Thornton Foundation’s underwriting of the ballet performances was the couple’s “gift to the cultural community of San Diego.”

Perhaps to continue the familial significance of the date, John Thornton announced the engagement of the couple’s son, Steven, to Rita Espinosa; both attended the event.

Danah Fayman, founder and president of the ballet-sponsoring San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts and an acknowledged balletomane, wryly saw more than one current at play that evening.

“It’s an incredible thing for the Thorntons to underwrite the performance and invite so many friends to celebrate their anniversary,” she said, pausing briefly before offering the coy comment, “Thanks to them, I think there will be a lot of folks at the theater tonight whom we’ve never seen at the ballet before.”

In keeping with the nuptial motif, the Thorntons limited the beverage offering to sparkling wine and served four vintages from Temecula’s John Culbertson Winery through the meal. Vinter Culbertson, who attended with his wife, Martha, described the reception wine, “Wedding Bouquet,” as a rare 1986 bottling; only 300 cases were produced.

The meal proceeded with some formality at tables set with shocking-turquoise cloths and elevated topiaries of pink, orange and red Gerbera daisies and peach-toned roses. The meal opened with a plate-size ravioli stuffed with forest mushrooms, continued with roast veal chop and wild rice pancakes and finished on a very San Diego note with chocolate parfait, a dessert so enthusiastically consumed as to cast doubt on the local future of contemporary cooking. Dessert spoons clattered onto plates when word went round that late arrivals at the theater would not be seated until after the first intermission.

The guest list included Judy and Jim Edson, Betty and Frank Wells, Helene and Councilman Ron Roberts, Jane and Frank Rice, Isabel and Dr. Stuart Brown, Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan, Shelia and Larry Lawrence, Darlene and Donald Shiley, Jane and Tom Fetter, Beverly Muchnic and Lois and Donald Roon.

Also attending were Jean and Ernest Hahn, Athena and Charles May, Ann Ratner, Kathy and George Pardee, Mary and Irby Cobb, Betty Bass, Lael and Jay Kovtun, Jeanne Jones, Marianne McDonald with Adrian Jaffer, Sheri and Ben Kelts, University of San Diego President Author Hughes and wife Marge; Patrick Abarta; Martha and George Gafford; Leonor Craig; Audrey Geisel; Jane and Joe Baker; Harriet and Richard Levi, and Rita and Josiah Neeper.

The promise of a Hula Hoop contest, golden leaves on the ground and frost-covered pumpkins drew about 1,500 to Saturday’s “Homecoming,” a fund-raiser for the Old Globe Theatre and several local charities given as part of the grand opening of the Brickyard at the new Hazard Center.

SERVE San Diego, a young-professionals charitable organization, sponsored the event and delivered on the Hula Hoop contest, which was won by a young woman who successfully hula’ed for 10 minutes without once slipping her hoop. The autumn leaves and frosted pumpkins evidently were lost in transit, a circumstance that seemed not terribly troubling to the black-tied and 1950s-costumed guests.

The ‘50s theme seems never to go out of style no matter how often it repeats in San Diego--rather like a period horror film, it’s the party theme that refuses to die--and “Homecoming’s” guests carried it to the max with astonishing beehive hairdos and sequined tuxedo jackets that must have seemed sartorial jokes even in the era that invented them.

Stages erected at opposite ends of one of the Brickyard’s parking lots featured a pair of bands, rock ‘n’ rollers Papa Doo Run Run and the Party Dolls, a Los Angeles group that was as much in character as in costume. The event also offered casino gambling and a silent auction. Total proceeds amounted to some $25,000.

SERVE founder Don McVay, Terri Wells and frequent party host Tom Groff served as honorary chairmen. The active committee included Randi McCoy, Terry Keyes, Greg Becker, Laura Little, Dean Acosta, Joe Harmon, Georgia Harris, Loree Kurtz, Robert Schorr, Mary Jane Gilbreath, Linda Pomraning and Alan Ursillo.