St. Joe Audience Shows Up--Barely

Big Party

A sold-out crowd of 1,000 showed up at the Anaheim Hilton Saturday night for St. Joseph Hospital’s benefit--a $300-a-pop black-tie bash that raised about $190,000. During dinner, the vast ballroom was a sea of tuxes and gowns. After dinner that sea barely rippled--despite a stage show tsunami.

The Big Time

St. Joe has a record of hiring name-brand entertainment for its annual to-do, and this year was no exception. For the nice round figure of $100,000, party planners bought their guests an hour of amazing motion and sound from Ruth, June and Anita Pointer--the Pointer Sisters. Using their own nice figures--and enough R&B; heat and harmony to melt the arctic ice cap--the Pointers delivered their hits as if they were singing ‘em for the first time. Call it passion or professionalism, the full-throttle performance was pretty impressive when you consider how many times the Sisters and their six-man band have worked through their chart-toppers--”Neutron Dance,” “Jump,” “I’m So Excited,” et al.

Were They Excited?

The Pointers seemed to be up for the gig at first. “You feel like dancing, don’t you?” Ruth tempted the crowd. “You feel like screaming , don’t you? You feel like shaking some tail feather, don’t you?”

The crowd said yes thrice--and the crowd lied.

Before dinner, party chairman Stephen Mansfield said he and his committee decided to book the Pointers because “we felt the (benefit) entertainment had become a little stale. We wanted to make this a significant social event of the season, so we said, ‘Let’s turn this thing up a notch.’ ”

As the Pointers found out a few songs into their set, a notch up for the hospital group did not include dancing, screaming or booty shaking. In fact, it barely included head-nodding and toe-tapping.

“I’m freaking out!” squealed guest Anne Thompson, as she bopped around without a partner at the back of the ballroom. Boogie-ing in her beaded dress and heels, Thompson was one of maybe 50 people in the crowd who made it up onto their well-shod feet for the last few songs.

“I just left the deadest table in the room,” Thompson gasped, mid-boogie. “My husband’s sitting there with a bad back, but I just said, ‘I’m sorry, I gotta get up and dance!’ ”

Food

The dinner was rich and the wine flowed freely--maybe that’s what numbed the masses and kept them in their seats. The appetizer was a hearty seafood strudel in lobster sauce, followed by mixed greens with goat cheese, papaya and kiwi sorbet, veal medallions and chocolate cake.

Faces

Party planners included Mel Lieberman, Jean Broussard, Kitty Bellis, Don Kiely Stephen Otto, Arlene Amorino, Linda Sutherland, Thomas Badin, Sharon Paisley, Philip Schimmel Linda Pierog, Dominick Gentile, Beth Keely, Robert Armen, Wayne Miller, Alan Buras, David Margileth, Joseph Barsa, Debbie and Guy Dickson.

Quote

Said June Pointer, before the sisters’ mid-set costume change: “I’m so hot, y’all, I’m dripping brown sugar.”