39 ‘Eligibles’ All Set for Bidding War

As the competition for the charity dollar quickens, fund-raising tactics grow more and more inventive.

If you happened to stroll past the terrace of the Golden Triangle’s Paparazzi restaurant Monday evening, rest assured that your eyes did not deceive you--there were indeed more than 30 masked men drinking beer and holding forth over a buffet of deviled eggs and stuffed endive leaves.

The group represented nearly the full complement of 39 unattached but most eligible single men recruited by the local chapter of the March of Dimes to place their persons on the auction block at “Bid for Bachelors,” a major event to be given Nov. 9 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla hotel.

The men, not only masked but also wearing identification tags bearing only their first names, were present to mingle with some of the single women who have anted $50 each for preferred seating at the bachelor sell-off.

The event doesn’t quite match Sadie Hawkins Day, but it comes close in spirit: In the case of each bachelor, the woman who makes the highest bid is entitled to a date. Nor are these rendezvous of the commonplace dinner-and-a-movie variety, because the men have put together “dream date” packages, most of which include travel and several of which head as far afield as the Utah snowfields, Mexico City and the Caribbean.

High bids at previous bachelor auctions have exceeded $2,000, and this year women with constricted pocketbooks have been encouraged to invite sponsors--just as at charity walk-a-thons--to underwrite their efforts. Talk about novel twists.

The group of men includes physicians, attorneys, photographers and real estate brokers, as well as an environmental scientist who specializes in pollution control, a firefighter and a Top Gun pilot.

At Monday’s kickoff party, the bachelors, rather unsurprisingly, expressed unanimous enthusiasm over an upcoming experience that all described as unprecedented in their lives. Donn Marrin, a Del Mar scientist, said, “This will be the most unusual thing I’ve ever done, but I’m ready for it.” His “San Diego by land, air and sea” package offers lunch in La Jolla, a helicopter tour and dinner and dancing on San Diego Bay aboard the Invader.

To a degree, at least some of the date packages seem competitively designed. Photographer Vincent Andrewnas has assembled a weekend that will include a get-acquainted brunch, stays in different hotels each night (separate accommodations will be provided), three theatrical performances, three dinners, a “day of beauty” at a top salon, Sunday brunch and a Symphony matinee concert--with a lim ousine always at hand to carry the couple on this sybaritic safari. Many honeymoons don’t entail half as much.

Even though the event will feature a runway jammed with tuxedoed men, it is being stage-managed by women.

Local March of Dimes executive director Dani Montague, who worked for the same charity in San Francisco and Portland and assisted with bachelor auctions in both cities, said the organization founded the concept in Las Vegas in 1985.

“It’s been an excellent way for March of Dimes to recruit new volunteers,” she said. “ ‘Bid for Bachelors’ has been successful everywhere it has been held, and the men associated with the event are the kind we’re proud to have associated with the March of Dimes.”

Asked what women should look forward to at the event, co-chair Penny Martin considered the question less than a moment before responding “Men!” This probably explained the presence at Paparazzi of the 40 or so women who thus far have paid $50 for preferred seating. In the words of March of Dimes spokeswoman Louise Nichols, the women were there to take advantage of “the chance to meet, interview and preview” the bachelors. Few seemed reticent.

General admission tickets to “Bid for Bachelors” cost $25 in advance, or $30 at the door. The Nov. 9 event will begin with a 6 p.m. cocktail and “meet the bachelors” reception; the auction will commence at 7:15 p.m. For further information, call the March of Dimes.

The passage of time has been of unusual importance to San Diego’s Jessop family, which built the city’s most prominent public clock--now ensconced in Horton Plaza--and sold watches to several generations of its citizens.

The passage of the family’s first century here (the centennial of the arrival from England of Joseph and Mary Jessop occurred in August) was both noted and celebrated at a Oct. 11 tribute in the Marina Ballroom of the San Diego Marriott. More than 2 dozen of the more than 100 Jessops living in Southern California attended the benefit for the Copley Family YMCA, along with representatives of many of the city’s older families.

By the time the clock struck 7 p.m., the ballroom’s foyer was crowded with a long-acquainted group that included not only a heavy sprinkling of Jessops, but representatives of the Fletcher, Klauber, Clark, Gildred, Luce, Frost, Borthwick and Burnham families.

It was, for most, a familiar get-together, or perhaps a dressy reand Liz Jessop; Mary and George Carter Jessop; Linda and Bill Fox; Jane and Richard Lynch; Helen and David Jessop; Mary and Alonzo Lynch; Klonie and Fritz Kunzel; Bill and Sylvia Luce Heitzmann; Detty June and Phil Klauber; Cathy and Bruce Frost; Georgia Borthwick with Tom Fleming; Lee and Larry Cox; Betty and Doug McElfresh; Virginia and Ferd Fletcher; Bobby and Norman Greene; Lyn and Phil Gildred; Louise and Steve Fletcher, and Mary and Dallas Clark.