‘Prince of Chintz’ Regales His Friends
Mario Buatta of New York, the interior designer who decorated the nearly 50 rooms of Blair House in Washington, D.C., to period authenticity, had the Friends of Robinson Gardens laughing for more than an hour at a luncheon at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.
Having grown up with parents who wouldn’t let him walk across the carpet or sit on the best family furniture, the “Prince of Chintz,” as Buatta is dubbed, says he’s now a decorator who likes a bit of dust around for that lived-in look.
They weren’t chintz, but fine cotton, those Buatta-designed cloths with red geraniums and lavender backgrounds that covered luncheon tables. Co-chairs Diana Bollero and Patty Turrentine chose ivy topiaries shaped as teddy bears and sent guests away with Buatta’s latest creation, a potpourri called “The Smell of Honeysuckle,” developed by Aromatique.
Aromatique president Patti Upton joined Friends president Carol Mancino among the scented crowd dining on breast of chicken and asparagus. More were Sophie Mastor, Dolly Vinton, Judy McKinney and Joan Selwyn. Carol Mancino’s husband Doug rallied together a men’s table--Ray Klauer, Edward Turrentine and Roy McKinney.
Now Friends will bestow all their energies on their third annual garden tour May 10. Five distinctive private gardens will be opened for the affair. Lee Minnelli is honorary chairman.
EXCELLENCE: After the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra finished its encores, the crowd at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena moved past the Baccarat candelabra in the foyer to the champagne party saluting Sam Wanamaker as recipient of the Ambassador Foundation’s fourth Ambassador Award for Excellence.
Wanamaker is the American actor who has sparked the rebuilding of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the banks of the Thames in London. He received a Steuben crystal trophy.
Toasts from Ambassador Foundation president Joseph Tkach came with glasses of 1982 Dom Perignon or Perrier with lime.
Jean Smith, widow of the late U. S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith, is the honorary chairman of Globe’s Southern California Committee. She was escorted by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), in town to boost his new book, “Consequences.” More in the crowd: Frank and Helen Pekny, David and Robin Hulme, Stephen Garrett and Helen Pashgain, Kitty Bradley and Marvine and Arthur Neff.
KUDOS: Camron Cooper, senior vice president and treasurer of Arco (and zoorific at adopting animals at the Zoo Ball’s annual auction), has been elected chairman of the board of trustees for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. (GLAZA). She’s also a trustee at Childrens Hospital . . . .
Philanthropist Lady Dodge has been appointed by President George Bush to the Advisory Committee on the Arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C. . . . .
Doreen Forsch takes over the presidency of the Pasadena Guild of Childrens Hospital, succeeding Shirley Struble. New members include Wendy Drewry, Marcia Grace and Donna Walker . . . .
Judy Felsenthal has been elected president of the Rainbow Guild, the fund-raising arm of the Amie Karen Center for the Treatment of Children with Cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
BRAZIL: First Lady Barbara Bush has accepted honorary chairmanship of “Carnival de Rio,” the Luminaires Juniors of the Doheny Eye Institute’s major benefit March 16. Members will dine and samba and tango to Brazilian beats at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Co-chairs Diane Avery and Angela Doheny are cooking up a hot time under the aegis of president Barbara Aldrich . . . .
As for the Luminaires (the senior crowd), they’ll host a fashion extravaganza March 13 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, showcasing Travilla. Benefit chair Jaclyn Tilley Hill, has announced that Mary D. Allen, a major Doheny donor, will be honorary chair because of her contributions to vision research.
WITH FLAIR: The Diadames, the ladies gourmet society, has two missions: to support scholarships for gifted students at Mirman School and to dine with flair. They dined with flair last week in the Grand Trianon Room of the Regent Beverly Wilshire--on grilled breast of chicken marinated in cilantro, black pepper and wine.
Luncheon chair Adrienne Underwood, who remembers having “the best sodas” at the drugstore located in a corner of the hotel, decided the “creative ideas” luncheon should incorporate some of the best ideas of table settings of Diadames luncheons past.
That provided lots of fodder for humor for emcee Art Linkletter, who did his famous interviews with each of the table designers: Marcia Adams (a country French table setting she did originally in 1974 at the first Diadames luncheon); Midge Clark; Andree Kersten; Rosemary Raitt (who had husband John Raitt sing “Happy Birthday” for her table, a replica of her 1981 setting); Mary Lou Hicks; Margaret Spillane (she incorporated the rug made from the zebra she shot in Africa); Dona Kendall; Lois Linkletter; Doris Mendenhall, and Lucy Zahran Bonorris.
In the “things past” mood, George White, president for years at the Beverly Wilshire, was recalling for Marie Windsor Hupp, Dorie Pinola and Millie and Fred O’Green that the famous Grand Trianon has at various times been called the Florentine Room, the Cotillion Room and the Mayfair. In the room, Kirk Douglas was filmed in “The Man With the Horn” and Muhammad Ali was married.
