Hoedown Benefit Goes for the Big Bucks

In 10-gallon hats, chamois chaps, snakeskin boots and belt buckles the size of T-bone steaks, they rolled in like tumbleweeds for the grub and the show at Wild Bill’s Wild West Dinner Extravaganza in Buena Park. The Saturday night hoedown drew more than 600 duded-out guests at $50 per, raising an estimated $20,000 for the local chapter of the March of Dimes. The benefit, underwritten by Wild Bill’s, was a chance for the month-old restaurant to corral some high-profile locals for a buffalo barbecue and all the trimmings.

Giddyap

Sunset brought the urban cowboys and cowgirls to the restaurant’s massive front porch for champagne cocktails, an open bar and buffet tables loaded with shrimp, salmon, crab claws, fruit, veggies and fajitas.

For culinary daredevils, there were fresh grilled slabs of antelope, jack rabbit and buffalo. (Asked about the bison appetizer, Phil Beukema, executive director of the Orange County Chapter of the March of Dimes, swallowed hard. “It tastes kind of like tough beef,” he admitted, “but really good tough beef.”)

Entering the huge bar area, guests passed between a pair of stained-glass windows with portraits of ol’ Bill Hickok (looking a lot like Custer) and Annie Oakley (immortalized in colored glass as a dead ringer for Michelle Pfeiffer).

Inside, some of the livelier guests paired up and two-stepped to tunes played by the house band while others admired the old photographs, drawings, elk heads, deer horns and other Western doodads that cover the restaurant walls.

The highlight of the evening was the show that complements dinner--a singing, dancing, lassoing, knife-throwing, cowboys-and-Indians affair on a proscenium stage surrounded by banquet tables. Dinner was campfire cuisine: barbecued chicken and pork, baked potatoes, beans, biscuits and apple pie.

A Helping Hand

“I’ve always had a special feeling for the March of Dimes,” said Ed Beaver, an executive vice president of Wild Bill’s. “It just made sense to do something for them (as our) first fund-raiser.”

The March of Dimes specializes in research and community programs to improve the health of infants and children. Beukema said proceeds will be used for research projects at UC Irvine and grants to local medical clinics that offer prenatal counseling and care to indigent women and other high-risk groups.

“I know it sounds idealistic,” Beukema said, “but our goal is for every baby to be born healthy.”

Faces

The benefit was chaired by Ruth Ko and Mary Ann Miller. Also seen: Gayle and Bob Anderson, Donna Bunce, Ann and Jack Custer, Paul and Virgina Knott Bender, Deborah and Michael Fabricant, Olivia Chami, Pat and Steve Bone.

Quote

C.C. Whitney wore a skimpy black and pink silk costume. Her husband, Municipal Court Judge Claude Whitney, wore cowboy duds. “I’m a dance-hall girl,” C.C. said with a grin, “and he’s--well, people are always saying he looks like Dennis Weaver. So, I guess he’s Dennis Weaver tonight.”