Hospital Support Group Says It’s All in the Family

Five of the 33 Las Madrinas debutantes to be presented Dec. 21 at the Beverly Hilton have grandmothers who have been members of the prominent Childrens Hospital support group.

The girls were a pretty lot in summer frocks and holding nosegays as they stood in line to meet Las Madrinas members the other afternoon at a tea at the home of Kacey and Peter McCoy in Bel-Air.

The five representing another generation of involvement are Shane McCoy, Liesel Reinisch, Emily Worthington, Heather Stoneman and Jane Belmont.

Las Madrinas President Cece Baise and the board of directors attended. Leaders sipping iced tea and munching chicken and watercress sandwiches at the summer soiree were Ann Barrett, Mary O’Connell, Barbara Fountain, Janice Carpenter, Susan Hull, Cheryl Baker (who will be ball chairman) and Susan Miller.

Last week, the debs and their parents and grandparents were indoctrinated in the cause, visiting the Las Madrinas Program of Molecular Pathology at Childrens Hospital.

Others to be presented are Carolyn Barrett, Leith Connell, Caroline McGee, Natalie Conner, Gillian Grant, Melanie Fountain, Brooke Graves, Sarah Pillsbury, Stefanie Sobelle, Amy Schroeder, Rebecca Rogers, Allison Miller, Christina Overland, Molly Gould, Kelly Farmer, Devon Doughty, Katherine Hambleton, Heather Jones, Sara Hayes, Alexis Senter, Caroline Ronus, Amy Saliba, Sara Moore, Angela Newell, Marie O’Keefe, Jennifer Martin, Pamela Livingstone and Ashley Kern.

IT’S A DEUSY: History has a habit of moving right along, and it was in the making at the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel’s official grand opening gala for the Pasadena Historical Society and its planned $2.4-million museum.

The thrilling part of the night was seeing the custom-bodied Duesenbergs built in Pasadena during the 1930s. To display them in the dining room--the cars are too precious to be exposed to the night balm--the hotel knocked out a wall. The Packard, Auburn and Ford took the dew outdoors.

Funniest tale of the night came from Elise Mudd Marvin, who recalled it almost broke her father’s (Dr. Seely Mudd’s) heart when his Duesenberg caught fire. (It later sold for $1 million at Sotheby’s.) He loved it so much he used her mother’s best table linens to cover it.

President Ned Barnes, Jennith Knox, Richard Nevins, Lynda Patton, James B. Fox III, Sue Schechter and John Watkins were among Historical Society officers glowing. Honorary trustee R. Stanton Avery and his wife, Ernestine, sat at a table with H. Russell and Jean Smith. Major benefactors in the crowd: John and Ginny Cushman, Ruth Davis, Holly and David Davis (they won the drawing for the $5,000 prize, two nights in the hotel’s Tournament of Roses Suite) and Peg and Bruce Stewart.

Hotel owners Lary and Deborah Mielke and Bill and Eileen Zimmerman were prominent.

SUMMER FUN: The Music Center’s Club 100 took over the Four Seasons Hotel’s ballroom for its Distinguished Artists luncheon.

Before Connie Abell turned over the president’s gavel to Carol Mancino, the club honored this year’s awardees: actress Kathy Bates, opera singer Marvellee Cariaga, actor Bruce Davison, Los Angeles Master Chorale director John Currie, playwright Philip Gotanda, artist David Hockney, film producers Lili Zanuck and Richard Zanuck, Los Angeles Times arts reporter Barbara Isenberg, dancer Paula Kelly and Los Angeles Philharmonic principal concertmaster Sidney Weiss. Diane Morton and Eva Fremont chaired the Bullock’s-sponsored event . . . .

Before Kim Peterson and Ellen Price bowed out at the Bel Age Hotel luncheon as co-chairs of the Center Theatre Group Volunteers to new chairs--Jill Petty and Kathy Todd--they presented a check for $130,000, raised at the group’s recent Angel’s Night event, to artistic director/producer Gordon Davidson. The check was promptly handed to director Peter Brosius of the Improvisational Theatre Project (ITP) for young people. Honored guests were the stars of “A Little Night Music,” Lois Nettleton and John McMartin . . . .

Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills’ John Martens invited a happy group to a chic luncheon to see the Geoffrey Beene fall collection. Included: Alice Avery, Clarice Ellis, Mary Lou Hicks, Ruth Yablans, Lara Ladd, Lynn Deutch.

THRILLS: Tenor Luciano Pavarotti wowed the sellout crowd with five encores for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Musicians Pension Fund concert at the Hollywood Bowl Monday evening.

Picnickers such as Gordon and Liz Anderson, Don and Joanne Albrecht, Ruth Shannon, Henry and Ginny Mancini and Maggie and Earl Russell were in boxes along with Michael Connell, chairman of the Philharmonic board of directors, and his wife, Susan.

Those who bought $1,000 tickets sashayed on to the Century Plaza for a dinner with Pavarotti.

PAST PERFECT: Friends applauded when newlyweds Sally (Keon) and Rick Mogan stepped to the dance floor at the Los Angeles Country Club. Their dinner-dance for several hundred came after a trip to Bermuda . . . .

Bobbie Galpin and Ruth Harbour invited more than 100 to a chatty luncheon at Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena. . . .

Laney and Tom Techentin feted newlyweds RoseMary (Mitchell) and Alan Korostoff at a sit-down dinner in their home, the candles and silver gleaming . . . .

Melinda Wulff came down from Sacramento (where she reports Gov. Pete and Gayle Wilson are widely feted) to co-host a luncheon/linen shower with her sister Michele Crahan to honor bride-to-be Elizabeth Guerin (who marries Doug Dickinson in August).

LAS PATRONAS: More than 250 crowded the Coral Casino Ballroom in Santa Barbara Saturday for the 34th annual Las Patronas Presentation Ball chaired by Claire Stuart of Camarillo. Assistance League of Ventura County charities for children with developmental disabilities will benefit.

Ronald L. Hertel of Santa Paula presented the girls: Heather Gerjets, Kimberly Lisagor and Kristin Wascher, all of Camarillo; Dendee Henson and Bridget Moll of Ojai; Cynthia Burdullis of Oxnard; Kendra Harris of Santa Paula, and Katherina Hambleton of Ventura.

KUDOS: Bee Canterbury Lavery, the city’s chief of protocol, has been awarded Italy’s cavaliere ufficiale dell ordine al merito della Republica Italiana (high knight of the Italian Republic order) by Consul Gen. Alberto Boniver . . . .

Top sports names joined the Crippled Children’s Society of Southern California to honor sports medicine pioneer Dr. Robert Kerlan at the Cary Grant Pavilion at Hollywood Park.

NORMAL FOLK: Diners were in for a surprise at the Father’s Day Brunch festivities at the Four Seasons, when President George Bush and First Lady Barbara went through the buffet line--”just like normal folk,” we’re told.