Bowers Party, Support Group Find Treasure

A trip to the world-famous Muzo Emerald Mine in Colombia, anyone?

Not exotic enough? You’re kidding. Then how about a search for sunken treasure off the coast of Turkey with underwater archeologist Willard Bascom? An East Africa safari with renowned anthropologist Mary Leakey?

These are a few of the adventures that await the Fellows of the Bowers Museum, an exclusive organization founded by the museum’s new executive director, Peter Keller.

News of the most sophisticated support group ever to come down the (local) pike came during the museum’s annual “La Fiesta” celebration on Friday night at the Santa Ana facility.

“The Fellows is based on the philosophy that those of us lucky enough to work in museums have a window on the world we take for granted,” said Keller, formerly director of programs for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. “We decided that most other people would love to have the same opportunities.”

So Keller and his significant other--Patricia House--pooled resources to establish a local Fellows organization like the one they instituted at the Los Angeles museum.

Here’s the way it works: Museum supporters who donate $1,000 annually will have the opportunity to participate in armchair adventures (lectures in private homes), collecting adventures (one or two-day events or trips), and international discovery adventures.

House--a clinical psychologist with a passion for adventure and museum development--is chairwoman of the new group and has already planned the Fellows activity calendar for 1991-92.

Activities in September include a “collecting safari” from Laguna to San Diego, where Fellows will be treated to private showings of ethnic art. Also in September: the trip to Colombia with Keller--an authority on emeralds--and Armand Labbe, an expert in pre-Columbian art and history.

The November calendar offers a two-day symposium with Sotheby’s that will teach Fellows about collecting prints and maps. November also brings the armchair adventure that will lay the groundwork for the expedition to Turkey with Bascom, the underwater archeologist whose recent trip to the Black Sea uncovered an old ship.

“We’re trying to arrange a large family to support the museum,” explained House, looking at once glamorous and adventure-ready in a gold lame jumpsuit. “And we have found that the very best way is to get in touch with our contacts and resources and then provide special entree to our supporters.”

The Fellows program will be broad in scope and intimate in style. “The key is intimacy--we only want 20 to 30 people for each activity and on some of the big trips, only 10,” House said. “Costs for each could range from $35 to $10,000.”

The calendar also reveals plans for a December expedition to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. “On that trip, the big deal will be our visits to Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom,” said House. “And we’ll take scientists, artisans, and experts along on all our trips, so we can learn .”

Among guests at the Friday night bash--which had an Art Deco theme (“Bowers opened in 1936, during the Art Deco period,” explained gala chairwoman Judy Fluor-Runels)--was actress Tippi Hedren, mother of actress Melanie Griffith.

A visit to Hedren’s Shambala Preserve, a North Los Angeles sanctuary for exotic cats (we’re talking Siberian tigers here, not Persian pussycats) is on the Fellows’ calendar for November.

“Peter Keller is a real shaker and doer,” said Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s ornithological thriller “The Birds.” “That’s why I joined the Fellows in Los Angeles--a fabulous experience.”

(Sidelight: People always ask Hedren about her role in “The Birds,” she said. “I was so terribly lucky to do that movie. It has opened so many doors to do things I wanted to do.”

(And, they ask her about her “Working Girl” daughter, Melanie Griffith--who is married to actor Don Johnson. “The best thing about Melanie, who is a fine actress, is that she really isn’t aware of the talent she has,” Hedren said. “When I tell her she has been wonderful in a role, she looks at me and says: ‘Oh, Mommm. ‘ “)

Guests arriving at the Friday night bash, which was expected to raise about $40,000, quickly learned that this year’s “La Fiesta” wasn’t going to be held in the leafy museum courtyard.

No way. “The museum is undergoing renovation and expansion,” said Runels, a study in white satin, black suede and rubies. “We’ll open in the spring of next year; but we won’t formally open until the fall of 1992.”

Said Keller: “I hope to bring the museum an international perspective. In Los Angeles, I did a great deal with foreign governments--bringing major exhibitions from the Soviet Union, China, Colombia, Finland. I’m already working on bringing exhibits like that to Santa Ana.

“Being close to Disneyland, the 5 freeway, and Anaheim, we couldn’t be better situated for a major museum. The new Bowers will be a museum for all of Southern California.”

An Uppity Party: Bowers Museum may have partied on the street but Executives for Hope--a support group of the City of Hope in Duarte--partied on the roof Saturday before attending a showing of “Les Miserables” at Segerstrom Hall.

“We thought it would be fun to do something different, “ said Trent Merrill, president of Executives for Hope, a group of young professionals who pay annual dues of $50.

Not only was it different, it was delightful. A playful breeze nipped at the hems of party dresses worn by women dining atop the fifth-floor Center Tower parking structure. And crystal clear views of the mountains were available, free of charge.

How did the Executives pull off their unique party place? They called the Segerstrom family (parking structure owners), of course.

“And they gave it to us free of charge,” Merrill said. It was the perfect place for a pre-theatre party. Are you listening gala planners?

Roast-Toast to the Creans: Comedian Stan Freberg probably had the best line at Saturday night’s celebrity roast honoring philanthropists John and Donna Crean at their home in Santa Ana Heights. That was no earthquake on Friday, Freberg told supporters of ParentHelp USA. “That was Donna Crean’s jewelry falling off.” (Somebody should tell Peter Keller about Donna’s emeralds.)

Freberg joined fellow comics Milton Berle and Joey Bishop for the benefit that also featured loving zingers delivered by designer Richard Blackwell.

Said roastmaster Bishop: “The Creans would have gotten divorced years ago, but neither wanted custody of their son, Andy.” Needless to say, the Creans’ beloved son, Andy--a fixture at Village Crean--almost fell off his party chair.