A Rediscovery of the ‘50s at Benefit

“Discovery U.”--a.k.a. the Discovery Museum of Orange County--held a “class reunion” Saturday that brought 150 guests to the museum’s sprawling Santa Ana grounds.

Dressed down in rolled-cuff Levis and other ‘50s gear, party-goers circled silent auction tables during cocktail hour, sat for buffet dinner at dusk, then bopped to their feet, waving pompons while Sha Na Na stormed through an hourlong concert of nostalgic tunes.

By the time the last pair of penny loafers tramped off into the night, the $75-per-person benefit raised $10,000.

It Ain’t Broke

So why fix it? This year’s lawn party looked a whole lot like last year’s (headlined by folk legends the Kingston Trio). Same theme, same setup, same low-key sensibility.

“The ‘50s is an era our audience is familiar with,” said Discovery Museum Executive Director Karen Johnson. “We figure they’d rather hear songs they can sing along with than, I don’t know, Madonna. Or Prince.”

Money Matters

The Discovery Museum consists of four historic Santa Ana buildings set on 4 1/2 acres planted with a 130-tree citrus grove, 320-bush rose garden and an herb garden. More than 20,000 schoolchildren visited the site last year to learn about the county’s cultural heritage through museum exhibits, programs and activities.

Proceeds from the fund-raiser will help underwrite restoration of the John Maag ranch house, a three-story frame house built in 1899 that was moved from north Santa Ana to the grounds in 1982. Johnson estimated total rehab of the beat-up, boarded-up structure at $400,000.

Also benefiting from the party is the new “Victorian Woman” program for adults interested in 19th-Century decorative arts, fashion and gardening.

Who’s Who

Jo Corbett chaired the benefit. Among committee members who designed specialty silent auction packages were Mary Seith (white sports coat, pink carnation, white bucks, Pat Boone cassette tape); Mary Ann Hunt (35-yard line tickets for a Rams-Raiders showdown, plus tailgate party fixings); and Vernette Gilbert (an oil painting by Gilbert of sunflowers blooming on the museum grounds).

Creative Cuisine catered buffet tables loaded with garden salad, angel hair pasta, barbecued chicken and peach cobbler. Hors d’oeuvres were dubbed Sha Na Nachos, Hounddog bratwurst in beer, Little Darlin’ pizza and Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire meatballs.

Among guests were Barbara and Tom Peckenpaugh, Ginger and Tony Allen, Rochelle and Scott Anderson, Judy and Joel Slutzky, Debbie and Doug Thomsen, and former California Angels pitcher Ken Forsch, his wife, Jonnye, and daughter Stephanie.