Ball Raises Funds and Spirits for a Cure

Promise was what it was all about at the Los Angeles Promise Ball at the Beverly Hilton. Mary Tyler Moore, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation’s international chairman, talked of “A Decade for Cure” for diabetes. Thanks to the good work of the co-chair trio--Brooke Young, Connie Fishbach and Lia Iacocca--the ball promises to net about $400,000.

The trio also promised fun. And they delivered--a 1920s night with the aura of Hollywood in its glory, Bernadette Peters entertaining and Keith Edwards’ Orchestra for dancing.

The pre-ball mechanics of fund-raising: More than $100,000 was raised through individual and corporate donations, an additional $100,000 through the ball’s ad tribute calendar. Top tables sold for $5,000.

HIGH TRIBUTE: Dynamic citizen Dr. Franklin D. Murphy has always targeted main points.

More than 300 friends gathered in UCLA’s Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden Sunday afternoon to celebrate his 75th birthday--and to salute Murphy and his wife, Judith, for their lifetime support of the arts and launch an 18-month citywide Celebration of Public Service to the Arts in Murphy’s honor. The honored guest put it all in perspective:

“The notion of public service needs to be newly emphasized in our contemporary life, charged with all the meaning and responsibility and potential fulfillment that this rather old-fashioned term embodies.”

Public service, Murphy added, “gives each of us an opportunity to make a difference and, in the end, offers the kind of richness and satisfaction that few other pursuits can do.”

Robert Erburu, who followed Murphy as chairman of Times Mirror Co., and Charles Young, who followed him as chancellor at UCLA, both paid homage. Erburu referred to Murphy’s “intelligence, energy and enthusiasm--and each is guided by principle. . . . His energy is legendary; his determination is awesome.”

Young noted that Murphy is a trustee of the Ahmanson Foundation, chairman of trustees of the National Gallery in Washington, president of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, a founding trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and trustee of the J. Paul Getty Trust. He presented the Murphys with a William Brice lithograph.

Before and after speeches, prominent arts leaders strolled through the retrospective exhibition celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts on view in the Wight Art Gallery at UCLA.

Prominent in the crowd were LACMA Director Earl A. Powell III; Lillian Weiner, former president of the UCLA Arts Council, which Judith Murphy helped establish; Francie Brody, chairman of the Matisse exhibition at UCLA in 1966 when Murphy was chancellor; benefactors Yvonne Lenart and Peter and Helen Bing; LACMA stalwarts Mia Frost and Julian and Jo Ann Ganz; and more--Frank and Edith Wyle, Henry Hopkins, John and Andrea Van de Kamp, Andrea Rich and the Murphys’ children, daughter Carolyn Speer and her husband Ross, son Franklin Murphy with his wife, Wendy, and daughter Martha Crockwell with her husband, Craig, and their daughter Erin.

PAST PERFECT: At the 75th-anniversary gala of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross, special recognition went to Diamond Circle members who have contributed $75,000 or more--Herbert Hafif, Marion and Earle M. Jorgensen, Jan and Bowen H. McCoy, Dorothy and Leonard H. Straus and Dr. S. Jerome and Judith Tamkin. Royce and Jennifer Diener chaired the event. . . .

“Family Spirit” took the spotlight at the California Family Study Center dinner under the stars at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum. For her sensitive roles in television specials, actress Mariette Hartley nabbed the first Clinton E. Phillips Award, named for the founder of the Family Study Center. Center President Dr. Edwin Cox presented it as dinner chairs Mary McAlister and Gloria Mahdesian and Trustee Carolyn Miller and her husband, Charles, looked on. . . .

Christopher Logan, graduate of the famed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., was on the scene for the opening of the Oak Tree Meet at Santa Anita. He’s taking over for the legendary Tony Pope, who retired in April after 30 years of dishing out the couture cuisine at Santa Anita. Oak Tree President Clement L. Hirsch and his wife, Lynn, were at the helm in the Directors Room, hosting Stephen and Sally Keller among friends. . . .

It must be autumn, because the Autumn Cotillion, headed by advisory board chair Jane Mock and ball committee chair Bonnie McClure, was in black-tie swing at the Beverly Wilshire. Newest members include Nancy Day, Jane Barrett, Gretchen Schumacher and Carlotta Keely. . . .

And, more for autumn, the cymbals were echoing at the traditional UC Berkeley Cal Band benefit last weekend at the home of Helen and Jerry Stathatos in San Marino. Cheering the band: Rick Russell, chairman, Linda and Don Keene and Steven and Amie Hinds.