A Trio of First Ladies Suits Up for Salute

Former First Lady Betty Ford is one trouper. She not only starred at the Colleagues’ annual Valentine’s luncheon Friday honoring her and celebrating Adolfo’s spring togs, but she drove up from Rancho Mirage a day early to tour the Children’s Institute International.

The Colleagues have supported the institute and its work with abused children for 41 years. After California First Lady Gayle Wilson gave Ford the Champions of Children Award at the luncheon at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, the recipient responded: “The greatest opportunity (for) any of us is to serve--to be of help. The fate of humanity is in the fate of children.”

Adolfos were, to use a cliche, a dime a dozen. Said Jill Cartter: “I thought there’d be 150 Adolfo suits; I thought I’d add to it.” Looking down at her own suit, she noted: “It’s new . I just bought it at the Colleagues’ workroom” (where the group sells secondhand upscale merchandise).

Colleagues President Marjorie Miller sat at Ford’s right. She was in a white Adolfo. Saks Fifth Avenue Fashion Director Ginny Sydorick was in a pink look-alike. The paparazzi flashes were blinding when Betsy Bloomingdale, arms around grandchildren Berry and Jane Bloomingdale from Santa Barbara, whirled in in a houndstooth Adolfo cape. Alice Avery rustled by in an Adolfo with a chiffon skirt. Erlenne Sprague’s Adolfo was spring green, Betty Wilson’s white, Onnalee Doheny’s black. Dozens more wearing the woolly classics included Nancy Reagan, Bobbie Foreman, Patti Skouras (boasting hers was a 1979 vintage), Beverly Morsey and Betty Adams (up from Pauma Valley).

Eleanore Phillips Colt and Louise Good were front and center greeting the crowd of about 400, including Linda Blackburn (red hearts on her Moschino shoes), Elizabeth Eastman, Vanya Foster (carting Foster-Ingersoll bags with Valentine’s gifts), Norma Dana of New York, Kacey McCoy, Lyn Vandergrift and Topsy Doheny.

AT THE HELM: Ann (Mrs. Olin) Barrett has been named president of Las Madrinas, the prominent Childrens Hospital support group. Others on the slate: Peggy Galbraith, vice president, and Mary O’Connell, Belinda Walker, Cheryl Baker, CeCe Baise, Ginny Dickinson and Carlotta Keely. Susan Armistead will chair the Los Madrinas Debutante Ball in December.

FUTURE PERFECT: If elegance at the Fashion Circle’s recent dinner at Chasen’s was telling, the elegance at the Costume Council’s Ferragamo Fete April 11--in tented fantasy on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art--will be a night supreme. The famous Ferragamo family will attend as the council celebrates the opening of “Salvatore Ferragamo: the Art of the Shoe 1927-1960.”

At Chasen’s, Massimo Ferragamo (president of Ferragamo, USA) and David Salz, a Ferragamo executive, joined about 150, including Kathy and Bob Ray Offenhauser (she’s Costume Council chairman) and Adrienne Horwitch (Fashion Circle chairman), for a convivial cocktail period and a dinner launched with a trio of pastas. Little glass slippers on the tables set the mood.

The dancing was lively, and it was a night to admire everyone’s shoes. Enjoying were Marcia Hobbs, Adam and Penelope Bianchi, Otis and Dody Booth, Maggie Pexton Murray, Mary and Boyd Marshall, Marybeth and Greg Brundage, Carrie and Stuart Ketchum, Betty Leonard, Maria and Sandy Mallace, James and Heather Shuemaker, Martin and Donna Wolff, and Cathleen Tyner and Madison Offenhauser.

HUGS AND KISSES: Guy and Aileen Henry of Pasadena were surrounded by friends for the dinner celebrating her 50th birthday at the California Club. . . .

Doreen and Jim McElvany centered tables with hearts and flowers, and served apple tarts with nasturtiums to several hundred friends at their anniversary party at the Los Angeles Country Club.

LUNCH TRA-LA: The luncheons have been numerous: Jennifer Diener hosted Princess Marianne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn and a coterie including Ginny Mancini, Lynn Beyer, Joan Hotchkis and Nancy Petersen at her beach home. The princess will return the favor when she hosts a reception at her hunting lodge outside Salzburg, Austria, next summer for the Salzburg Celebration Committee supporting the August residency of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Salzburg Festival. Chat hit on the finer points of what to wear in Salzburg and the excitement of our town’s orchestra playing there. . . .

The Stepping Stone Resource Board watched the Saks Fifth Avenue parade of St. John Knits at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Member Ellen Weitman was responsible for taking three tables to support the temporary refuge for runaway children in Santa Monica. . . .

Never mind a few drops leaking from the overhead dome. Never mind that 15 called Neiman Marcus’ John H. Martens an hour before the event to cancel because of the heavy rains. What resulted was a delightful luncheon at Cicada on Melrose to honor designer Natalie Acatrini. Fashion mavens Anne Johnson, Susan Keck, Katherine Domyan (she has two Olympic gold medals representing Hungary as a 100-meter swimmer), Jisook Park and Jilian Hewitt were among those viewing a mini Acatrini show of what Martens called “wonderful confections” and a parade of summer city shorts. Barbara Davis and daughter Nancy Zarif arrived, only to be called away by their driver before lunch to pick up Nancy’s child, dismissed suddenly from school because of the deluge. . . .

Braille Institute Auxiliary and its president, Nancy Polimer, feted past presidents at the auxiliary’s 30th anniversary at the Wilshire Country Club. . . .

Pasadena’s Hillsides Home for Children saluted outgoing board chair Margaret Campbell and donors Merlin and Susan Olsen at a luncheon on the campus. . . .

Houston’s Sarah Weddington turned on the Southern humor after she was introduced by actress Amy Madigan at the Planned Parenthood Los Angeles public issues luncheon in the Century Ballroom at the Tower of the Century Plaza.