Ritzy Supper Will Aid Cancer Research
Mark your calendars for Sept. 13. This one is special.
Jean Aldrich, widow of UC Irvine’s founding chancellor, Daniel Aldrich, has been named honorary chairwoman of Supper at the Ritz, a Newport Beach benefit (at the posh Ritz restaurant, of course) that will establish the Daniel C. Aldrich Memorial Fund for Cancer Research and benefit the UC Irvine Medical Center’s Clinical Cancer Center.
The $4-million cancer center, which opened earlier this summer, needs money to complete its research laboratory. Reservations for the $100-per-person event are limited. But call (714) 525-2394 if you’re feeling lucky.
Elaine Redfield and Eva Schneider are event co-chairwomen. Also among those on the committee: Pat Allen, Gayle Anderson, Susan Beechner, Mary Lou Hornsby, Peggy Cotton, Mary Roosevelt, Michelle Rohe, Joanne Sokolski and Catherine Thyen.
A touching tribute: More than 500 community leaders gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach on Friday to honor Sister Frances Dunn--president emeritus of St. Joseph Hospital in Orange--at a black-tie gala. Sister Frances, a beloved figure in local health-care circles, has had a 40-year career in medicine, including service at St. Joseph and Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Mistress of ceremonies for the event was Mary Muth, who attended with her husband, Peter. Also on the guest list: Dolly Karcher, Patrick Sweeney, Thomas Penn Jones, and Douglas Taylor.
A Night to Remember: It was Beethoven under the stars for the Alzheimer’s Assn. of Orange County on Saturday when they gathered at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre to picnic, participate in a silent auction and hear the Pacific Symphony Orchestra perform. Presiding over the event was chairwoman Joyce Weiss of Huntington Harbour, who lost a parent to Alzheimer’s disease. The degenerative illness afflicts approximately 4 million American adults.
Bridal Buzz: Opera buff Kasia Johnson just couldn’t stop gushing about the recent wedding of Tristan Angelle Hammond and Brian Evan Ritter when she attended a luncheon staged by Cartier at the Center Club last week.
“The music was the most magnificent I have ever heard at a wedding,” Johnson said. No wonder. The father of the bride is Opera Pacific leader Thomas T. Hammond. Seems Hammond and his daughter--named after Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”--combined forces to dream up the musical menu performed by the 27-member Opera Pacific Chorus, with Henri Venanzi directing.
Selections (so beautiful they gave her chills, Johnson said) included the love duet from Puccini’s “La Boheme”-- “O Soave Fanciulla.” Other songs performed at the Laguna Presbyterian Church nuptials included “One Hand, One Heart” from “West Side Story,” sung during the ring-passing ceremony, and “Intermezzo” from Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana,” performed during the candlelight ceremony. Talk about a memorable wedding.
Happenings: Getting together last week to tout the Sept. 27 Race for the Cure on behalf of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation were the event’s honorary co-chairwomen, Ginny Ueberroth and Betty Belden-Palmer. The two fund-raising dynamos convened with fellow committee members at the Episode Store at South Coast Plaza to drum up interest for the Newport Beach run/walk that is expected to attract 7,000 participants. Stay tuned. . . .
Tennis greats Bobby Riggs, Vic Braden, Bob Lutz and Pancho Gonzalez gathered at the Newport Beach Tennis Club last week to promote the Legends Against Leukemia Tennis Classic, an Oct.2-4 tourney featuring a Tennis Ball on opening night and entertainment by the Lettermen. Proceeds will go to the Leukemia Society of America’s lymphoma research. Celebs such as Connie Stevens, John Forsythe, Chuck Norris and Meredith MacRae will be participants, along with tennis legends Pancho Segura and Ilie Nastase. . . .
There’ll be a special spot for singles to mingle at the Oaks Classic and hunt breakfast on Aug. 30 at heiress Joan Irvine Smith’s San Juan Capistrano stables. Smart move. Singles rarely sign up for organized events because ours is such a couples-oriented society. For reservations for the benefit for UCI’s College of Medicine, call: (714) 856-8941.
A Buenos Aires getaway: The Decorative Arts Center in San Juan Capistrano is planning a study tour to Buenos Aires from Sept. 19 to Oct. 5. Plans for the 16-day trip include visits to Bariloche, near the Chile border, and Iguassu Falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina. Price for the trip, double occupancy, is $3,200. Contact Kay Evans at (714) 673-2010.