Tree Festival Fund-Raiser to Move West

Atlanta made almost $1 million for charity last year, Salt Lake City $600,000 and Iowa’s Davenport Quad City area $300,000--all nets on benefits called “Festival of Trees.”

Susan Chandler and troops, including Sharon Pelton, were inspired. So they will take on the concept to benefit Five Acres, the home for abused children in Altadena.

The festival modus operandi sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Five Acres gets donors to underwrite decorated artificial Christmas trees. Next, the trees are auctioned--each for $200 to $800 or so--at a fund-raising Preview Night, Nov. 24 at Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

The public views the trees for five days--Nov. 24-25 and 27-29--at $3 for adults and $1.50 for kids. Besides the pretty designs on view, there will be Teddy Bear teas (with peanut butter sandwiches), holiday decorating classes, gift marts. There’s a seniors’ night, a family night, a Sunday brunch. And a Santa letter-writing booth. The goal is $60,000 net this year, but next year, watch out!

NEW, TOO: What we hear is that a breathtaking collection of 22 copies of First Lady inaugural and other gowns opens Nov. 22 as the centerpiece of a holiday show at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

“White House Style: Formal Gowns of the First Ladies” is based on the collection of originals at the Smithsonian Institution. They’ll stay through April 18.

Then, on Nov. 23, Julie Nixon Eisenhower will launch the library’s Distinguished Speaker Series, “The Lady of the House: Great Wives of Great Presidents.” Tea follows Eisenhower’s lecture on Mamie Eisenhower and Pat Nixon, her grandmother and mother.

Thomas Schwartz, editor of the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Assn., speaks on Mary Todd Lincoln Dec. 10; Letitia Baldrige, White House chief of staff to Jacqueline Kennedy, on Jan. 11; Polly Willman of the Smithsonian on first ladies’ political roles and public image on Jan. 21; Richard Norton Smith, director of the Herbert Hoover Museum and Library, on Martha Washington Feb. 18; Clement Conger, retired curator of the White House, on Pat Nixon March 18, and Herbert Hoover III on his grandmother, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, April 8.

SOCIAL SCENE: Caroline Singleton hosted afternoon tea for new members of the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center. . . . Los Angeles Spinsters welcomed new members at brunch including Lucy Hartford, Katie Milias, Kristin Techentin, Melissa Sample, Gina Pace and Christie Lewis. . . . Susanne and Joe Marx laid out the all-American menu--chili, onion rings, hamburgers and apple pie, at Chasen’s Tuesday night to rejoice and cry over elections. . . . The Regency Club glittered with diva Rosemary Clooney singing as club founder David and Maria Murdock (Clooney’s daughter) celebrated the club’s 11th anniversary. . . .

Pres and Maurine Hotchkis and John and Joan Hotchkis invited about 200 pals for an “Evening at the Ranch” at Rancho Los Alamitos on Bixby Hill (their family’s land grant) in Long Beach. You’ve never seen so much turquoise and fringe bobbing as the crowd took on the Texas two-step. A week later, the John Hotchkises were hosting the incredible Halloween night wedding of his daughter Sarah to Robert Peter Ketterer.

All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena was awash with gigantic sunflowers on the pews. At the Valley Hunt Club reception, the West Coast Music band went wild while guests danced under spider webs and ghosts and devoured hearts of bat salads and nibbled on a perfectly wicked chocolate wedding cake. . . .

And Helen and Dr. Bill Lambrose celebrated a 30th anniversary with a garden supper in San Marino.

UP FRONT: Ed Carson, chairman and CEO of First Interstate Bank, and Nancy Daly, children’s activist, will be center stage when the Salvation Army announces the public launch of its Hollywood Redevelopment Campaign on Monday, detailing plans to expand the army’s The Way In Teen Drop In Center. . . .

Michaele Vollbrach of West Palm Beach, former Coty fashion design winner and now painter, has his first gallery opening in Los Angeles at Tom Buckley’s Melrose Place Antiques Nov. 19. The event benefits PAWS LA, a charity to care for pets of AIDS patients. . . .

Pasadena Humane Society will picnic on the tailgates of Range Rovers at the Rose Bowl Court of Champions on Nov. 14, raising funds for a new animal facility.

EARLY SHOPPERS: How about these philanthropic Christmas gift ideas: The Junior League of Pasadena’s new “California Sizzles” cookbook; The Scripps Home Family bazaar and hobby show featuring art by older artists from Scripps (today at 2 p.m. at the home in Altadena, 2212 N. El Molino); the Hospital of the Good Samaritan annual holiday preview (today at 616 S. Witmer).

KUDOS: To Natalie Cole, honorary chair of Giorgio Beverly Hills’ fund-raising photography and moving images exhibition, “California--The Cultural Edge,” previewing Tuesday to benefit 10 charities. . . .

To the Westside Guild of Childrens Hospital “Tis the Season” fund-raiser Nov. 13 at the Regency Club, chaired by Deedie Hudnut. . . .

To Susan Strauss, kicking off the Music Center Entertainment Council’s performance series for children with a luncheon at the Regency Club. . . .

To John and Jeanie Cushman, welcoming Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic music director, at a garden party for the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic Committee.

AND PLAUDITS: To Leah Rotermund, beginning her second year as chair of the Los Angeles Affiliates and announcing $650,000 raised last year for the L.A. Philharmonic. . . . To Christine Varner, president of the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee, announcing an initial $300,000 from its May Showcase House of Design. . . . To the League for Crippled Children and its 50th anniversary Jack O’Lantern Ball chaired by Brooke Mohun. . . . To Las Floristas and its outgoing and incoming presidents, Susanne Hall and Julie Lee, announcing $315,000 from the Floral Headdress Ball chaired by Marlene Chumo and Carolyn Stockwell. . . .

To Crittenton Center for Young Women and Infants, holding its 100th birthday party and reunion with accolades to Los Angeles Rotary Club president Paul Netzel and Ahmanson Foundation president Lee Walcott. . . . To Club 100 of the Music Center and Saks Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, saluting fashion designer Josie Natori, “A Woman of Our Times,” at a luncheon at the Bistro Garden. . . . To Nevada Gov. Bob Miller, to be honored at a dinner today as Loyola Law School’s Distinguished Alumnus. . . .

To John J. Pike, honored at a Wednesday luncheon as retiring president of the Southern California Building Funds. . . . To S. Craig Tompkins, partner of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, hosting a black-tie Casablanca Night at the City Club on Bunker Hill to benefit TRIPOD, which aids deaf children. . . . To Cynthia Coleman, chairing last week’s Treasures and Trivia Sale for the Pasadena Guild of Childrens Hospital, benefiting pediatric eye cancer research.