Bolton Is Fund-Raiser’s Bread and Butter

“Sliced bread, eh?” pop singer Michael Bolton said as he took the stage at the Disneyland Hotel on Tuesday night.

Tenor saxophonist Kenny G had just introduced the Grammy-winning artist (whose “Timeless” album is No. 1 one in the country) as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Given the way the 700-strong audience responded at the benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, you’d have thought The King was on stage. Deafening applause. Whistles. And yes, swooning.

“Here’s a song that is definitely significant in my life,” the long-haired Bolton told the wide-eyed crowd. “It’s the first song of mine that Kenny G ever played--an important kickoff in my career, ‘Soul Provider.’ ”

Sue Hook’s eyes filled with tears. Finally. It was happening.

Along with good friends Ralph and Eva Mann, Hook and her husband, David, had donated $50,000 (each couple gave $25,000) to bring Bolton and Kenny G to Orange County to raise funds for cystic fibrosis research. In fact, they’d won the chance at a benefit for the foundation when the two entertainers put themselves on the auction block for a private performance.

(Little did they know the performance would turn into a public benefit that is expected to net $250,000.)

But scheduling the engagement had been a headache. After months of up-in-the-air negotiating, Hook had begun to wonder if the entertainers would ever be able to firm up a date.

“I’m glad we’re finally together,” Bolton said.

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Before the night was over, Bolton had crooned most of the crowd’s requests, including “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Love Is a Wonderful Thing,” “To Love Somebody” and “Georgia on My Mind.” Kenny G played a medley of his blockbusters, including the hauntingly beautiful “Songbird,”--”a song I wrote for my wife,” he said.

Among special guests was foundation national president Frank Deford, who was presented with the local chapter’s annual Breath of Life award.

Deford, a sportswriter, has written a book--”Alex: The Life of a Child”--about the 8-year-old daughter he lost to the disease.

“He is our hero,” foundation national trustee Barry Gump said of Deford. “No person has done more to cause so many to become aware of this painful and wasting disease.

“When most would have walked away, after the death of a daughter, Frank chose to share Alex and her story with the world in a book that became a TV special.

“I am convinced this is where we first saw the light at the end of the tunnel.”

In recent months, the gene that causes CF has been found, Deford noted during the cocktail party preceding the gala. “And the defect in the gene has been found. And doctors have what they believe corrects the gene. When they find the cure, and they assure me it will be soon, it will be the first disease cured since polio.”

Before guests settled down to dinner in a ballroom decorated to evoke a winter wonderland--shimmering silver tablecloths were topped with iridescent snowflake centerpieces lit with votive candles--guests bid on silent-auction items that included a pair of Levi’s autographed by Bolton.

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Also among guests was Pat O’Connell, daughter of Alfred Hitchcock. O’Connell has a 14-year-old granddaughter with CF. “When I learned my grandchild had cystic fibrosis, my father asked: ‘What can we do?’ ” O’Connell said. “I told him there was nothing we could do; the disease has no cure. He was devastated.”

After Hitchcock’s death in 1980, O’Connell founded the Alfred Hitchcock memorial fund for cystic fibrosis research. “We have raised more than a $1 million,” she said.

Other faces in the crowd: faithful foundation supporters Becky and Don Baylor (manager of the Colorado Rockies); Anwar and Mary Ellen Soliman; Barry and Jan Grumman, and Dean Gerrie, event co-chair with Sue Hook and Karen Hall.