An Appreciation of Women and Music

Humorist Angie Papadakis and psychiatrist Dr. David Viscott offered 240 guests food for thought at a luncheon staged by the Spyglass Hill Committee of the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

“Celebrating Women Today” was the theme of the committee’s seventh annual benefit seminar, held last week at the Irvine Marriott hotel. The $55-per-person luncheon raised about $10,000 for the philharmonic’s youth music education programs.

All About Women

“We wanted to bring in speakers that can genuinely inform the women and entertain them, too,” said committee president Gloria Schick Gellman, who helped organize the event with benefit chairwoman Joni Harvey.

Papadakis, a gag writer and co-author of “The Howls of Justice,” began her talk by thanking the group for calling her the program’s emcee instead of “mistress of ceremonies.”

“I’m a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. I’ve never been a mistress,” she joked. “But hope springs eternal.”

Papadakis had this to say about her age (which is 66):

“I feel like a young woman--who has something terribly wrong with her.”

And this about marriage:

“It can be a rich and rewarding experience--if the husband is.”

She ended on a serious note that indeed celebrated women, calling them “the most tender, loving and giving of all God’s creatures.”

Viscott, a psychiatrist and author best known for his call-in radio program on KABC, offered his diagnosis for what often troubles women.

“Because of the way we’re brought up, women grow up expecting to be taken care of. Instead, they take care of everybody else,” he said.

His secret to mental health:

“Tell the person who hurt you that they hurt you when they hurt you. A person with a happy life gets over the bad and still enjoys lunch.”

Appreciation

The luncheon included a performance by 13-year-old Cameron Houser, a participant in the philharmonic’s Musical Encounter program, who played works by Bach and Mozart on the saxophone.

“We should get her a gig at the White House,” Gellman joked.

The program served as a reminder of the benefit’s purpose: “To transfer the passion for music” to children, said Judith Jelinek, president of the philharmonic’s women’s committee board.

“My love of music began formally at age 7 with piano lessons and informally listening to classical music on the radio,” Jelinek said.

“I liked the pictures on the radio much better than the one’s on TV. Music has the power to conjure up images. . . . Denying music to children is like killing a birthright.”

Under the Musical Encounter program, gifted young musicians perform for third- to sixth-grade students at Orange County schools.

“The purpose is to inspire the little ones to succeed at something,” said Ellen Halopoff, in-school chairwoman of Musical Encounter.

Other faces in the crowd were Rama Baker, Elaine Delman, Jane Grier, Ellen Halopoff, Judith Jelinek, Barbara Kilponen, Jane Lawson, Sharon McNalley, Marilyn Manderscheid, Patricia Muffie, Terri Newman, Mary Osterhout, Christel Schar, Mitzi Tonai, Cathy Udall, Sue von Hemert and Bobbitt Williams.