Bobby Short Provides an Elegant APLA Boost

The Scene: The appearance of Bobby Short--a fixture at New York’s Cafe Carlyle--at the Wilshire Ebell Theater Wednesday night for a fund-raiser for AIDS Project Los Angeles. Afterward, supper was served in a banquet hall at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, converted into a twinkly, candlelit nightclub for the occasion.

Who Was There: APLA chair Steve Tisch, Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter, Joe and Donnie Smith, Henry and Ginny Mancini, Douglas Cramer, Dick Sargent, Nina Blanchard, Alexis Smith and Craig Stevens, APLA chief executive officer Leonard Bloom, event chair Larry Chrysler.

The Buzz: Vanishing elegance and style, and everything else the legendary Short epitomizes. That includes the imminent (March 30) demise of I. Magnin Bullocks Wilshire a few miles away. “It’s a tragedy. They don’t make stores like that anymore,” said John Martens, vice president of Neiman Marcus. “Oh, I’m very sad about it,” said Jim Watterson, vice president of Robinsons-May. “It’s like the last vestiges of the ancien regime. “ “That’s the first place I ever had a charge account,” said Dick Sargent. “I’m going to miss it.”

Sound Bite: “Swell.” Short said he was having a swell time and thought the audience was swell to think he was so swell.

Quoted: “High society’s not so bad. I get these invitations to little dinner parties, cocktails, big dinner parties, banquets. A single man has it made. I have to pick and choose,” said Short of his life among the New York, uh, swells.

Noted: “They asked me what kind of flowers Bobby Short would like, and I decided an elegant flower is a white orchid. Elegance is also good champagne in a good crystal glass--right? Elegance is serving very special coffee, believe it or not,” said event chair Chrysler, explaining how he envisioned the party.

Fashion Statement: Producer Douglas Cramer’s tuxedo shirt studs--little jeweled David Webb frogs.

Finances: Tickets were $50 to $250, the latter including supper. About $110,000 was raised.

Glitch: Nightmarish parking. Let’s see, 700 people buy tickets. They arrive in approximately 350 cars. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how many parking lots are needed.