Glamour’s the Thing for Philharmonic’s 75th Anniversary

Zubin Mehta is flying in from Israel. Esa-Pekka Salonen will also conduct. Gregory Peck has consented to be master of ceremonies. And Melissa Manchester will appear. Glamour. Glamour. Glamour. It’s the 75th anniversary celebration of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on Oct. 24, replicating the concert program 75 years ago to the date. The Founders League will sponsor and chair the celebration. President Curtis S. Tamkin is ecstatic about the advance success.

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A Sold-Out Dinner: Recipient of the evening’s net proceeds will be the Musicians Pension Fund. Already the black-tie post-concert dinner for 600 in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is sold out. And 21 individuals and corporations have each contributed $5,000 to be special patrons. Included: William H. Brady III, Richard Colburn, Carl Deutsch, Royce Diener, John Hotchkis, Ambassador Lester and Carolbeth Korn, Joe Le Bonte, Tamkin, Arthur Spitzer, Barry Taper, First Interstate Bank, City National Bank and the H. Russell Smith Foundation.

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Opera Opening: Gala co-chairs Alice Coulombe and Peggy Parker Grauman announced musically savvy plans to their Opening Night Committee of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera’s 1994-’95 season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The occasion was luncheon at the Yves Saint Laurent boutique on Rodeo Drive.

The opera season opens Sept. 9 with “Faust,” and remember Gounod set the music to Goethe’s classic version of the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil. That’s why the co-chairs, on the invitation, say, “Mephistopheles wishes to strike a bargain with you. . . .” The bargain: For $650 each, dining and dancing on the Music Center Plaza . . . and black tie, or devil red, if you wish. The lunch was the chance for YSL Director Beatrice Cederstom to preview the YSL Rive Gauche fall collection.

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Return to Glamour: Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills is taking the social season seriously. Last week, Saks nationally premiered its opera and symphony collection at an “Overtures Evening” fashion luncheon in the Four Seasons Grand Ballroom, showcasing the most beautiful evening designs seen on the New York and European runways in the fall collections. Editing the Saks collection: Vincent Knoll, director of couture. A fashionably intense crowd inspected every stitch of the bouffant ball gowns and body-skimming columns. Some scurried back to Saks to buy over champagne.

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Excitement Builds: The Santa Susana Repertory Company will launch its Inaugural Season on Sept. 17 in the Center for the Performing Arts now under construction at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks. “Man of La Mancha” opens the season. SSRC is Ventura County’s only resident professional theater company whose members perform in film, television and on stage. Opening night tickets have been reserved for Founders Circle members and donors to the plaza endowment fund. Larry Janss is chairman of the Center’s Founders Circle.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

* Chairman Dallas Price guarantees that the Museum of Flying’s Salute to Aviation will be off the wall, off the ground. The event will pay tribute to the great visionaries of the aviation industry.

Industry builders being honored: Donald Douglas Jr., retired director, McDonnell Douglas Corp.; Alan Puckett, retired chairman, Hughes Aircraft; Lee Atwood, retired chairman, North American Aviation; Roy Anderson and Robert Anderson, both chairmen emeritus, Lockheed Corp.; Wayne Hoffman, retired chairman, Flying Tiger Airlines; Harry Wetzel, chairman emeritus, Garrett Corp.; Tom Jones, chairman emeritus, Northrop Corp.

Northrop Grumman Chairman/President Kent Kresa will receive a special commendation. Gov. Pete Wilson and former Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger will make presentations. Fred Nicholas chairs the Sponsors Committee.

* Red-letter dates abound in September: South Coast Repertory’s 31st Mainstage Season opens with Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Sept. 9, but a “Viva Teatro” Gala on Sept. 10 will launch the Orange County social and theatrical seasons by saluting the 10th anniversary of SCR’s Hispanic Playwrights Project, coming in July 1995 . . . The Childrens Chain of Childrens Hospital has scheduled its elegant dinner dance Sept. 24 at the old Fritz Burns estate; Caryn Harb is chair . . . The 24th Beastly Ball hosted by trustees of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. is “zoorifically casual” Sept. 10, while fund raising will be intense.

* Past perfect: ABCs (Associates for Breast Cancer Studies) raised funds at Jimmy’s Restaurant, dusting off Western boots for a hoe-down to Smith & James . . . Event chairman Bruce A. Meyer and ardent supporters of the California Highway Patrol--including Maury Hannigan, Frank Clark and Jack Campbell--took in the opening night premiere of “Clear and Present Danger” starring Harrison Ford at Paramount’s new high-tech Hollywood theater, and two nights later STOP CANCER took its turn with a gala dinner supported by Ford and Sherry Lansing . . . Trustees of the Pacific Asia Museum opened their “The Evolving Dreamtime: Contemporary Art by Indigenous Australians” last week with Australian Consul General Rob O’Donovan up from Down Under.

* Always a circus, Art Linkletter lent support to the League for Children Ringling Bros. benefit . . . Jamie Hershiser opened her newly decorated home in San Marino to Dodger wives, who are revving up for the annual L.A. Dodgers Family Fashion Show 13 supporting cystic fibrosis research . . . Center Theatre Group Volunteers, headed by new prexy Janet Barnet, had breakfast at Neiman Marcus and conversation with Wendy Wasserstein (playwright of “The Sisters Rosensweig,” currently at the Doolittle Theater) . . . Hermosa Beach Sandpipers stage “A Tribute to Howie Long” (retired L.A. Raider) at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel on Aug. 14; Mary Cortney is chairman . . . And MGM Grand Air President Robert L. Gould hosted cocktails this week to say the luxury aircraft will take to the skies Sept. 8.