The Social Seen : Historically, 1994 was one of Orange County’s most significant seasons. From debuts to memorials, from fund-raisers to headline-makers, it was a year of note.

There’s no rest for the fund-raising set.

With the Orange County Performing Arts Center planning several galas--one around a yet-to-be-announced blockbuster musical--and the Orangewood Children’s Foundation celebrating its 10th anniversary with a year of activities, 1995 is already shaping up to be a social sensation.

Along with resurrecting its Center of Fashion after a year’s hiatus, the center will stage a gala around an appearance by James Levine, conductor of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

South Coast Repertory will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Hispanic Playwrights Project with “Una Noche del Teatro,” organized by its Nuestro Teatro support group.

And the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, dedicated to raising funds for the treatment of abused, abandoned and neglected children, will celebrate a decade of success with an Orange Blossom Ball at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

But wait. We can’t let 1994 sink into social oblivion without taking a last look. Historically, it was one of Orange County’s most significant seasons. There was the April reception at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace that followed the burial of the 37th President of the United States.

There were dozens of social salutes to UC Irvine professor Thomas Keneally, author of the Academy Award-winning film “Schindler’s List.”

Audiences at a May meeting of Roundtable West at the Balboa Bay Club were thrilled to watch the daughters of two of the world’s most famous actresses--Marlene Dietrich and Loretta Young--trade bitter tales about their mothers.

And Newport Beach playwright Cecilia Fannon’s October world premiere of “Green Icebergs” at SCR has the likes of Meg Ryan and Demi Moore thinking movie material .

Opera Pacific buffs trekked to Dodger Stadium in July to hear Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo reprise their precedent-setting 1990 Rome “Three Tenors” concert. And more.

Some of the year’s highlights:

* Talk about a power reception. Presidents Clinton, Bush, Reagan and Carter and their wives joined dozens of U.S. senators and members of Congress at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in April to salute the memory of President Nixon. After attending his burial ceremony, guests converged on the library’s lobby and Domestic Affairs Room to sip coffee and dine on finger sandwiches. Texas socialite Lynn Wyatt, who attended with oilman husband Oscar Wyatt, left the reception describing its wall-to-wall crush “a madhouse.”

* It was the tiniest of parties, and one Orange County only got to read about, but the Four Seasons suite in Beverly Hills that held Thomas Keneally, his wife, Judy, and their daughter, Jane, was chock-full of excitement on Oscar night in April. Resplendent in a custom tuxedo and UCI cuff links, the author of “Schindler’s List” toasted his family with a tulip of champagne and kept his fingers crossed. “There’s no way in the world Spielberg can lose,” he said. “The only doubts I have are associated with the fact that they said the Titanic couldn’t sink.” (Spielberg’s adaptation of Keneally’s novel won awards for best picture and director.)

* Tell Maria Riva she looks like her late mother, Marlene Dietrich, and you get a look that could kill and the reply: “As long as it’s on the outside . I think she was a gorgeous woman . . . I had great respect for her professionally. But as a human being, I had no respect for her at all.”

Riva and Judy Lewis--who, though her mum denies it, claims to be the daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable--didn’t hold back when they talked at a Roundtable West meeting about the pain they share.

Said Riva of her mother: “Be dashing and beautiful and you can get away with murder.”

Said Lewis: “To this day, my mother still does not publicly acknowledge that I am her biological child.”

* A late-night supper at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach saw Placido Domingo, 53, mingling with opera buffs in January after he performed the role of a young matador in “El Gato Montes” at Segerstrom Hall. No sooner had the dashing tenor swept into the ballroom than a guest asked him about the “challenge” of playing opera.

His gracious reply: “All of the roles I play are for young people, you know? I try to keep the sound very lyrical, the voice really calm.”

* Attorney Sharon Lesk (formerly Sharon Jaquith), a trustee of the Leo Freedman Foundation, tossed the year’s most elegant private party at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana when she underwrote a dinner saluting the Mexican art collection of Bernard Lewin.

Besides Lewin, guests included artist Vladimir Cora and “Rain of Gold” author Victor Villasenor. Guests roared when Lesk introduced Villasenor, saying that his book, a saga of his family’s life in Mexico, taught her what to do in an earthquake. “He says they prayed and made love. I can’t think of a better way to handle a natural disaster,” she said.

* Guests at a Villa Nova restaurant bash in Newport Beach almost dropped their dessert spoons when pop star Michael Bolton crooned “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “Georgia on My Mind” at the piano bar. His publicist said he wasn’t going to sing at the October fund-raiser for the Michael Bolton and Barry Bonds foundations. But when a guest offered to donate $7,500 to each foundation, Bolton changed his mind. “Barry and I know there are people out there who don’t think their dream is anywhere within reach,” Bolton said of the dinner benefit. “We want to help them.”

* At the year’s priciest dinner, guests paid $2,500 each to dine beside the likes of Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole, Gov. Pete Wilson, Bob and Dolores Hope, and Gene and Jackie Autry at the July “Architect of Peace” tribute to Nixon held at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. During his address, Dole, who arrived by helicopter, called on guests to help preserve the library through private donations, adding, “The more time I spend in presidential libraries, the more I wonder how one would look in Russell, Kan.” (his hometown).

* Party host Mark Johnson, 47, the North Tustin bachelor with a net worth of $20 million who sits on the board of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, made social waves when he went public with his dream to find wife No. 3. “Just this bluntly, I’m in the market,” he told The Times. “I feel like a pinball in this house by myself. I want a woman who would want me as opposed to need me,” he said. “If I can buy a woman--and I’ll take the time to find out if I can--I don’t want her.”

Johnson said he’d be willing to spend “upward of $40,000 per year on clothing” for his next bride. (And he’s still single!)

* Anybody who thought actress-model Brooke Shields would sweep into the Black and White Ball in a cloud of greasepaint, baubles and chiffon got a surprise in March.

For her stint on behalf of the Olive Crest Abused Children’s Foundation, Shields wore little makeup, her signet ring from Princeton and a simple black jumpsuit.

And she walked with a cane. “I just had foot surgery,” she confided. “Bunions.”

Shields came from New York for the annual affair because she wanted to help in the fight against child abuse. “I care very much about abused children,” she said. “We really need to make people more aware of the gravity of the situation.”

* They might have been some of the most successful Orange County fund-raisers ever to come down the pike when Barbra Streisand appeared at The Pond in Anaheim. But the 500 charity seats available at each of her concerts were all aimed to benefit Los Angeles organizations.

Why not Orange County charities? “Those charities are benefiting Orange County,” a spokesman for Streisand said in April. “Orange County is part of L.A.”

Talk about a snub. Talk about an identity crisis. When are Angelenos going to figure out that we have our own turf? Bet the bankruptcy helps.

And how was your year?