R S V P / ORANGE COUNTY : Barbara Mandrell at Home in Hoag Country

About 700 supporters of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, many of them doctors who traded in their stethoscopes for bolero ties and their white lab coats for denim, moseyed down to the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Friday for a night of boot-stomping country music.

The Hoag Country Classic, which featured a concert by Barbara Mandrell, was staged by the hospital’s 552 Club as part of the Taco Bell Newport Classic pro-am golf tournament. Proceeds from the $250-per-person gala and tournament are expected to reach $200,000, to be used for the renovation of Hoag’s Emergency Care Unit.

Country Fare

Guests gathered for a reception in a tent set up outside the theater dubbed “Club 552,” which looked a little like the set of “Hee Haw,” complete with greenery and hay.

Rudy Pollak, gala chairman, said organizers wanted the gala to have a country-Western theme because of Mandrell’s country roots.

“So we brought some straw, a few tables and a tent,” he said.

A buffet prepared by the Hyatt Regency Irvine included carved barbecue tri-tip steak, Southwest chicken pot stickers, baby back ribs, chili with jalapeno corn bread and other Western fare.

Some guests, who had spent the day on the golf course, spent much of the evening comparing notes about their games. John Martin, the gala’s honorary chairman and Taco Bell’s chief executive officer and chairman, joked that his performance on the course was one of “golf, lies and videotape.” He was teamed with pro Sam Randolph.

“Sam played great. I played horrible,” he said.

Hot Time

“Mercy but we’re going to have a hot time tonight.” That’s how Mandrell greeted guests for her concert on the Barclay stage.

Mandrell, former host of her TV own show, whose hits include “If Loving You Is Wrong I Don’t Want to be Right,” demonstrated why the Country Music Assn. named her entertainer of the year in 1980 and 1981--the first artist to receive the award in consecutive years. Mandrell sang, played a variety of musical instruments including the banjo, danced and otherwise charmed the audience.

“This isn’t the biggest theater we’ve played in, but it’s the warmest--you give so much warmth,” she told the crowd.

Dressed in a sparkling white knit bodysuit, Mandrell not only performed country tunes but also some rock and even a tongue-in-cheek rap number, which Mandrell performed in dark sunglasses to the tune of “You Are My Sunshine.”

“You enjoyed that, didn’t you?” she asked a young man in the audience. She asked him up to the stage and gave him the glasses. “Tell me you’ll keep those at least for a couple of weeks.”

Mandrell said she started in show business at age 11 and has always loved the spotlight.

“When I open up the refrigerator and the little light goes on, I take a bow,” she quipped.

Gala proceeds will help the Newport Beach hospital increase the treatment area of its emergency care unit from 17 to 30 beds. The expansion is scheduled for completion in May.

“The ECU was originally built to serve 15,000 to 17,000 patients a year. Last year we took care of 42,000 patients,” said Dr. Greg Super, director of emergency services for Hoag. “There are long waits in the waiting room.”

Among the guests were: Hank Adler, classic weekend chairman; Jim Reed, president of the 552 Club, and his wife, Amanda; Michael Stephens, president of Hoag Hospital; Jake Rohrer, golf tournament chairman, and his wife, Andi; Dick Allen, John and Fran Applegate, Gene and Phyllis Baum, Gordon and Carol Bowley, Bob and Terry Callahan, John Curci, Norman and Clarice Dahl, Michael Drucker, Peter Foulke, Charley and Nora Hester, Ray and Wendy Jacobi, Ron and Kathy Merriman, Cathy Mockett, Kara Robison, Dennis and Tami Parrott, Ken Stevens, and Bill and Judy Wilkerson.