RSVP / The Social City : For the Smithsonian’s 150th, the Partying Starts Here

Twelve cities will stage galas for the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. And Los Angeles’ will be first, Feb. 8. The national museum will celebrate its birthday on the road, so to speak, says Marcia Hobbs, who is on the gala committee. Just getting started on L.A.’s festivities are gala chairs Dona Kendall and Eli Broad. They met before Kendall flew off for a vacation to Chantilly, France. She’ll return July 4 and go into action. The Smithsonian will send art to be exhibited in February, 1996, in our convention center.

Beautiful Rider: Francie Steinwedell on Sylvia won the $50,000 Oaks Classic Grand Prix in a jump-off on a lovely sunny day in San Juan Capistrano. More than 1,000 watched the competition. Joan Irvine Smith was there to distribute honors to Steinwedell as well as awards in the House of Hermes’ $10,000 Acorn Junior Amateur Grand Prix.

With Smith were two sons and their families--Jim Swinden and his wife, Madeline, and their tot, 3-year-old Jase; and Russell Penniman and his wife, Carol (the Pennimans are now living in Rancho Santa Fe), and their children, Elizabeth, 8, and Rex, 5.

Others under the white tent were Helen Maher and daughter Helen (having a “girls’ weekend”); Dave and Holly Davis (who purchased a plein-air painting from the art exhibition); Norm and Pat Trenton; Allen and Kay Browne from Las Vegas with Wally Neff, and Nadine and Bill Tilley (on cloud nine after presenting their daughter Nicole Renee two nights before at the Social Service Auxiliary Presentation Ball). Also in the crowd were Bob and Camilla Strub, who have moved to Death Valley, and his mother, Betty Strub of Pasadena.

Grander: After more than three happy decades renting a cozy corner at Farmers Market from the Gilmore family, the Junior League of Los Angeles moved into its new Regency building on Larchmont Boulevard and held its first board meeting Tuesday night. Debt-free.

To the $1-million bequest from member Marjorie Hamlin Rainey, members and Sustainers added $1.2 million more. Active in the campaign were past President Nancy Hindle-Katel, campaign chairwoman Ann Zimmerman and league Sustainers Kitty Keck Moses, Sue Patrick, Val Holberton and Iris Craddock.

Black-tie: Sculpture contributors Iris and B. Gerald Cantor were honored at a black-tie tribute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art recently. Hosts were Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, and Carl Spielvogel, trustee and dinner chairman.

The week before, the Cantors were honored by the White House for their on-going sculpture exhibits in the garden. Flying east for both affairs was Suzanne Marx.

A friend of Diane Disney Miller for 35 years, Marx, as vice president of development for the Walt Disney Concert Hall, is getting her soldiers in line to raise $130 million in two years to build the hall.

Elsewhere on the

Social Circuit

* In closing the 75th-anniversary year of the Huntington Library, President Robert A. Skotheim, over a final luncheon, extended an invitation to the Huntington’s centennial Aug. 30, 2018. “I, myself, will fly down from the Pacific Northwest where I will be in retirement. I will be 85,” he noted. And he predicted the budget will be $40 million, three times the present size.

* Past Perfect: The late afternoon luncheon George and Betsy Link hosted in Brentwood to honor lawyer Rohit Kochar and his wife, Nilu, of Delhi, India. Among the many feasting under lawn umbrellas were Rock (former ambassador to Finland) and Marna Schnabel, Joan Gerstell, Lynn and Hugh Evans, John and Jeanie Cushman, Joan and Jack Mackey, and Congressman Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) and his wife, Rebecca.

* Eighteen young women were presented to Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, at the Social Service Auxiliary’s annual Presentation Ball, chaired by Evelyn Vodhanel and Gerry Nigg. They are Nicole Tilley, Marisa Toberman, Jennifer Von Der Ahe, Kathleen Clougherty, Monica Adler-Herrera, Erin De Pietro, Stacey Drellishak, Jennifer Yuja, Lisa Vega, Gretchen Schlutz, Katherine O’Keefe, Megan Duffy, Jennifer Giampaolo, Nicole Gurash, Pamela Hamilton, Katherine Hayes, and Eileen and Laura Kaspar.

Judie Dee was presentee chairwoman. Escorting the cardinal at the Beverly Hilton ceremony were George Alfred Victor Dunning and Cyril Peter Nigg.

* Kudos: To director Robert Wise (“The Sound of Music”) honored at the Loyola Marymount Hal Roach Entertainment Award dinner. . . . To John F. Cooke, Bill of Rights in Action Award, at the Constitutional Rights Foundation dinner. . . . To Jacob Maarse, named 1995 History Maker by the Pasadena Historical Museum. . . . To Sosei Matsumoto, who hosted a lavish tea ceremony for 350 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (she’s a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow). . . . To Diana Collins, who presented her art students at an exhibition of paintings at the home of Michael and Lynn Joseph. . . . And to Barbara Billingsley, Peter Graves and Art Linkletter, honored at the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge dinner-dance.

* Neiman Marcus and the Fraternity of Friends, headed by Fred Roberts, staged the Friends’ annual black-tie dinner Monday evening. . . . Alyce Williamson was on hand for the opening reception for “Selections from the Robert A. Rowan Trust Collection” at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design. The show runs through July 9. . . .

* UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture has established a board of visitors. Founding members include Roy H. Aaron, Daniel N. Belin, Paul Bent, Eli Broad, Roy Doumani and Ginny Mancini. . . . Peter Adams has been elected a trustee at Pacific Asia Museum.

* Blue Ribbon President Phyllis Hennigan addresses the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives at a luncheon Tuesday at the Music Center. Topic: “Identifying, Recruiting and Motivating a Volunteer Work Force.” . . . James L. Powell, president of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, has added another title to his literary credits: “Pathways to Leadership: How to Achieve and Sustain Success” (Jossey-Bass Publishers).