RSVP / THE SOCIAL CITY : Assistance League Polo Benefit Is a Hit
To no one’s surprise, former Ambassador to Jamaica Glen Holden scored the winning goal at the Golden Mallet Invitational Polo Tournament. And to no one’s surprise, his team, Gehache, won against the Union Bank of Switzerland team.
“Has his team ever not won?” quipped Edward Cazier, shaded under a white umbrella with his wife, Yvonne, and a coterie of guests at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club.
Flower Frocked: At the club, nestled between the ocean and mountains, polo field breezes wafted through the straw hats, many festooned with flowers. Gentlemen wore blazers and ascots. Ladies were frocked in flowered prints or contemporary geometrics. Paulette Burkitt wore a saucy backless sun dress. She sat at a front table with her husband, Bill; actor Alan Thicke (“Hope and Gloria”) and his wife, Gina--all guests of benefit co-chairwoman Eva Elkins and her husband, Charlie.
Bob Ray Offenhauser and his wife, Kathy, of South Pasadena were nearby, chic as always, and so were Al and Katie Osterloh, she in flowered silk. Saks Fifth Avenue fashion dynamo Ginny Sydorick wore a toast-colored Valentino suit with double macrame collars, and her son, Jeff, was handsome in his Hermes riding-cap-patterned tie and sockless loafers.
Cazier recalled that the late Max Fleischmann (of the yeast family) had given the polo grounds to the club years ago. Nevertheless, the south playing field is now called Holden Field.
Seeing Double: Most guests thought they were seeing double when Holden’s wife and patron chairwoman, Gloria Ann Holden, who founded the Golden Mallet 12 years ago, appeared with her identical twin, Barbara Willing of Lake Oswego, Ore. The Holdens’ daughter, Geannie Holden Sheller, was also a benefit chairwoman with Patricia Petro. Sheller graciously gave up lunch to greet almost every guest. Montecito residents Alexandra and Dick Crissman and Hope Ranch dwellers such as William and Marion Stewart were prominent on the scene. More from the Santa Barbara area--Frank and Kathy Miller, Missy Chandler and Michael and Ceil Pulitzer. Claire Storm represented Westlake Village.
Worthy Cause: Proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Assistance League of Southern California’s preschool and kindergarten, certainly pleasing to all the Assistance League supporters who were there, including Beverly and Larry Thrall, league president Chip Selby and Jonna King.
More in the crowd were Bob and Maria Tuttle, Ray and Bette Rodino, Jack and Smooch Reynolds, Dorothy Clark and daughter Margaret Preissman, Robert and Dottie Mitchum of Montecito, Dr. Mo and Jennifer Gharavi and son Bijan, and John Lochart and Wendy Basil bouncing their newly adopted baby, Alice Rose, from Jiangsu province in China.
Elsewhere on the Social Circuit:
* Champagne glasses sat on the Tiffany & Co. Beverly Hills counters this week in a stunning pre-party to launch the 10th season of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Opening night, Sept. 7, will feature Verdi’s “Stiffelio,” starring Placido Domingo.
Opera gala chairwoman Joan Hotchkis and new Beverly Hills Tiffany Vice President Mary Swanby joined L.A. Opera General Director Peter Hemmings in announcing the season. All glittered amid Tiffany jewels.
Opening night gala tickets are priced at $700 and $725 and include priority seating, the post-performance gala on the Music Center Plaza and a tax-deductible contribution to the opera.
Gov. Pete Wilson and Paloma Picasso will be honorary chairs. Tiffany will provide each woman guest with a Paloma-designed white enameled box with red-and-gold trim.
Attending the pre-gala festivities were Marion Lauri, Irving Feintech (chairman of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), Alyce Williamson and Kelsey Hall, who were joined by Mary Marshall later for dinner at the Bistro Garden. Joan and John Hotchkis also dined at the Bistro Garden with a large group.
At Tiffany’s were opera board chairman Bernard Greenberg and his wife, Lenny; board president Dick Seaver and major opera enthusiasts such as Carol Henry, Cheryl and Robert Baker, Missy Crahan, Jennifer and Royce Diener, Em Green, Rosalind Millstone, opera vice president Lorin Wilson and his wife, Annabelle, and Joan Thompson.
* Susan and Sheldon Malchicoff hosted luncheon at their Westlake Village home for the Founders Circle of the Alliance for the Arts of the Charles E. Probst Center for the Performing Arts in Thousand Oaks.
* The Junior League of Los Angeles will kick off its 70th birthday celebration Sept. 30 at a “Roaring Twenties” party at the new Marjorie Hamlin Rainey headquarters building in Hancock Park. Recently, the league introduced new president Kimila Ulrich at the past-presidents luncheon, also at headquarters.
* The Assistance League of Southern California previewed its Design House ’95 over luncheon in Toluca Lake.
* Remarkable: The City of Hope’s biennial roll call at its convention recently revealed nearly $70 million raised in the past two years for the institution. Now Gil N. Schwartzberg takes over from former chairman Richard S. Ziman. At the three-day convention at the Beverly Hilton, Ben Horowitz was honored for 50 years of service to City of Hope. At last Sunday’s convention picnic at the medical center, two major new buildings were dedicated--the Anne and David Warsaw Medical Office Building and the Mickey and Alice Kaplan Clinical Research Laboratory Building.
* Big silver trays with goblets filled with red and white French wines were offered by Ginny and Dick Stever of Pasadena for their “fetes le 14 Juillet” Bastille Day cocktail party. “If you live in a French house, you have to have a Bastille Day party,” said Ginny. Georgie Erskine noted that it was the peasants who revolted on Bastille Day--not necessarily her crowd, but it was fun to celebrate. More who were enjoying were Tad and Cici Williamson, Tomi Spear (down from Santa Barbara), Marilyn and Jud Roberts and Jean and Boyd Higgins.
Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Sundays.
