Stars, Music, Night Air and Beautiful People

Stars overhead. J. Sterling’s Orchestra. Somerset Caterers’ luscious hors d’oeuvres. Norma and David McIntyre’s grassy Hancock Park estate. Elbow-to-elbow party-goers, their kids back to school, taking in the balmy night air.

It all combined for a special 36th black-tie dinner dance for Childrens Chain Dinner Dance Committee, a party traditionally held at a private home in Hancock Park, Pasadena or on the Westside.

The handsome crowd, fund-raisers for Childrens Hospital, made people-watching special: Chairwoman Cheryl Ziegler, beside her Gibson Dunn lawyer husband, Peter, wore a strapless silk Armani, and greeted a crowd including Bruce and Mindy Byers, Wendy and Michael Warren, Lori and Greg Porter (their new fourth baby is Macaulay), Blaine and Lynda Fetter, Kathy and Walt Rose, Dr. Meg Bates (her husband Scott Johnson was in Bangkok), Chris and Don Killian, Ann and John Bookout (back from Moscow), Charles and Eileen Read, John and Barbara Hawley, Peter and Suzanna Funston, Lynn and Doug Brengle, Melinda and Win Wells, John and Wendy Siciliano, Joe and Allison Winter, and Suzanne and Frederic Rheinstein. Bruce Meyers conducted the live auction. His wife, Raylene, (just back from Cambodia) looked on with Anne Wilson, Childrens Hospital president.

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Matching Up: The Kresge Foundation has pledged $450,000 to complete the Richard J. Riordan building at Puente Learning Center (opening this fall), but on condition that supporters raise another $1.5 million by Dec. 31, thus completing the $9.5 million campaign.

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October Racing: Officers and directors of the Oak Tree Racing Assn. host a merry luncheon opening day Wednesday in the Directors’ Room at Santa Anita Park.

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Kudos: Michel Richard was guest chef at the highly successful Harvest Auction hosted by restaurateurs and hotel industry leaders such as Leonard Dreyer, Jim and Carol Collins, Mary Alice and Richard Frank, Paul and Ardyce Handlery and Esther Snyder at Mayor Riordan’s Brentwood residence. Benefiting is the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Cal State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

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Boutique to Bistro: Fred Hayman turned his mezzanine shoe salon on Rodeo Drive into a flower-filled bistro for the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center. Between luncheon nibbles, Hayman’s evening wear got highest applause from guests including Phyllis Hennigan, Joan Selwyn, Erlenne Sprague, Harriet Deutsch, and Nanci Denney.

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Celeb: More than 600 packed the Grand Ballroom of the Regent Beverly Wilshire to honor Joyce Eisenberg Keefer at the John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary’s membership luncheon. She contributed $1.9 million in 1993 to establish the institute’s breast center.

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Smell the Roses: The fall social season is a rush. The California Museum Foundation and the California Museum of Science and Industry took to Exposition Park’s Rose Garden for their alfresco “Summer Symphony” . . . The HELP Group has dedicated its building to the needs of the learning disabled and their families. . . . Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Cheerful Helpers hosted a 60th annual luncheon and fashion show raising nearly $100,000 to support a therapeutic preschool.

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Keeping Up: Anchorage, El Nido and Fairview, three of the famous “cottages” skirting the Ritz-Carlton Huntington (built in the ‘20s) are the first of 13 to be renovated by Bill and Eileen Zimmerman. The cottages were on display at a recent reception where Natalie Howard recalled that her grandfather built Howard Cottage and Wallace Neff Jr. reminisced about his architect father’s design of two of the unique residences.

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Circle in Red: Dr. Ray Irani, a Salk Institute trustee, will host a reception Thursday at the Regency Club for influential Los Angeles supporters of the La Jolla biomedical research center. . . . The Fashion Industries Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is expected to raise enough Thursday at its 39th annual charity dinner dance to put the guild program over the $1 million mark. . . . Dr. Robert K. Kerlan will be saluted at the USC Center for Arthritis and Joint Implant Surgery dinner on Saturday at the Beverly Hilton.

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Past Perfect: The 100 Club Ball, an annual affair at the Beverly Wilshire, this year honoring Roy Anderson and Shel Ausman.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

* Two new groups touting young professionals and young marrieds are breathing life into the city: Hillsides Home for Children (a haven for children who have suffered extreme physical and emotional abuse) has formed the Young Professionals, who will sponsor a fund-raiser Oct. 14 at Santa Anita Fashion Park. And Five Acres (aiding abused and abandoned children) has formed “Five Acres Friends” for supporters in their 20s and 30s. John Jepson and Sheila Storrer are co-founders.

* Tonight the Fulfillment Fund, which seeks out disadvantaged eighth-grade students to help them complete high school, will honor Jackie and Howard Banchik, and Steve and Darlene Fogel at the Beverly Hilton.

* Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Sundays.