RSVP / THE SOCIAL CITY : Music Center Sets $9.6-Million Goal

The Music Center Unified Fund reached $10,022,000 in 1995, and has set a goal of $9.6 million for this year--an actual increase in new dollars from last year. That’s because the Music Center Foundation will contribute only $1,663,000 this year, rather than the $2,152,000 it contributed last year. More than 100 Music Center donors and volunteers gathered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to pledge their support for the campaign and applaud the $800,000 pledge from the Adams-Mastrovich Family Foundation, created to honor the late Mary Adams Balmat.

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More Generosity: The Pasadena Junior Philharmonic announced late in the season an excess of $600,000 in profits from the Pasadena Showcase House of Design . . . Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center’s fall fund-raiser drew 400 and raised $225,000 for the hospital’s radiology department.

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Gifts and Givers: Approximately 100 were on hand to pay tribute to Brentwood residents Marion and Bob Wilson for their gift of $400,000 to fund the Marion and Robert S. Wilson Medical Student Center, a private lounge and recreational facility for UCLA School of Medicine students . . . Methodist Hospital’s Replacement Patient Tower Campaign received another pledge--$300,000 from the Vons Cos. Inc. The goal is $8 million . . . The Burton G. Bettingen Corp. awarded the Florence Crittenton Center $100,000 to renovate its dining room and update its group home kitchen.

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Star-Studded Efforts: Arnold Schwarzenegger coaxed more than $125,000 from a starry crowd at a champagne brunch and auction at Planet Hollywood Beverly Hills. It will benefit national expansion of the Inner City Games Foundation . . . Sidney Poitier joined the Fulfillment Fund’s Stars of Tomorrow benefit dinner dance and silent auction to raise $250,000 and honor longtime supporters Jackie and Howard Banchik, and Darlene and Steven Fogel . . . Nearly $100,000 was raised at last year’s inaugural Vista Del Mar / Jaime Beth Slavin celebrity golf and tennis tournament. One hundred and forty golfers and tennis players participated at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana to aid PRO-VISTA, a support group of single, professional men and women. Hal Linden was celebrity host and Jill Slavin of Encino, chairwoman . . . At mid-year, the Children’s Bureau’s President’s Invitational golf charity raised more than $260,000 . . . An evening at the Hollywood Park Casino Ballroom netted $110,000 for deaf children attending Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired. The event saluted Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.

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Philanthropy: Hollywood luminaries Ed Begley Jr. and Cheryl Tiegs were among those at the Venice art studio of Los Angeles artist Laddie John Dill. The art auction raised $40,000 for the Rainforest Action Network . . . And we’ve learned that the Pasadena Symphony netted $200,000 from its Holiday Ball and Gala in December. The symphony’s annual Holiday Look-In raised an additional $100,000 with a tour of holiday-decorated homes.

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More Kindness: The United Liver Assn. awarded six seed grants of $10,000 each at its annual meeting at Beverly Hills Country Club . . . The Alumnae Council of Marlborough School sought “angels” to top the $12,230 it raised last year to fund a year’s tuition for a deserving girl . . . To honor the lifetime of giving by Charlotte Davidson and the late Davre Davidson, the Foundation for the Junior Blind dedicated the Davidson Program for Independence. Davre Davidson was founder of the multibillion-dollar Aramark automatic vending company.

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Belated Kudos: To Le Bal des Papillons and its 16th fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel to aid Interval House crisis shelters . . . To the Oak Grove School’s benefit performance in the Forum Theatre in Thousand Oaks for a new arts center building . . . To the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation and its new president, Mary Leslie, and the foundation’s new home in Beverly Hills--both celebrated during the holidays . . . To Kelsey Grammer and Leeza Gibbons, co-hosting Paramount Pictures’ “Christmas Fest ‘95” on the back lot’s New York Street. The beneficiary of ticket sales was the Psychological Trauma Center, which helps families and teachers cope with violence . . . To Dr. Carole Hurvitz, director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Pediatric Hematology / Oncology Division, honored for her passion and devotion for children with cancer and leukemia--at the Rainbow Gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel . . . To the Orphanage Guild Juniors and the Friends of Robinson Gardens, both hosting the children of Maryvale at December festivities, presenting Santa and sacks of gifts.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

It was the day after Christmas, but skydiving Santas and elves still dropped from a bright sky for the opening day of Santa Anita Park. Gilded palm trees, like Versailles, set a prestigious tone for Santa Anita directors and their friends as they mingled around a three-course buffet luncheon.

Sally and Steve Keller of Hancock Park were hosts to Debbie and Terry Lannie, Janice Carpenter, Lois and Fred McLane and Marilyn and William Schulte. Santa Anita President Cliff Goodrich and wife Karen entertained fellow Arcadians Mayor Dennis Lojeski and his wife, Janet. Songwriter Burt Bacharach, lunching with son Christphore, watched his horse, Afternoon Deelites, win the $150,000 Malibu Stakes, then slipped up to the Director’s Room for champagne and congratulations.

* Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Sundays.