He’s Helping Out Children in a Million Ways

When you invite someone to dinner, how nice when they reciprocate with $1 million. That was the way things went last week at the affair for the 34th anniversary of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital staged by Marlo, Terre, Tony and Rose Marie Thomas for 1,000 at the Beverly Hilton.

It wasn’t enough that the evening raised $1.1 million. Then, David Geffen, record mogul and partner in DreamWorks SKG, got caught up in the night’s magic and volunteered $1 million. Wow.

Said Marlo Thomas, “I’ve met a lot of men who know how to make money, but few who know how to spend it.”

Roseanne brought the house down. Tony Bennett mesmerized the crowd when he sang sans microphone. Dr. Arthur Nienhuis, director of St. Jude in Memphis, Tenn., was in the spotlight with Bob Hope, Sid Caesar and others at $20,000 tables.

St. Jude, says Marlo Thomas, now has a cure rate of 73% for leukemia and 90% for Hodgkin’s disease. The 60-bed center devotes 800,000 square feet to research, she says. Her father, the late actor Danny Thomas, was St. Jude’s founder.

Pot of Gold: The Lymphoma Research Foundation of America’s “Celebration of Life Ball” at the Beverly Wilshire raised $230,000. Actress Tracy Nelson, a Hodgkin’s disease survivor, inspired 450 people with her personal triumph over cancer. Comedian Julia Sweeney, a cancer survivor who lost her brother to lymphoma, entertained and received the Lifesaver Award presented by Jane Leeves (“Frasier”).

Pure Gold: The Los Angeles Alzheimer’s Assn. raised $250,000, a record for the charity, at its fourth annual “Night at Sardi’s” party. More than 600 attended and heard John Lithgow sing. Honorees included NBC for its shows portraying the plight of Alzheimer’s patients; John E. Bryson, chairman of Edison International, for the company’s elder care program, and Deborah Hoffman, producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter.”

Golden Syndrome: In the last 26 years, Footlighters have contributed $3 million to needy children and it’s been a kick--benefit cabarets, with members cavorting in dance and song. Footlighter President Jean Van Tuyle, ball chairwoman Rosemary Herd and production chairwoman Caren Larkey delivered a saucy “Misbehavin’ with Cole Porter” the other evening at the Beverly Hilton. It was the 57th annual affair. Veteran footlighter Peggy Edwards charmed with “You Do Something to Me,” and Suzanne Dillard and Sue Casey were caught in applause, too. The Childlife Center at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center benefits.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

It robbed a bit of jazz from the Scripter Award dinner when Emma Thompson didn’t return from Europe to accept her award for best screen adaptation from a book for her script for Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” Friends of the USC Libraries carried on in the historic campus Doheny Memorial Library with lots of Dohenys dining. Patrick Anson Doheny remembered lifting a shovelful of dirt at the groundbreaking for the library. It is named for his late father, Edward Lawrence Doheny Jr., whose wife Lucy Smith Battson died two years ago at age 100.

New librarian Jerry Campbell (from Duke University) and his wife, Veta, greeted at the top of the stairs. Marjorie Lord Volk, who chaired the selection committee that reviewed 51 films and books, got applause. Holly Hunter takes on that job next year.

In the crowd were dinner chairman Robert Sattler, Digby and Kay Diehl, Peter McCoy and his son Patrick and daughter Shane (Patrick Doheny’s grandchildren); Ned Doheny (Patrick Doheny’s son), Toni Niven, Polly Goodan, Harry Brandel, Noorna Eversole, USC President Steve Sample and his wife, Kathryn, and Margaret and Earl Leake.

Plaudits to Pat Mitchell, to be named “Citizen of the Year” by the Beverly Hills Family Y on April 25 . . . To Rod Dedeaux and Bob Dockson, saluted at the Orthopaedic Hospital and Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic dinner . . . To Yukiyasu and Misako Togo, feted at a farewell party by the Japan America Symphony Assn. before they return to Yokohama and their vacation spot in Hawaii . . . To Robert Frandzel, Patricia Curry and American Airlines, all recognized at the Friends of Child Advocates’ event at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

* Consul General of France Jean-Maurice Ripert decorated Marcia Israel with the Officier de l’ordre national du Merite at her home.

First Lady Pat Nixon would have been 84 on Saturday. The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda is celebrating her birthday with free admission today and in this weekend’s programs and concerts.

* Kitty Bartholomew, Cindy Connolly and Pat Rauth staged the Children’s Chain luncheon and fashion show at Eclipse restaurant with designer Victor Alfaro directing models. Alfaro is a recipient of the Council of Fashion Designers Assn. Perry Ellis Award for new fashion talent. Proceeds go to Childrens Hospital.

Kudos to John Watkins, named chairman of the Catholic University of America’s seventh American Cardinals Dinner to be held April 19 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. (Eight U.S. Catholic cardinals will be honored) . . . To City Councilman John Ferraro, recipient of the Asa V. Call Achievement Award at the USC General Alumni Assn. dinner at the Biltmore.

Past perfect all: Santa Barbara Historical Society’s Collectors Series with programs on “Garden Follies” and “Pleasure Gardens,” and abundant social luncheons and receptions chaired by Barbara Parker Robinson . . . The Pasadena Garden Club’s lecture and slide show by noted English historians Ann and Alan Gore, on “Great English Women Gardeners,” with tea and sherry following at the Huntington Library . . . The Fashionettes 51st benefit, co-chaired by Helen Reeves-Pearson and Edna Ralston to raise funds for the radiation oncology department at Queen of Angels/Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center . . . USC Town and Gown’s luncheon feting Elaine Leventhal and Marilyn Zumberg.

* Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Sundays.