Racing the Night Away at Hollywood Park

Forget the binoculars. You could all but reach out and touch those sleek thoroughbreds the other evening at Hollywood Park as they ran by the Doheny Eye Institute’s Luminaires and Luminaires Juniors “Return to the Glamour” gala beside the track.

It was Los Angeles’ Ascot. Night racing. Glamorous gowns. Palm trees swaying. Tommy Farmer’s white flowers scenting the dusk. A private enclosure with white kiosks. And Dr. Feelgood and his Interns of Love band, allowed to play when the horses weren’t in danger of being spooked.

Diane Brown and Paula Bronson of the Juniors and Veva McKee and Alyce Williamson of Luminaires had met all year to plan. But for the Juniors this was special--they were celebrating 20 years, their ebullient founder Emily Gardner and a year in which they raised $1 million. “Thank you,” said Dr. Stephen Ryan, head of the USC Medical School and the Doheny Institute.

Gege Pender, Marlene Brakovich and Joyce Taylor plowed through treasured Hollywood Park photos of such stars as Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor for art blowups. A committee including Jan Thompson, Sally Green, Cathy Woodward, Maureen McDermut and Ann Irvin ran a silent auction of items such as a Windstar cruise that netted $160,000.

But it was fashion that made the evening sparkle: Elizabeth Hasbrouck in angora and beads; Emily Gardner in black fluffy Oscar de la Renta; Juniors President Liz Bishop in shiny Escada and wearing the racehorse pin her husband, Anthony, brought her from Hong Kong. Kara French in Moschino green silk, Cathy Singh in pink Bill Blass. Liz Ondaatje wore vintage Lanvin tassels. Callie Irvin and Tory Howe came in glittery gold, Connie Van Vorst in a white pantsuit, Betty Morgan wearing a Pascal horse.

A whole contingent arrived from Orange County--Byron and Michelle Roth, Angela and Michael Doheny, Kathy and Lee Hancock. They mingled with the Pasadena people, like Susan and Steve Ascher, Ruth and Tom McNulty, Henry and Robin Williams, Sally and Kenneth Dulin and Bert and Catherine McKee.

The trick was to establish a place for perfect viewing on the rail. Doing that and winning bets, too, were Will and Libby Doheny, John and Carolyn Cleator, Roger and Julie Corman, Mimi and Gene Bell, Nina and Steve Winterbottom and Jeff and Isabel Arnett.

Emily Gardner had a pearl of wisdom: “Vision without action is nothing but a dream, but vision with action will change the world.”

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Art of Dining: The Newport Harbor Art Museum’s “Art of Dining IX” kicks off at 6 p.m. today with champagne, then dinner at the Four Seasons, Newport Beach. The black-tie affair fetes artist Edward Ruscha, says chairwoman Twyla Reed Martin. Joachim Splichal will bring together six of the hottest culinary stars from around the country to prepare the six-course menu.

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Terrific: Clark Cornell, chairman of Forms Engineering Co., and his wife, Barbara June, have donated $6 million through a charitable remainder trust to the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Their son Bradford is a professor of finance there.

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Zoorific: Chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall and actress Betty White will be honored at the 26th Beastly Ball June 15th, marking the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Zoo.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

Wedding bliss is inundating the social calendar: Charles and Nancy Munger were in New Canaan, Conn., on Saturday for the wedding of their son Barry Alfred Munger to Sarah Quinn O’Neill, both of New York City. She is the daughter of Henry and Eleanor O’Neill of New Canaan and Nantucket and a graduate of Middlesex and Smith College. The bridegroom attended Harvard Westlake and is a graduate of Stanford. David’s uncle and aunt, David and Margie Barry, were among Angelenos at the wedding . . . In New York, too, at the Church of the Heavenly Rest at 90th and Fifth Avenue, Whitney Potter, daughter of Anthony and Phyllis Potter of Greenwich, Conn., and formerly of Pasadena, married Basil Leonard Hurst III before a lavish and lively reception at New York City’s Union Club. At least 20 Southlanders frolicked to Bob Hardwick’s orchestra, including godfather T.K. Vodrey, Bruce, Susan and Amy Seidel, Bob and Kathy Gillespie, and Connie and Jack Grigsby of Newport Beach.

* Une Fete Champetre under Nadine and Bob Skotheim’s twin spreading chestnut trees signaled the wedding on May 25 of Bob Wycoff, former Arco president and Huntington Library trustee, and Deborah Moffett, whose late husband William A. Moffett was Huntington librarian. Alice and Joe Coulombe, and Marge and Sherm Telleen hosted too. Gentlemen guests arrived in what must be the latest fashion--Panama straw hats. Doffing them were Ron Olson, Jerry Secundy and James Caillouette, while Coulombe chose a natty French boater for his even nattier plaid shorts.

* More bliss: Teri Oldknow and John Glanville are engaged, and Betty and Frank Whiting brought a multitude of friends together for blessings. Glanville and his family have been major Caltech benefactors.

* Choruses of French music and a cooking demonstration by Le Cordon Bleu cooking school’s chief master chef Patrick Martin lent pizazz to the opening of the Pierre Deux West Coast flagship store at Two Rodeo in Beverly Hills. Hedwige Cointreau de Bouteville, Pierre Deux president, flew in from Paris. The gala reception benefited the Children’s Action Network and United Friends of the Children.

* Kudos: To Robert E. Carlson, senior partner with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, presented the first Katharine Krause Award by the Inner City Law Center . . . To Dale and Chuck Snodgrass, honored at Loyola Marymount’s spring chorale . . . To Edward M. Carson and Franklin Graham, saluted at the Salvation Army Sally Awards . . . To Club 100 of the Music Center, naming Allan Burns, Peter Hemmings, Maxine Hong Kingston, Shari Lewis and Rod Steiger Distinguished Artists . . . To Jane Goodall, honored by the Muses of the California Museum Foundation and Friends of the Observatory (Griffith) . . . To Saks Fifth Avenue, Wendy Goldberg and Anne Johnson hosting luncheon to meet London designer Lana Marks . . . To six major benefactors honored by UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management--Joseph and Vi Jacobs for $1.2 million, Robert and Lila Kommerstad, $500,000, and Sanford and Betty Sigoloff, $500,000.

* After the Friday dinner at the Music Center honoring founding director Rebecca Thompson and co-founder Stephanie Naifeh, and after a Saturday picnic at Polytechnic School, today at 4 p.m. L.A. Children’s Chorus supporters will gather for the spring concert at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.