The Reins of Power

Relax! Relax!” the trainer shouts from across the ring. “It’ll be easier if you relax!”

Phyllis Hennigan, astride a galloping white mare, is trying her best to de-tense. Jaw set, back ramrod straight, eyes fixed, she lets her shoulders drop and allows a brief smile.

“There you go,” says the trainer.

Give the rider some credit--the 48-year-old Hennigan is only on her fifth lesson. A dead giveaway that she wasn’t born in the saddle? Chanel sunglasses.

This reluctant urban cowgirl is perhaps better suited to her other life as president of the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center, a prestigious group of women who support, through donations, the center’s resident companies: The L.A. Philharmonic, the L.A. Opera, the Center Theatre Group (the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre), the L.A. Master Chorale and the Music Center Education Division, an arts education outreach program for schools.

Hennigan is in her second year of this three-year volunteer post, as old guard members make way for the new and the Music Center struggles under serious financial strain. Still, guiding this group of 650 women seems a breeze compared to controlling a 1,000-pound horse.

“I don’t do live animals,” Hennigan explains.

What she does is volunteer work. Helming Blue Ribbon is the culmination of years of coordinating charity events, serving on boards, and donating time and money to nonprofits. She currently sits on the boards of the Center Theatre Group and public television station KCET.

Hennigan confesses that she was in awe of the Blue Ribbon when she joined in 1984: “There was something so magical about a woman standing onstage and saying, ‘Hello, I’m president of Blue Ribbon.’ I thought, ‘How could anybody have this job?’ You look around and there were all these women of the city. . . . I think it inspired me to work harder so I would be somebody that they would respect.”

She seems to have gained the respect of the impressive roster of members who include a diverse group: from best-selling author Judith Krantz to philanthropists like Wallis Annenberg and Iris Cantor, to State and Consumer Services Secretary Joanne Kozberg, to Anne (Mrs. Kirk) Douglas, Annette (Mrs. Peter) O’Malley and Jane (Mrs. Michael) Eisner.

Says former president Nancy Livingston: “She comes with tremendous executive ability. She could run a company. And she has a sense of seeing the big picture. This is a big business where you’re bringing in close to $2 million every year. . . . In terms of creating events, she uses every resource she can.”

Membership in Blue Ribbon is by invitation and minimum dues are $2,000 a year, ensuring the group’s exclusive status. This year it will contribute in excess of $1.6 million to the Music Center. (Since its inception it has raised close to $35 million.) In return for this support, members are treated to fashion shows, discussions with well-known authors and artists, plus finance and health seminars. In addition, Blue Ribbon’s annual Children’s Festival (June 3-5 this year) brings thousands of L.A. fifth-graders to the center for several days of performances and arts education.

The 27-year-old group’s founder is Dorothy Buffum Chandler, wife of former Los Angeles Times Publisher Norman Chandler, who raised money for the Music Center by enlisting 400 women who were dedicated and passionate about the arts. To emphasize their mission, she named them the Amazing Blue Ribbon 400. Hennigan is the group’s fifth president and is responsible for keeping members up on their dues, trying to get them to contribute more if they can, and for arranging events.

In one sense, Blue Ribbon defines traditional society. Step into a meeting and you’re likely to encounter neatly coiffed older women in Chanel suits, faces powdered, nails neatly French manicured, discussing last night’s opera and summer travel plans.

It seems a throwback to a rarefied realm of cocktail parties and country club luncheons. But as the city’s demographics change, so do the Blue Ribbon’s--slowly but surely. Although the majority of the members are overwhelmingly older and white, younger and minority members are beginning to join the ranks. And here sits Hennigan, a career volunteer who also understands the world of the young working woman.

“When I became president, the Music Center had just gone through some of its restructuring,” Hennigan recalls.

“It was a time of transition in many ways. Esther [Wachtell, former president of the Music Center who resigned in 1993] had just left and Shelton Stanfill had just arrived. We were still very new in talking about Disney Hall, so I felt like it was time for me to get an understanding. I knew that I was a modern woman, but because I wasn’t there in the very beginning of Blue Ribbon, I felt it was important for me to understand that to put the two together.

Researching the archives, she found that Chandler was “just a master at understanding people, and she was forceful. I think some people didn’t agree with the way she did all of her fund-raising, but she made people feel that they were valuable, and that women didn’t need to ask their husbands for permission. The women could make a difference. . . . I don’t know why, but maybe we have to be more focused. Maybe childbirth does that to us. But we are a very focused group of people, and if we put our mind to something we can get it done.”

*

Hennigan sits in a plush taupe chair in the opulent Hancock Park home she shares with husband Michael, an attorney with the L.A. firm Hennigan, Mercer & Bennett. Daughter Amanda, 23, is a decorative arts junior specialist at Christie’s, and daughter Cassandra, 21, who is about to graduate from Princeton with a degree in anthropology, plans to be a teacher.

Tall and thin with shoulder-length brown hair, Hennigan wears pants and a sweater, more casual than the Chanel suits she favors for meetings and lunches. Her voice often goes up at the end of sentences, making them sound like questions rather than statements.

On the new blood entering the Blue Ribbon ranks, she says, “We have a new member who’s an electrical engineer. . . . I think it’s a natural progression. And I think it’s a very natural thing that as we continue to network, we bring in different kinds of people to all groups. I don’t think we’ve had to force anything.”

But a few past and current members (who asked for anonymity) have expressed concerns that Blue Ribbon may not always be meeting the needs of younger members. One woman in her early 40s dropped her membership several years ago when she found she had little in common with older members.

Another long-standing member dropped out a year ago because she had little time to devote to the group. While she praised the Blue Ribbon’s commitment and goals, she added, “Because there are more and more professional women who are no longer dependent on their husbands for financial resources, perhaps some thought should be given to [holding events] at night, and to giving them activities that are meaningful and that they are capable of attending.”

Hennigan agrees that some might have felt that way a few years ago, “especially a woman in her early 30s who might have a career and children. . . . But I don’t think she would find that situation now.

“We get women of all ages. But we do have to be realistic. We have a minimum contribution of $2,000 and that is a major commitment for a family. And some younger people aren’t ready to make that commitment to one institution, and I understand that. Everyone’s in a different stage of their lives, but I hope that our programs appeal to all ages.”

Susan Garton Burger, 37, has attended several of Blue Ribbon’s programs since she joined a year ago at the suggestion of a friend, and says the age gap between her and most of the members isn’t a concern.

“It gives you a sense that these ladies are genteel,” says the married mother of one who owns an interior design business. “It makes you stop and think what happened to that way of life when people could take the time to be groomed and manicured. Not that they’re idle--they’re extremely busy with their charitable efforts. But there’s a feeling of being more gracious to each other. And it’s their wisdom, too, that I gain from them.”

*

Hennigan’s Forest Hills, N.Y., upbringing included school trips to plays, museums and ballets, things that were then considered normal extracurricular activities. So was community involvement. Her father, a textile salesman, and her mother, a homemaker, “set an example of community service. They were very, very involved, and it wasn’t anything they said you had to do--it was just natural.”

Hennigan graduated with a degree in political science from Northwestern in 1969 and wanted to go on to law school.

“Sometimes I can’t believe I really didn’t become a lawyer,” she sighs. “My uncle was a lawyer, and I was talking to him about it, and he said, ‘Phyllis, you can’t go to law school and become a lawyer because you’ll probably get in and you’ll take the place of a man who needs to support a family.’

“Well,” she continues, “it’s one thing that he said it, and it’s another that I bought it. So I didn’t go to law school. And actually it was probably a good thing because it made me look for other things to do. But it really was a different time.”

An early marriage took her to Phoenix, where she was a thesis short of a master’s degree in public administration at Arizona State University. (“It’s the only thing that I didn’t ever finish really.”) The brief marriage ended, and while still in school, she met Michael, then in law school.

She worked as an administrative assistant to the Governmental Relations Committee at the Arizona House of Representatives until the two married and moved to San Francisco. There she became involved with (and eventually chairman of) Call for Action, a national program in which volunteers acted as consumer advocates.

When the couple moved to L.A. and Michael began practicing in Beverly Hills, Hennigan joined Lawyers Wives of Beverly Hills (now called the Law Guild), starting as a tour guide at the courthouse and eventually moving up to president.

She then joined the boards of the Center Theatre Group and KCET, and, at the suggestion of a friend, joined Blue Ribbon.

“She’s a dream board member,” says Gordon Davidson, Center Theatre Group’s artistic director. “She’s really passionate about the work we’re doing, and she’s not doing it for social reasons--there’s a real commitment. And she has the ability to communicate her passion to others.”

Hennigan credits Don Youpa, KCET’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, with teaching her some of the finer points of fund-raising.

“I don’t know how much I taught her,” Youpa says. “She seemed to have everything when she walked in the door. She became a critical part of our major campaign; she was a key strategist. . . . She works 24 hours a day, she’ll call on weekends or early in the morning. I can remember getting calls at a variety of times, but with Phyllis you don’t mind because you know she’s not going to waste your time.”

Although Hennigan has dedicated most of her adult life to volunteering, there was a short-lived stint at selling real estate in 1979.

“Mike and the girls hated it,” she recalls. “Because of my compulsive personality I didn’t stop until the deal was done. I loved to negotiate, I thought that was such fun. But it was hard on the family, and I didn’t like being away on Sundays doing open houses.

“Someone said to me once, ‘What do you think the best thing is about not having a full-time job?’ And I said, ‘It’s having the leisure time to do all these interesting things.’ But I don’t really have leisure time! But I think I’ve been so lucky that I haven’t had to work.”

Husband Michael admires his wife’s determination and single-minded approach to her various causes: “I remember she was learning how to put on charity events in hotels, and she went about it like a college course. She knew it was a skill she needed to have if she was going to be with charity organizations.”

*

Running Blue Ribbon is close to a full-time post, Hennigan says, and when she’s ensconced in her office across the street from the Music Center, she is all business.

Wearing a short Chanel denim dress on a casual Friday, she methodically goes down a list of members with her assistant to see who has paid dues.

“She’ll pay,” Hennigan says. “She expects to pay. Send her a letter and she’ll pay. And she’ll pay; I’m not worried about her. Now this one--how overdue is she? Let’s send her a letter.”

When it comes to asking for money, Hennigan is fearless.

“I think being the daughter of a salesman probably didn’t hurt,” she says. “And Mike taught me a lot--you’re not going to get the money if you don’t ask for it. I think people know it’s my job. . . . I guess I get excited by it. But I will only raise money for the things I believe in, and I don’t ever ask for money if I’m not making a contribution myself.”

With a year to go on her presidency, Hennigan contemplates her future: “I think about [local] government a lot. I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t know if I want to take a full-time job. I’ve always made my life so that I was available to be with Mike and the girls. . . . I’m not sure at this point I could change the way I am. Going to work every single day . . . I don’t know. . . . I’ve got some wonderful friends, and I guess I hope that one of them will pick up the phone and ask me to do something. And I took up bridge and golf and horseback riding, so I’ll have a lot more time for that.”

Will she stick with the riding lessons, a suggestion from her husband, an avid rider?

“Yeah, I’m pretty determined,” she says. “Mike says I’m going to be a wonderful horsewoman because it’s all about control. And I like to be in control.

“And there’s no way,” she says with a laugh, “that I’m going to let a horse tell me where it’s going.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

PHYLLIS HENNIGAN

Age: 48.

Family: Married to attorney J. Michael Hennigan. Two daughters--Amanda, 23, and Cassandra, 21.

Why she supports the arts in L.A.: “I think the arts in general are important to me. I was lucky going to public schools in New York. We went everywhere, from the opera to the theater to the ballet and museums. We just had everything available to us.”

Her biggest accomplishments as a volunteer: “I have to reverse that--I feel that I’ve gained so much from it. I’ve made such wonderful friends and I feel very privileged to have been in a situation where I can help build the city. I don’t think I’ve made a unique contribution, but I’m one of many people.”

On moving to L.A. in 1977: “I didn’t want to move here. I was scared to death to drive here, first of all. But the minute I started getting involved, I found the people were so friendly. It’s still like that. L.A. just won me over, I guess. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”