Glitzy Shops and Top Stars Do Her Bidding

When Maxine Harris goes calling, Gucci answers. So does Neiman Marcus, Ralph Lauren and half of Rodeo Drive.

You might expect Harris to be some highbrow entertainment type with big connections. But this raspy-voiced grandmother with bad knees and a bad heart carries clout that even money can’t buy.

Harris spearheads a wildly successful silent auction for AIDS Project Los Angeles, a glitzy annual event that has become the highlight of the agency’s huge “Summer Party” fund-raiser.

Year after year, the 63-year-old who lives on Social Security manages to persuade the priciest boutiques and haughtiest stars to give, give, give. The bounty she has reaped--including crystal vases, gold alarm clocks, autographed movie scripts and designer sunglasses--in eight years has garnered $636,400 at auction.

“Every luxury line absolutely knows Maxine Harris,” said Victor Andrade, Western associate regional director of Lalique, a luxury goods company with a Rodeo Drive boutique. “The minute she walks in, they are ready to make a contribution.”

And in typical Harris fashion, this year’s Aug. 3 event at Universal Studios promises a wealth of goodies: Wayne Gretzky’s signed hockey stick, a $1,000 vase from Tiffany & Co., an autographed portrait of Janet Jackson and five-star vacation packages to Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam.

“It gets better and better each year,” Harris said. “I have people calling up offering me stuff, people I didn’t even solicit.”

Not bad for volunteer work.

Harris began donating time to APLA 11 years ago, after a heart attack forced her to retire from a long nursing career. She had been recuperating at home for about six months when she spotted an ad for APLA volunteers in a West Hollywood newspaper. Intrigued by the organization, she decided to sign up.

She began by working one day a week but soon donated more of her time. Now she spends five days a week at the agency, planning special events that include the annual silent auction. But don’t be fooled by the volunteer label or the batch of pills she takes each day for her heart condition and other ailments. Harris tenaciously works her sources like a professional fund-raiser, drawing donors with her trademark soft touch.

“You would never know she was a volunteer. You would think she is earning big bucks, the way she is doing her job,” said Dona R. Miller, chief executive officer of Vogue International, a Whittier company that is donating a carousel horse and other items this year. “She handles it like a real businesswoman.”

Harris’ strategy is simple but determined: window shop at the Beverly Center, on Sunset Boulevard and Rodeo Drive. Scour the travel section of the local newspaper for vacation destinations. Then ship off polite letters asking companies to contribute whatever they see fit. And last: Follow up with phone calls, gently prodding fence sitters to join up.

“They are very sympathetic to the cause,” Harris said of the donors, which include Bijan Fragrances, Baccarat crystal and Vidal Sassoon Salon. “They often have a close connection to the disease--co-workers or partners who are HIV-positive or who have died.”

Years of toiling have earned Harris a devoted following among the upper crust of Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

“Rodeo Drive, that’s my beat,” she joked.

Andrade of Lalique said that he receives numerous calls each year from charities but that he goes with APLA because of Harris. This year, the boutique offered a crystal sea lion, which Harris believes will fetch $1,500.

“Lalique feels it is important to help out this organization, but Maxine is that extra ribbon that wraps everything up,” Andrade said.

Harris’ accomplishments have earned applause at APLA, where officers have named an annual volunteer honor after her, the Maxine Harris Friends In Deed Award. The agency, which has a roster of 2,000 volunteers, also nominated Harris this year for the outstanding volunteer award offered as part of National Philanthropy Day in Los Angeles in November. The event, sponsored by the National Assn. of Fund Raising Executives, honors one volunteer from throughout Los Angeles annually.

Harris may work in the fast lane, but the glamour of Rodeo Drive is about as far removed from her personal life as a 5-carat diamond.

She lives off $1,384 each month from Social Security and government disability. She shares a rent-controlled apartment in West Hollywood with one of her three grown daughters, who is mentally retarded and uses a wheelchair.

And then there is Harris’ poor health. She wears a silver medallion around her neck, inscribed with her ailments--angina, hypertension, diabetes, two artificial knees, a penicillin allergy.

“I take a fistful of pills every day,” she said. “But it works.”

Harris, who worked for 25 years at some of the largest hospitals in California, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center, thinks about working again but doubts she would pass a company physical.

Yet even her stiff knees and strained heart don’t slow her down.

“People my age are too old for me,” she said. “All they want to talk about is their illness. They play bingo. Yuck. They play canasta. Double yuck. I’d much rather go to a rock concert than a movie. I like things that move.”

Harris loves rock ‘n’ roll. Her favorite performers include Creedence Clearwater Revival (she’s seen the group in concert five times), Bruce Springsteen, the Cranberries and Queen.

Indeed, of all the auction items she has collected this year, Harris is most proud of an autographed picture of former Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. The photo is framed alongside a cover from the group’s album “The Game.”

“Don’t you like my Freddie Mercury with Queen?” she asks visitors. “Major bucks, major bucks.”

As the big day approaches, Harris is still hunting down auction items, hoping to collect more than 300 of them and raise $140,000 this year.

The money will constitute less than 1% of the APLA budget. But every dollar counts at an agency that offers expensive medical care and other services to thousands of needy clients.

As Harris talks about the silent auction, she rifles through a storage closet next to her office where she keeps the items.

She displays a movie cell from “Pocahontas,” donated by Disney. She shows off a sweatshirt and a program from the recent Academy Awards, both autographed by the program host, Whoopi Goldberg. She unwraps an $800 Steuben crystal vase.

And she fingers a red and black Planet Hollywood jacket signed by “ER” star George Clooney, one of her favorites and an item she believes could bring as much as $1,500.

“This,” she said, running her hands over the lapel, “is going to go for a nice little piece of change.”