It Was a Beautiful Ball All the Way Around
The Huntington Ball will go down in Southland social history as the prettiest party in decades. The setting was “The Temple of the Four Seasons,” the mausoleum of Henry and Arabella Huntington. Hours were spent illuminating it with sienna lights. Arriving guests walked through a lily-bedecked archway, then down the podocarpus allee with the lit-up and glowing mausoleum centered in the distance and surrounded by illuminated oaks--the kind the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is famous for.
Cocktail chatter was all about beauty--a beautiful setting, beautiful people, beautiful ball gowns, beautiful night, beautiful trees and flowers,
For dinner, tables were set in a semi-circle around the marble temple. After architect John Russell Pope conceived of the circular structure, with its dignified double colonnade and graceful dome, he applied the same motifs to the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
And, when the dancing began--800 guests required three dance floors--surely Henry and Arabella Huntington would have been pleased.
Judith Farrar, ball chairwoman, was accepting accolades with her committee: Nadine Skotheim (husband Robert is president of the library, and he greeted guests), Kay Onderdonk, Francie Brody, Diane Cook, Phyllis Hennigan, Helen Maher, Kathy Rose, Grace Russak, Geneva Thornton, Eileen Zimmerman and others.
Owen Harper and Kenneth S. McCormick were there for J.P. Morgan & Co., the evening’s major underwriter.
Among the beautiful people: Hannah Carter, Frances Brody with Peter Paanakker, George and Mary Lou Boone, Stanton and Ernestine Avery, Susie and Norman Barker, Doug and Lynn Brengel, John and Diane Cook, Sally and Donald Clark, Noorna Eversole, James Folsom (director of the Botanical Gardens which benefits from the ball) and wife Deborah, Eunice and Douglas Goodan, Eric and Danielle Haskell, Michael and Phyllis Hennigan, George and Maggie Jagels, Bob and Debbie Wycoff, Lois and Chris Madison, Christine and Mike McCormick, Nancy and Arden Day, Larry and Mary Tollenaere, Ralph and Carolyn Hofer, Rick and Sandy Mallory, Helen and John Maher, Mary and Art Crowe, Dave and Holly Davis, and Dick and Gail Barrett.
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Wild West: “The goal was 40 tables, but we have 75 tables and 900 people,” said Charles D. Miller, surveying the western-elegant “Celebration of the West” Autry Museum gala. From the podium, newly elected museum President / CEO Joanne Hale called Miller “the best chairman of any gala.” Indeed, the affair will net $500,000.
Auction co-chairs Sandra Ausman, June A. Ebensteiner, Carol Luddwig and Frederico Jimenez had worked themselves silly collecting auction items, including the most marvelous silver and turquoise photo frame. Jim McElvany’s syndicate boosted the cause with his bid on the cruise to Mexico. And the friendly and noisy bidding wars over the Colt Army revolver, visits to a Scottish castle and fishing at Cabo San Lucas brought in bundles.
Then everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to Gene Autry (sitting with wife Jackie) before cutting loose on the dance floor with jitterbugs and the Macarena. Didn’t Wally and Vida Fassler dance every dance? William and Cheryl Doyle, and Megan and Enrique Hernandez were in competition. But the Newhall family got top billing with the Western Heritage Award for their Newhall Land and Farming Co. Chairman Thomas Lee accepted accolades and so did the Newhall matriarch, Ruth Newhall.
More of the fashionable: Robin and Robert Paulson, and Lois Rice, president of the National Advisory Council.
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Easy Cash: The CHIPS (Colleagues Helpers in Philanthropic Service), the League for Children supporting Children’s Bureau of Southern California and Pepperdine University have all shared a common interest: They’ve taken advantage of “Quidam,” Cirque du Soleil’s stunning and dramatic new tent show at the Santa Monica Pier, to raise funds. The CHIPS party, chaired by Pamela Konkal and Janet Lohman, was packed with three generations of families. Onalee Doheny was surrounded by her nearest and dearest, including Chris and Katrina Cord (from Sun Valley), Stephen and Georgia Cord, and Will and Libby Doheny; Betsy Bloomingdale had five grandchildren plus Robert and Justine Bloomingdale, and Lisa and Robert Bell. The adults stuffed on Michael’s Restaurant cuisine after the show, and the children on hot dogs. Crammed onto shuttle buses in cozy broods were Jennifer and Chris Lewis, Mary and David Martin, Anne and Don Petroni, and Gail and Richard Barrett.
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Plaudits: To Chuck Reed of San Marino, new trustee of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation . . . To Mona Mapel, president of the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee . . . To John F. King, new president and CEO of the Weingart Center Assn. . . . To Sidney Sheldon and Larry King, honored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation . . . To Margie Petersen, executive producer of the Thalians Ball starring “Legendary Ladies of the Silver Screen.”
Elsewhere on the Social Circuit
* Rita Pynoos, friend of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, got eight friends to join her in donating the $80,000 it took to underwrite the just-ended “The White House Collection of American Crafts” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It was she who arranged the black-tie dinner for the first lady. Rita’s pals? Candy Spelling, Edie Wasserman, Pearl and Joan Borinstein, Lee Ramer, Mimi West, Tarlton Morton and Eileen Norton.
* The “Elegant Italian Dinner Dance” that Planned Parenthood of Pasadena concocted at the home of Jane and Ron Olson will provide 5% of PPP’s budget.
* Chef Wolfgang Puck and his wife, Barbara Lazaroff, assembled 30 talented chefs and 60 respected vintners for help on their 14th annual American Wine and Food Festival benefiting Meals on Wheels.
* Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Sundays.