It Was a Night to Remember for Merv

It really was Mervelous. Especially when Merv Griffin, honoree at the John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary’s Odyssey Ball, sang “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts” and “It Had to Be You.” The evening at the Beverly Hilton was just like the old Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador, where Griffin crooned before going entrepreneurially bonkers with TV--as, probably, America’s first talk show host and creator of “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.”

“Come on out and dance while I sing--like we used to,” he said, beckoning, and the 800 party patrons, loving the idea, jumped up to bump heels and elbows.

Griffin escorted Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. They’re business partners in the launch of her QVC signature perfume.

Dozens of Waynes filled the room. Griffin shared his private video clips of the late John Wayne and joked over his own bout with prostate cancer. Sheri Rosenblum was dinner chairwoman and Gretchen Wayne (she and husband Michael were honorary chairs) fetched $250,000 for the ad book, so the night will net nearly $500,000.

“Largest ever,” said Dr. Donald L. Morton, medical director and institute surgeon-in-chief. He hopes that within two months his melanoma cell vaccine will enter its third and final phase of clinical testing before becoming generally available for treatment of melanoma.

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Run Right: Barbara Sinatra was presented the Gloria Stewart Humanitarian Award at the kickoff of the 16th annual Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon benefit for Saint John’s Health Center’s Child and Family Development Center. Lexus gave the marathon a $100,000 check. The April 20th relay at Griffith Park is expected to attract 5,000 teams of five. Rusty Doms, Dennis Kristan and Charles Mitchell co-chaired.

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Showy: Traffic’s always a problem in our area, so first-nighters at the invitational premiere Saturday of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design will be shuttled from the Ritz-Carlton Huntington in Pasadena to the San Rafael neighborhood house. They’ll tour the newly designed place over cocktails, then shuttle back to the hotel for dinner and dancing. The house will be open to the public April 20 through May 18. Ticketmaster is handling sales.

Chairwoman Kay Quinn of San Marino is supervising finishing touches.

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Spring Whirl: With the daffodils, the social season springs up. The National Institute of Transplantation will benefit Saturday at the “Race for Hope!” affair at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Dinner, dancing and an auction will fete racing legend Carroll Shelby and the institute. (Shelby received a kidney from his son, Michael, in 1996.) Parnelli Jones is host. Invites suggest “race day attire.”

Also at the Petersen, the North American premiere of “Ferrari 550 Maranello” has segued into the grand opening Friday of the “Ferrari at 50” exhibition at the museum and a benefit for the Boy Scouts honoring Bruce A. Meyer, Beverly Hills entrepreneur and car collector. He’ll be given Scouting’s Distinguished Citizen Award. Mike Bowlin and John C. Cushman III are co-chairmen.

Love will be in the air April 20 when Melissa Manchester headlines the Founding Associates of the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation dinner at the Beverly Hilton. The “Man of the Year” title will be bestowed on singer John Raitt.

Peggy and Thornton Hamlin Jr., Linda and Patrick Lynch, and Avril and Lennox Miller will be named “Premiere Parents” at the San Gabriel Valley Associates of the March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation dinner Friday at the Ritz Carlton Huntington. To set the mood, Catherine Babcock and Jeffrey Beyer feted the Hamlins at cocktails in their Altadena home.

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Kudos: To Pomona College, launching its Campaign for Pomona College headed by trustee Frank Ulf, at a dinner for 400 . . . To Lawrence A. Del Santo, retiring chairman and CEO of Vons. The affable Del Santo, husband of Becky and father of 12, started in the grocery business 40 years ago at Vons and worked his way up (in between he ran Lucky Stores). His “Party of a Lifetime” black-tie soiree at the Ritz Carlton Huntington was filled with laughter over the reminiscences.

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Top Honors: Piero Selvaggio (chef at Valentino and Primi restaurants) staged the dinner in the Founders Room of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to salute the most recent large contributors to the Music Center Unified Fund. Music Center board of governors chairwoman Andrea Van de Kamp and Curtis Tamkin, Founders president, did the honors. The Capital Group Cos. and Norman and Sadie Lee were named Grand Patrons. Ernst & Young and Lenore and Bernard A. Greenberg accepted in the Gold Circle Patrons category. And Distinguished Patrons recognition went to Linda and Robert Attiyeh, Stuart and Carrie Ketchum, and United Airlines.

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Table One: Trudy McCaffrey and John Toffan of Bradbury not only sat at Table One in the Directors’ Room at Santa Anita, but their horse, Free House, was in post position one for the Santa Anita Derby--and, natch, was first in the race. It was the table, wasn’t it?

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

Luncheons abound. William Kristol addresses the Res Publica Board of Governors and Claremont McKenna College folk Monday in Newport Beach. His topic: “A Conservative Future?” . . . United Hostesses Charities present Gianfranco Ferre on Wednesday at the Beverly Hills Hotel luncheon headed by Bea Stern, Marilyn Gilfenbain and Susan Savin . . . Los Angeles Chapter of Childhelp USA goes “Hearts and Hugs” for its 33rd annual Woman of the World affair Saturday at the Beverly Hilton, applauding TV’s Kathie Lee Gifford and Leeza Gibbons. Jane Seymour is mistress of ceremonies.