They’re Sure to Have a Ball With Orchids
Spring’s here and party chairs are thinking flowers.
Orchids from the cymbidium garden of the late Marion Malouf will crown tables at the 26th Orchid Ball of the National Arts Assn. on Friday, just as they did for years during Malouf’s life. Rabab Ashley chairs the Beverly Hills Hotel event. The ball will honor Richard D. Colburn. His Colburn School of Performing Arts, near USC, instructs more than 900 students ages 4 to 19.
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Garden Bash: Horticultural delights and gourmet grazing are sure bets for the California Arboretum Foundation’s “Plants & People” preview party and plant sale Friday at the arboretum in Arcadia. Involved in the 50th anniversary of the foundation are Fred Schoellkopf, Ann Barrett, Marilyn Brumder, Carol Econn, Kathy Gillespie and Margie Grossman.
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Bloom’s On: The Garden Ball on Friday will bloom indoors at the Beverly Hilton for the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce’s 44th anniversary. In black tie, Leonard Wasserstein will rule as ball chairman. Pat Boone will receive the Will Rogers Memorial Award, and Richard S. Rosenzweig will be named citizen of the year.
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Unique: Alyce Williamson and the Art Center 100 have something “to crow about,” the invitation says. They’re sponsoring a children’s book-signing and garden party this afternoon at the Art Center College of Design. Featured will be children’s books illustrated by Art Center alumni.
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Pamela’s Treasures: Art from the estate of the late Pamela Harriman, ambassador to France, will be exhibited Monday evening at a reception and private viewing. Sotheby’s West Coast chairwoman, Andrea Van de Kamp, and Richard S. Wolf, West Coast managing director, will preside over the affair.
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A Smash: Nearly 900 crowded the Petersen Automotive Museum to see the “Ferrari at 50” exhibition and watch Bruce A. Meyer, president of Geary’s and car collector (his 1967 275 GTB / 4 Berlinetta is featured), receive the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts of America presented by John C. Cushman III. The location was a perfect setting, since Meyer is founder of the museum’s “Checkered Flag 200” support group.
Car aficionados like Chris and Katrina Cord, David (he owns the red 1947 Spyder Corsa, oldest car in the exhibition) and Ginny Sydorick and Donn and Melinda Conner mixed with Ferrari Vice President Piero Ferrari and Gian Luigi Longinotti Buitoni, president, Ferrari North America, and with Ferrari designer Sergio Pininfarina. Others there were famed driver Phil Hill; the Petersen’s new director, Ken Gross; Edward Asprey of Asprey’s London; and Bob and Margie Petersen, the museum’s benefactors.
The exhibition salutes the Italian sports and racing marque with more than two dozen rare vehicles, including the 1963 Ferrari 400 Superamerica, once the prized possession of founder Enzo Ferrari.
A museum posting says it all: “Ferrari proclaims one’s financial standing, sporting dash and good taste.”
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Midas Touch: Sandra Scully and Corinna Fields of SHARE INC. (Share Happily and Reap Endlessly) presented nearly $1 million at annual disbursement ceremonies hosted by Irving Feintech at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In 44 years, SHARE has given $30 million.
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Leadership Awards: USC’s Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs will host its second annual Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Leadership Awards Banquet on Tuesday at the university Faculty Center. Bernard Parks, Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief, will receive the center’s first Ronald H. Brown Award in Mentoring. Darnell Hunt, USC assistant sociology professor, will receive the Distinguished Faculty Award.
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People Perfect: Actor / producer Robert Wagner was feted at the St. John’s Health Center Foundation Caritas Award dinner . . . Operation: Children hosts its annual luncheon / fashion show Monday at the Beverly Hilton. Gwen and Arthur Hiller are honorees and David Hayes will introduce his fall fashions . . . John T. Cardis will receive the American Jewish Committee’s Distinguished Service Award at a dinner Thursday at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Alan Rothenberg will be keynoter. Cardis is vice chairman of Deloitte & Touche . . . . Dionne Warwick gets the Celebrity Award and Alyce Keller Morris, the Founder’s Award, on Thursday when the Jeffrey Foundation celebrates its silver anniversary at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Beverly and Robert Cohen are dinner chairs.
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Plaudits: Walter and Peggy Grauman are still reeling in from the success of the Music Center Spotlight Awards honoring young talent. Pacific Bell Foundation again sponsored the competition. And once again Helen and Peter Bing provided the $45,000 for scholarships.
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Kudos: To the San Gabriel Valley Council of the Boy Scouts, raising $80,000 at their dinner auction . . . to David Abel, new chairman of Project Restore and to Sharon O’Rourke, installed president of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce . . . to Altadena Heritage and Altadena Historical Society, chumming up for a benefit walk-through at Mountain View Cemetery, where they viewed graves like that of professor Thaddeus Lowe of Mount Lowe Railway fame.
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New World: The Trojan League of Orange County mingled the old with the new at its luncheon following a campus seminar saluting the 83-year-old USC journalism school. After hearing Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the Annenberg School, give a talk on ethics, and journalism school director Murray Fromson discuss new world press challenges, alumni and students boosted their alma mater. And then members went to the Town and Gown luncheon, where old Remington, Royal and Underwood typewriters had been hustled up for centerpieces sprouting posies made of newspaper.
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Upcoming: The Sycamores, a residential treatment center and home in Altadena for emotionally disturbed boys, has collected 28 prominent Pasadena restaurants to participate in its “Dinners From the Heart” benefit May 6 and 7 . . . Cherubs, cupids and guardian angels are soaring for the Wellness Community-Foothills black-tie “Angel Gala” on Friday evening at the Ritz Carlton Huntington. Angelo R. Mozilo and Dr. Marcia Grant will be saluted.
