Listen! It’s the Sound of Shuffling Chairs

The old order has passed. All over Los Angeles new chairmen and presidents are being elected.

Joni Smith is the new president of the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center. She’s accepted a three-year term and will take over the position from Phyllis Hennigan. Other past presidents are Sandra Ausman, Joanne Kozberg, the late Keith Kieschnick, Nancy Livingston, Maggie Wetzel and Helen Wolford.

Smith has just completed a presidency of the Diadames and currently serves as founding president, Council of the Library Foundation.

The Ribbon, which has 650 members, will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year. It has given $35 million to Music Center support groups.

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Top Leaders: Westside internist James R. Blake has been elected president of the trustees of Saint John’s Health Center Foundation. He succeeds Charles I. Schneider, elevated to the position of chairman. . .

Community leader Linda Dean Maudlin of Santa Monica has been named to head USC’s General Alumni Assn. William C. Allen is president-elect. Maudlin is a founding partner of Portfolio Partners, an investment group. . .

Tom Mitchell of San Gabriel has been named a trustee of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation. From its national headquarters in Arcadia, the organization supports work of physicians and laboratory scientists at 115 childhood cancer treatment and research facilities throughout North America. . .

Project Restore has announced the appointments of Merry Norris, Marjorie Steinberg, Erwin Tomash and Nabih Youssef to its board of directors. Norris was president of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission for six years; Steinberg is a partner in the law firm of Tuttle and Taylor; Tomash is founder of Data Products Corp.; Youssef, a structural engineer, is president of Nabih Youssef and Associates.

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Kudos: Los Amigos de Los Angeles presented its annual award to Eli Broad, chairman and CEO of SunAmerica Inc. Broad currently is spearheading the fund-raising campaign for the development of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He also has been a major donor to United Way. . .

The Center for the Partially Sighted gave Tova Borgnine, CEO of Tova Corp. beauty and skin care business, its “Vision Award” at the “Hope in Sight” dinner at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Ernest Borgnine, her husband, was honorary chairman, and Pat Mitchell was dinner chair. . .

The Children’s Burn Foundation trustees paid tribute to board Chairman Douglas Mancino, a lawyer, at a garden reception at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. . .

Tiffany & Co. in Beverly Hills hosted cocktails to announce the American Film Institute Associates’ first Platinum Circle Awards. Later in the year the affair will honor the Walter Matthau family. . .

The National Kidney Foundation of Southern California paid tribute to two physicians and a health care company at its dinner at the Miramar Sheraton. Honored were Dr. Kenneth H. Bleifer and Dr. Michael A. Kirschenbaum, nephrologists, and Baxter Healthcare Renal Division. An estimated 15,000 kidney disease patients receive dialysis in Southern California weekly.

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The Honorees: The Los Angeles Women’s Foundation hosted its second annual Mercedes Mentor Awards luncheon and netted $125,000.

More than 700 watched while six women were praised for improving the quality of life in Los Angeles: Lucia Diaz, executive director, Mar Vista Family Center; Adrienne Hall, founder, Women Incorporated; Chanchanit Martorell, founder, Thai Community Development Center; Dolores Corita Ratcliffe, president / founder, Corita Communications Inc.; Diana Sanchez Roberson, former manager, supplier diversity, Southern California Edison; Lynn Shaw, development officer, Women in Non-Traditional Employment Roles.

Co-chairing were Betsy Bartscherer, Arco director of community affairs, and Cecilia Ball of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Prominent at the event was Belinda Smith-Walker, founding board president.

The group has provided nearly $1 million in training and management assistance and more than $1.5 million in grants to support the work of hundreds of community-based agencies and projects in four areas--violence against women, self-determination of young women, economic justice and women’s health care.

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The King: Several hundred gathered at the Bistro Garden in Studio City to see jovial television and music executive Berle Adams crowned “King” on his 80th birthday. He was “sprinkled with stardust” by his children, grandchildren and by music, television and cancer health industry associates.

His cousin Sheriff Sherman Block, Frankie Laine, Dr. Brian E. Anderson, Beverly Ford and Sherwood Schwartz were among the crowd lunching before delving into the iced carrot cake, Adams’ favorite dessert.

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Midas Touch: More than 650 gathered to raise $311,500 at St. Francis Medical Center’s Charity Ball at the Long Beach Hilton. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, was among dignitaries. . . Mount St. Mary’s College Casino Royale boasts $30,000 from its benefit at Doheny Mansion, chaired by Mark Foster, chair of the college’s Regent Council.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit

Summertime, and the art is great: The board of trustees of the Orange County Museum of Art hosted a preview for its new show, “Still Life: the Object in American Art, 1915-1995,” with selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. . . The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has announced new evening hours and a first-time opening on Mondays. (It’s closed Wednesday).