The Colleagues Know How to Do Lunch

It would be a mistake to look at the immaculately groomed, privileged and socially prominent women affiliated with the Colleagues as mere dilettantes. In a world of dwindling-to-zero interest in ladies’ luncheons, they, through sheer grit and great connections, pull off what has become one of the most successful and anticipated luncheons of the year--well, not counting Premiere magazine’s Women in Hollywood lunch, but that’s another scene altogether.

On Thursday, the Colleagues hold their 10th annual Valentine’s Luncheon. Once again, it will boast name honorees, Gov. Pete and Gayle Wilson; a top-drawer designer, Bill Blass; and a sellout crowd of as many as can be squeezed into the Regent Beverly Wilshire ballroom.

“It’s hard to explain, but this just seems to have an allure,” says Betsy Bloomingdale.

“We had 820 last year,” says Erlenne Sprague, who is chairing the event this year along with Bloomingdale and Marion Jorgensen.

“Too many,” remarks Colleagues President Anne Johnson, since the Regent holds only 800 comfortably.

“Actually,” says Jorgensen, “with a runway, it comes out to 780.”

These women know their luncheon minutiae. All three chairwomen and some of the nine co-chairs have served in some position since the luncheon was conceived.

“It goes without saying that other charities get new [event] chairmen every year,” points out Chardee Trainer, who is handling PR duties for the third year. “In our case, we all just hang in there.”

And they go way back. Jorgensen, the wife of steel tycoon Earle, joined the organization in 1952. Sprague, whose surgeon husband Norman recently died, came aboard in 1950. Bloomingdale, widow of Diners Club founder Alfred, has been a Colleague since 1954. The late Betty Wilson, whose husband, William, was envoy to the Vatican under then-President Reagan, also chaired or co-chaired the event for years. And Nancy Reagan, the most famous Colleague of all (a member since 1962), agrees to wear the honorary chairwoman’s hat and always introduces the honoree.

Blass, who is trucking out his complete spring collection exactly as it appeared on the runway when it was unveiled in New York, says he’s wanted to do the show for years.

“Most of us in the industry tend to feel that charity fashion shows are not as forceful as they once were,” he says. Indeed, in New York, he says, they are “nonexistent.”

But the Colleagues manage to bring in an A-list of affluent, label-conscious women, which is apparently reason enough for Saks Fifth Avenue to fully underwrite the event for three years running. Current Colleagues include Anna Murdoch, Maria Hummer, Marcia Hobbs, Jayne Berger, Harriet Deutsch and “all the Dohenys,” as one member put it.

The Colleagues are the largest support group of Children’s Institute International, which opened its doors in 1909 as the Big Sister League home for unwed mothers. In 1979, the name changed, and the organization evolved into an agency for abused children and their families, most of the children victims of sexual abuse, with Los Angeles and Torrance facilities.

Until the Valentine’s Day event was conceived, the Colleagues’ sole source of income was an annual “glamour sale” of members’ used designer clothing, costume jewelry and furnishings, originally held (from 1955 to 1959) in the ballroom of Carlotta Kirkeby’s Bel-Air mansion. The sale outgrew various venues until it became a permanent fixture, now open twice weekly except during the summer, at a small storefront known as the Colleague Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

The organization’s 65 members, however--who, unlike many philanthropic groups, operate with no paid staff members--”got tired of working with old clothes after 30 or 40 years,” as Sprague, a past president, put it.

The needs of the Children’s Institute were also growing, and the Colleagues wanted to make more money. The first Valentine’s Luncheon was held three weeks after Reagan left office so that Nancy Reagan could be the maiden honoree. Appropriately, Adolfo showed his collection. Why Adolfo?

“We were all customers,” says Jorgensen.

Between the store and the $100-a-ticket luncheon, the group now raises about $425,000 each year.

And so it goes year after year. The Colleagues chieftans give no signs of moving on. Bloomingdale is the only one who volunteers her plan to step away from the Colleagues’ fund-raising task next year.

“Grandma has retired,” she says.

Still, Jorgensen, who is a board member of the World Affairs Council, Saint John’s Hospital and the Blue Ribbon of the Music Center, a regent of Children’s Hospital and trustee emeritus of the Huntington Library, isn’t alone when she explains where the Colleagues are on her list of priorities. “The Colleagues are my first love,” she says.