Giving Recognition to Those Who Give Back to Their Community
“Welcome to St. Beverly’s--we’ll pass the plates shortly,” Merv Griffin joked as he greeted more than 800 guests at his Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday for Cardinal Roger Mahony’s 11th Award and Recognition Dinner.
Griffin, who emceed the evening, is a major leadership donor to Our Lady of the Angels, L.A.’s new Roman Catholic cathedral under construction, and will fund the campanile on the condition that every day it plays the “Jeopardy” theme song, his composition. Oh, well, it’s a show-biz town.
The annual black-tie benefit, inaugurated by the cardinal in 1989, was not and never has been about dollars for the new cathedral complex, dubbed by some irreverent wags as the “Taj Mahony.” It’s all about a cadre of laypeople in Southern California who have given generously of their time and talent to help the community at large, and it traditionally funds repairs and improvements to the neediest schools and parishes in the three counties of the Archdiocese.
This year’s honorees were Dr. Frank Dieter, a Torrance veterinarian and church deacon, who serves as a volunteer counselor for battered women and people with AIDS; Mary Dohn, nearing 90, a Beverly Hills resident and longtime benefactor of numerous global charities; Stafford R. Grady of La Canada Flintridge, a lawyer, former state insurance commissioner and vice chairman emeritus of Sanwa Bank who has taken leadership roles in everything from United Way to local college boards; and Edith and Isabel Piczek, two Hungarian-born sisters who have created liturgical artwork for more than 480 institutions worldwide, many in Los Angeles.
Six parishes will benefit from this year’s proceeds: St. Mary and Presentation, both in Los Angeles; Sagrado Corazon, Cudahy; Our Lady of Sorrows, Santa Barbara; and Guardian Angel and Mary Immaculate, Pacoima.
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Never say deja vu ain’t what it used to be. Social Circuits was treated to a glorious wallow in nostalgia at two events during the last week.
On Sunday night, the Society of Singers, a support organization founded by Ginny Mancini and Gilda Maikin Anderson to aid professional singers in need, presented its ninth annual Ella Award for lifetime achievement--named, of course, for Ella Fitzgerald--to an artist named Anthony Dominick Benedetto.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s that guy from Astoria, N.Y., who’s been convincing the world for nearly 40 years that San Francisco’s little cable cars really do climb halfway to the stars. In other words, Tony Bennett.
And were there stars--a shower of them to honor Bennett, a legendary entertainer whom Frank Sinatra once called “the best in the business.” The razzle-dazzle lineup included Rosemary Clooney, who started on radio with Bennett a half-century ago and is a former Ella winner; Cleo Laine and John Dankworth; the Manhattan Transfer; Jack Jones; Merv Griffin; Neil Sedaka; Sergio Mendez; k.d. lang; jazz violinist Regina Carter; Tony Danza; Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, also past Ella winners; Tony Martin, who sent greetings via video, and Bennett’s daughter Antonia, who first appeared with her dad and Count Basie at age 3.
More celebs in the audience: Gayle and Pete Wilson, French entertainer Line Renaud, Pat Boone, Frances Bergin, Dina Merrill, Connie Stevens, Dick Van Dyke, Jack Carter, Rosemary and Robert Stack, Phyllis Diller and beautiful Kartika Soekarno, the daughter of late Indonesian President Sukarno.
Peggy Lieber and Jeanne Hazard, the event’s chairwomen, report the evening raised more than $500,000.
Last Tuesday we had yet another mega-dose of the good old days at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where there were as many golden oldies in the audience as on stage for the opening of “A Celebration of Classic Hollywood Musicals,” a weeklong run starring Tinseltown vets June Allyson, Cyd Charisse (she still has those gams), Tony Martin (Charisse’s husband of 50 years, who, at 86, can still belt “Begin the Beguin”), Gloria DeHaven, Betty Garrett and--the kid of the crew at 72--Tom Bosley.
Granted they’re all a little long of tooth. But who was counting the years?
Let’s hope no one in the vintage audience, which included Esther Williams, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Audrey Totter--remember, she always played the hard-boiled dame in MGM flicks--and, would you believe, Andy Hardy’s first girlfriend, Anne Rutherford.
Although it was probably past their usual bedtimes, the cast and claque gathered afterward at Pasadena’s Holly Street Bar & Grill for well-deserved toasts and air kisses.