Social Circuits

When people are willing to dress to the nines; battle the county-fair traffic on the Pomona Freeway on a Saturday night; and shell out $175 for a Big Mac and fries, you know it’s got to be for a worthy cause.

More than 600 guests have been doing it year after year for Mac Tonight--the annual black-tie burger bash to benefit Ronald McDonald House, the low-cost, often free, home away from home for families of children undergoing treatment for life-threatening illnesses at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and other area hospitals.

The event raised more than $300,000, “our most successful benefit ever,” said builder Dick Hale, president of the house board of trustees. Hale said the organization is embarking on a $20-million expansion program so more families can be helped during what is a highly stressful time in their lives.

Mac Tonight was started 10 years ago by Hale and McDonald’s owner-operator Barbara Vanderhoop and her late husband, Leonard. It’s staged on the grounds of the McDonald’s Production Center in city of Industry. There, a flotilla of white-gloved McDonald’s staffers serves burgers-under-glass at tables draped in “mac-night” blue. Weatherman Fritz Coleman emceed the auction, and Wayne Foster’s 30-piece orchestra kept the dance floor jammed.

Stuart Siegel, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Childrens Hospital, emphasized the importance of the house in helping families cope, especially when children are in lengthy treatment programs.

“The most rewarding thing,” said house executive director Vincent Bryson, “is that regardless of the outcome, parents tell us how thankful they are that they had a chance to be close to their child during a very tough time.”

-- Patt Diroll

Casa Teresa at 25

Celebrating 25 years of offering shelter to homeless pregnant women, supporters of Casa Teresa gathered under the evening sky at Mission San Juan Capistrano to dine on box suppers and hear jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez and the Millennium Choir.

“Casa de Vida, Noche de Amor” netted $100,000 for the facility’s proposed new transitional living center and saluted founders Neill and Sally Sullivan of Newport Beach.

The Orange shelter has assisted nearly 2,000 women since it was founded. “They come in with nothing, maybe a bag of clothes, needy and insecure,” Casa Teresa executive director Lissa Callaghan said. “We try to give them the support and skills they need to live on their own.”

Lee Ann Marianthal and Madeleine Marin Finn were co-chairwomen of last weekend’s gala.

-- Ann Conway

Pasadena in Film

Even before there was a Hollywood, filmmakers discovered that the canyons in the San Gabriel Valley foothills were ideal for their shoot-’em-ups.

The Pasadena Historical Museum recognized the longtime link between Pasadena and Tinseltown at its second annual gala last weekend. Susan Leach Hansen and Rick Phelps chaired the dinner-dance at the museum--the former Fenyes Mansion and the location for many early films.

The event also celebrated the opening of the “Hollywood Comes to Pasadena,” exhibit. Curator John Gregory spent more than a year gathering the material, which features the work of Stan Freberg, Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, special-effects wizard Dennis Muren, art director Henry Bumstead and the costumes of Bob Mackie.

During the evening, tribute was paid to the memory of Iwan and Mark Serrurier, the father-son team who invented Moviola, which revolutionized film editing in the 1920s. Steve Serrurier attended the tribute on behalf of his father and grandfather. Also honored was Tom Mitchell of San Marino, whose father, George, developed the Mitchell motion picture camera.

Honorary co-chairs for the event included Mackie, producer-writer Stephen J. Cannell, journalist Digby Diehl and studio execs Kerry McCluggage and Dick Cook. More than 450 guests turned out for the black-tie party, which featured Art Deco and His Society Orchestra and a live auction conducted by K-Mozart’s Richard Capparela.

-- P.D.

Center Supporters

Supporters of the Orange County Performing Arts Center were recognized on Monday at the second annual Fire Bird Dinner. About 150 people dined beneath the center’s flaming-red and gold bird sculpture that extends from the interior of the Costa Mesa venue’s third-floor lobby through its glass facade.

The dinner honored donors who gave $25,000 or more in the last year. Among those recognized were Tom and Elizabeth Tierney, Dick and Judy Fluor-Runels, Donna and Ronald Phelps, James and Suzanne Mellor, and Karen and Steve Tsubota.

-- A.C.

Building Tolerance

Community leaders Leigh Steinberg, Isabelle Villasenor and Andrew Youngquist were recognized for their contributions to human relations and diversity at a gala marking the 30th anniversary of Orange County Human Relations Council.

The nonprofit Santa Ana-based organization was founded by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to help fight prejudice, intolerance and discrimination in the community. Hundreds of guests attended the Sept. 20 awards program, which was held at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel. The event netted about $90,000 for the organization’s education programs.

Amy and Mike Manser and Judy and Keith Swayne were event co-chairs.

-- A.C.

Library Odyssey

A kickoff reception brought together authors and hosts who will be featured in the “2001 Literary Odyssey Dinners” to benefit the L.A. Public Library on Nov. 5. The event consists of 54 posh dinners, each with a noted author as guest, held in private homes throughout the Southland.

Proceeds from this year’s event are earmarked for the library’s campaign to combat adult illiteracy. “Twenty percent of the adults in Los Angeles cannot read at the fifth-grade level,” city librarian Susan Kent said. The library is adding six adult literacy centers around the city and expanding its downtown operation. In October, it will dedicate the Caroline and Henry E. Singleton Adult Literacy Center at the Central Library.

The pre-event reception Sept. 19 was staged by the Council of the Library Foundation at Caroline Singleton’s Holmby Hills home. This year’s event is chaired by Donna Wolff, Joan Burns and Anita Garnier. Tickets are $300. Phone: (323) 466-8977.

-- P.D.

Coming Up

* The Children’s Defense Fund’s 11th annual Beat the Odds awards dinner will be Tuesday at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Tickets, $250. Call (310) 860-1300.

* Futures for Children stages its annual Movable Feast next weekend to benefit children in tribal communities in New Mexico and Arizona. Tickets, $250. Call (323) 469-0272.

* The Methodist Hospital Foundation holds its Crystal Ball on Saturday at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Tickets, $175. Call (626) 898-8888.

* The annual Jazz at Drew events will be next weekend at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science campus garden. Tickets, $30-$500. Call (323) 563-9390.

* A wine and food-tasting to benefit the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California will be held at Le Meridien Hotel, in Beverly Hills next Sunday. Tickets, $250. Call (818) 986-7990.

* “Random Acts of Whimsy,” an evening at the L.A. Improv, featuring Drew Carey, Kathy Kinney, Ryan Stiles and Caroline Rhea on Sunday will benefit the Virginia Avenue Project. Tickets, $50-$150. Call (310) 264-4224.

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Information for Social Circuits should be sent to Patt Diroll in Los Angeles or Ann Conway in Orange County. Diroll is at pattdiroll@earthlink.net; Conway is at ann.conway@latimes.com, or (714) 966-5952.