The Valley Line: Pasadena Showcase House of Design to open this weekend

I just received a note from Jan Du Plain, daughter of Joe Du Plain, the late former owner, publisher and editor of ye old Valley Sun. Jan, who grew up here in La Cañada, for many years has lived in Washington, D.C. She is a faithful reader of our newspaper online and now and then sends me little love notes of what is going on in her world. For those of you who don’t know Jan, she is a mover/shaker up on and down Capitol Hill.

In her note she was telling me that she just coordinated a manifique fundraising soiree at the French Embassy called “The Magic of Montmartre.” The gala benefited the Washington Home & Community Hospices.

Wish I could have been there because there were Parisian street performers, wine auction and tasting, cancan dancers, an Edith Piaf-style songstress, purveyors of French foods and much more.

Thanks, Jan — your updates are always welcomed.

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As to what is happening closer to our fair city, here is a biggie: the Pasadena Showcase House of Design opens this Sunday. Don’t miss it. I’ll be letting you know more about it next week.

Also this Sunday is the Los Altos Auxiliary of Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services tasting of wines of the Pacific Northwest at the Thursday Club from 4 to 6:30 p.m. More information can be found at losaltosauxiliary@gmail.comsa or calling (818) 790-9246.

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This past weekend I went to see the film “Woman in Gold.” Not only did I go to see the movie because of two great actors — Dame Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds — but also I happen to know the daughter-in-law of the person that Mirren played. Mirren’s role was as Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann, an Austrian-born Jewish woman whose life story made international history when she and her Los Angeles-based attorney successfully recovered five Gustav Klimt paintings belonging to her family that were stolen by the Nazis during WW II.

I first introduced you to Block-Bauer Altmann in the Dec. 18 issue of our paper after I sat next to her daughter-in-law, Donna Altmann, at the Los Angeles Music Center’s 50th anniversary party. At that dinner Donna told me Maria’s story and also said that a film was being made starring Mirren and Reynolds.

Although her mother-in-law died in 2011 at 94 and Donna’s husband Chuck (Maria’s son) died a couple of years later, she still remains close to the extended Altmann family.

Donna Altmann traveled to Vienna, Austria for part of the filming of the movie and met both Mirren and Reynolds. She told me this was a very special experience for her.

The most famous of the paintings was of Maria’s aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer and is known as “Woman in Gold.” The painting that hung in Vienna’s Belvedere Museum was so beloved by the Austrians that she became known as the Austrian Mona Lisa.

After a hard-fought battle with first the Austrian government and then the U.S. Supreme Court, Maria was awarded the right to have all of the stolen paintings returned to her.

Right now, this golden painting now resides in New York City’s Neue Galerie where a special exhibit of Bloch-Bauer, Altmann and Klimt memorabilia is on display through Sept. 7. However, the golden Adele painting is on permanent display at the museum.

Klimt also did another painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer, known as “Adele Bloch-Bauer #2” that is on display at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA.) It will also remain on display through Sept. 7. Hopefully if you find yourself in New York City you can visit these two museums to see the beautiful Adele.

In regards to the movie, it is very well done. I think I might even go a second time to see it again.

In an interview with Emma Jones, an entertainment writer for the BBC, Mirren said, “Maria Altmann was a really remarkable woman and I wish I had managed to meet her before she died. The film is a story of justice against the odds, that’s why I wanted to do it, there’s courtroom drama in there too, and also the relationship of an older woman and a younger man …It was rich pickings for an actress.”

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Gilda and Arsen Sarkisian hosted the recent La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. Happy Hour at their beautiful home and gardens.

As usual guests brought hors d’oeuvres of wonderful tidbits to share. There was plenty of talk about our next New Year’s Day float, “Up the Creek.”

Among the happy people enjoying this monthly event were Sarah and Mayfield Marshall, Harriett and Chuck Hughes, Joey Mitchell, Dave Moffett, Lorie MacKenzie, Joe and Lynn Thompson, Barbie Eland, Pam Wiedenbeck, Bill Pounders, Terry and Gloria Beyer, Ann and Bob Neilson, Bobbie and Clyde Hemphill, Woody and Terry Walker, Tracy and Hector Rodriguez, Mary and Daryal Gant, Richard Grippi, Bob Wallace, Fraser and Dee Draper, Darleen and Joel Peterson, Chris and Jeanni Trout, Rose Linda and Ricardo Gonzalez.

More were Pat and Otis Hutchins, Eremita Miranda, Larry Andreason, Fran and Bill Evans, Emma and Ducan Lestina, Jack and Sherry Schwartz, Pamela and Bud Carney, Jenny Pass, Brenda Gant, Jeff Hughes, Peggy Barber, Bob and Liz Craven, Caroline Craven, Nancy Wyman, John Dito, John Burrows, Nick and Kemelia Sarkisian, Art Johnson, Chuck Terhune, Mary and Duane Batenhorst, Bev Albright, Harriet Hammons, Elaine Butterfield, Becky Gelhaar, Ann and Ward Christensen, Roy and Lillian Olofson, Sarah Nagel, Jean and Ron Zink, Nana and Joel Smith, Pat Anderson, Teresa Lamb Simpson, Linda Margarian, and John and Diane Landrum.

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JANE NAPIER NEELY covers the La Cañada social scene. Email her at jnvalleysun@yahoo.com with news of your special event.