Big Orange Gets a Nod From Big Apple
At last. We’re going to get our dues from New York City. On Feb. 19 at New York’s Latin Quarter, the Society for the Facially Disfigured will host a gala supper-dance (billed as a colossal spectacle) and the theme is “Hooray for Hollywood.†We’re taking it as a compliment.
Lucille Ball is national honorary chairman. And according to SFD president Henry Steeger, the supper-dance is the first project of a young friends’ committee headed by Brooke Shields. There are more than 100 committee members representing a nice cross section of East Coast young achievers and trend setters. General chairmen for the fund-raiser are Peter Rockefeller, Harry P. Tower, Pamela Combemale, Carole Holmes, Sally Phipps and Marc de Gontaut Biron. Christine Biddle, Alessandro Corsini and Perri Peltz are the co-chairmen.
Some entertainment biggies are also getting behind the effort, names like Franco Zeffirelli, Helen Hayes, Marisa Berenson and Raquel Welch. Earl Blackwell, an expert, heads the celebrity committee, and Anne Eisenhower and movie producers Denise LeFrak and Lester Persky co-chair the advisory committee.
David L. Wolper, the USC graduate who produced “Roots,†the widely watched television miniseries, and the dazzling opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, is to be honored by his alma mater’s Town and Gown on Feb. 26. They’re expecting more than 1,000 people to attend the buffet luncheon at the Beverly Hilton, where everyone will applaud Wolper’s 30-year career in show biz.
The afternoon, which is billed as a “Tuesday Matinee, Starring Scholarship,†will also feature a Helga fashion show commentated by the designer’s husband, Walter Oppenheimer. Joe Moshay and his orchestra will provide the musical accompaniment for the models. Jef’s, An Affair With Flowers, will design the centerpieces for the red cloth-covered tables. And there will be a raft of gifts for some lucky guests. Among the prizes are Firstours and Hyatt Regency Hotels’ tour, including air fare and eight days at Waikiki Beach; 1985 USC season football tickets donated by Dr. and Mrs. Carl M. Franklin; a tour of Burbank Studios, a gift of USC’s Cinema Department; a weekend at the Beverly Hilton, and a homecoming weekend stay at the University Hilton. Other contributors to the festive affair are See’s Candy, the Broadway and Coast Savings and Loan.
The 30-member benefit committee is headed by Mrs. Burton L. Fletcher and Mrs. Langdon E. Longstreth, who have announced that all the money raised by the luncheon will be used for USC scholarships and to benefit students and the campus.
The American Film Institute’s International Film Society is taking care of at least three Sunday afternoons by offering a series of three foreign films to be screened at AFI’s Mark Goodson Theatre. Right after each film is shown there will be a buffet supper and discussion period. Pola Miller and Ava Ostern, the International Film Society’s co-chairmen, have planned it well.
The series kicks off next Sunday with a film from Argentina, Maria Luisa Bemberg’s “Camila.†The reception and buffet will be hosted at Le Dome by Mr. and Mrs. Fernando Gelbard honoring Argentina’s acting consul Jorge Lidio Vinuela and his wife. On March 17, the film is from Sweden, “Ronya, the RobbersDaughter,†and Swedish Consul General Margareta Hegardt is giving the supper party at her residence. The last of the trio is from Australia, “The Coolangatta Goldâ€; for this one the party April 14 will be hosted by Australian Consul General Basil J. Teasey and Mrs. Teasey at their residence.
The Social Scramble: Father Maurice Chase escorted Loretta Young to the Downtown Women’s Center, her fifth visit, where she lunched with center founder Jill Halverson and about 40 women who regularly visit the center, which serves Skid Row women. Later, Father Chase celebrated Mass.
The Berger Bijoux, Jayne and Henry Berger’s private screening room, opened its 1985 season with hot dogs, sauerkraut (with pineapple), beans and ham en croute buffet followed by a showing of 20th Century Fox’s “The Flamingo Kid.†The movie buffs included Billie and Roger Converse, Stu and Dee Cramer, Ceil Moore and John Wiegman, Ed Michalove with Jacqueline Lewerke, Larry Israel, Frances Bergen, Shirlee Fonda, Ruth Yablans with Richard Gully, Midge and Bob Clark, Juli and Herbert Hutner, Beverly and Chase Morsey, Jacques Camus and Myles Lowell. Mary and Brad Jones, who are in the midst of moving from Pasadena to Bel-Air, stayed just for the buffet.
Mr. and Mrs. Sant Singh Chatwal, who own restaurants and hotels in New York, Chicago, Houston, Montreal, London and other hot spots, mark the opening of their first restaurant in Los Angeles, the Bombay Palace on Wilshire Boulevard, with a 6-to-9-p.m. party Monday. The restaurant, which features Northern Indian cooking by chef Prem Nath, was designed by Mohinora Kawlra (a protege of Le Corbusier), who is now off to Paris to design another Bombay Palace, this one near the George V Hotel.