U2’S COLOSSAL RETURN; WONDER’S BENEFIT : The Scope of Stevie Wonder’s Social Involvement Underscored His 90-Minute Performance.

The stars on the dais Thursday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion represented an odd mixture of Old and New Hollywood. Zsa Zsa Gabor was there, and sitting right next to her, Whoopi Goldberg. Charlton Heston and Ricardo Montalban were seated nearby, and so was Tina Yothers, the young co-star of “Family Ties.”

The occasion: a benefit concert by Stevie Wonder to raise money to fight retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that afflicts an estimated 400,000 Americans. The heavyweight turnout was the latest example of celebrities using their power and visibility to help others.

Benefits are an almost everyday occurrence in Hollywood, which makes it easy to take them for granted. Besides raising money for charitable causes, benefits also foster a sense of common purpose that encourages stars to leave their egos and professional rivalries behind.

Whoopi Goldberg is one of the hottest stars in show business, but Thursday she served--uncomplainingly, and with remarkable grace--in the thankless task of just filling time when Wonder was late taking the stage.

All of this came about because Helen Harris wanted to get a float in the annual Hollywood Christmas parade.

Harris is president of Retinitis Pigmentosa International, a Van Nuys-based group devoted to fighting the disease. She had been trying for 10 years to get a float in the televised parade, but kept getting turned down until last year, when she finally persuaded Wonder to appear on the float. At the end of the parade, Wonder promised to play a benefit concert for retinitis pigmentosa in 1987.

Speaking at a brief backstage press conference before his set, Wonder suggested why this particular cause means a lot to him: His private teacher from elementary school days suffered from the disease.

Harris said Thursday that she expected the concert and related corporate contributions to yield a total of $1.5 million, which will be put toward establishment of a retinitis pigmentosa research and care facility in Los Angeles. Its name: Wonderland.

Wonder is no stranger to benefits. In recent years, he has appeared on the humanitarian singles “We Are the World” and “That’s What Friends Are For.” He also dedicated his 1980 recording “Happy Birthday” to establishing a legal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The scope of Wonder’s social involvement was underscored in his 90-minute performance Thursday. In addition to focusing on retinitis pigmentosa, he dedicated his song “Frontline” to Vietnam veterans and his Oscar-winning “I Just Called to Say I Love You” to imprisoned South African activist Nelson Mandela.

In keeping with the mood of the evening, Wonder concentrated on warm, mellow ballads, bypassing most of his hard-driving pop and funk hits. The emphasis on this material--from 1969’s poignant “My Cherie Amour” to last year’s exquisite “Overjoyed”--served as a reminder that Wonder has composed some of the most gorgeous and timeless melodies of the modern pop era.

Wonder had programmed all the instrumentation into a computer before the show, which gave him total control over the music. With no live band to interact with the audience, however, the show had a slightly “canned” feel. But Wonder did have a bit of fun with the technology, experimenting with several different computerized tempo settings on “My Cherie Amour” before settling on the right one.

Pop crooner Julio Iglesias joined Wonder to sing a new Wonder ballad, “My Love.” The two have recorded the song for Iglesias’ next album.

The first half of the show featured brief performances by other stars. Highlights included Marilyn McCoo’s dramatic reading of Wonder’s “Riding in Your Rocket,” Susan Anton’s surprisingly strong reading of “Forgotten Eyes” (written for Retinitis Pigmentosa International by Steve Siler and Rich Sperber), and Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager’s set, which featured four of their best-known songs. One of Sager’s selections was especially appropriate: “Looking Through the Eyes of Love.”

Harris founded Retinitis Pigmentosa International 15 years ago to overcome what she terms an “information blackout” on the disease. The Woodland Hills wife and mother isn’t a disinterested observer: She has retinitis pigmentosa, as do two of her three sons.

In an interview before the show, Harris acknowledged that it hasn’t been easy to raise awareness of the disease; to compete with such killer diseases as AIDS and cancer for media attention and charity dollars.

“The climate for fund raising is very tough,” she said. “That’s put an extra burden on it. It probably would have been easier to get donations five years ago. But everything happens in its time.”

Harris, whose soft-spoken manner belies her steely determination, said after the show that things now seem to be falling into place.

“I feel like we’ve jumped to the next stage of awareness. For the first time, I really believe we’re going to find a cure.”