Social Calendar of Friends Is Filling Up

The 250-member Fraternity of Friends of the Music Center is in for some special treats as president Marc Marcussen prepares to end his term of office (in June) with a fine flurry.

Specifically, here’s how the Fraternity’s social calendar is lining up.

On March 21 the fellows will enjoy “An Evening of Fashion” (for men and women) at Robinson’s Beverly Hills, site of last year’s ultra-successful Dior fashion show. And this time they’ll help Calvin Klein launch his new perfume, Obsession. Since it’s going to be the kind of evening women will enjoy, the Fraternity has invited its sister support group, the Amazing Blue Ribbon, to come along. There will be strolling musicians to fill the air with pretty tunes and an ample buffet prepared by Rococo.

Next comes what Marcussen calls the “International Symphony of Young Chefs” on May 19. Joachim Splichal of Max au Triangle and Fraternity member Fred Roberts are working out the details of this evening at Joachim’s new restaurant on Beverly Drive. Some of the city’s best-known chefs--Claude Segal of Bistango, Susumu Fukui of La Petite Chaya, Ken Frank of La Toque and Patrick Jamon of Les Anges--will work with Splichal in preparing the hors d’oeuvres and each will create a course for the dinner. Max’s pastry chef, Gerhard Michler, has been given the task of doing the desserts. No ladies will be invited to this affair, so probably Fraternity wives and friends will plan a dinner of their own, as they have in the past.

The final hurrah for Marcussen is the June 15 second “Annual Last Year’s Dinner.” It’s been three years since the Fraternity put on this affair, so anticipation runs high. We can’t tell you too much about it except that the guys are talking about staging a 1985 version of their much-talked-about musical revue from a few years ago. Some talented Fraternity members and even some whose talents lie in other directions will join in the singing and dancing and frolicking. The place has been reserved--the Japan America Theatre in downtown Los Angeles--and the entertainment committee has begun recruiting would-be stars. That won’t-take-no-for-an-answer committee is anchored by Alan Rothenberg, president of the Clippers basketball team, and Herb Isaacs. Working with them are writer-director Allan Burns, television producer James Burrows, Columbia Pictures Executive Vice President Bob Bookman, producer Larry Turman, attorney Roger Kozberg, Fred Roberts, Lee Phillips and Sheldon Sloan.

Besides having a lot of fun, Fraternity members also work hard raising money for the Music Center Unified Fund. This year their goal is $450,000. And that’s not peanuts.

Eli Broad, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaufman & Broad Inc., and Dr. Franklin D. Murphy, chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors of Times Mirror Co., are serving in tandem as honorary co-chairmen for the 1985 Coro Foundation Public Affairs Awards Dinner on April 11 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. This year the honorees who’ll receive Coro Awards are Gail Abarbanel, founder, Rape Treatment Center; Edward W. Carter, chairman emeritus, Carter Hawley Hale; George McKenna, principal of the Washington Preparatory School, and Henry Winkler, actor and producer. Twelve fellows currently enrolled in the Coro program will write, direct and produce brief video introductions for the four award winners.

Richard B. Lippin of Lippin & Grant is dinner chairman for the $200-per-plate dinner, which will help support the public affairs leadership training programs conducted by Coro.

Robinson’s, a department store with a conscience, is hosting a luncheon Thursday at the Beverly Hills store for the Angels of the United Hostesses’ Charities. Jeffrey Banks, the fashion designer who already has a Coty under his belt (for his 1982 menswear designs), will present his spring collection, his first for women, a melange of spring pastels and floral prints. (The guests qualify as Angels by donating $1,000 to $50,000 to United Hostesses’ projects, among them the Cardiac Catheterization Center and the Harold J. Mirisch Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the Counseling Center at the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center.

Louise Siegal (soon to be Mrs. Barry Taper) is chairing the stylish event with the help of a committee that includes Bea Stern, Ginny Hirsch, Cheri Youssem and Marilyn Gilfenbain. Susan Salvin is United Hostesses president.

Some of those expected that afternoon are Mrs. Happy Franklin, Doris Factor, George Page, Lottie Mirisch, King Hirsch, Carlo Celoni and Frances Klein.

The Social Scramble: Benetton, the Italian knitwear firm, is opening its shop on Rodeo Drive with a fine Italian flurry. Luciano Benetton, a member of the large Benetton family, is flying in with his pal, Grand Prix race driver Eddie Cheever (Cheever races Benetton’s Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car) to host the party, which will have an international flavor, but very Italian when it comes to the food. “The pasta,” says Bijan Khezri, the man responsible for bringing Benetton to the fashionable drive, “will be Italian-Italian.”

Sedge and Henry Plitt hosted a jolly little dinner party in the VIP room of Madame Wu’s Garden for a host of pals like Sol and Alice Laykin, Grace and Merrill Lowell, Danny and Rose Marie Thomas and Dr. Morey and Miriam Parkes. And elsewhere in the restaurant celebrating various milestones were Rhonda Fleming and Ted Mann with Mark Taper; Jean and Doug Laidlaw (their birthdays and the birth of their fourth grandchild); the Howard Allens; Gwen Hornburg with Mr. and Mrs. William Summer.

Patrick Terrail has done a little sprucing up at Ma Maison--fresh pink and green canopies, white over pink tablecloths, trees in white rattan baskets at the entrance. The other noontime quite a few of the regulars were admiring the effect--from table numero uno Ed McMahon with wife, Victoria (“This is the side of ‘Hollywood Wives’ you didn’t see,” she commented about the quilted bag holding two baby bottles and Pampers she had slung over one shoulder), and his baby granddaughter; from a center table, PSA’s Libby Fraser sipping Ma Maison champagne with her seafood pasta; and from various other tables L’Orangerie and Pastel’s Gerard Ferry with Nicole Winkler, who is moving back to Paris; Barbara Carrera with talent manager Ray Katz; actress Marthe Keller; Mike Douglas.