Backstage With Fun-Loving Footlighters

You can’t imagine the rehearsal fun behind the Footlighter Ball on Saturday at the Beverly Hilton. Lots of laughter. When “To Capture a Moment” does stage, it opens with “The Best of Times,” produced by Sheralyn Smith of Manhattan Beach and Charlene Chase of Marina del Rey.

Lou Ann Zellers says TV’s Bill Joyce (“Scarecrow and Mrs. King”) will star with Sandra Young in a segment called “Animal Crackers.” Footlighters favorite Mrs. William Old will return from England to treat the audience. Barbara Billingsly Mortensen (“Leave It to Beaver”) will do the voice-over for the Statue of Liberty scene of arriving immigrants. Mrs. Alvin Herd, in a miniskirt, and Mrs. Jack Smith will shine in “Memories.” Mrs. William Edwards will be the first lady on the moon in “Come Fly With Me.”

Those Footlighters husbands, who take their theatrical careers seriously, are promising to be riotous--Jack Garrett, Warren Dillard, William Joyce, Dr. Vasilios Lambros.

Of course, it’s a ball. Mrs. E. Dixon Young is party chairman, assisted by Mrs. Jerry Stathatos, and they confirm that the theme is “elegance” in apricot and silver with chamber music to match.

Research is a very important facet of writing a book. Of course, research on chili is paramount. That’s why the gala Chili and Stew Testing-Tasting Party last Friday at the South Pasadena home of the Henry Yosts.

Junior League of Pasadena members sipped and supped rigorously for more research on their California Heritage Cookbook. The publisher, Doubleday and Co. (more than 147,000 books sold), has requested California Heritage Cookbook, Volume II, and the format will reflect updated California food tastes, trends and entertaining.

Mary Anne Borovicka is the hard-working cookbook chairman. Proceeds will support all those good community projects.

Tonight, Ambassador Armando Fernandez will give welcoming remarks and Redentor Romero, the maestro, music director and founding president of the National Philharmonic Society of the Philippines, will perform on his 269-year-old Guarnerius violin at the Patriotic Hall, 1816 N. Figueroa.

Romero, who recently toured the Soviet Union and recorded with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, is on a crusade “to present to the world the beauty and dignity of the finest Filipino music.”

The affair benefits the Christian Education Fund of the Central Filipino Seventh-day Adventist Church of Los Angeles.

Mrs. Daniel Warren Sooy, co-founder, was unable to attend, but many of the past presidents of the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild were at the Hancock Park tea hosted by their current president, Mrs. Laughlin E. Waters. Each received a cut crystal bowl in appreciation.

Among them were Mmes. Charles F. Bergesch II, T. Buchanan Blakiston, William S. Cahill, William H. Doheny, Patrick J. Frawley, Charles W. Getchell, Thomas J. Hickey Jr., Frank H. Powell Jr., Anselmo L. Pozzo, Rodney F. Williams, and Misses Julia S. Dockweiler and Diane Ruth Downey.

Planning the affair were Mmes. James F. LeSage, Vincent H. Lupo and Sharon S. Black.

Next up, their big annual benefit May 19 in the California Room at Chasen’s.

Actors, game-show hosts, sports broadcasters, newscasters, coaches and athletes--what, no reporters?--have been joining hands this week for the LPGA’s GNA Classic Tournament at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

Donald O’Connor was master of ceremonies for the tournament’s party Wednesday evening with some help from Jamie Farr, Buddy Rogers, John Agar, Dennis James, Willie Shoemaker, Chuck Knox, Bill Bain and Bill Sharman.

Purpose of the $250,000 tournament and celebrity involvement is fund raising for the California Hospital Medical Center, the Glendale YMCA, the Assistance League of Glendale and the Glendale Symphony Assn.

Prominent Glendale business executives, both men and women, have participated.

Mrs. John Poer heads the Polytechnic School American Field Service “Elegant Dining Around the World” benefit dinners. Last weekend it was Italian fare at the homes of the Thomas M. Hollingsworths and German at the Phelps M. Woods.

This weekend Dr. and Mrs. Joon H. Bahng conjured French cuisine at their home and Dr. and Mrs. Alan J. Korostoff hosted a “Festa Brasileira” at theirs.

Fast Pace: Angel View Auxiliary gave Pat Boone its Lifetime Golden Angel award at its fourth annual ball in the Sheraton Plaza Hotel in Palm Springs. . . .

The Past Presidents Assembly of the California Federation of Music Clubs entertained at a musicale tea at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Riese in Fremont Place. . . .

San Marino Area Auxiliary of Five Acres feted new members and patrons at its spring luncheon in the San Marino home of Mrs. Thomas F. Jones, president. . . .

The Flower Guild Charities for Children saluted spring with brunch and a tea dance at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Among those dancing to Tommy Holden’s Orchestra were president Mrs. Fenton Taylor and brunch chairman Mrs. Herman Knickmeyer.