YWCA to Fete 11 at Leader Luncheon

In a celebration saluting the leadership role of women, the YWCA of Los Angeles pays tribute April 23 to Judith Harris Murphy and 10 other outstanding women. The occasion is the Leader Luncheon XII at the Westin Bonaventure.

Mrs. Murphy will become only the third recipient of the YWCA’s prestigious Athena Award, given for outstanding volunteer and civic commitment. Anna Bing Arnold and Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson are previous recipients.

YWCA Los Angeles president Virginia Tanzmann and luncheon chairman Keith Kieschnick are full steam ahead on the affair, timed to coincide with National Volunteer Week.

Others being honored with Silver Achievements in their respective fields will be Jane Hurd, CEO at Childrens Hospital; Lovie Yancey, president, Fatburger Inc.; Adrienne A. Hall, vice chairman, Eisaman, Johns & Laws, Advertising Inc.; Georgia Ricci Nelson, Southern California Edison; attorney Shirley M. Hufstedler; Helen Harris, founder/president, Retinitis Pigmentosa International; Dr. Judith Ann Pachciarz, Wadsworth-VA Hospital; Cheryl Miller, 1984 U.S. Olympic gold medalist, and Beulah Quo, actress.

The annual fund-raiser (call Maura Walsh at the YWCA, (213) 482-3470, for tickets) provides businesses and organizations with a mode to honor their outstanding women employees and clients.

The Music Center Mercado’s ’86 Preview Party on Tuesday to kick off the Mercado in June (the 1984 event netted $750,000) is booked up. Saks Fifth Avenue of Beverly Hills is staging cocktails and the international fashion show.

Pia Zadora headlines the National Multiple Sclerosis Society entertainment honoring jockey Bill Shoemaker on Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton.

Five of Shoemaker’s fellow jockeys join the program--Eddie Delahoussaye, Sandy Hawley, Chris McCarron, Lafitte Pincay and Pat Valenzuela.

Among those reserving tables are Robert and Betty Strub, the Frank Grisantis, the Merlin Olsens, the Frank Alessias, and the Richard Riordans. Tickets are $250 and $500.

And Saturday evening, Pia and the 42-piece Donn Trenner Orchestra will entertain at the Los Angeles Chapter, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation Inc. annual dinner at the Beverly Hilton. Co-chairmen Mort and Sylvia Olshan are calling the night “A Four-Star Affair.”

The foundation’s 1986 Humanitarian of the Year award will be awarded to Norman Cousins for his lifelong contributions to literature, science, law and medicine.

Sid Caesar will make the presentation and Tony Randall will emcee the evening. Korean comedian Johnny Yune, veteran of 30 Johnny Carson shows, will entertain also. The Olshans are hoping to net $140,000.

Acceptances have come in from Ann-Margret and her husband Roger Smith, Susan Anton, Dudley Moore and Marvin Hamlisch, to name-drop. Tickets are $175.

Finishing touches are adorning the Los Angeles premiere performance of “The Italian Lesson” starring Jean Stapleton on Wednesday at UCLA Schoenberg Hall. That night Miss Stapleton, best known to audiences as Edith Bunker in “All in the Family,” will present the Broadway-bound one-woman show, a monologue from the material by Ruth Draper set to music by Lee Hoiby.

It’s a $200-per-person benefit co-chaired by Norman Lear and Bill Honig and aiding L.A.’s “Fame School,” the Academy of Performing and Visual Arts, which holds arts education classes at 13 sites throughout Los Angeles County. Educator Jack Plimpton is the executive director.

Chairman Ruth Bloom and Sylvia Hirsch, Dorothy Metcalfe, Carol Porter and Larry Spellman are among those detailing the gala. The supper, menu, music--post-Stapleton--will continue in the Italian ambiance.

The Diadames luncheon Tuesday is also star-struck. We “Go Broadway,” says Rosamind White, who’s moved the affair to the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire so more can attend.

Table settings--the creative productions--are being produced by Joni Smith and directed by Arletta Tronstein. And the cast of arrangers includes Lucy Bonorris, Kathy Kilroy, Marilyn McDaniel, Kay McKay, Pat Moller, Margaret Spillane (she’s been lounging in Switzerland several weeks) and Adrienne Underwood. President Barbara Richardson will be in the wings.

It was a happy group that took over Chasen’s the other night for the Right to Life League of Southern California Founder’s Circle Dinner honoring Supervisor Michael Antonovich for his pro-life stand.

Gloria Griffin, chairman for a second consecutive year (“You always want to do the next benefit better”), was at the front door, greeting guests with Ann Blyth McNulty, honorary chairman, and some of her dinner committee including Sally Conn, Patty Burschinger and Mrs. Roger Sullivan. The dinner was strictly blue-ribbon: Scampi Maison, then grapefruit sorbet followed by roast crowned rack of veal with sauce Piccato, asparagus and the Grand Marnier souffle.

The blue-ribbon occasion also brought out the Most Rev. Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles and, as master of ceremonies, Pat Boone lent the ecumenical vibes.

Joining more than 300 were Dorothy and John Shea, Kathleen and Tom McCarthy, Stafford and Roberta Grady, Phillip and Maureen Robinson, Pat and Jack Peutet, Phyllis Nugent and Stephen Garrett, Gilbert and Claire Shea, Steven and Joan Stanwyck, Dan and Elaine Scully, Ken and Rita Nielsen, the Rev. Donald P. Merrifield, Elaine Chao (Antonovich’s date), Susan and Bill McMillan, Bill and Nancy McDonald, Loretta Young Lewis, Gordon and Joyce James, Ray and Darleen Herriman, Bruce and Sheila Freeman, Mary Louise Frawley, Sir Daniel Donohue and Mary Hawley.

Happiest Diamond Circle members at “The Last Great Hollywood Party--Part IX” were president Robert Goldberg and his wife Betty. In the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt gala salute to Hollywood, he announced that 22 new Diamond Circles couples have joined this year, and that means that more than $350,000 can be given to the City of Hope’s Children’s Center.

That comment brought lots of approval from Isadore and Shirley Familian, Dale Olson (party chairman), Count Ghislain de Vouge (the evening’s honored guest), Jane Withers (“I arrived in Hollywood--at the very front door of the Roosevelt--in 1932”), Lynn and Irwin Deutch (he’s been heavily involved with the hotel restoration), Hal and Frances Linden, Mike and Millie Hersch and Sol and Neddy Rubin.

Through the courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the decorations for the 58th Academy Awards dinner will be left intact for the next day when “Operation: Children” will host its Eighth Annual Post Academy Awards Luncheon in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton amid the same trappings.

All the arrangements being planned by Mrs. Fulton Burley were defined at a luncheon meeting at the home of Greta Peck. Robert Wise, academy president, has agreed to be honorary chairman.

Fashion designer Michael Novarese will feature his spring collection.

Among those on the committee are president Mrs. Stanley Zernek; co-chairmen Mrs. Richard Coyle and Marty Pasetta; Mrs. Michael Maschio, Mrs. Alex Bergstrom, Helene Pollock, Mrs. Alvin Kraus, Mrs. Tom Brown, Mrs. Gareth Hughes, Mrs. John T. Mills and Jeanne Trepanier.

Wednesday, Lee Anderson, wife of Rep. Glenn M. Anderson (D-Hawthorne), received the 1986 SCAN Horizon Award at the Senior Care Action Network Foundation’s Maritime Horizon award dinner at Pier 93-B in San Pedro, in recognition of her contributions to the senior community. Author Ray Bradbury was not only keynoter, but contributed an original poem to commemorate the evening.

The Juniors of the Social Service Auxiliary are proudly announcing that Robert La Cross of Monrovia High School won first place in its fourth annual Art Contest competition. He wins $500 and will have his entry on the cover of the Social Service Review.

San Fernando Valley Links are looking forward to helping open the doors of the new Warner Center Marriott Hotel in Woodland Hills with their Top Hat Award fund-raiser Saturday. Sissy Alexander is chairman.

They will gather to honor former Dodger great Don Newcombe for his community contributions and example for youth. Newcombe is a baseball Hall of Famer and now directs special projects for New Beginnings alcohol and drug treatment programs.

Upcoming:

The Shakespeare Club of Pasadena League Department hosts an opening-night theater party Friday evening at 6 at the Shakespeare Clubhouse in Pasadena before the 8 p.m. performance of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” in the Pasadena City College Sexson Auditorium. It’s the league’s 40th-anniversary production. Proceeds will benefit the Retarded Citizens Assn. of the San Gabriel Valley. The play also will be staged Saturday at 8 p.m. . . .

The Fine Arts Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Southern California features the songs of “Showboat” at its benefit luncheon at the league’s Girls’ Club on March 26. . . .

The Junior Auxiliary and Noontimers Auxiliary of the Assistance League present an Easter Parade of spring fashions Saturday at the Sheraton Premiere Hotel. Harriet Keast, Noontimers chairman, and Catherine Shalhoub and Cathryn Forester, chairman and co-chairman for the benefit, are working with Judy Licklider and Sandy Kovata of the Junior Auxiliary. . . .

Sandi Walker heads the Friends of the Child Advocates’ first major fund-raiser Sunday. It’s an “Evening of Enchantment” at Dar Maghreb Restaurant. She and president Jacquie Dolan expect proceeds of $30,000 to support services for abused and neglected children. . . .

The Los Angeles Guild of the San Diego Opera Assn. stages a “Brouhaha at Bruno’s!” on Sunday in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Judy Zahler is chairman of the operatic luncheon staring San Diego Opera singers Sarah Agler and David Downing. Among those attending will be Bev and Sid Adair, John Tyrrell, Doyle Kutch, Tam and Don Dickerson. . . .

“Lunch With Dear Abby” (Abigail Van Buren) is on the agenda today for the annual Zingo benefit of the Whittier Committee of the Spastic Children’s League at Industry Hills and Sheraton Resort. Barbara Dugally and Dyan Pignatelli are co-chairmen.

Mrs. Thomas Landress of the Los Angeles Alumnae Panhellenic Assn. presented scholarships to USC and UCLA students at a luncheon at Wilshire Country Club.