Organizers Barge In for L.A. Junior League

Chairmen always get carried away--their relatives, too. Not only did Candace Waldron head the Junior League of Los Angeles’ seventh annual Los Angeles Antiques Show, but she and her husband, Douglas, were highest bidders on the French barge excursion the other evening at the Biltmore gala. Also, assistant chairman Barbara Danielson got royal support from her in-laws. The Richard Danielsons purchased the cruise to Alaska. President Carolyn Milner estimates the net will be more than $130,000, and chairman Jann McCord optimistically says $150,000. She planned the lavish evening--”Somewhere in Time”--adorning the Crystal Ballroom with silver-tasseled dance cards, the gentlemen with oversized mauve boutonnieres (some league husbands were so young they asked what they were), and the ambiance with Michael Carney’s Orchestra and vocalist Colleen Casey. At 12:40 a.m. she sauntered up in her Tracey Mills gown and her Faith Porter necklace of 12 layers of crystal wrapped in hematite (it’s called crystal lace) and said the band must stop. What a disappointment for the diehards!

Doris Fields assembled a smashing crowd at the Bistro Gardens to introduce sophisticated Italian couturiere Mila Schon. Not only because she speaks Italian, the amiable Betty Wilson, wife of former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican William Wilson, was seated at the designer’s right. More crowding around the table and admiring David Jones’ centerpieces with the bright-red peppers were Marion Jorgensen, Louise Good, and her house guest, the irrepressible Evelyn Lambert, visiting from Italy (she swims daily in a 90-degree pool and has the skin of a starlet), Carla Bigatti (the designer’s manager of distribution in the United States), Giney Milner (who, with the Wilsons recently hosted Portugal’s former Ambassador to the Vatican Helder de Mendonca e Cunha, Duarte Pinto Coelho of Madrid and artist Pedro Leitao of Lisbon, taking them to the Wilsons’ ranch in Mexico), Onnalee Doheny, Mignon Winans, Gloria Stewart--all at one table.

Host Giuseppe Battaglia and Kay Battaglia (he’s opened the Schon boutique at 456 N. Rodeo Drive) was greeting all the guests over the brodo freddo di crema acida e caviale and the cappellini con salsa di pomodoro, the salmone piastra and the sorbetto ai lamponi freschi-- with California red and whites for variety.

Others in on the fun were Erlenne Sprague, Jane Del Amo, Marianne Rogers, Midge Clark, Ceil Moore, Betty Williams, Monica Steele (store manager), Frances Skipsey, Louise Dougherty, Eleanor Colt, Jean Trousdale, Chardee Trainer, Patricia Kennedy, Connie Wald, Sedge Plitt, Jeanne Sully, Natalie Robinson, Katie Kline, Merle Kingsley, Virginia Oppenheimer.

MIDAS TOUCH: Paddy Grant couldn’t wait to tell all: Benefit chairman of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design Cindy McNeish has tallied up. And the donation to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra will be $260,000. Additional funds will go to the music mobile program, the Pasadena Youth Concert and the Pasadena instrumental competition.

UPSCALE: Cynthia Gregory will be the focus at a pretty garden in San Marino next week when the benefit committee of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Diabetes Assn. and the Los Angeles Times host a private party to kick off the Los Angeles Chapter’s March 9 gala. She will star with Linda Ronstadt in concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. First Lady Nancy Reagan will be honorary chairman.

The committee is lively: Mrs. John Darrell Kerckhoff, Mrs. Timothy A. Morphy, Mrs. Edmund Joseph Regan II, Mrs. David Davis, Mrs. Clarence E. Fleming Jr., Mrs. Frank Haltom, Mrs. John Jorgensen, Mrs. Robert W. Malone, Mrs. Roger Medearis, Mrs. John Albin, Mrs. Bruce Blomstrom, Mrs. Gregory R. Brundage, Mrs. Donald Dewey, Mrs. Jerome F. Clark, Mrs. John Heckendorn, Mrs. Lary Mielke, Mrs. Kathy Tolegian, Dr. Kathleen Wishner, Mrs. Donald Titus, Mrs. Jeb Stuart, Mrs. John Seiter, Mrs. Craig R. Norton, Mrs. John A. Payonzeck, Mrs. Bernard A. Reiling Jr., Mrs. Steven Serrurier, Mrs. Hervey Segall and Mrs. Stephen Russell.

ESCALATION: French designer Pierre Cardin is coming to town, courtesy of the Broadway, and there’s a flurry of fun: He’ll be the very honored guest at a Tuesday tea hosted by patrons of the Costume Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They’ll show Cardin the recently completed Research and Design Center of the Costume and Textile Division (which happens to include Cardin’s earlier designs). Then the couturier will announce a new addition for the collection. Mrs. Joseph Pollack will be host later at the tea in her home. Mrs. Paul A. Erskine Jr. is chairing the event with Maggie Pexton Murray. In addition, more than 500 of a very young crowd will come black-tie Monday evening at the Broadway Center to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis and meet Cardin. On Wednesday, he’ll be the attraction at a brunch at the Broadway at the South Coast Plaza showing not only couture, but his licensee merchandise (mens, sports and active wear).

The Guild for Cystic Fibrosis, whose national chairman is Joan Rivers, hosts a membership luncheon at Jimmy’s next Thursday. Gale Hayman, co-founder of Giorgio’s, will speak about her new line of cosmetics debuting early next year. Nancy Wasserman, Carol Gillis and Barbara Schuster, Guild co-chairmen, plan a full year.

UPCOMING: Consul General Margareta Hegardt of Sweden entertains Friday evening to honor the 1986 Swedish Council of America Award recipients: Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Franklin S. Forsgberg, and Sir Michael Wood, African Medical and Research Foundation (“The Flying Doctors”). . . . The Los Angeles area chapter of the American Assn. of Blacks in Energy hosts a fashion fund-raiser Saturday in the Grand Ballroom of the Airport Marriott. . . . The Palos Verdes Marine Animal Care Foundation plans its first fund-raiser Saturday, an auction at Marineland’s Catalina Room. John E. Corcoran is foundation president. . . . Canada’s minister of communications, Flora MacDonald, and consul general, Joan Wisner, are expected to attend the Saturday dinner-dance at Cal State L.A. honoring Academy Award-winning screenwriter and novelist Mordecai Richler and director Ted Kotcheff. It celebrates collaborations in the arts between the United States and Canada.

FESTIVAL: Members of Los Angeles Bombay Sister City celebrate India’s new year, Diwali, with their annual dinner-dance at the Bel-Air Country Club at 7 p.m. Nov. 21. Consul General Kishan Rana of India has been invited to be guest of honor by chairman Sherry James Houser and Greta Peck, Veneita Butler, Mira Advani and Raphael de Marchuena. Expect saris.

HIGHER PURPOSE: Friends of Pam and George Smith of Bel-Air have sent invitations for the charter membership luncheon of the first auxiliary for the A-T Medical Research Foundation. The foundation funds research for Ataxia-Telangiectasia (pronounced A-tack-see-ah Tel-an-je-eck-tay-zee-ah), a rare genetic disease that afflicts the Smiths’ 8-year-old daughter Rebecca. The event is Wednesday at the Regency Club. Dr. Richard Gatti, scientific director of the foundation, will discuss research grants and the disease, a degenerative disorder that attacks the cerebellum and the immune system.

Alice Lainer chairs the luncheon, aided by Roz Bazar, Lois Rosen, Adrienne Horwitch, Lonnie Israel, Joan Cohen, Lynn Ziman, Sandy Seltzer, Lois Rosen, Donna Rosen, Marilyn Kwiker, Loraine Sloan, Jacquie Tenzer, Sheila Seaton and others.

PLAUDITS: Thomas Hoving recently referred to Gump’s as “the greatest store of its kind in the world.” And J. Shelton Ellis Jr., executive director of the Beverly Hills store, is so pleased he has invited special customers for next Thursday to honor Marilu Klar, vice president of jewelry, and to view Gump’s 125th anniversary Collection of Jewels. Carriage entrance. Valet parking. Jewel room. Susan Allen, harpist. A one-of-kind night.

CENTER STAGE: Rich Little and mimicry will be center stage for the 10th annual Stag Roast sponsored by Medical Center Aides for the City of Hope Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton. Norm Crosby will be roastmaster. Former roastees Milton Berle, Monty Hall and Pat McCormick will join Tom Bosley, Sid Caesar, Howard Keel, Dick Shawn and Mel Torme. That’s according to co-chairman Lawrence Hartman and chapter president Morris Shechet. . . .

Edith B. Phelps, director of school studies, the Study Center for Gender, Education and Human Development at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, speaks Monday at the Mary N. Hutchison Center and Dormitory on the campus of The Webbs Schools. The public talk, “Schools Discover Themselves: An Assessment of Young Women’s Educational Options,” is part of Vivian Webb School’s Women-in-Leadership Series. . . .

Paula Nelson, author of “The Joy of Money,” speaks to the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Assn. of Women Business Owners when it salutes corporate America Wednesday at the Beverly Wilshire. Dr. Ray Irani, president of Occidental Petroleum, is dinner chairman.

San Antonio Mayor Henry G. Cisneros and Judge Tony Jimenez III, also of San Antonio, will be honored by the Mexican American Alumni Assn. of Loyola Marymount University Saturday evening at the Marina Beach Hotel in Marina del Rey. Linda Alvarez, Channel 4 co-anchor, will be emcee. Rudy Macias and his orchestra will play for dancing.

PAST PERFECT: Fred W. Friendly, the Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Columbia, presented a lecture on the First Amendment issues at Southwestern University School of Law this week to inaugurate the Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Southwestern Themis Society. It’s part of the school’s 75th anniversary celebration and it called for champagne to honor the outspoken Friendly (who’s a fan of lamb curry). . . .

Virginia and Bill Armistead gathered a galaxy of friends to celebrate the opening of the new restaurant Philippe Philippe at 11500 San Vicente Blvd. in Brentwood. Arriving for cocktails and dining were the Warren Crowells, the Howard Edgertons, the Robert Colemans, the Romus Souceks, the Dean Christys, the Harold Ramsers both senior and junior. Talking a lot of America’s Cup chat were the Armisteads’ daughter Mary Morgan and her husband, Dr. Morgan Morgan (Eagle supporter), and their granddaughter Valerie Morgan and her escort, Terry Trumbull (America II supporter). Others in on the fun were the Stephen Bilheimers, the Felix Farwells, Charles Bergesches (he did the flowers), the Thomas Armisteads, the Joseph Hortons, Odell McConnell, Walter Combs, Bill and Susan Armistead, the William Walkups, Mrs. Z. Wayne Griffin, the Vernon Underwoods, the George Elkins, Mrs. Milo Bekins, Mrs. Will Ward, the John Hadleys and the Luppe Luppens. . . .

Beverly Hills party planner Arthur Simon re-created “Glitter Madness” for the Cedars-Sinai United Hostesses’ Charities benefit at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He used white-frosted mannequins adorned in Ziegfeld costume creations, a painstakingly researched concept authenticated through black-and-white photographs. Centerpieces on tables were mirrored four-foot pedestals filled with white painted tea leaves and white orchids. . . .