A Festival Fit for the Entire Family

The only trouble with these wonderful holiday parties is that sometimes the youngsters sit at home. James R. Young of the Director’s Roundtable and one of the newer, younger trustees at the County Museum of Art, is doing something about it. Next Sunday the Roundtable will inaugurate a Holiday Festival designed for the entire family. It’s a dressy affair--velvets and lace will be appropriate. Sumptuous goodies for all ages and a parade of entertainment will delight all. The occasion will include a children’s choir, mimes, a Madrigal group, Mexican folkloric fun, puppeteers and “Jinglebear.”

The setting is the new Times Mirror Central Court. And the idea is that the family that plays together enjoys culture together and will take time out to absorb the wonders of the new Robert O. Anderson Building and its premiere exhibition, “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890-1985.” The museum’s Leo S. Bing Theater will be showing its Holiday Film Festival. It’s even a nice chance to holiday shop at the new museum shop. Adult tickets for the evening are $75, and youngsters $25.

PILES OF PLAUDITS: To Chris Madison, surprised on his 40th birthday by wife Lois with popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy, hot dogs, fire eaters and snake charmers. A real three-ring circus. . . . To Dee Dee Popich, wife of Nick Popich (the Canadian financier who spearheaded the $93-million entertainment complex Filmland), honored at the Bistro Gardens by Rosemarie Stack, Tita Cahn, Ginny Mancini and Inga Ingram. . . . To designer Donald Rawley who showed his couture collection at the Design Center of Los Angeles to guests of honor Baroness Ebba Rosenblad and Baron Frederick von Soosten. . . . To Terry Bell (Mrs. Lionel), appointed women’s division campaign chair for the United Jewish Fund Campaign. . . . To Sanford C. Sigoloff, who received Pepperdine University’s Private Enterprise Award at a black-tie dinner this week at the Beverly Wilshire. . . . To Tyne Daly of “Cagney & Lacey,” to be honored Wednesday by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s Southern California Steering Committee at its Equal Justice Awards Dinner.

SOUNDLY FANTASTIC: The dance floor of the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom was rarely so full. Guests were dancing on the carpeting, in the aisles, clearly a young crowd tuned to the ‘60s. And, that’s just what benefit co-chairmen Helene Irvin and Penelope von Kalinowski had forecast for their Sonance benefit the other evening for the House Ear Institute’s Center for Deaf Children.

The attractions: Bobby Vee, Freda Payne, the Shirelles, Beatlemania, Rain and the comedy of Bill Dana. Susie (“I have a bad back”) and Bob Leonard, 29 and 35 respectively, were immersed in Beatlemania, but conserving their energies by “twisting and shouting” in their dinner chairs. Gloria and Glen Holden danced every dance. When they played “That’ll Be the Day,” Helen Irvin noted, “I was in the eighth grade.” Reese Milner and Mary Daly, Pat (in a stunning Oscar de la Renta) and Finn Miller, Teran and Bill Davis, Sherry and Michael Lombardy (their horse Skywalker won the Breeder’s Cup Classic) were there. So were Pat and Andy Friendly, Marianne and Kenny Rogers (about to leave for Georgia for Thanksgiving) and the Howard Houses and Don and Ginny Vinson, Jenny and Loring Rutt, and Grace and Merrill Lowell. Carolyn and Jim Fox lucked out. Before sitting for dinner, she lamented she had won only two tickets in the gaming (they were put in the hopper for the draw), but on the very first draw by Sonance’s Child of the Year Kristen Corey, Carolyn came up with the winning ticket for the $5,000 worth of Tallerico precious jewels. Gee, what to choose? Corporate chairman Alexander Cappello, Carolyn and Randolph Stockwell, Cheryl Wengrow, and Father Maurice Chase were all there.

PLAINLY NICE: California plein-air painters--both northern and southern--are an upscale item these days, and Mrs. Addison Leech Luce of Pasadena thought it would be especially fitting for the DeWitt Parshall painting, “Eucalyptus and Clouds,” which had hung over her mantle for so many years, to be given to the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena as a memorial to her late husband, president of the club in 1949-51. No one was happier than the club’s curator, Ann Longyear, who, promptly, with her husband, Douglas, and club president Thomas Techentin hosted a dinner in the upstairs library to honor Mrs. Luce. It was a time of fun and laughter, with the honoree’s daughters, Betsy Phillips and Isabel Taylor, both present. Among the luminaries were Harry Lippincott Dunn (a founder of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher), Mrs. Henry Grandin, Mrs. Stevens Halsted, Mrs. Peter Reich (president of Las Madrinas), Dr. and Mrs. James Caillouette (he’s a former club president), the Richard Millers, the Bruce Andersons, the Gardner Grouts and Ron Stever.

KUDOS: Lawrence O. Kitchen receives the Americanism Award at the Western Los Angeles County Council, Boy Scouts of America award dinner Monday evening at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton. Dr. Allen E. Puckett is dinner chairman. Charlton Heston will speak on “The Pursuit of Excellence.”

YULETIDE: Have you ever considered a green dinosaur with a pot belly, a red suit, a cap with the softest, cutest white furry beard? Shelton Ellis did. This Santa Dinosaur is his invitation on behalf of the Alliance Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History announcing the museum’s Dinosaur Ball and its major museum event in 1987: “Gold: The Eternal Quest for Riches.” . . .

The Bistro in Beverly Hills will brim with fun next Sunday for Les Amies’ annual Christmas cocktail buffet to benefit the Children’s Institute International. Nancy Heintz Russel says the Bistro will be converted into a Christmas village by Diana Murphy. Mrs. Ruloff Cutten, chairman, and Mrs. Dwight Hirsch expect about 400. Virginia Rogers and Nancy Dinsmore say it’s “the place to be.”

Invitations are out for the 40th annual Delta Delta Delta Sleighbell Luncheon Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton. Bonwit Teller presents the fashion show. The Citrus College Chorale sets the mood. Luncheon chairman Mrs. Thomas Maloof will host national Tri-Delt president Mrs. Kenneth C. Gaines Jr. of Los Alamitos.

DREAMS COME TRUE: In the true holiday spirit, Beverly Hills has created the Santa Claus Foundation to assist Southern California youth agencies. Friday, in front of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the new tradition was launched with trumpet fanfares, the official lighting of the city’s new multimillion-dollar street decorations and the first Beverly Hills Family Holiday Pageant.

The best part: Next Sunday, 50 children from five agencies--the Ronald McDonald Camp for Good Times, Chinatown Services, the Salvation Army, Los Angeles and Hollywood YMCAs and the Orange County Indian Center--will accompany the “Original Santa Claus of Finland” back to his home above the Arctic Circle for a weeklong Arctic Adventure. Highlights will include a reception given in their honor by U.S. Ambassador to Finland Rockwell Schnabel, a cruise from Helsinki to Stockholm and a visit to Santa Claus Land in Rovaniemi, Finland, where the children will receive their reindeer drivers licenses, visit Santa’s Post Office, and, of course, sit on Santa’s knee.

Tending to the reins are chairman Bernice Hutter, president Dr. Murray Hausner and Consul General of Finland Jussi Montonen.

DECK THE HALLS: That’s what Les Dames de Champagne International Hostesses plan Friday at Willowdale Galleries in Beverly Hills. The ho-ho invitational festivity is to be a shopping spree with wassail bowl, carolers and shimmering evergreen. . . .

Smith College Club of Pasadena is trimming madly for its greenery sale, silent auction and elegant buffet Friday. Smith authors Harriet Doerr, Martha Tolles and Jane Yoland will also sell their books for the scholarship fund. Planning: president Kathy Reilly, Ginger Boyda, Margie Grossman, Mary Cairns and Marilyn Brumder. . . .

Garlanded in their 35th Christmas Tree Ball on Saturday evening in the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Grande are all the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital Auxiliary members.

FA-LA-LA-LA: Caroling season. No one does it more melodically than “Voices of Christmas.” The group of professional and amateur singers, sponsored by the Michael Burke Foundation, hosts its annual holiday concert and dinner-dance Dec. 10 in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire. The black-tie evening of song is a benefit for the Saint John’s Heart Institute at Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.

Braille Insitute Auxiliary president Marge Kolliner and chairman Charlotte Meier are snow-deep in plans for the “Expectations” Christmas luncheon Thursday in the Rodeo Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Proceeds go for children’s braille books.

Eighteen vendors from Los Angeles and Orange counties converge on Mayfield Senior School Thursday when it stages its annual Christmas Boutique. Wreaths, ornaments, stocking stuffers, wood carvings, jams will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 500 Bellefontaine St., Pasadena.

A dazzling array of 55 decorated holiday trees is the draw for Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center’s “Festival of the Trees” Thursday through next Sunday. Thursday is “Community Preview Night” with a $1 admission. Friday night is “Festival Night” for $25 and the auction of 51 trees.

WITH GLEE: Porter Hendricks, former UCLA student body president and well-known Carriage Club member, is doing what he loves to do--getting his matchbooks printed with the UCLA/USC score (45-25) from last week’s foray at the Rose Bowl. Needless to say, his USC friends are not looking forward to his gift. It’s just part of the fun from the Carriage Club’s brunch at Perino’s before members “coached it” to the game. It’s the club’s 45th year going to the classic, and founder Lucy Toberman returned just in time with Homer and with Jane Mock and Elizabeth Sides from Hong Kong. Among the ladies in their Adolfos and Diors and the men in their camel hair and tweed jackets were Ruth and Alex Atanasoff, the Robert Moffatts, Bonnie and Bob Baker, Gretchen and Waltah Clarke, Bernice and Vincent Cullen, and Kenneth and Betty Morgan.

Meanwhile, 100 UCLA Chancellor’s Associates from around the Southland joined UCLA Chancellor Charles and Sue Young and Mary Jane and George Moody, president of Security Pacific National Bank, for a black-tie dinner-dance--in blue and gold, naturally--in the executive suites of the bank, perusing the contemporary art. Centerpieces in the 53rd-floor dining room were T-shirt-clad fuzzy bears hanging from blue balloons. Some about were Patricia and Harlan Amstutz, Jacqueline and George Mefferd, Susan and Tim Strader, Marion and Lee Dodson, Barbara, and David Hart and Carol and Roy Doumani.