Blue Ribbon to Celebrate 20th Birthday

Small, intimate luncheons are being scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday in the homes of board members to celebrate the 20th birthday of the Music Center’s Blue Ribbon.

The affairs are designed to provide members with one-on-one conversation and an opportunity to meet other members. An all-member event headed by newly elected president Joanne Kozberg, who takes office July 1, is planned for the fall to culminate the 20th anniversary.

Current Blue Ribbon president Keith Kieschnick will be a hostess. Joanne will co-host with Andrea Van de Kamp. More hostesses include Virginia Milner, Judy Murphy and Terri Childs; Nancy Livingston and Chardee Trainer, Ernestine Avery and Nancy Call, Joan Hotchkis and Betty Ann Koen, Margaret Parker and Anne Johnson, Dorie Pinola, Ruth Jones, Chase Mishkin and Lois Erburu.

The Blue Ribbon is the group of dedicated women devoted to excellence in the arts and pledged to support the Music Center and its cultural, educational and social activities. Each year the group contributes to the Music Center Unified Fund, which currently has a goal of $13 million for Campaign ’88.

IN COURT: The Ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire is being renovated, and so the Pasadena Guild of Childrens Hospital broke tradition and moved over to the Registry for a “court” setting and a palace ambiance to present 21 debutantes.

Arriving guests were welcomed by pages in period costumes. Strolling musicians played chamber music while guests had cocktails overlooking the city lights. Then it was down to the serious business of the presentations. Each girl stepped center stage as her favorite song was played, was met by her father as the two edged around the dance floor and each deb bowed in three different locations to applause. Then it was time for more protocol--the traditional cut-ins by the girls’ escorts (most of the fathers and escorts politely shook hands at this point) followed by a further cut-in by invited stags. (The handshakes went by the wayside.)

As the procedures began, guild president Kelsey Hall stepped to the microphone to “thank you all for helping many children to lead happy and useful lives.” She was referring to the fact that proceeds from the annual ball, along with the guild’s profits from its annual Treasures & Trivia sale, will be donated to Childrens Hospital. Last year’s ball netted $105,000.

Husbands of guild members play a major role in the fund raising: John Barnard Wells, wearing the Men’s Floor Committee red sash across his chest, greeted guests upon arrival. John Thompson Boyle announced the presentations. Richard Van Vorst calmed the debs backstage.

Debutantes presented were Melissa Goodell, Rebecca Mielke, Kristin Elayne Techentin, Kimberly Popovich, Julia Stubblefield, Elizabeth McDonald, Kerry Pejsa, Lisa Bollinger, Ellen Waller (four of her brothers--Robby, Bill, Mark and John--were there to cut in on dances), Leslie Reeves, Ann-Marie Ferry, Cynthia Hubbard, Hilary Fitzgerald, Victoria Bohr, Andrea Nasser, Helene Jones, Mary Doll, Kelsey Garrett, Susan Lytle, Katherine Gillespie and Amanda Zimmerman. (Tawnia Cannell, daughter of Stephen and Marcia Cannell, was presented in absentia because she was being presented in Vienna.)

They all bowed successfully to the center table--Kelsey and Brad Hall, Dr. Richard and Nancy Call, Warren Brooks Williamson and his wife, Alyce (the ball sponsors), and Robert and Jean Bennett (debutante sponsors). Athalie Clark, as she has for at least a dozen years, underwrote the decorations planned by Bobbie Galpin and executed by Jacob Maarse--tall palms over floral bouquets.

There wasn’t anything the Registry and its catering staff for the evening headed by Raymond Manzano wouldn’t do for ball chairman Connie Van Vorst and her assistant, Veva McKee. “They’ve been wonderful,” said Mrs. Van Vorst, relieved that the switch from the Wilshire had been semi-painless.

But, it wasn’t the only happy ending of the evening: John Babcock arrived to meet his deb Andrea Nasser, after wondering if his ride had forgotten him. Leslie Reeves bobbed through three shallow curtsies, avoiding the quivers. And debutante chairman Joni Baker was pleased as could be that the crowd, including the young set, was dancing until midnight to the popular music of Johnny Zell, unlike past years when they dashed off to private parties.

LUNCHEON: Round Table West served champagne on Thursday before its 11th anniversary book/author luncheon at the Ambassador. Speakers were Michael Collins, author of “Liftoff”; Jim and Henny Backus, “Forgive Us Our Digressions”; and Hall Bartlett, “The Rest of Our Lives.”

BACHELORS: The Bachelors have elected Walter James Wilson the new president. James Donald Stuart Jr. will be vice president and ball chairman. Others elected are David Sargeant, William Bessolo, William Moore III, Sean McCarthy (stag dinner chairman), David Brittain (summer party chairman), Robert Forward Jr., Rodney Wilger, Joseph Bergin, Casey Griffin, Hugh Bateman, Nelson Wheeler and John Corby.

KUDOS: To the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee, announcing an initial donation of $280,000 to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, proceeds of its Showcase House of Design. . . . To Lucille Taylor, new president of the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild. . . .

To Lillian Casady, president, Children’s Service League. . . . To Fluff McLean, president of Nine O’Clock Players. . . . To Stanley A. Moore, recipient of the National Jewish Humanitarian Award given by the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine. . . . To Judith Flood Wilbur of San Francisco and John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, elected to the Board of Fellows of Claremont University Center. . . . To John Arnold Ford, honored by the Opera Associates for his 37 years supporting the Educational Opera Assn.

CIRCLE RED: Proving they have both heart and sole, downtown Los Angeles corporate leaders unite Wednesday to raise $150,000 for the American Heart Assn.’s Greater Los Angeles Affiliate in the fourth annual Union Bank Heart of the City 5K Run. Union’s chairman John F. Harrigan heads the honorary committee.