A ‘Significant Milestone’ for the Arts in S.D.

SAN DIEGO —  This town proved Friday that it is bigger than anybody thought.

That evening’s “The Gala at the Center,” a many-layered extravaganza wrapped around the taping of the first America’s Dance Awards and a showcase event for the San Diego Convention Center, had the potential to be the Exxon Valdez of San Diego fund-raisers.

Its failure would not have sunk the five performing arts organizations that together benefitted to the tune of an estimated $250,000, but it would have done nothing to smooth the increasingly roiled waters of local fund raising.

Among the rocks and shoals in the party’s path were the many unknowns of staging a monumental event--in some respects, it was the largest in San Diego history--at the massive new center on Harbor Drive, a building with spaces and dimensions that dwarf those of any other in the city.

Of equal significance was the response of many regular gala-goers, who chorused, “Not me, Buddy,” when invitations were mailed asking for ticket purchases at $1,500 or $5,000 a couple.

But the last-minute sale of tickets priced at $125 brought the black-tie attendance to more than 2,000, and, somehow, the logistics of feeding, moving and entertaining more than 4,000 attendees were solved by 5 p.m. Friday.

“This is a significant milestone, and a sign that the arts and culture are really hitting their stride in San Diego,” said a very pleased Ernest Hahn, one of the evening’s honorary co-chairmen and the man acknowledged by insiders as godfather of the gala’s success.

“This is the terror of a lifetime,” said event producer Kit Goldman as the first guests began streaming up the outdoor ceremonial staircase that leads to the center’s bayside reception rooms. “You want everything to work, and it is working, but I won’t relax until the guests are eating, drinking and being merry.”

Goldman’s Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company will share the gala’s proceeds with the Bowery Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, Sushi, the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts and the “I Have a Dream” scholarship fund jointly founded by the beneficiaries to assist local students pursuing careers in the performing arts.

A crush of limousines and buses delivered the crowd into the arms of Marine Corps and Navy personnel, who escorted guests down the Hollywood-style red carpet and set them loose in Goldman’s elaborately contrived fun house, a series of reception rooms outfitted with movie studio-like sound stages that invited guests to don costumes and be videotaped in scenes from “Gone with the Wind,” “Destry Rides Again,” “Dracula” and other film classics. The tapes were played hours later for the general amusement at the post-performance supper, and, since supper was a far-off event, elaborate buffets offered witty rehashes of the films’ motifs. Tables near the “Dracula” set, for example, bore great platters of steak tartare and blood sausage.

Dance patron Danah Fayman, who co-chaired the gala with former San Diego Charger Kellen Winslow, was among those who assigned the focus of the event more to the convention center than to the dance awards program, even though the show included appearances by such dance greats as Shirley MacLaine, Ann-Margret, Sammy Davis Jr., Harold and Fayard Nicholas (The Nicholas Brothers), Cyd Charisse, Chita Rivera, Patrick Swayze and Liza Minnelli.

“Finally, it’s really happening, at last,” Fayman said. “A few people thought tonight would never happen, but I never doubted. Too many people and groups--and the city, for that matter--wanted to celebrate this terrific building for the gala not to happen.”

The guest list, if it included a relatively small percentage of those on the city’s charity ball circuit, was certainly diversified. Among those bobbing and weaving through the crowd were Gayle and Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.); diminutive sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer; perennial America’s Cup skipper Dennis Conner with his wife, Judy, and developer Doug Manchester with his wife, Betsy.

Fortified with quail legs and guacamole against the two-hour duration of the awards taping, guests headed down to the main-floor auditorium and settled into cushioned folding chairs whose backs are stamped “San Diego Convention Center,” possibly to protect them against a fate similar to that suffered by countless supermarket shopping carts.

The crowd applauded politely as choreographer Paula Abdul accepted three “Gypsies,” as the awards granted by the recently organized National Academy of Dance are known, sat up straight when former first lady Betty Ford presented and accepted the Dance Hall of Fame recognition given choreographer Martha Graham, and cheered with a notable degree of enthusiasm when Ann-Margret strode on stage to present the “Best Dance in a Television Special “ Gypsy to Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park Opening, which was accepted by legendary hoofer Ann Miller and legendary rodent Mickey Mouse.

Some of the celebrities skipped the post-performance gala, but Betty Ford and Liza Minelli joined the 1,400 who sat down to dinner in the cavernous upstairs banquet hall. (Other hundreds in yet another ticket category attended a banquet before the program, and the arrangements for the overall event were, quite simply, staggeringly monumental.)

Servers numbering 150 in white mess jackets and gloves stood at attendance as the throng streamed endlessly into the room, the Wayne Foster Orchestra caused immediate traffic jams on both immense dance floors and the video monitors played to no one, since the eyes of the crowd were turned upon itself.

The dinner, the first formal banquet to be served at the convention center, was ambitious and consisted of salmon Charlotte, veal chops in morel mushroom sauce and chocolate shells filled with vanilla mousse.

Wilson took a brief turn at the podium and declared the event “a very special night for San Diego and a very special night for the arts.”

Co-chair Winslow offered a longer and quite optimistic address.

“We have just seen the start of a great tradition in San Diego, and I hope you all realize the magnitude of this event,” he said. “Next year, there will be twice as many people here, and the year after that three times as many, and, after the center is expanded, we will use the whole facility.”

Among the many others in attendance were steering committee chairman Ed Plant with Kathy Hubbard; dinner chairman Sharon Considine; finance chair Stan Heyman; Barry McComic; George Saadeh; San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau director Dal Watkins; City Council members Abbe Wolfsheimer and Ron Roberts, and Ed Cooperman, president and CEO of American Express Travel Related Services Co., the corporate presenter of America’s Dance Awards.