The Party Scene: One Off and One On

Can you stand one more Happy New Year? And a few more celebrations? Of course you can, so let’s get on with it.

This year Edana Romney’s by now legendary Twelfth Night celebration is being postponed to a later date. Edana’s off to New York for a movie conference. She’ll check in when she returns to L.A.

But the indefatigable Les Dames de Champagne, international hostesses, carry on with the tradition. The group’s Twelfth Night Bal Masque takes place Sunday at the new Le Bel Age Hotel. And as always there will be awards for the couple and/or individual who stand out as last year’s top host or hosts. The names of the winner (or winners) are always kept secret until party time. We’re told even Mrs. Happy Franklin, 1985 Twelfth Night chairman, doesn’t know. Would we be far off the mark if we guessed Candy and Aaron Spelling? OK, Wanda Henderson Holzhauser, slap our dainty little hands.

This year is Les Dames’ 20th birthday, so this Twelfth Night celebration is bound to be something special. It’s also the night Les Dames introduce new members and a new board of governors. Incoming president is Mrs. Del Webb. The program will also include the presentation of the Founder’s Award to the person who has “furthered the volunteer service organization’s purpose most effectively--to project California and America as hospitality landmarks of international goodwill.” (Last year’s winner was Peter Ueberroth, this year’s Time magazine Man of the Year.) And there will be the presentation of a check for $30,000, the proceeds from Les Dames’ recent Grand Great Britain event at Bullock’s Wilshire, to KCET Children’s Programming.

And now on to a holiday roundup--catching up on the doings of some of your and our favorites during the just concluded (sigh) holiday season and cleaning up on all those notes stashed away in an assortment of well-worn evening bags.

Fred Hayman, head man at Giorgio boutique and Giorgio fragrances, had “snow”-laden trees, a big snowman and a bubble machine in the patio outside of his dining room, a real wintry make believe for the guests he’d invited for New Year’s Eve dinner. Sixteen musicians (a harpist and a flutist during the cocktail hour; operatic singers, pianists and violinists during dinner) provided the music until midnight when the guests took over with their noisemakers. Two kinds of champagne (Dom Perignon and Cristal) were poured lavishly and there were two kinds of caviar, Beluga and golden, to pile on baked potatoes, the dinner’s first course. The meal finished with a glorious plum pudding, straw hats with tall feathers and those noisemakers. And reveling in all that luxe were Kelly and Allan Questrom who moved from Atlanta to Los Angeles where he is chairman and CEO of Bullock’s; Merv Griffin Productions’ Murray Schwartz with the beautiful Susan Stafford; Betty Endo, who helped Fred as co-host for the evening; Jayne (in sparkling holiday green dress with gold rope trim) and Henry Berger; Maureen (now a stockbroker) and John Dean; Jacques Camus with model-slim Patricia Gentry.

Over in Jimmy’s private party room (converted into a winter wonderland by Flower Fashions) a lot of the city’s liveliest doers saw in the New Year with Grace and Merrill Lowell. Coca-Cola Bottling executive Lucy Boswell (looking like a Cotton Club flapper in a beaded black dress and matching headband) was with husband Herbie. Zena (a strand of eye-popping pearls over a shimmery dress) and Rusty Hoffman limo’ed in with Dr. Morey Parkes and his designer wife, Miriam, and Chantal and architect Martin Stern. During the cocktail hour Guadalupe Hank chatted with Ellen and Berny Byrens and Sid and Frances Klein (looking regal wearing a Queen Mary pearl choker). Others in the crowd--Ruth and Harry Roman, Nolan and Sandra Miller, Kathy and Chris Matsumoto, Fred Gibbons with Gail Sims (he’ll recover from the holiday rush playing golf in the Dominican Republic), Sedge and Henry Plitt, Nat Dumont with Maureen Womack and Frances and Happy Franklin.