Some Big Sisters and Their ‘Amigos’

Jayni (that’s Mrs. Chevy) Chase is a lady with connections. That’s why, as benefit chairman for the Big Sisters of Los Angeles Guild, she’s arranged for the screening of “Three Amigos” starring Chevy, Steve Martin and Martin Short on Dec. 10 at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. Tex-Mex/casual dress tells it all. Expect a gala fiesta to follow. Honorary chairwoman Sally Field will be joined by celebrities, marking the second anniversary of the guild. Members serve as role models and provide guidance to girls in need.

Ebullient about the Orion Pictures West Coast premiere are executive committee co-chairwomen Sandra Bilson and Lauren Twente and a committee including Sandi Scully, Marsha Mason, Lois Sarkisian, Joyce Bulifant, Lorraine Beck, Georgiana Francisco, Lynn Joseph, Sarah Purcell and Noelle Siart.

Nancy and Carroll O’Connor are the founders. Gretchen and Michael Wayne join them to produce the John Wayne Cancer Clinic of UCLA’s seventh annual Benefactor’s Party at the Hollywood Roosevelt on Dec. 7. Gretchen has the final say on arrangements. She’s booked Joe Moshay.

Benefactors are those who contribute $1,000 or more annually (and have names inscribed at the clinic entrance). Of course, everything gets bigger and better, doesn’t it? So, for the first time, three new benefactor categories will be added: Silver ($2,500 to $5,000); gold ($5,000-$10,000), and, not platinum, but Life ($25,000). Invitations are in the mail.

PRESIDENTIAL FUN: It was fun time in Palm Springs when five presidents and their wives held a mini reunion at Eveleen’s French restaurant before the long weekend at Shadow Mountain Resort Club in Palm Desert. All the men were from the Claremont Men’s (now Claremont McKenna) College classes of 1958-63. Sharing the fun were Jerry (president of the Diogenes Group) and Mary McHaley, John (president, Pacific Inland Bank) and Nora Britt, Jack (Claremont McKenna College) and Jil Stark, Raymond (Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce) and Sandy Remy and Al (Scheu Products Co.) and Rosemary Scheu.

PRETTY PACKAGE: Just to tie up the loose ends on all the Swedish Council of America festivities: First, on Friday the council honored Sir Michael Wood, founder of “Flying Doctors,” with the Raoul Wallenberg Award at a luncheon at the Biltmore; the same evening, Consul General of Sweden Margareta Hegardt hosted a reception at her consulate in Beverly Hills to salute the Swedish Council of America Award Recipients, and the next evening at a Biltmore gala, former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Franklin Forsberg received the Great Swedish Heritage Award for his many accomplishments in publishing and communications, and Astrid Lindgren, author of “Pippi Longstocking” was honored with the “America’s Swede of the Year Award.”

KUDOS: To Louise Griffith and the hard workers who put on the Doll Fair at Marlborough School benefiting Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.

ESCALATION: It’s party time in San Marino for the San Marino Area Chapter of National Charity League debutantes and their parents. With the ball only a few weeks away--Dec. 22 at the Beverly Wilshire--parents discussed propriety at the Federal Colonial home of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Albert Reiling Jr. Then, on the lofty career side, Judge Cynthia Hall spoke to debutante mothers and the league’s membership on women in the legal and judicial field at the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals building in Pasadena. Thanksgiving weekend the debs and their escorts will party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Dann Angeloff--amused by magician-psychic Jason Randall who has entertained at the White House. Hosts include the Angeloffs, the James Boswells, the Gary Marshes, the Donald McBrides, the Stanley Morgans, the Theodore Sedens, the Scott Wilcotts and the Wesley Linds. Mrs. Paul Colony will host the mothers’ luncheon. The parties are the culmination of six years of community service the girls have given to the Girls’ Club of Pasadena, Crippled Children’s Society, Kidspace, the Huntington Memorial Hospital, County/USC Medical Center and libraries in San Marino and South Pasadena.

TURNABOUT: Sports writers and commentators are in the playing field next Sunday. Mel Durslag, Chick Hearn, Jim Murray and Vin Scully will be honored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation at the first Sports and the Law Awards Dinner. Bruce Jenner and Dr. Ernest Vandeweghe are dinner chairmen for the casual 4 p.m. affair at the Amateur Athletic Foundation on West Adams.

PLAUDITS: Jacques P. Camus will be decorated with the Officier de l’Ordre de Leopold II (conferred by His Majesty King Baudouin of Belgium) at a cocktail reception hosted by George I. Rosenthal on Nov. 25 at the Westwood Marquis Hotel and Gardens. Consul General Vincent L. Van Der Mersch of Belgium will confer the honor.

On behalf of the Josephson Foundation for the Advancement of Ethics, Michael S. Josephson feted the foundation’s new executive director, Helen Kelley, with a scrumptious buffet at the Josephson residence in Playa del Rey.

Ron and Alda Stever, USC alumni and major donors, will be honored by the Cancer Research Associates support group for the USC Comprehensive Cancer Center today at 385 North restaurant. Jack Foreman, vice president and general manager of Warner Hollywood Studios, will be installed president. The Stevers have pledged $250,000 in a challenge to other Associates.

NOSTALGIA: First Century Families, the group that diligently works at preserving Los Angeles’ history, reveled in nostalgia surrounding once-upon-a-time summertimes and school days this past week at their annual luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire. Speakers searched through turn-of-the-century albums for photographs and this is what they uncovered:

Charles B. Ames Jr., a Banning family descendant, researched Catalina and came up with early 20th- Century vacation photos of Hotel Metropole, the Aquarium, the Bandstand and the Tuna Club, where early sport fishing developed. Through photos, guests saw the stagecoaches that raced between Avalon and the Isthmus, viewed the harbor at Avalon with early-day yachts, heard about nearly three decades of Catalina during the Banning era, when it was a premier summer resort. In those days, it seemed as if all Los Angeles flocked to Catalina in the summer, traveling first to Wilmington by rail, then taking the elegant polished steamers across. Only after World War I did the Banning family sell Catalina to the Wrigleys.

Kendrick Kinney of Newport Beach described Venice in the summertime. His grandfather, Abbot Kinney, established the Kinneloa Ranch above Pasadena, worked with Helen Hunt Jackson on problems faced by California Indians and eventually sold the family’s tobacco firm to the Duke interests. With Collis Huntington, he helped establish Santa Monica, and later worked with Henry Huntington as the Pacific Electric streetcar lines were extended across the West Side of Los Angeles. Then he founded a dream beach community--Venice--with canals, gondolas and architecture which brought throngs for opening day.

Mrs. Gilbert F. Roswell, a descendant of the pioneer Del Valle family, described the sites and curricula of historic Los Angeles educational institutions, both public and private, noting that First Century Families founder Mary Foy was a student at Los Angeles High School when Southern California’s first secondary school was located where the Criminal Courts Building now stands.

HIGHER PURPOSES: Casa Colina’s 50th Anniversary Capital Campaign goal of $3.5 million is well on its way to success. Already $2.5 million is contributed or pledged. It was just what the 400 guests attending Casa Colina’s 50th anniversary celebration “Tribute to Courage” dinner this week at the Century Plaza wanted to hear.

Casa Colina provides rehabilitation services for the severely disabled. Dinner chairman Howard P. Allen, chairman of Southern California Edison, shared the spotlight with Anne Jeffreys. And Thomas V. Jones, honorary campaign chairman, and James B. Straley, executive chairman, were commended for their leadership. Among VIPs attending were the R. Stanton Averys, the Lawrence Tollenaeres, the Warren Christophers, the Donn Millers, Jack Meiselman, the Dale E. Eazells (he’s president of Casa), the Al Smiths, the Robert B. Lewises, the Duane Hickmans and the Richard Egans.

HONORS: Renowned mezzo-soprano Regina Resnick, one of four official finals judges for the Metropolitan Opera Western Regional Auditions Finals this weekend at Bovard Auditorium at USC, was starring this weekend at the black-tie dinner at La Couronne in Pasadena honoring judges. Other judges in the spotlight included Carol Neblett, Metropolitan Opera soprano; Lawrence Stayer, associate artistic administrator of the opera, and Stephen Lord, St. Louis Opera Theater.

STAR BRIGHT: Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor headlined the entertainment with Alex Trebek for the Associates for Troubled Children’s ball and auction at the Century Plaza.

REMINISCING: Donatellos was formed at Fairfax High School in 1947 as a social/philanthropic club, and dissolved in 1960. Imagine the fun at the luncheon reunion recently at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Just 140 invitations were sent; 107 responded by coming. By 4:30 p.m. most had left, but a reluctant crowd adjourned in a happy glow to the Polo Lounge for more camaraderie. Some in the crowd--Jeanne Weiss, Joan Fisher, Gloria Arslan, Doris Rhodes, Dawn Shaw, Adele Malter, Joan Grossblatt, Pat Kaye, Marilyn Schecter and Sherry Brody.