Art Center 100 Relives the French Revolution

After last year’s incredible Imagination Ball staged by Alyce Williamson and her Art Center 100 support group for the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the message was out. Be creative.

Could a party as super be repeated? Even the 100 were dubious. However, when the whole French Revolution is restaged (in honor of the bicentennial of the revolution) and Madame Defarge (Mary Alice Frank) walked in with her knitting, Louis XVI (Jeff Arnett) in wig, Marie Antoinette (Isabel Arnett) throwing cake, Robespierre (Richard Frank) with his sign “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,” Charlotte Corday (Susie Frank), Marat (Jeff d’Angelo) in a bathtub with a wound, Jim Cross as artist Jacques Louis David, Phil and Michelle Joanou and Sue Cross as nobility--well, Art Center president David and Judy Brown, Alyce and Spud Williamson and everyone else burst into applause.

No question about the success. Wayne Foster’s band played past 1 a.m. By then, Robespierre was dancing with Marie Antoinette to “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else but Me.”

MEDICI: Directors of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce have chosen the Rose Garden of the California Museum of Science and Industry for their alfresco black-tie Medici Awards Dinner on Friday. William M. Clossey is chairman.

KNIGHTS OF MALTA: There wasn’t a dry eye in the room when the late Cardinal Timothy Manning’s close friend, Msgr. Clement J. Connolly, sang “God Bless America” at the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (informally, the Knights of Malta) white-tie dinner at the Sheraton Grande. The dinner followed the investiture ceremony at St. Vibiana Cathedral, presided over by Archbishop Roger Mahony, which had taken place fewer than three hours after Cardinal Manning died.

Western Assn. president Knight C. Peter Nigg had been at the helm of the full-regalia procession into the cathedral, along with Knight George Gibbs Jr., dinner chairman, and the Most Rev. John J. Ward, conventual chaplain. More than 20 knights and 10 Dames of Magistral Grace were invested.

Bowie and Louise Kuhn flew in for the dinner from New Jersey as the Niggs’ guests, and most invited their children and grandchildren to attend. The archbishop invoked the cardinal’s frequent prayer: “God, take away from those who have no hunger tonight and give to those who have hunger.” The local knights make an annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with 25 sick.

THE BELL TOLLS: In 1890, legend has it, the Sigma Chis took the bell from the top of Widney Hall at USC. The Sigma Chis celebrated their 100th anniversary on campus and the Trojan Sig Foundation “returned” the bell. Not the original--that was probably melted down--but a duplicate. Richard Econn, Fred Nason, the late John Wayne, Tom Selleck, Hal and Phil Ramser, Judge Manuel Real and Tom Techentin are chapter alums.

MERITORIOUS: Los Angeles County Chief of Protocol Sandra J. Ausman and Dr. Harry Kelsey, retired chief curator of history at the Museum of Natural History, received the Orden del Merito Civil and the Orden de Isabella la Catolica from His Majesty the King Don Juan Carlos I of Spain, presented by Consul General of Spain Pedro Temboury.

KEEPING UP: Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek was the center attraction at the Bistro at the lunch hosted by Robert and Kathleen Ahmanson to salute the launch of the Jerusalem Foundation West Coast Region, founded by Michael Jay Solomon. . . .

Jorge Plaza, vice president and general manager, Sunset Marquis Hotel & Villas, entertained friends for an evening with wine maker Miljenko Grgich. . . . Gail Feingarten hosted cocktails for French sculptor Jim Ritchie. . . . Kate Coscarelli invited an intimate 40 to Jimmy’s to celebrate her new book, “Pretty Women”. . . . New Zealand Consul General Kate Lackey was in the limelight at the Pacific Asia Museum for a performance by the New Zealand Maori Cultural Group, “Kahurangi”. . . . Larry Bridges joined Djerassi Foundation leaders Deborah Richards and Donald Swartz to encourage the foundation’s resident artists program, with Bridges recalling his own days as a starving artist.

FIRST: Previewers got a rare tour of the Charlie Chaplin/Cecil B. De Mille estate in Los Feliz. It’s the International Society of Interior Designers/American Cancer Society 1989 Design House. Next, the gala July 14 and the public tour July 15-30.

PLAUDITS: For the 26 including Saudian Arabian Oil Minister Hisham M. Nazer, Paul E. Griffin Jr. and John Bryan Jackson saluted at 44th Alumni Awards for Excellence ceremony at UCLA.

HONORS: Hannah Carter, William A. Mingst and Hiroyuki Saito, new trustees of Los Angeles County Museum of Art . . . Richard Reinis, L.A. Children’s Museum president and the new trustees--Stephen Chaudet, Richard Lippin, Peggy Saferstein and Albert Dorskind . . . Molly Siefert and Lynn Day, new Western regional co-chairs, Metropolitan Opera National Council.

REVELING: Supporters of the American Parkinson Disease Assn. are absolutely reveling (nearly $250,000) in the success of their first national fund-raiser at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Ralph Edwards, whose wife, Barbara, has Parkinson’s, was honorary chair. Jane Kramer and Michael R. S. Teilmann put heart and soul into the gala, packing in acid-tongued fashion arbiter Mr. Blackwell for a roast, Lynn Redgrave for emcee and Rita Moreno for song. Philanthropist John Crean received the prestigious Michel Award.