A Major Welcome Will Celebrate New L.A. Cardinal

Ivory invitations engraved in cardinal red and fronted with the new crest of His Eminence, Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony, are in the mail.

The crest pictures four rows of tassels and features the motto To Reconcile God’s People. The invitations are addressed in red. Non-transferable and to be presented at the door, they beckon guests to a reception next Thursday evening in the courtyard at Los Angeles’ Union Station.

The invitation is being extended by Gov. Pete Wilson, Mayor Tom Bradley, Los Angeles County Supervisors Chairman Michael Antonovich and Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro.

It’s a major social welcome home for the new cardinal.

SEASIDE OVAL: Down at old Del Mar Racetrack, where Bing Crosby always told us “the turf meets the surf,” track president and general manager Joseph W. Harper (Cecil B. DeMille’s grandson) is thrilled about the newest and richest stakes event in the track’s 54-year history.

It’s the $1-million Pacific Classic for 3-year-olds and up on Aug. 10, a part of the new American Championship Racing Series.

Socializers are finding Del Mar a good place to be this summer, too, as they watch the ponies while they raise funds.

Country Friends headed by Joyce Glazer takes over the Turf Club July 29. Junior League of San Diego, with Vikki Davis in charge, hosts a Charity Day Aug. 12. San Diego Opera, under Kay Stone, is booked for July 26. Las Patronas of La Jolla plans a Charity Day Sept. 5 with Lynne Hall the chair. Social Service League of La Jolla and Sue Teasdel are set for Aug. 29, and San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art under Diane Maxwell will be out in force Aug. 16. Dozens of other groups will have days there also.

The 43-day meet, with $4.75 million in stakes purses, runs July 24 to Sept. 11. Large social groups also will have access to the new Pacific Pavilion for 5,000 fans. It replaces one of Del Mar’s three man-made lakes.

CONTEMPORARY: Audrey and Arthur Greenberg’s home, designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta, attracted a happy crowd of Fellows of Contemporary Art.

Chairman Ginger Krueger welcomed new members: Amanda and James McIntyre, Carol and Walter Meyer, Greg Barr, Linda Brownridge, Ed Mulvaney, Pamela and Foster Hames, Barbara and Armin Sadoff, Eileen and Charles Read and Clara and Jason Stevens.

Party chairman Lou Newquist and her husband Dick matched the architecture with a mariachi band and Mexican cuisine.

Fellows have been busy: Last month they opened “Facing the Finish: Some Recent California Art” at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. It’s curated by John Caldwell and Bob Riley of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In November they plan a show of Roland Reiss’s work at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Additionally, they’re busy visiting studios and private collections. In August some of them travel to Sun Valley, and in September they go to San Francisco for the museum’s opening of “Facing the Finish.”

Others in the crowd: Betye Burton, Mandy and Cliff Einstein, Lulu and George Epstein, Gordon Hampton, Hannah and Russ Kully and Laura Lee and Bob Woods.

RELAX A MINUTE: Now that she hit $210,000 gross for the Kidney Foundation of Southern California’s Disney screening party of “101 Dalmatians,” chairwoman Connie Frank is free to be off to Europe for Euro-Disney meetings with husband Richard Frank (president of Walt Disney Studios).

Entertainment execs were high on the VIP list of supporters at the benefit: Jeff Sagansky (president CBS Entertainment), Alan Horn, Alan Ladd Jr., Kathy Speer, Terry Grossman, Ken Kragen, Dennis Holt as well as public relations executives Richard and Ronnie Lippin.

GLOBAL: It was a global gathering in Joey Leslie’s San Marino rose garden as Les Dames of Los Angeles, International Hostesses, sponsored the 10th annual reunion of California consular corps families.

Two hundred picnickers chowed down on hot dogs, popcorn, barbecued beans, apple pie and ice cream in an Uncle Sam salute planned by Les Dames hostesses Francine Maroney, Harriet Luckman, Olive Varga, Wanda Henderson, Nance Mitchell and Linda Posner.

Luxembourg Consul General Marie-Anne Pitz, Poland Consul General Jan Szewc and Argentine Consul General Juan Vincente Sola were prominent, as well as Dominican Republic Consul General emeritus David Shaby. Diplomats toe-tapped to Larry Dean’s Blue Grass Six and the small fry belly-flopped in the Olympic-size swimming pool.

SUMMER SWOOSH: Banning Residence Museum Volunteers and their families celebrate the 161st birthday of Gen. Phineas Banning (founder of San Pedro Harbor) July 28 at the residence. Attractions include square dancers, cloggers and a barbershop quartet plus cookies and lemonade while the crowd participates in butter churning, bread kneading, clothes washing (clothes washing?!) and lace making. . . .

Las Angelitas del Pueblo, the tour guides for El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, celebrates 25 years of service this month. Georgia McKay chairs the invitation-only party July 20, and president Kitty Donchin welcomes guests. . . .

Hacienda de Las Flores is the Design House 1991 for the Assistance League of Southern California and International Society of Interior Designers’ San Fernando Valley chapter. The 1929 estate nestled among trees in Encino has been owned by Herb and Kathy Goodman for 20 years.

The groups will host a “La Fiesta” tour preview party July 24 before top designers and landscape architects work their magic in preparation for the public Design House gala opening Oct. 4. . . .

Former Angelenos James and Dorothy Meyler open their Temecula home July 19 for the Arts Council of the Temecula Valley “Prelude, Summer Arts Festival.”

PAST PERFECT: Mary Davis and Midge Clark picnicked with new Diadames members and toured their beneficiary, the Mirman School for exceptional children. . . .

Angels Attic (which features doll houses, dolls and miniatures) celebrated its seventh birthday with the “Heart and Hand” quilt show from Japan curated by Maxine Ridgway. The show remains on exhibit at 516 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, until Aug. 18.

Jackie McMahan, founder-director, and Eleanor LaVove, assistant director, hosted 16 visiting Japanese quilters at a luncheon at the McMahan home in Brentwood. The visitors presented a 15x18-inch quilt to Angels Attic.