They Let Benefit Success Go to Their Headdresses

“Floats with legs”--that’s how Pat Perkins described the models wearing towering floral headdresses at Damas de Caridad’s Bal Masque on Saturday night.

Eight mannequins sporting everything from peacocks to pinatas paraded before 675 guests at the Disneyland Hotel.

The ball, sponsored by Damas de Caridad (Ladies of Charity), was expected to raise more than $100,000 for St. Jude Medical Center’s mobile pediatric unit.

Balancing Act

Bal Masque is a lavish spectacle, the only one of its kind in Orange County.

“It’s a mini-Rose Parade,” said Perkins, last year’s ball chairwoman.

The headdresses are supported by metal rods strapped to a model’s back. A few men are on hand to follow the models as they strut down the runway, lest they fall.

“We’ve never lost a mannequin,” said Norma Jones, president of Damas.

Headdresses this year were designed around the ball theme “Just Imagine,” chosen by Beverly Swanson, ball chairwoman.

“I chose ‘Just Imagine’ so the designers could go anywhere they wanted to with the headdresses,” Swanson said.

And they did.

Designer Carmelo Robles, for example, created the “Fiesta Fantastico” headdress festooned with pinatas and a large sombrero--modeled by Nancy Dahl to the tune of “La Bamba.”

Winning Designs

Elaine Vanderpool modeled the sweepstakes winner, “Splendor of Asia,” an Oriental-style headdress adorned with glittering white and gold fans and lotus blossoms. It was designed by Modesto Busto, a four-time sweepstakes winner. Corky Winters had to balance the world on her head for the Olympics-inspired “Going for the Gold in Barcelona” headdress designed by Donna Wallace, winner of the People’s Choice Award.

Dolly Piterak modeled a headdress with two Grecian columns draped with wisteria for “Pan Awakens the Lost Garden,” from Neal Harrison.

“I’m landscaping my back yard, so I decided to do a garden setting,” said Harrison, whose attire for the evening was equally creative: a black patent-leather tuxedo he designed.

Other mannequins were Vicki Crow, Ann Harvey, Billie Hutcheson and Pam Markman.

Table Manners

Guests whooped and hollered as each mannequin paraded down the runway. Only when dinner was served--on white tablecloths set with black napkins--did they devote their attention to the menu: sorrel bisque en croute, salad with marinated chicken, broiled petit filet of beef bordelaise with exotic mushrooms and scallop and shrimp brochette, and rich tiramisu or macadamia mango cake for dessert.

Cost of the gala was $175 per person. Proceeds from the ball go to St. Jude’s Care for the Poor program, a mobile unit that serves almost 9,000 children a year by providing medical care, inoculations, checkups and referrals.

Others attending: Paul Viviano, president and chief executive officer of St. Jude’s; Gordon and Liz Anderson; Carl and Margaret Karcher; Gene and Nadine Leyton; Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez; and emcee Wayne Wedin.

Fairy-Tale Evening

More fantasy was on parade just a short distance away at the Grande Ball and Pageant at the Anaheim Marriott hotel, where couples dressed as fairy-tale characters.

About 220 guests attended Saturday night’s gala, presented by the Masked Ball Chapter of the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The $150-per-couple affair was expected to raise about $10,000 for the Center.

In keeping with the theme “A Fairy-Tale Carnival,” a stage was set in the hotel ballroom with a castle adorned with pink azaleas, ficus trees and flying swans.

Gail McCall, dressed as Snow White in a bouffant gown of lace and chiffon, was crowned queen of the chapter, while Alfred Neely was unmasked as King Rex VIII. As king, Neely’s first order of business will be “to start working on all of these peasants,” he joked. “(The chapter) needs a bigger following.”

Also promenading through the castle doors were members of the “royal court” dressed in lavish costumes and headdresses. They included: Gillian Duncan of Costa Mesa as a blue fairy and Michael Zaner as Pinocchio; Eunice Shannon as Little Red Riding Hood and Quentin Wall as the Big Bad Wolf; Brenda Carr as Rapunzel and Bill Exner as the hunter, and Joyce Helfrich as Gretel to Dennis Chant’s Hansel.