Reinventing the Wheels : Limo Exteriors Are Keeping Down With the Times, but Perks Still Abound

Step with Henry Snyder into a converted Lincoln Town Car and you’re in for more than a limo ride.

Foil-wrapped chocolates? Fresh berries? Iced pink Champagne? Coffee in a China cup? They’re all part of the tour perks that Snyder--general manager of Getaway Limousine Services in Orange--has dreamed up for clients.

And you thought limos had no place in the dressed-down ‘90s.

With the society-set gearing up for a season of nonstop charity galas, land-yachts are as popular as ever. “People still like to travel in style,” says Snyder, who has snagged some of the county’s top corporate and social accounts--The Walt Disney Co., the Mighty Ducks, Tiffany & Co., and George Argyros, to name a few. “But now limos are less showy, more understated.”

Forget the velour-lined white “prom cars” that are stretched to a city block. In are leather-lined black town cars and sedans--or specialty cars such as Getaway’s ivory and ebony 1934 Rolls Royce--that whisper instead of shout.

“Class is coming back,” Snyder says. “In the ‘80s, everything was flash and glitz. We’re heading into a more elegant time.”

And getting more for our money.

For $60 per hour, which includes tax and gratuity, Snyder arrives 15 minutes early, presents you with his calling card, and helps you into a leather interior so deluxe you feel like you’re sitting inside a Judith Leiber handbag.

Tap a button and a color TV swivels out of a hidden compartment. Tap another and exactly 1 1/2 ounces of your complimentary beverage of choice cascades into a crystal tumbler.

As the limo clicks along the diamond lane, you have some pressing decisions to make: Should the opaque privacy divider be down and the etched window divider up? The sun roof closed? The ceiling-hidden vanity mirror open?

You want to dish? Drop Brooke Shields’ name. Snyder is her godfather, drove her to an Orange County charity gala last spring. (Yes, it’s still on between Shields and Agassi. And yes, Brooke is one of the nicest women alive.)

Or the name of the beloved Jackie O. She knew Snyder when he had the boutique at the famous Kenneth hair salon in New York in the ‘60s. (“She had such taste,” he says, softly).

It’s “special treatment” that keeps clients coming back, Snyder says. “We’ve developed everything from special request forms (so Snyder will know if it’s espresso or cappuccino a client wants, muffins or croissants, alcohol or soft drinks) to out-of-county tours to Bel-Air and the Temecula wine country.

“The challenge for the limousine company of the ‘90s is to make people feel special. It’s an indifferent world out there.”

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Culinary art to benefit CHOC: Fresh off the fax is the menu for the Oct. 18 “Culinary Event of the Century” benefit for Children’s Hospital of Orange County featuring chef Paul Bocuse at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

Sponsored by the Four Seasons and the House of Mumm Champagne, the menu will feature a first course of pheasant consomme with lentil and wild mushrooms followed by baby lobster salad with chive sauce, roasted veal chop with goose liver and truffle and a dessert of sabayon with figs and berries. All courses will be accompanied by vintage champagnes.

Bocuse--acclaimed in culinary circles as one of the world’s great chefs--will be joined by the hotel’s executive chef, Michel Pieton. Tickets are $150 per person. Call 714-760-4920 for reservations.

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Beatrice Wood honored: Centenarian ceramist Beatrice Wood of Ojai will be honored in Laguna Beach on Nov. 11 by the Archives of American Art, a division of the Smithsonian Institution. The gala dinner event will be at the Surf and Sand.

“I have just sent a telegram to heaven to keep me alive through Nov. 11,” Wood, 101, wrote art collector Gerald Buck of Mission Viejo in May. (Buck, an archives trustee, is helping mastermind the affair.)

Among the celebs on the invitation list are Michael and Diandra Douglas (she helped produce the documentary, “Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada” that was premiered on Wood’s 100th birthday last year), Jack Nicholson and Lily Tomlin--all avid collectors of the master ceramist’s lustrous art (a Wood bud vase goes for about $500, a 12-piece tea service for $25,000).

“She is a wonderful, spicy lady,” says Electa Anderson, an event coordinator. Wood will receive the prestigious “Esteemed Living American Artist Award” from the archives, whose West Coast offices are at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. Last year’s winner was David Hockney. For information, call (714) 492-7087.

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Royalty watching: Prince Charles will visit the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Nov. 2 as the guest of honor for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Henry VI--The Battle for the Throne.”

His visit will be celebrated with an invitation-only performance by the company.

As president of the Royal Shakespeare Co., the prince has selected the Cerritos Center as one of his destinations during his visit Oct. 31 through Nov. 4 during the UK/LA event.