Art, History Enthusiasts Toast Pageants

Two pageants--one billed as its final performance of the 20th century, the other in its inaugural--were presented at blockbuster benefits over the weekend.

More than 2,000 fans of the 66-year-old Pageant of the Masters gathered Sunday at the pageant grounds in Laguna Beach to attend “The Gala of the Century.”

Guests at the black-tie fund-raiser for the Festival of Arts Foundation--attended by celebs such as actresses Shirley Jones and Sally Struthers--toasted the pageant’s millennial swan song, “The 20th Century: Ten Decades of Art.”

Thousands of history enthusiasts flocked to the Oaks Blenheim Outdoor Showpark in San Juan Capistrano to attend the premiere of the Capistrano Pageant on Saturday and Sunday. The living history expo included evening performances of “Capistrano,” a musical about the early days of the famed mission.

Patrons of the Mission Pageant Foundation previewed the original production on Friday night after an alfresco picnic held under a canopy on the show-park grounds.

Among the colorful scenes narrated by actor Ricardo Montalban (whose voice was prerecorded): Catherine the Great of Russia’s plans to conquer Southern California; the legend of Magdalena, a Spanish girl whose ghost is said to have haunted the mission chapel since 1812; and the spiritual quest of mission founder Father Junipero Serra.

The audience gave the musical a standing ovation.

“Finally--we did it!” said Joan Irvine Smith, honorary pageant co-chairperson with Montalban, who was unable to attend. “This is what we’ve needed, for so long, to make people appreciate the cultural and romantic past of the mission.”

Smith hopes the pageant will give the mission a visibility that will inspire people to “get behind its preservation and restoration,” she said.

Barbara Prouty of Laguna Hills, an ex-New Yorker, compared the pastoral ambience of the show park to the popular Hamptons resort area on the East Coast. “Except this is more beautiful, because it has the mountains in the background,” she said.

Gazing at the landscape, Smith recalled Gaspar de Portola’s first overland expedition on the California coast in 1769. “He came from Baja with his chief guide, Jose Francisco Ortega,” she said. “They were on the other side of those very mountains. [About] five years later, the padres came a mile south of here and erected a cross, hung some bells and began to construct the mission.”

*

Television actress Sally Struthers (“All in the Family”) brought her nephew, actor Matt Ramey, to Sunday night’s gala performance of the Pageant of the Masters.

“He’s never been to the pageant, and I found it difficult to explain,” Struthers said during a VIP reception at the Tivoli Terrace restaurant on the pageant grounds. “And the more I tried, the more difficult it became. Finally, I just told him that when the sun goes down, we’ll step into an amphitheater and see human beings and sets painted so that, from a distance, they look like the old masterpieces.”

Indeed. Artworks old and new--from the seminal Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso to a bronze memorial of rock ‘n’ roll star Buddy Holly by Grant Speed--were featured in the production.

Holly’s widow, Maria Elena, was a special guest at the VIP bash, where guests cruised a gourmet buffet and sipped bubbly before the show.

“It’s very exciting that people remember Buddy’s music,” she said. “That was one of his dreams. I’m honored that he’s included.”

Gala hostess Shirley Jones--stunning in a bespangled black knit dress--was about to see her “very first” performance of the pageant, she said. “I’ve heard about it through the years from just about everybody I know.”

Volunteer pageant model Lisa Wiethorn, 31, gave party guests a preview of the magic to come. Covered from head to toe in gold, she portrayed a goddess as she stood motionless on a pedestal.

Later, Wiethorn would be coated in bronze paint to be spotlighted in the pageant’s “Sea Birds” sculpture by artist Robert B. Krantz.

Appearing in the wildly popular production is a thrill, Wiethorn said. “But it takes a 15-minute shower and lots of soap to get the paint off.”

Gala proceeds will be used by the Festival of Arts Foundation for art scholarships and grants.

“We give away the money the festival takes in,” explained foundation board president David Young. “The purpose of the pageant is to promote the appreciation of art in the Laguna Beach area. To date, some 1,500 graduates have received scholarship awards totaling over $2 million.”

*

Organizers of the Capistrano Pageant didn’t expect to raise money with the inaugural affair. They hoped to “set a precedent,” said Harvey Smith, president of the Mission Pageant Foundation. “We want to produce it again next year and extend it for another week,” he said. “The governor of California has issued a proclamation declaring [the last week of August] California Heritage Week. So we’ll tie in with events around San Juan Capistrano--and the pageant will be the jewel in the crown.”

Meanwhile, Mission San Juan Capistrano is the beneficiary of two upcoming high-profile benefits: the gala preview of the new, 42,000-square-foot Crate & Barrel store at South Coast Plaza on Nov. 3 and “Romance of the Bells,” a gala dinner featuring an old California-themed menu in the Mission courtyard on Oct. 2.

Information: (949) 493-4244.