The Crowd:

Halloween came a week early in Newport Beach.

The Crean family generously opened their Back Bay estate Oct. 24 for a wild haunted Halloween spectacular benefiting the AIDS Services Foundation (ASF) of Orange County and produced by the Friends of Dorothy Guild.

On entering the Village Crean, patrons were directed to the front of the estate where organizers had parked two Cadillac hearses from 1960 and 1962. There were no coffins and no dead bodies in the cars, but there were skeletons lying on the lawn in front of the house. It was only the beginning of treats and surprises awaiting the unsuspecting Halloween revelers entering a world of wild imagination.

The Friends of Dorothy committee spent countless hours finding props and décor. In an unusual twist, everything was offered to the highest bidder via the night’s silent auction. The partygoers could leave with their favorite item of decoration, which I’m sure will be put to very good use tonight. Surely, it was a win-win for ASF.

By the end of the night the group raised an impressive $43,000, and rather than having to take down and remove all the décor, they just sent it home with the guests.

One old witch sitting next to me, who shall remain nameless, took home the Dracula head on our table, with eyes that lit up and lips that moved, for a $10 donation. Such a deal. Everything went except the two hearses.

But back to the Halloween party, where the Crean dining room had been transformed into an enormous silent auction bazaar.

Guests placed their bids and wandered outside through the French doors onto the terrace, where bartenders served blood-red wine in stemware that came to life and changed colors.

Banquet tables the length of a football field were erected in the middle of the Crean courtyard to seat the more than 250 costumed Halloween lovers.

Everyone came in incredible costumes except one Daily Pilot columnist, who came as himself.

Fortunately, many of the guests, including Scarlet O’Hara, Raggedy Ann, Joe DiMaggio, Uncle Bernie and Candy Korn, commented on what a great reporter’s costume I was wearing.

The event was produced by the indefatigable Barbara Venezia who was a very cute Raggedy Ann.

Her pal Jeanne Moriarty was dressed in what I thought was a wood nymph costume, but she corrected me by telling me she came as Candy Korn. She did emphasize that she did not buy the outfit at South Coast Plaza.

There were in fact two wood nymphs at the party, both men, complete with giant wings and sparkling faces. They didn’t buy their costumes at South Coast Plaza either.

Jean’s brother, Richard Moriarty, another member of the South Coast Plaza family dynasty, was also at the party. He came as a king in a white shawl-collared dinner jacket, bejeweled gold crown and a sommelier’s wine tasting cup draped around his neck. The wine cup was really not part of a costume at all, for Richard Moriarty has his own vineyard right around the corner from the Crean Estate and is well known locally as a wine connoisseur.

Richard Moriarty’s significant other, the beautiful Loren Blackwood, came as a wizard in a long purple colored velvet coat opened to reveal a fantastic body in black bra and hot pants.

Venezia was joined by committee members including Steve Bond, Guy Babusek, Tim Dunn, Tim Stoaks, Bunny Clark, Joey Crabtree, Patti Gordon, Dean Jones, Bret Stowers, Robin Wong and Pat Kennedy to name only a few helping to make the Halloween party a hoot.

As the night became darker and darker the sound of an automated animatronics hound dog chained to a post and yelping at the moon beckoned the ghoulish gaggle of gossamers to graze at the buffet dinner for a little chicken and pasta with Caesar salad, vegetables and scalloped potatoes.

The dinner was not very haunted at all, quite conservative indeed, especially for such a wild party.

But that was OK, because if one was bored with the chicken, the banquet table was loaded with M&M;’s, Snickers bars, Milky Ways and every other kind of candy to satisfy one’s Halloween craving.

Dinner was followed by more auction, then crazy costume contests, prizes, music by pianist Nick St. Royal in the Crean living room and merriment galore.

Spotted in the crowd were former football great Anthony Davis (who was not at the USC/ Oregon State game), Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich, who came as Bernie from the film “Weekend at Bernie’s.” He did look dead. With Ed, his adorable wife, Lynn, in a black leotard as a sexy kitty, Maria Marquez, board president of ASF, Phil Yaeger, foundation executive director, Costa Mesa City Manager Alan Roeder, infamous sports agent Leigh Steinberg as Osama Bin Laden and Crean family members Emily Crean Flynn and her husband, Dan Flynn.

Also attending were major donors Al Roberts and Ken Jillson, Frank Blanchini, Bob Burrude, Ed Olen, Brian Craft and Keith Copeland, and Lisa Gordon with Andy Hoostein.

Have a happy and safe Halloween and save any extra M&M;’s or Three Musketeers bars for me.

You may send them to me in care of the Daily Pilot, or if you prefer you may simply slip them in my pocket at the next event you see me at around town.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.