Honorees Put Focus on Those in Need

Forget the idea that black-tie dinners are boring. For example, over the past week, quotes provided intimate glimpses of people in the spotlight.

At the Doheny Eye Institute dinner at the Century Tower Tuesday night, Richard Eamer accepted the annual Doheny Award and then challenged the crowd to go out and hire the disabled. He said his 100,000-employee health care companies hire more than 6,000 disabled people, many of them blind, and he’s aiming for 10%.

Then, at the annual Colleagues Valentine luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire, actress Sophia Loren accepted the group’s annual award and chided the beautifully dressed and coiffed to give a real valentine by promising themselves to do something important for the less advantaged in 1993.

And, at the Norris Cancer Auxiliary dinner at the Biltmore celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Norris Hospital (and attended by civic leaders like Lorna and Charles Reed), Dr. Art Ulene, a gynecologist noted for his television appearances, took but a few minutes to capsulize his message:

His television contract had been canceled, his business had “gone south” last year, but “the only things that matter are my family, my health, the ability to do something and leave something behind.” He added, “The quality of life is found in the excellence and commitment in which we approach our jobs.”

At the Doheny party, neon signs of the elegant nightclubs of the ‘30s and ‘40s--The Mocambo, Ciro’s and the Cocoanut Grove--lit the ballroom foyer before 320 passed by Earl Carroll’s neon adage: “Through these portals pass the most beautiful women in the world.”

It was a stunning crowd, including a coterie of the Doheny family--Onnalee and Bill Doheny, Will and Libby Doheny, Kacey and Peter McCoy, Michael and Susy Niven (down from Sun Valley).

Co-chairs Dody Booth and Richard Alden flew in pianist/bandleader Bob Hardwick and singer Pat Cook for an “I Love a Piano” show.

Cook, on stage in real and really huge jewels, is the Memphis/Palm Beach society songbird who entertained at the Town & Country New York AIDS awareness party in December, the Clinton inauguration in January and the juvenile diabetes party with Margaret Thatcher in Palm Beach last weekend.

Diana, the Princess of Wales also invited her for a London benefit last year. Her original, flattering lyrics for the night: “It’s delightful, it’s delovely, it’s Doheny!”

Some others surrounding the decorative palms and magnolias: Carrie and Stuart Ketchum; Bob and Adri Butler; Kathleen and Fred Ryan; Nancy and Buddy Moss; Dr. Stephen Ryan (Doheny’s top executive) and his wife, Anne; George and Jane Barrett; Ginie Braun (whose San Marino home is in escrow with Orel Hershiser); Kay Paschall (the night’s biggest underwriter); Bob Hastings and Phyllis Diller; Penny and Adam Bianchi; Pat and Bob Alleborn of Newport Beach; Mary Alice and banker Richard Cooley from Seattle; Bill and Sarah Yort; and Chris and Katrina Cord.

At the Colleagues luncheon/Carolina Herrera fashion show hosted by Neiman Marcus, New York’s Herrera was a centerpiece.

So were co-chairwomen Anne Johnson and Mary Milner, president Bobbie Forman and Nancy Reagan, who introduced Loren.

Prominent, too: Mary Marshall; Jean Smith; Earlenne Sprague; Jimmy and Gloria Stewart; Christy Gordon; Mary Jane Wick; Betsy Bloomingdale; Susan Keck; Marcia Hobbs and her mom, Betty Wilson; Caroline Singleton; and Alice Avery, who was sitting with a young group from Newport Beach including granddaughter Trina Shattuck and Angela Doheny.

Said Loren (the United Nations good-will ambassador to Somalia), “I truly feel the kudos belong to the Colleagues for their 40 years of support of abused children. The suffering of even one child undercuts our own privilege.”

GENEROUS AND GENTLE: Last week when the Music Center family paid tribute to the late Walt Disney, his wife, Lillian and their daughters Sharon Lund and Diane Miller (for a gift of $50 million) and to Frederick Nicholas (the Disney Hall chairman who has devoted five years to developing the Bunker Hill Disney Hall which will ultimately be home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic), probably none at the dinner realized that Lund was at St. John’s Hospital that evening undergoing the amputation of a leg in her fight with cancer. She died Tuesday, and friends are remembering her not only as a generous woman, but as a gentle woman of kindness and wisdom.

BE MINE: The red roses were statuesque and the dancing vigorous at the Valentine party Jim and Doreen McElvany hosted at Los Angeles Country Club before leaving for Jackson Hole . . .Joan Sherwood and Rabab Ashley chaired the Valentine Party at the Regency Club for National Arts Assn. members . . . Valentino fashions pierced 200 hearts at the Chasen’s luncheon Geri Farnell planned for John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary . . . .

In Beverly Hills, Sue Peason and daughter Carey-Jane hosted the mother-daughter tea for National Charity League Ticktockers . . . In San Marino, Dina Oldknow saluted children’s book author/illustrator Aliki Liacouras Brandenburg of London at a tea and book signing, with the author’s Southland sister, Helen Lambros, among guests.

ESCALATION: With a season of rain, wildflowers promise to be blooming their heads off at Palm Desert come March 4-6 when celebrity golfers will be on the verdant courses playing in the fifth annual Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational. Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Natalie Cole and comedian Tom Dreesen will perform at a gala March 6 at Marriot’s Desert Springs Resort . . . .

It’s hard to believe, in fact, it’s unprecedented: Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills will be closed to traffic for the world-premiere intro of the new Ferrari 348 Spider Feb. 27. Some 150 classic and vintage Ferraris will form a Concours d’Elegance with celebrity judges such as Bob Newhart . . . .

Rain or shine, the Junior League puts 500,000 items on sale at its rummage sale Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, hoping to raise, says chairwoman Lelia Beach, $70,000.