The Ohlooks Have Field Day at Party

SAN DIEGO — Among the various substrata of our society, the Ohlooks certainly are one of the more jovial groups.

Surfacing mostly at night and recognizable for their bent for fine clothes and superior vintages, the Ohlooks, like certain avian species (such as the bobwhite), have gained their name through onomatopoeia; they are named for the distinctive sound they make.

The Ohlooks were in full voice Saturday at the thoroughly jolly gala--given at the former Hotel Inter-Continental, now another bead in the Marriott chain’s necklace--that celebrated the 40th anniversary and fifth contemporary season of the La Jolla Playhouse.

How to spot one of the many Ohlooks, who paid up to $500 a couple, in the crowd of 300 guests? It was easy; one only had to listen for the telltale sound. Individual voices quickly became a chorus as a slew of actors at times associated with the theater strolled into the hotel’s Tea Lounge.

“Ohlook! There’s Howard Duff!” intoned the voices, characteristically rising on the third syllable. “Ohlook, there’s Roddy McDowell!” “Ohlook, there’s Jane Wyatt!” “Ohlook, Guy Madison (the other great TV cowboy star of the 1950s) is talking to Don DeFore!” “Ohlook! Michael Constantine and Cliff Robertson just walked in!”

A Grand Night

Indeed, it was a grand night for Ohlooks, and for playhouse patrons in general, because few ever had been in a room that contained such a high proportion of stars and almost-stars to regular (so to speak) folks.

Without question the best and absolutely dandiest fund-raiser ever given for the benefit of the La Jolla Playhouse (it was profitable, too, raising in excess of $55,000), the 40th Anniversary Gala swept its patrons away with a brilliantly orchestrated program of star-gazing, dining and entertainment. Neatly divided into three acts (billed by the program as “The Cocktail Hour,” “Dinner at Eight” and “As You Like It,” a cabaret of great style), the party whisked its guests from frolic to frolic and kept them out past 1 a.m., a relatively late hour for the high society side of San Diego.

In addition to a full carload of thespians who have appeared in playhouse productions dating from 1947 to the present, party chairman Marie Olesen and co-chair Anne Otterson dished up a many-course meal orchestrated by chefs from seven of the county’s leading restaurants and caterers, as well as the new executive chef at the hotel. During the cocktail hour, guests dallied at the caviar bar set up by Gustaf Anders’ Ulf Strandberg, wolfed down stuffed mussels whipped up by La Gran Tapa’s Deborah McDonald Schneider, and took a fancy to the fancy pot-stickers with “mahogany” sauce offered by caterer John Baylin.

The excitement built steadily through the cocktail hour, with playhouse principals looking--and sounding--especially pleased about the proceedings. Theater Director Des McAnuff, asked to reflect on his reign, said, “There probably always are moments of doubt when you’re running an institutional theater, but I knew that the community would respond to us, and that we have had five successful years does not surprise me. We’ve had national attention since our first season, and I couldn’t be more pleased having come to San Diego. And tonight, which brings together the old Playhouse and the new Playhouse, is wonderful.”

Birthday a Milestone

Playhouse managing director Alan Levey said, “It’s a milestone for any performing arts institution to attain 40 years of history, especially one that didn’t produce for 19 years and then came back from obscurity to accomplish all that it has. To be able to celebrate with people who were part of the Playhouse 10, 20 and 40 years ago gives us a great sense of fulfillment.”

To some guests, the evening was not merely fulfilling, but actually filling. One guest, spying the hors d’oeuvres tables, gleefully chortled, “All we have to do tonight is eat!” Her observation was true, but not quite--after the five-course meal served in the hotel’s bayside pavilion dining room, the guests descended to the Corniche Lounge for a clever, bouncy cabaret directed by John Schimmel, who played bass-guitar in the 1986 Playhouse production of the cowboy rock opera, “Gillette.”

The meal floated lissomely from course to course, beginning with a wild asparagus soup prepared by George’s at the Cove’s Scott Meskan and continuing with a stir-fried duck salad (by the hotel’s Yuki Iijima); salmon braised in champagne (from the Rancho Bernardo Inn’s Jacques Cornelis); roast veal loin in two sauces (prepared by Martin Woesle of Mille Fleurs), and a dessert of chocolate pot de creme from Will Howard of Issimo/The Pasta Place.

The chance to bop along to the cabaret provided a release for bodies fueled by so much rich fare. Toes tapped and fingers snapped when Cheryl Freeman, Leilani Jones and Charlaine Woodard (all veterans of the Playhouse’s “Shout Up a Morning”) opened with a torch-song prologue, which segued neatly into The Cadillac Cowboys’ beat-driven homage to rock ‘n’ roll. McAnuff, an unreformed rocker, returned repeatedly to the stage to hoist an electric guitar and drive home such songs as “Seven Nights of Rock.”

(There also was some free, unanticipated entertainment during the dinner when the fireworks that concluded the San Diego Crime Stoppers’ first-ever nighttime run soared up over the bay and shot wands of colored light through the dining room’s picture windows. This paid the gala back for the inconvenience caused when the 10-kilometer “fun run” fund-raiser blocked the approaches to the hotel.)

The gala committee included Marilynn Boesky, Susan Berman, Dorothy Johnston, Harriet Levi, Margit Boucher, Elizabeth Phelps, Ruth Unterman, Janet Windle, Rita Bronowski, Arlene Sachs, Peggy Preuss, Joan Jacobs, Carol Campbell and Mary Tatum.

Among the guests were theater benefactor Mandell Weiss; honorary co-chairman David Copley with Susan Farrell; board President Willard VanderLaan with his wife, Ellen; Robert and Carol Randolph Caplan; George and Martha Gafford; Mike and Liselotte Terkel; Rod and Judy Wells; Raleigh and Jorene Wilson; Ira and Joan Katz; Roger and Ellen Revelle; Bruce and Mary Hazard; Will and Karen Speidel; Mary and Marko Walshok, and Ted and Audrey Geisel.

Earlier the same day, Claudia Munak found herself surrounded at Mission Valley Center by youngsters who stripped off her pumpkin eyeglasses and witch’s hair and snatched away her spider earrings. Meanwhile, the same children pulled Pam Allison’s tail every time the opportunity presented itself, which was often, to say the least.

It wasn’t as if Munak and Allison weren’t the authors of their own predicaments. As chair and co-chair of “The Great Pumpkin Party,” which raised more than $10,000 for Voices for Children (a group that directly assists abused children), the duo invited the attention of the more than 100 participating children by wearing invitingly splashy Halloween get-ups. (Allison’s custom-made tiger suit included pockets as well as the tail that the youngsters found so irresistible. “These kids are just unbelieveable,” said Allison. “They just come up and hug you like they’ve known you for years.”)

The party’s premise was simple enough. The children (these were not, by the way, kids from the Voices for Children programs), sponsored by relatives and family friends who paid $100 each for the privilege, were given out-sized papier-mache pumpkins to decorate as fancifully as they wished. Working quietly but energetically in one of the shopping center’s main walkways, the youngsters made ghoulish pumpkins, pirate pumpkins, cigar-chomping pumpkins and even, in one case that anticipated the holidays, a Santa Claus pumpkin. The work complete, the kids paraded their creations through the mall, then installed them on the main floor of Saks Fifth Avenue (where they will be on display through Halloween) before adjourning to the Oscar Taylor restaurant for cookies and punch.

The sponsoring committee included Linda Owen, Monica Virissimo, Melissa Withers, Inez Weymiller, Pam Sullivan, Nancy Hester, Julie Turner, Betty Mabee, Patti Mix, Judith Harris, Karen Cohn, Barbara ZoBell, Barbara Harper, Judi Strada, Mac Canty, Jeanette Jorgensen, Judy McDonald and Heather Metcalf.

CORONADO--As a way of demonstrating that they were hot to trot against crime, Steve Garvey and other supporters of the San Diego Crime Stoppers wore tennies with their tuxedos and gowns to the third annual Crime Stoppers Gala, given Thursday in the Hotel del Coronado Grande Ballroom for some 275 guests.

The dinner-dance anticipated Saturday’s “Light the Night Against Crime” 10-kilometer run and walk through downtown San Diego (the same event that blockaded the approaches to the La Jolla Playhouse gala), which filled the streets with more than 5,000 flashlight-waving participants. Their purpose, as stated by the program, was to “run crime out of town.”

For Garvey and his good friend, Judith Ross, this was the third year at bat as hosts of the Crime Stoppers gala. “It’s been nice through the years to create progressive awareness of Crime Stoppers and to promote crime prevention,” said The Garv of his and Ross’ roles. (Ross, like many of the women, could not bring herself to complete her costume with tennis shoes; most men did wear athletic footgear, of which the most sportif probably were the bright red gym shoes on several pairs of feet.)

The crowd included several noted athletes, among them San Diego Chargers receiver Eric Sievers and his wife, Diana (Sievers said it was nice to be back at work, after missing several games because of the NFL players strike); Charger-turned-sportscaster Jim Laslavic and his wife, Sue, and former San Diego Padre Kurt Bevacqua.

Crime Stoppers President George Saadeh greeted guests enthusiastically and ensured them that their presence was appreciated.

“This party means more money for our program to make this community safe for ourselves and our children for years to come,” he said. More than $15,000 was raised for the Crime Stoppers program, which encourages anonymous tipsters to report criminal activity in return for rewards. The organization’s literature says that to date, its efforts have helped to solve more than 600 felony cases, and to recover nearly $3.5 million in stolen property and illicit narcotics.

Crime Stoppers Executive Director Molly Wilson created one of the cocktail hour’s livelier moments when she lead in Spuds McKenzie--the Budweiser dog--a polite pooch that honored the evening by turning out in black tie and white dinner jacket. Spuds was in town for the duration, having signed on to ride the lead car that preceeded Saturday’s runners through the streets.

The guests helped to take a bite out of crime by sitting down to a dinner of veal tenderloin, shrimp in garlic butter and chocolate truffle cake, calories they then shed by dancing the rubber soles off their tennies to the Ron Rubin Orchestra.

Among the guests were Linda and Frank Alessio, Carolyn Saadeh, Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson, tennis champ Tracy Austin, Carlene and Dan Bunn, Dist. Atty. Ed Miller, Angela and Reint Reinders, Ellen Choisser with Brian Tulloch, Monsignor I. Brent Eagen, Marlee Ehrenfeld and Jan Strode.