Flap-Happy Underwriters Hope for Roaring Success

Thank-yous were washed down with champagne Saturday at William and Willa Dean Lyon’s Coto de Caza estate. Fifty underwriters of next month’s Opera Pacific Founders Gala gathered poolside for a light luncheon buffet, a jazz dance performance and a tour of the developer’s private car museum.

At the microphone as dessert was served, opera support group co-founder Robert Gibson thanked the Lyons for hosting the party. Elaine Lucas, gala committee president, thanked her fellow party planners. Milli Wieseneck thanked Paige Hartley, who will co-chair the upcoming gala with her. And William Lyon thanked his guests “for being here.”

‘20s-somethings

The Founders Gala (next month, remember?) is themed on “The Great Gatsby.” Or at least on the fictional Jay Gatsby’s jazz era high style. And so was the underwriters’ lunch party.

Poolside tables were decorated with pots of daisies (“Daisy Buchanan” ring a bell?). A combo played “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “Charleston Back to Charleston” and other bouncy ‘20s tunes. Most notable, theme-wise, were the outfits.

Wieseneck donned a lacy Jessica McClintock dress and broad-brimmed sun hat topped with Easter eggs. (Even Zelda Fitzgerald probably recycled her flashier accessories.)

Gayle Anderson, also in yards of white lace and matching hat, wore a huge pin of a flapper with rhinestone cap--a birthday gift from the Liberian consul general and his wife, she said. Donna Bunce, who co-chaired the party with Anderson, accented her floral dress with hat, pearls, fingerless black silk gloves and a long cigarette holder (stuffed with an unlit smoke).

Of the men, Niles Gates was the flashiest, in an oversize red-white-and-blue bow tie and straw hat with “Welcome” across the front.

Out the Food

After champagne cocktails and an hour of chat, guests dug into a buffet lunch of chicken breasts stuffed with vegetables and ricotta cheese, rice with shrimp, assorted salads, stuffed zucchini and grilled new potatoes. “Even the great Gatsby himself didn’t eat this well!” Al Clark exclaimed as he filled his plate.

Servers brought generous slices of flourless iced lemon cake for dessert. Turnip Rose catered.

Also Seen

Enjoying the mountainous postcard views and sun-splashed party scene were Jolene and Dick Engel, Theresa and Joe Baia, Barbara and Bill Roberts, Pat and Dick Allen, Sandy and Gerald Brodie, Liz and Robert Sleipka, Laila and Bill Conlin and Painter Woodley.

Society Flash: Cartier Inc. will host a private luncheon for tenor Placido Domingo on June 1 at the Center Club in Costa Mesa. The event will honor underwriters of the Gold Rush Gala, a June 5 benefit for the Orange County Performing Arts Center that will follow Domingo’s appearance in Segerstrom Hall. Included on the guest list for summer’s hottest society luncheon are Jolene and Richard Engel, Nancy and Jim Baldwin, Elaine Redfield, Carol and Kent Wilken, Claudette and Don Shaw, Sue and Jose Perewozki, and Martha and Malcolm Greene.