Not Even Quakes Shake Patronesses

The earthquakes put some cracks in the weekend social scene. However, state emergency officials’ advice Sunday “to curtail nonessential activity” thwarted probably fewer than 10% of the Hollywood Bowl Patroness crowd assembling for dining and dancing Sunday night behind the white hibiscus hedges at Ragnar and Mollie Qvale’s Fremont Place estate.

After all, the Hollywood Bowl season must be kicked off, come shake or shine. It’s the Patronesses’ job.

After John Raitt was honored with his wife Rosemary (a third-generation Californian), he sang “What a day this has been . . . ,” and everyone agreed they’d quaked quite enough, thank you.

Raitt was just home from performing with the Boston Pops, daughter Bonnie Raitt and Yo-Yo Ma. On the same trip, he and Rosemary attended Ted Kennedy’s luncheon at the Kennedy Center in Washington for Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Patroness President Louise Jones and husband Tom took a dance-floor table with Music Center President Esther and Tom Wachtell and with Beverly and Larry Thrall.

Nearby were the Qvales, owners of Mary Pickford’s first house; Walter Coombs (laughing over how Patronesses had to dance on a slanted hill at Virginia Robinson’s home, traditional site for the Bowl party for years) and Martha Behymer; Lydia and Dr. Roscoe Webb; Jeanne and Stan Johnson; Mary and John Carpenter; Marion Malouf and son Robert Malouf; Ann and Romus Soucek and party chair Bee Jay and Robert Di Vall.

GOLDEN: Saturday night, more than 100 were invited to the Los Angeles Country Club to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of civic leaders and philanthropists Jeanne and Russell Smith.

For the first time, he’s wearing a gold wedding ring; she has a new anniversary circle of diamonds for the left hand. He’s the former chairman of Childrens Hospital, and the couple are major Music Center and Pomona College donors.

Son Douglas of Emerald Bay supervised the party details--Stanley Kersten’s roses, gold and white striped cloths. Daughter Ellen Akins of Point Loma greeted guests. And son Stewart of San Marino gave a toast that attested to the familial and community strengths of this beloved pair. In the crowd: Frances Larkin, Stanton and Ernestine Avery, Bob and Lois Erburu, Charles and Carolyn Miller, Mary and Gordon Crary.

The Smiths are off to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear ice-cutter. At the pole, they’ll have a barbecue and champagne. . . .

The same evening, Dee and John Maechling and Beverly and Tim Maechling dressed flowers in tulle, lit up the magnificent oaks and spread a stunning feast by the pool at Dee and John Maechling’s San Marino home as an engagement celebration for Christopher Pizzinat and Ann Colburn (former Rose Bowl queen). The pair will be married in August at the Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Chris’ parents, Art and Julie Pizzinat, who own a house near the resort, are hosting several nights of parties for the many guests expected from the Mainland. . . .

Also that evening, Jane Mock hosted her rescheduled party at Jimmy’s with Dixieland music to fete daughter Molly Barnes, newly wed to Mauro Caputo.

AT THE GARDEN: Donna Wolff said it was the first sit-down dinner to be held at the Virginia Robinson Gardens Estate since Robinson died in 1978. For that, and many other factors, the night was unique.

Guests dined on Tiffany’s new American Garden Limoges porcelain and sterling flatware, the silver three years in the making and considered Tiffany’s most ambitious sterling flatware design of the century. Each piece features a different flower.

The atmosphere was intimate. Some dined in the library with rubrum lilies and burgundy damask; others in the loggia with exotic orchids on marble tables; some in the dining room with towering calla lilies spilling from antique silver containers; more in the living room with a profusion of roses, and even more in the morning room with peonies.

No tent was rigged outside the kitchen door. Rather, Patina’s Joachim Splichal toiled in the estate kitchen, supervising the Sonoma lamb roulade and the caramelized banana tarts with chocolate sorbet. Guests danced to Keith Edwards’ music until 1 a.m., then exiting with favors--American Garden porcelain boxes designed for the evening.

Such a botanical ecstasy called for a major salute to a major botanist--Mildred Mathias, the evening’s honoree.

Not all the trio of chairmen were present. Melinda Winston was in bed with a fever. Donna Wolff attended in regal black Chanel, but collapsed with a sore throat Monday. Bridget Martens came through in fine fettle.

Guests included Beverly Hills Tiffany’s Manager John Petterson and his wife, Jill, Friends President Barbara Namerow and husband Norman and Maggie and Earl Russell.

SUCCESS: Christina Wagman was explaining the best attendance yet for “Summer Symphony in the Rose Garden,” the California Museum of Science and Industry’s annual fund-raising dinner Saturday featuring the Pasadena Pops Orchestra at Exposition Park: “We didn’t want anyone to think because of the civil unrest people would run away from a good cause--so we just worked harder.”

The result was a nifty attendance of 370 and probably a nifty net of $50,000 for temporary exhibitions at the museum.

During cocktails, guests toured the newest temporary exhibition, “Antarctica,” taking in a diorama of penguin taxidermy. In the crowd: Jeffrey N. Rudolph, executive director of the museum, and Keith Renken, chairman of the California Museum Foundation board.