In the meantime, as promised, I have a teeny tidbit to toss out for those lovers of all things Hollywood and, thus, all things bizarre.
Without scrolling down to cheat, quick, answer this trivia question: Where would it have been possible to gussy up in one's Saturday best and hobnob with Jack Lemmon, Lucille Ball, Charles Bronson, Conrad Bain, Penny Marshall, Debby Boone, Peggy Lee, Gene Kelly Debbie Reynolds, Dionne Warwick, Adam Rich, David Hodo (the Construction Worker from The Village People) and Rita Hayworth? (The mind reels at the last two existing in the same social universe anyway!)
If you guessed The Golden Globe Awards, Night of 100 Stars or The Bi-Annual Rodeo Drive Sidewalk Sale, these are all good guesses! The correct answer, though (and a tough one!), 
is The 24th Annual Thalians Ball, a charitable event benefiting The Los Angeles Community Health Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Each year, a Hollywood icon would be chosen and dubbed "Mr. Wonderful" or "Ms. Wonderful" and granted a star-studded tribute. The 1979 honoree was Jack Lemmon. Celebs from every walk of life (and every stratus of the food chain) 
paid $125 a plate to attend the gala fundraiser.
is The 24th Annual Thalians Ball, a charitable event benefiting The Los Angeles Community Health Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Each year, a Hollywood icon would be chosen and dubbed "Mr. Wonderful" or "Ms. Wonderful" and granted a star-studded tribute. The 1979 honoree was Jack Lemmon. Celebs from every walk of life (and every stratus of the food chain) 
paid $125 a plate to attend the gala fundraiser.While I continue to jog on the treadmill of life, I hope you get a hoot out of the attached piece of photojournalism, depicting a sampling of the names who were in attendance at said event. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall (or even a busboy) at that party in order to see who was saying (and doing) what to each other in 1979, 
that threshold during which the free-wheeling '70s were about to give way to the gaudy '80s! Oh, and I do believe that Miss Debbie Reynolds' unidentified escort is famed hairstylist to the stars, Sydney Guilaroff. 
that threshold during which the free-wheeling '70s were about to give way to the gaudy '80s! Oh, and I do believe that Miss Debbie Reynolds' unidentified escort is famed hairstylist to the stars, Sydney Guilaroff. 
When I used to read those hollywood fan magazines as a kid ("Movieland and TV Time" with those color full page photos of Sandra and Troy, Connie Stevens, Liz etc, Dell's "Screen Album") stories on Debbie ALWAYS mentioned her work for the Thalians .... now I see who they were and the good time they had. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes Debbie's beau certainly looks like Sydney .... he must have been losing his hair by this stage. So many of these are all gone now...
ReplyDeleteI always thought Lemmon was hammy and overrated and this basically confirms it for me.
ReplyDeletePoor Rita Hayworth probably didn't even know where she was.
Yeah, you just KNOW Lindsay Wagner got some that night from NOTORIOUS playboy Jack Haley Jr.
Peggy Lee looks positively svelte! I thought she was pretty much an obese recluse by that point.
Has anyone ever gotten so much mileage from one horrible hit song as Debbie Boone? It still boggles the mind that piece of crap won the Oscar.
I remember back in those days Jeff Bridges always looked like a hippie. It wasn't until "Against All Odd" that I finally looked at him and thought "Whoa!"
Well, you certainly provided us with a pleasant diversion. Good luck with your work.
this was great! i'm trying to figure out how conrad bain's wife, the one with barely a nose, managed to keep that windshield on her face.
ReplyDeleteNorma, as we say here in flyover land, "you ain't right!" and I love it!!!! So, so funny!
ReplyDeleteTopaz, remember the scandal when Debby Boone had all those kids signing You Light Up My Life when she sang it at the Oscars, making everyone misty, and afterwards it was discovered that they weren't deaf and the "sign language" they were using was almost all made-up gibberish?!?! LOL