San Diego Union Staff Photo by Dan Tichonchuk
Hellenic Ball Panel Confers
In a Grecian setting at Point Loma College, Penelope Nicholas, left, publicity director for the Hellenic Ball, discusses plans for the Oct. 1 gala at Hotel del Coronado with, from left Mike Troy, ball chairwoman, Athena May, Mickey Tyler, Bill McMillan, Bob Beamon and Lowell North. Troy, Tyler, McMillan, Beamon and North all have won medals in Olympic Games. Them of the 1977 ball is "Olympic Legacy."
San Diego Union, San Diego, California, Friday, September 23, 1977, Page D3
Olympian Bill McMillan
San Diego Union Staff Photo by Bob Ivins
Pride - The Keynote At Hellenic Ball
If the Greeks had a world for it Saturday night at the Hellenic Ball - just one word - it had to be "pride."
Theme of the 12th annual dinner-dance was "The Olympic Legacy," and the Hellenic Cultural Society of San Diego came up with a lot of things, and a lot of people, to be proud of.
Nine of San Diego's many Olympic medal winners were there to accept plaudits of the 450-plus patrons of the ball: Bob Beamon, Jack Davis, Greg Louganis, Lt. Col. William McMillan, Lowell North, Fred Schmidt, Mike Stamm, Mike Troy and Audrey Patterson Tyler.
The present-day champions were introduced after a series of dramatic tableaux tracing the history of the Olympic Games. (This year's ball was in aid of the United States Summer Olympic Fund.)
The evening's pageantry also included presentation of a dozen pretty young Hellenic Hostesses dressed in Grecian robes: Kathleen Cappos, Kathryn Choconas, Rosalie Congdon, Michele Crockett, Athene Deneris, Angela Krooskos, Nancy Lambron, Eleni Marinos, Diane Martikas, Julie Ronis, Lynn Santos and Jeanne Scarvelis.
Other apt words for the party at Hotel del Coronado include "spirt" (you should have heard the Greek music of Tom Paiis and Kostas Hasapakis).
Add "glamor" to that list, too, and apply it to chairwoman Athena May.
(Athena changed her mind three times about what to wear: first she thought a Michael Novarese, then an Adele Simpson, and finally a different Novarese - black with fringe from shoulder to floor. Ravishing.)
Dressed in a russet pantsuit that matched her russet curls, diva Beverly Sills met the Press, the Sponsor and a few members of the Public Saturday night at Foxhill.
On the eve of her opening in the San Diego Opera production of "The Merry Widow," the soprano superstar was guest of honor at a party given by publisher Helen Copley in her La Jolla home for music critics from New York, Toronto, San Francisco, Phoenix, Cleveland, Indianapolis and other cities.
The guest list also included executives of the Atlantic Richfield Company, sponsors of a national telecast of the San Diego production.
Rita and Josiah Neeper (he's president of the San Diego Opera Association) and Jean and Dr. Al Anderson (he's president of the Convention and Visitors Bureau) were among the San Diegans on hand to greet the distinguished visitors.
The star arrived with her long-time friends and coworkers, Gigi and Tito Capobianco, and was, somehow, every inch the Living Legend while remaining completely relaxed and charmingly approachable.
Striking a mock pose and turning on an incandescent smile, she assured a photographer: "I never permit photographs!"
And, ruefully declining hors d'oeuvres: "I'm on the Skiier's Diet; nothing but eggs today.
Just 33 more suspense-filled days till this year's COMBO Auction gala, and not a moment too soon to start planning your purchases.
One auction item that's sure to be a hot one is a concert by The Old Mission Beach Marching Kazoo Band and Storm Door Company.
(Time and place to be worked out by your and the Kazoo gang.)
The band is made up of Betty and Mayor Pete Wilson, Russell and Marie-Christine Forester, Abbe and Louis Wolfsheimer, Viviane and Lee Pratt, Ruth and Harold Simon, Marge and Andy Wagner, Neil and Judith Morgan, Maggie and Dr. John Mazur, Ettie and Homer Delawie, Mickey and Irvin Malashock, Diana and Jack Hewett, and Harvey Furgatch.
While little in the body of music has been composed specifically for Kazoo, the Kazoo can do almost anything, so programming will be limited only by the boundaries of your imagination. Imagine.
No sooner has "The Merry Widow" been launched than it's time for the next San Diego Opera premiere of the season:
"Don Giovanni" opens Saturday, and Nancy Bellman will be chairwoman of a pre-opera dinner at the U.S. Grant Hotel.
The Rancho Santa Fe Opera-Guild is sponsor of the dinner, with Leila McLaughlin, Sue Teasdel and Elise Weston assisting the chairwoman.
Cocktails are at 5:30, dinner at 6:30.
Sue and Dr. Ron Heller specified "occult dress" and invited friends to "An Evening of Magic and Mysticism" the other night, in their La Jolla home.
The Hellers bought the party package - starring fortune-teller Ellen Littlejohn (whose professional name is "Madame Victoria") - at last year's COMBO Auction. (The tealeaf-reader shared the limelight at the Heller's with a magician, "The Great Gerson.")
Before dinner, the hostess whetted appetites with what she called "atmospheric hors d'oeuvres" - delicacies of the eye-of-newt and toe-of-frog variety.
San Diego Union, San Diego, California, Monday, October 3, 1977, Page D1