Hobnobbing with Helen: Casablanca nights for the Philharmonic

What a swell party it was!

There was music in the air and flowers everywhere.

A guitarist in the bar. A cocktail-hour pianist in the foyer. The Riptide Big Band playing during dinner and afterwards for dancing. What an entertainment lineup!

As if that wasn’t enough, before dinner, 11-year-old pianist Sarah Girges dazzled a handful of lucky onlookers in the foyer with Lizst and Chopin. 

With all these musical happenings going on in one place (the Santa Maria Country Club), you just know that I am talking about a fundraiser for the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society, which was held on Saturday evening, Nov. 19. The theme of the event was Casablanca Calls to You. And call it did.

This lively event attracted 130 people, including Robert and Sandra Dickerson, Jay and Vicki Conner, and Dr. Robert and Louise Hammond. Roland Miller was at my table, along with Patricia Shields and Tracy Sparks.

With all the action on the dance floor, you would have thought the event theme was Dancing with the Stars. Dan Silva and Lana Flemming and Judy and Hardy Hearn didn’t sit out too many numbers (if any).

click to enlarge Hobnobbing with Helen: Casablanca nights for the Philharmonic
PHOTO BY HELEN ANN THOMAS
CASABLANCA COUPLE: Dennis and Bo Prescott take a minute to pose for the camera at the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society’s annual fundraiser and gala, Casablanca Calls to You. Bo Prescott was chairperson of the event.

They were joined by Fred and Judy Sanders, no slouches in the twinkle-toes department.

On the eve of celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary, Gene Martinez and Deborah Whitford-Martinez were all aglow. Deborah told me that for their first date, the couple went to see the movie Casablanca.

Anyone who has seen the movie, set in the  ’40s, knows that it’s full of men wearing white dinner jackets at Rick’s Café Americain. It was therefore fitting, and perhaps expected, that many of the gents at the dinner showed up in white dinner jackets. Newsflash fellas: You all looked Spiffy (note the capital “s.”)

I was happy to see Joey Wilson out and about after being out of the social whirl for a while. She was seen chatting with Bob Miller and Dennis McGaughey.

Bo Prescott, event chairperson, orchestrated this gala with her usual panache.

She was aided and abetted by the event committee: Lynne Garrett, Linda Barth, David Rackley, Ruth Ann Ontel, Diane Beebe, Janet Hillson, and Diane Borad-Mirken. For the first time in several years, the Philharmonic Society had a silent auction as well as a live auction.

click to enlarge Hobnobbing with Helen: Casablanca nights for the Philharmonic
PHOTO BY HELEN ANN THOMAS
MEETING IN MOROCCO: Left to right: Hardy Hearn, Jay Conner, Gene Martinez, Jed Beebe, Roland Miller, and Dennis Prescott attended the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society’s annual fundraiser and gala on Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Santa Maria Country Club.

Tickets were $100 and entitled the guests to a mini-martini or a glass of white wine upon arrival. The bar was a no-host affair until dinner, when there was an array of respectable complimentary wines on the tables.

Guests chose between filet mignon and sea bass both, according to hearsay, delish. Dessert was a Philharmonic Society favorite—impossible-to-resist pink champagne cake from the Madonna Inn.

The country club looked wonderful. There were palm trees (very Casablanca-ish) and greenery in the lobby. The dining room was all black and white—black tablecloths and seat covers. Mounds of white flowers constituted the centerpieces. Silver and gold chargers marked places at the sponsors’ tables, and I spied some Laetitia sparkling wine in ice buckets.

And so many ladies in sparkling gowns.

Alas, Rick of Rick’s Café Americain (Humphrey Bogart in the movie) could not make a guest appearance at this fun event. But all the usual suspects (patrons of the arts) were on site. 

If you want to hobnob with Helen, you may contact her at [email protected].

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