Forming a New City Club With Clout

It isn’t every day that Los Angeles gets a prestigious new private dining club. City Club on Bunker Hill is skyrocketing. About 1,200 founder invitations to membership went out last week from chairman Walter Beran and the board of governors (which includes many of the city’s most influential). The opening is set for January.

The club will be on the 54th floor of the Wells Fargo Tower at Wells Fargo Center (in the old Crocker Bank executive dining room area). It will have spectacular views of the Los Angeles basin from its two main dining rooms and numerous private dining rooms.

Says Beran, civic leader and former chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce: “City Club will have a broad-based membership from among the new leadership of Los Angeles. Membership will embrace all aspects of the community and bring them together in this elegant new club. The purpose is not to compete with existing organizations, which serve their members well, but to reflect the new mosaic Los Angeles has become.” Founder memberships (a membership of 800 is planned, with 400 anticipated by August) are $3,000, but go to $5,000 in September. Monthly dues are set at $110.

An executive chef has not yet been selected, but the Food and Wine Committee chaired by Thomas P. Burke insists cuisine will be among the best in the city. Also on that committee are Nelson C. Rising, David H. Vena, Richard S. Volpert, Carl J. (Kim) Seneker II and Richard D. Farman.

Now, who’s on the board of governors? All the aforementioned, plus, among others, E. Jane Arnault, Peter K. Barker, Girard E. Boudreau Jr., Barbara Sayre Casey, William M. Clossey, Lodwrick M. Cook, John C. Cushman III, Nancy Englander, F. Daniel Frost, Daniel P. Garcia, John F. Hotchkis, Marilyn W. Hudson, Donald M. Koll, Richard Koshalek, David Laventhol, Robert F. Maguire III (Maguire Thomas Partners and Wells Fargo Bank own the Tower).

Also Charles T. Manatt, Toshio Nagamura, Ronald L. Olson, Gerald L. Parsky, Earl A. Powell III, Hiromoto Seki, Andrea L. Van de Kamp, Gilbert R. Vasquez and Esther Wachtell.

City Club will be affiliated with 177 private city, country and resort clubs in the world.

NEWEST BLUE RIBBON: Blue Ribbon of the Music Center has changed the guard. Officially this month Joanne Kozberg of Beverly Hills succeeds Keith Kieschnick as president and Kieschnick becomes chairman; longtime board member Nancy Call has been elected to the group’s honorary board. Elected to the board for the first time are Barbara Davis, Jane Weintraub, Lynn Beyer, Anne Johnson, Elaine Goldsmith and Louise Escoe.

Re-elected for a three-year term are Sandra Ausman, Nanci Denney, Wendy Goldberg, Nancy Peterson, Joni Smith and Andrea Van de Kamp. Harlyne Norris will be honorary chairman of the Blue Ribbon Holiday Festival for Children next year.

ESCALATION: Penny and Jim Hull invited pals to dress in white, “be Gatsby or (race car driver Dan) Gurney,” and wend through the Malibu hills in the Hulls’ French cars before ending up in Brentwood for their annual Bastille Day Rally--brunch and champagne on the lawn. . . .

On a more official note, France’s Consul General Bernard Miyet and his wife Dominique invited friends and dignitaries for “la celebration de la Fete Nationale Francaise.”

APOLOGIES: We wish there were more space to tell you about the rash of summer socializing. The governors, trustees and Alliance Board of the Natural History Museum hosted the reception Monday evening of “King Herod’s Dream: Caesarea on the Sea.” . . .

The Travelers Aid Society of Los Angeles has its summer celebration and auction at the Gilmore Adobe in Farmers’ Market Saturday with Bitsy Hotaling and Virginia Holley co-chairs. . . .

Bev and Sid Adair host a garden recital by artists of the San Diego Opera Company for the Los Angeles Opera Guild Sunday. . . .

The board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Whittier stages “An Evening With Vic” to salute Victor Lopez (devoted former president, coach, director of the club). Vic Lopez is Whittier’s mayor also. The dinner dance is at the Whittier Hilton on Friday evening. . . .

Sotheby’s slathered glittery gems and jewels everywhere for viewing at its Jewelry West Auction on Monday at the Four Seasons. . . .

Janice Wallace, Jennifer Goddard, Maxine Moshay, Estherly Reifman and Leslie Schneiderman are all teaming for their benefit premiere of “Married to the Mob” from Orion Pictures on Aug. 11, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine and Dean Stockwell. Proceeds go to the Rainbow Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

PLAUDITS: For entrepreneur Marvin Davis, recipient of the Silver Medallion Award, the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s highest honor. Davis (oil, gas, real estate, entertainment) has been a significant contributor to the fund’s $50-million capital campaign to double the capacity of the Country House and Hospital.