Center Holiday Concert Has a Lock on Yalies

The hundreds of guests attending last year’s Candlelight Concert heard Steve Allen on piano and dined sumptuously at tables bedecked with silver starbursts.

This year’s concert at the Hyatt Regency Irvine on Dec. 13 will showcase the fabled Whiffenpoofs and guests will dine under huge canopies of silver Mylar balloons.

It’s hard to believe the elegant benefit staged by the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s board of directors began 19 years ago in an abandoned dime store. Candlelight was used to disguise the ugly surroundings.

As concert founder Thomas M. Moon tells it, Center founders wanted to create a benefit where people could sit at round tables and hear a holiday concert. A similar gala fund-raiser was being done by the Boston Pops.

But there was no place to go. Moon had an idea: Why not ask the manager of the City shopping complex (where founders were negotiating to find a site for the Center) if he had a facility that could be used? An old Kresge’s store was available, but in pretty dismal shape.

But Moon had hope. And a slew of willing friends. Together, they laid carpet, used tables to cover up holes where electrical outlets once were, got a 24-hour license to dispense alcohol, and sent out 4,000 flyers.

The rest, as they say, is history. Last year’s black-tie concert, attended by 500 guests, raked in $90,000 for the Center’s general fund. This year’s proceeds are expected to be in the $125,000 range, says Ciel Woodman, the Center’s chairwoman of special events.

A cocktail reception will precede the sit-down dinner. Up for culinary oohing and ahhing: chilled seafood Charlotte with prawns in a truffle sauce, petite filet in wine sauce and fresh berry Napoleons with lemon sabayon. Besides underwriting the decor, Tiffany & Co. will provide the table favors--crystal champagne flutes.

The highlight, Woodman promises, will be the performance by the Whiffenpoofs of Yale University. Each year, 14 students are chosen at the end of their junior year to be Whiffenpoofs. While practicing and performing, the seniors carry a full course load. Their goal is to express the special camaraderie of good friends and fine music.

Their repertoire, besides holiday favorites, includes: “The Whiffenpoof Song� (you know: “From the tables down at Mory’s to the place where Louie dwells, to the dear old Temple bar we loved so well . . . “); “Time After Time�; “All The Things You Are�; and “September Song.� Concert guests will also enjoy a sing-along of holiday carols.

Woodman is excited about the centerpieces. “Each table’s canopy will contain 36 Mylar balloons,� she says. “And a color wheel will revolve in the centerpieces, sending different hues onto the balloons.�

Committee members include Deeann Baldwin, Joan Beall, Hinda Beral, Arden Flamson, Martha Fluor, Jo Ellen Qualls, Catherine Thyen and Carol Wilken. For reservations, call (714) 556-2121, Ext. 222.

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Magic Johnson coming to Orange County: Plans for an AIDS benefit starring Magic Johnson are being hatched by Planet Hollywood at South Coast Plaza Village, says Planet Hollywood chairman Keith Barish of New York. “Arsenio Hall and other celebrities plan to attend,� says Barish. The date? “Sometime after the first of the year.� Stay tuned.

Speaking of Planet Hollywood: Actor Patrick Swayze will come to the restaurant later this month (“Either Dec. 28 or 29,� says a spokeswoman) to present his shoes from the movie “Dirty Dancing.� Grandstands will be set up outside the restaurant so the public can gawk at the proceedings, says Barish. A private party will follow. Now there’s a bash to find your way into.