Jean Hahn dressed demurely in calico, rather as might befit a sheepherder's wife. "Building the town was an awful lot of work, but we've had so much fun over the last four months that we haven't stopped giggling yet," she said. "Best of all, we've netted more than $140,000, all because so many people wanted to do something for Children's Hospital." Hahn promised that the town will rise again next year.
Children's President Blair Sadler said the day was essential to the support of the hospital's child protection and trauma programs, which he termed "key programs that can never support themselves but are part of our commitment to take care of all kids in our community." He added that the event was specifically designed to introduce a wider range of potential supporters to the hospital, especially those drawn from North County and East County.
The invitation to be wildly Western for an afternoon provoked quite a response. Several men participated in a five-week beard-growing contest, and had their mixed results shaved and judged just before dinner; an award was given for the scrawniest. One of the bearded, businessman Phil Blair, carried Virgil, his son's stick horse, which he said had been "rid hard and put away wet."
Texan Chuck Arledge wore a treasured 10-gallon hat that has been in his family for 150 years; his wife, Barbara, called it "a testimony to the Arledge family" that the hat showed no evidence of bullet holes. But among all the loose women, school marms and gunslingers, the one costume that showed the most daring was the pair of red long johns that one fellow wore, along with a cowboy hat and a big cigar.
Among town sponsors were Joanne and Frank Warren, Susan and Harry Summers, Anne and John Gilchrist, Carol and Mike Alessio, Maureen and Allen Blackmore, John Lynch, Nina Hazard Baker, Judy and Vince Bartolotta and Cindy and Mike Padilla.
LA JOLLA--Former San Diego Symphony music director David Atherton said he had played the piano publicly just twice in the past dozen years, but having offered that caveat, he sat down at Laurie and Lawrence Waddy's baby grand and coaxed out convincing renditions of a Mozart sonata and minuet.
Atherton starred at a small formal dinner given to launch the "Mainly Mozart" concert series to be inaugurated on the Festival Stage of the Old Globe Theatre next June. The guest list included a number of longtime music supporters invited by former Symphony President Laurie Waddy and her "Mainly Mozart" co-founders, Martha Gafford, Veryl Mortenson-Frederiksen, Jacqueline Powell and Ramona Sahm. Sahm, at whose Rancho Santa Fe estate the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art's "A Night in Monte Carlo" ball was founded, said she intends to host a "Mozart Ball," probably in costume, not long before the commencement of the "Mainly Mozart" performances.
