GEORGE CHRISTY
fair, the Art Deco band featured vocalists Nadia Duggins and Tim Redfield, who could not be faulted. Standouts on the dancefloor included Louise and Stuart Korshak, Nancy and Jim Krasne, and Kerstin Royce, a gala co-chair with Patti Reinstein and Julia Klein.
George Christy
Lee Salem Photography
G
Co-president of the Friends of Robinson Gardens, Adrienne Horwitch with husband Elliott Horwitch
the board of Children’s Hospital, and a board member of Providence Saint John’s Health Center Foundation.
“Roses
are shining in Picardy/In the hush of the silver dew/Roses are flowering in Picardy …”
Lovely
lyrics from a favorite chanson of Frank Sinatra, Dame Vera Lynn, Charlie Chaplin, and Jesse Crawford about the famous rose gardens in Picardy, that enchanting town in northern France. A love hymn performed in the vintage churches thereabouts, roses being the universal language of love.
L
ast Saturday, masses of rose-pink and salmon-pink roses, arranged by Peter Otero of Silver Birches Florists, dazzled the eye during the Moonlight and Roses gala at the Robinson Gardens behind The Beverly Hills Hotel. The gracefully elegant event honored our Beverly Hills Courier president and publisher Marcia Wilson Hobbs and Robinson Gardens’ superintendent Timothy Lindsay.
C
oming together were well-dresssed patrons in support of this grand Virginia and Harry Robinson estate willed to the City of Beverly Hills as a museum.
“A
s long as I can remember I loved gardens, played here with my friends as Page 6 | September 18, 2015
a youngster, watched my mom and dad enjoy tennis weekends in the his-and-her courts,” recalls Marcia, a longtime member with the prestigious Bel-Air Garden Club. Marcia’s credited with developing huge inroads for conservation when she presided over the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association for 11 years. Not many know that Marcia made 41 visits to China to negotiate bringing two giant pandas to our Zoo in 1984.
Establishing
herself as a marketing and strategic planning consultant, she assumed the West Coast chairmanship of Christie’s. Followed by her appointment as president/publisher of The Beverly Hills Courier where she created a weekly feature saluting our Beverly Hills elders written by Laura Coleman. Then, she made headlines scooping the shocking mess, documented by Vicky Talbot, about the Beverly Hills Post Office, attracting the we’ve-never-seen-anythinglike-it response from our disturbed and dissatisfied Beverly Hills citizenry.
H
er family includes three sons, six grandchildren and three dogs.
F
or 18 years, Timothy Lindsay has overseen the Virginia Robinson Gardens, and remains devoted to restoring, preserving and programming the future of this California treasure in the County of Los Angeles.
I
llinois-born Tim arranged for the Virginia Robinson Gardens to be anointed as Historic Site #2, and he’s written the definitive history of the Beverly Hills estate: Virginia and Harry Robinson’s House and Garden.
He and wife Marguerite
live with their two children in the Pasadena area.
Founder of the Friends of Robinson Gardens Joan Selwyn with husband Paul Selwyn
T
he Kitchen for Exploring Foods, based in Pasadena, served an amuse bouche of chilled summer melon soup (we had seconds), a nectarine and heirloom tomato salad with white balsamic vinaigrette that Louise Korshak, a friend of Marcia’s since seventh grade, loudly applauded. Several main courses were offered, we opted for the sustainable striped bass en papillote – so good that we wanted to take it home to Mother. That dense chocolate cake for dessert – what better? A triumph from owner Peggy Dark’s catering service destined to be remembered for future events.
Online at www.bhcourier.com/category/george-christy
G
l e n n Snyder conducted the auction, fetching prices beyond
T
he daughter of the late Betty and Bill Wilson, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Marcia’s philanthropies are legendary and nonstop. Currently president of the Good Shepherd Center and the Beverly Hills Pet Care Foundation, she’s a trustee on
D
igging into the past of the Gardens at 1008 Elden Way that’s open to visitors year ’round, we discovered that Virginia Robinson’s favorite rose was the Eiffel Tower, and, thanks to Timothy Lindsay, continues to flourish in her longloved Gardens in Beverly Hills.
Vince Bucci
Honorees Marcia Wilson Hobbs and Timothy Lindsay flanked by gala co-charis Julia Klein, at left, with Kerstin Royce and Patti Reinstein, at right, wined, dined and partied during the Moonlight and Roses gala supporting the Friends of Robinson Gardens at the estate
ood timers included Adrienne and Elliott Horwitch, Joan and Paul Selwyn (Adrienne and Joan presented the honoree awards), Mayor Julian Gold and Michele, Michael Nouri, Lori and Jeff Hyland, Margaret Preissman, George Royce, Melinda Bitten, Janice Jerde, Carrie Ketchum, Lili and Jon Bosse, Annette and Marc Saleh, Alexandrina Doheny, Linda Schwartz, Audrey and Ed Jessup, Kris and Robert Joyce, Ken Weiss with Cathy Siegel Weiss, proudly informing daughter Rebecca is publishing an art magazine, Eden, that New Yorkers are talking about.
Jaclyn Smith was presented with the Shining Star Angel Award during the Farrah Fawcett Foundation Tex-Mex Fiesta at the Wallis. Alana Stewart presides over the FFF. The evening raised $500,000 for Stand Up To Cancer. Lyle Lovett performed Texas tunes
George Hamilton
BEVERLY HILLS