Two well-known Chicagoans played honored guests at separate benefit parties recently. Rich Melman, president of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, shared honoree status with Diane Sawyer, co-anchor of CBS` ”60 Minutes,” at the Variety Club Celebrity Ball in the Hyatt Regency Chicago. They were ”king and queen” of the dinner-dance, which benefited Little City. Norman Ross, senior vice president for community affairs at the First National Bank of Chicago, was honored by the Orchestra of Illinois at its black-tie
”Celebration of the Arts” benefit ball in the State of Illinois Center.
Ross, a longtime devotee of the arts and former host of a classical music program on WFMT, is an honorary trustee of the orchestra. He`s fond of it because it was founded in 1978 by Lyric Opera musicians, and Lyric is close to his heart. He`ll retire from the bank in the spring, taking up residence in North Carolina to write books. And to philosophize, no doubt.
Melman was excited by his honor, and touched by the fact that his mother, Bea, had come up from Florida to see him honored by the Variety Club. She had been ill and wasn`t expected to attend. Melman`s wife, Martha, his brother, Bruce, and several cousins also cheered for him.
Both the guest of honor and Lee Cohn, his partner in Phoenix, wore dinner jackets whose backs read ”Eat at Ed`s” (a plug for Lettuce`s Ed Debevic`s). Cohn`s jacket lit up, in fact–almost as brightly as Melman`s face each time he was congratulated.
SOURCE: By Margaret Carroll.
APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE
The Nikko Hotels International affiliate of Japan Air Lines invited local dignitaries to a red-and-white-striped tent at Dearborn and Kinzie Streets the other day for a Shinto sanctification of the land for their new hotel.
A high point of the ceremony was the offering of the sacred branch. It looked simple: Step forward, put your branch on the table in front of the altar and step back. Mayor Harold Washington, who went first, did exactly that.
Next came Hisashi Ito of JAL Development. Ito placed his branch on the table, and then clapped four times, bowed and clapped another four times. A sheepish look crossed the mayor`s face.
Then it was the turn of Nikko`s American partner, John L. Tishman. A big grin on his face, Tishman followed Ito`s example.
Tishman`s grin turned into a bemused smile when Hirokazu Arai, Japanese counsel general in Chicago, clapped only two times, bowed and clapped another two times.
The event concluded happily with toasts of sake, but the question remained: Who goofed?
A spokeswoman for the Tenrikyo Midwest Church in Des Plaines, whose ministers officiated at the ceremony, explained that the altar had three shrines–one for God, one for the founder of the Tenrikyo religious movement and one for honored ancestors. Four claps, repeated twice, represented four prayers–one for each shrine, and the last for the participant. So Ito and Tishman acted properly.
And why did Arai, a Japanese diplomat who certainly knows the ropes, clap twice? He would only say, ”For no specific reason.” SOURCE: By David Ibata.
WRESTLING WITH A FRIDGE
A Battle Royal, as any violent child can tell you, is pro wrestling`s most glorious spectacle. To have one, simply gather a group of wrestlers, put them in one ring and tell them to throw one another over the top ropes. The last man left in the ring wins.
Question: Who will it be when 8 NFL football players take on 12 pro wrestlers, including Big John Studd, the Iron Sheik and King Tonga, in Monday`s World Wrestling Federation Battle Royal at the Rosemont Horizon?
One of the footballers is to be William ”The Refrigerator” Perry;
promoters say he`ll be backed by Russ Francis, Ed ”Too Tall” Jones,
”Jimbo” Jim Covert and others. At the WWF`s press conference at the Chicago Marriott Hotel last week, the answer definitely seemed to be that Perry would emerge the victor.
That is, if you believe Francis` hint that the fight (if it comes off;
there are some insurance questions) probably will boil down to a heroes vs. villains event, plus the fact that the Fridge is just about a certified American hero.
Besides . . . if Studd is going to call Perry and his friends ”girls”
and chide them for slapping one another on the behind, then Studd, according to the moral laws that regulate the wrestling universe, will have to suffer a humiliating defeat.
Las Vegas agrees. Its line on Perry is 40-1. As for Studd, Perry warned him, ”You`re goin` out first!” Robert Wolf
BLUE-PLATE SPECIALTIES
The party was a real zoo.
It`s not just that the guests of honor included two ferrets, an armadillo and a night owl, but it was almost impossible to squeeze past the crowd to get to the bar and be served one of the night`s special blue margaritas.
Yes, blue drinks and food are part of the new eating wave that`s sure to sweep Chicago, judging by last week`s turnout at the Coyote Grill, 414 N. Orleans St.
Nearly 700 people turned out for the restaurant`s opening, a benefit for the Auxiliary Board of the Lincoln Park Zoo. (The group netted nearly $9,000 for its pet project, the Farm In the Zoo.)
But this was not the first party in the yet-to-be-finished space. The week before, owner Roger Greenfield held his wedding reception in the restaurant, which will feature such Southwestern classics as cowboy caviar, blue-corn turkey tacos and shrimp adobe.
”I invited my plumber, carpenter and electrician to the wedding so they would have a date to finish,” said Greenfield, who met his bride, Elizabeth Fritz, shortly after opening his American Grill in Glenview.
That was nearly two years ago. Since then, Greenfield has launched the successful Dixie Bar and Grill, a cajun eatery at 225 W. Chicago Ave. And even though the chairs are yet to be delivered in the Coyote, Greenfield has gone ahead with plans to launch three more restaurants: The Cadillac Grill, a hamburger joint in River North; the Ocean Grill, a west Loop seafood place;
and another American Grill in Lombard. SOURCE: By Marla Donato.
FLOYD`S GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS
No matter that he loves to misspell his own name. Everybody knows where Floyd Stuppi–who also likes to sign invitations from time to time as St. Uppi and Foldy Situpp, but most often is acknowledged as Uncle Floyd–is coming from. Usually, he`s on his way from one good time to another. And, says his friend Brooks McCormick, ”he`s a pied piper.”
Stuppi, a bachelor, retired lawyer and longtime favorite ”extra man” at Chicago social events, gathered 92 friends at the Tavern Club on a recent evening to help him celebrate his 80th birthday. His brothers, Vincent of San Francisco and Francis of Amarillo, came in with their wives for the occasion. But most of the guests were Chicago pals of every age, whose memories of Floyd are fond.
”As a child,” said Jere Scott Zenko, ”I remember his coming into our building to escort a woman who lived there. He always attended our theatricals and our ballets, for which we charged 10 cents for a ticket and 10 cents for popcorn. And he never complained about how awful we looked in our tutus or how badly we performed.”
”When I have dinner here at the Tavern Club,” said Donna Atwater, ”he always comes over and says, `Let`s flip to see who`s going to buy the brandy ice tonight.` He has two sips of his brandy and ice cream and he`s off into the night. He`s such a clever man. At one dinner party he gave, he put an instant lottery ticket under each guest`s plate. When he invites people for cocktails, the invitation might read `Ice cubes, 7:15 p.m.` He`s here practically every day. If he doesn`t come in for a couple of days, people worry about him.”
Asked his secret to longevity, this well-known chili chef and author of a guidebook on Greece–who could give lessons on the art of cultivating friends–gazed around at the festivity he had wrought and smiled: ”Just lucky, I guess.”
SOURCE: By Margaret Carroll.
