That mounting rumble you hear is only the beginning.
Fall`s stampede-a roaringly movable feast of retail hoopla, big-ticket charitable fundraisers and much social jockeying-is about to start.
It kicks off in earnest tonight, with the black-tie opening of the new Crate & Barrel flagship at Michigan Avenue and Erie Street, benefiting Children`s Memorial Medical Center.
It moves a block north on Thursday, with the gala launch of the new Saks Fifth Avenue store in Chicago Place, at 700 N. Michigan Ave. That mammoth bash will benefit a charitable trinity: the Costume Committee of the Chicago Historical Society, the Women`s Board of the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
And on Friday, it thunders to the suburbs-to the splendid Cuneo family estate in Libertyville-for the traditional kickoff of the social season, the September Ball of the Children`s Home and Aid Society of Illinois, at $225 a person. (For the $25-a-ticket alternative partygoer: the street gallery hop in River North to benefit the New Group of the MCA.)
On Saturday comes ETA Creative Arts Foundation`s ”Color Us Magic”
party, plus the Lutheran General Foundation`s ”Gala `90.”
Monday will see the start of a series of breakfast, luncheon, tea and cocktail benefit previews of the new Henri Bendel store at 900 N. Michigan Ave.
Tuesday is the Children`s Service Board`s Gold Coast Fashion Show, plus the Hull House Association`s annual bash. Next Wednesday, the Oak Street Council`s tented fashion show and party, and the Hinsdale Antiques Show and Sale Committee`s benefit preview. On Thursday, Sept. 13, the wonderful opening benefit at the Chicago International New Art Forms Exhibition. On Friday, Sept. 14, Lyric Opera`s gala season premiere, and the 75th anniversary party for the University of Chicago Renaissance Society.
A busy schedule? You ain`t heard nothing yet.
See you later
”I told my husband I`m not going to see him much in September,” sighs Bobbie Goldblatt, society chronicler for North Shore magazine and veteran of the canape circuit. ”Then I looked at the calendar for October, November. . . .”
Goldblatt admits, ”I don`t even have it all entered in my book yet, and I`ve got a mountain of envelopes I haven`t even opened. There are two, three, four things happening at once, almost every night. Old charity organizations, new ones, everyone.”
Indeed. Winnie Chambers, publisher of Chicago`s Date Book-a printed clearinghouse of the who, what, where and when among charity parties here-calls September ”the killer month.”
It`s been thus since the September 1988 ”Store Wars” between the then new Bloomingdale`s and the rehabbed Marshall Field`s Water Tower Place store. Each opened with a giant charity bash.
There`s no comparable retail rivalry this year, but, as Chambers observes, ”Every year the season gets larger and larger anyway. There are an awful lot of major, large events this year-definitely more black-tie events.” Betty Rodgers, of Stuart-Rodgers-Reilly Photography (the shutterbug of choice for much of the social set), says, ”In spite of the fact that we`re supposedly having a recession, we`ve got more parties in the book than we`ve had in years.”
No wonder: The social set has a good excuse to assemble, and charitable causes rake in the money and reap good publicity.
And now, as Chambers says, ”Events are really starting to overlap.”
A four-in-one night
A case in point comes on Saturday the 15th. On that one night:
– The Fashion Group, an organization of women in all aspects of the fashion industry, has a black-tie party to honor Saks` fashion director Nena Ivon and raise scholarship funds.
– Chicago House, an agency providing residential and other services for people with AIDS, is holding its first black-tie dinner-dance. The fundraiser at the Drake salutes the group`s fifth anniversary.
– The Michael Jordan Foundation will kick off its first formal fundraiser, ”The Sky`s the Limit,” at the Hotel Nikko to benefit a variety of charities.
– And the Civic and Arts Foundation of the old-line Union League Club holds its annual art auction to benefit a scholarship fund for young artists. Notice the common denominator here: ”benefit,” ”fundraiser”-money.
”I`m sitting here with twenty-seven hundred dollars in invitations on my desk,” says Donna Shanley, a high-end residential real-estate broker for Rubloff & Co., who supports an array of charities.
Showing that support via dinner and dancing is costly, with the average ticket falling in the $100-to-$250 range. ”Corporate” and ”sponsor” and
”angel” tickets can hit $500, $1,000 and more.
`Selling like crazy`
”With tickets that high, I thought we`d really have a problem,” says one chairwoman of a fancy $250-a-ticket party this fall, who hopes to raise in excess of $200,000 for her favorite cause. ”I thought they`d never sell, and there`s so much competition for the charity dollar. But they are selling-like crazy. It`s so gratifying.”
The bottom line, naturally, is even more gratifying to the charities than to the dinner chairmen. Though none would go on the record, fundraising officials at several nonprofit groups in the area said the fall social whirl accounts for one-fourth to one-half of their total donations from individuals every year.
This, of course, leads to a certain competitiveness.
”People realize the stakes of parties now,” says Maureen Smith of Lake Forest, active for the Field Museum and other causes. ”In order to raise the kind of money you want, to attract the people you need, parties have to be lavish-although these days you try to do something clever rather than just serve money sandwiches.
”If you`re going to be raising money by enticing people to a party,”
Smith says, ”they have to have all their senses delighted.” (Among the inexpensively sensual touches Smith has pioneered: goldfish swimming in centerpiece vases.) Still, she says, ”You can do that without spending a lot of money, so more goes to the charity.”
Money where it counts
Just how much goes to programs and services, instead of fancy-schmancy, has become a competitive issue. Some groups are into ostentation, some not.
There were harrumphs around town, for example, when one nonprofit group sent out invitations earlier this year that cost well over $20 each to produce, plus hefty postage.
”Well, I wouldn`t want to boast,” says a board member of another charity, with just a hint of a smile, ”but each invitation we`re sending out this year cost 35 cents.”
There`s competition as well for early-in-the-season party dates (before the I`ll-die-if-I-have-to-go-to-another-of-these-things factor sets in). As the Date Book`s Chambers says, ”There are just so many Friday and Saturday nights.”
”They knew we had that date,” fumes the chairwoman of one upcoming gala, who saw her carefully chosen evening ”muscled in on” by a rival group. Not to worry, says charity powerhouse Beverly Blettner, who has organized events raising millions for worthy causes: ”There are so many parties now, it`s impossible to find a night when there isn`t something else.” Her solution: just do the best you can not to overlap with another group`s guest list.
The hard part
And then, as party planners around town agree, do your homework-the phone calls, notes, letters, arm-twisting and other time-consuming chores that are absolutely essential to a successful fundraiser.
Some of it will involve work on or with committees-the people who actually make the party happen, lining up the location (sometimes a year in advance), the food, entertainment, auction and raffle items, publicity, corporate underwriters.
”There`s no better feeling than letting people know exactly what they`ve got to do, and then watching them do it,” says one North Side man who`s seen his share of party planning meetings late into the night. ”But the other side. . . . It`s not pretty-people who sign up just to get their name on a supposedly prestigious invitation, and then sit there like lumps.”
In fact, some erstwhile volunteers have been foolish enough to let it be known that they`re dropping a ”less social” charity for a ”better” one.
They don`t get invited back often.
And their faces won`t be seen long among the ”usual” 1,000 or so people who make up the core of the upscale charity circuit.
Now they`re pressing their tuxes and dusting off gems for the fall season that`s about to begin.
On your mark. . . . –
