The most popular female guest at the School of the Art Institute’s Garden Party Friday had to be model Mimi Marx, a vision in pink Mizrahi who made her demure entrance on the shoulders of several shirtless hunks.
She later entertained the 500 partygoers with her own rendition of “Mi Tierra,” stirring guests to a fever pitch of excitement for the mambo dancing that followed dinner under the tent in the Art Institute’s garden.
The Red Mink Dancers provided mambo instruction, and the partygoers (including the two tables that brought their own maracas) were so responsive that an occasional conga line broke out. (Was that Walter Jacobson wearing his wife’s decorative scarf as he conga-ed through the room?)
A fashion performance featuring Ultimo clothes being staged behind a scrim curtain was, according to reports, sensual and voyeuristic while remaining entirely legal. Fashion statements of the evening were the brightly colored vests worn by several male guests, and the gardenias plucked from flower arrangements and worn by guests of both sexes in imaginative ways (lucky the woman with a healthy cleavage).
More than $100,000 was raised for the school’s scholarship programs.
– Democrats were as rare as liberals at a Rush Limbaugh Fan Club meeting Friday when the March of Dimes held its Mardi Gras ’94 Casino Ball at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace. The event chief was Barbara Murphy, chairwoman of the DuPage Republican Central Committee, and the guest list included a Who’s Who of Illinois Republicans, including Pate Philip and Henry Hyde.
Drury Lane was decorated with masks for the evening of dinner and gaming, which raised $140,000 for programs to prevent birth defects and infant mortality. The evening’s honoree, Inland Group Chairman and CEO Daniel Goodwin, practically spent the weekend in a tuxedo; he was also co-chair of Sunday’s NFLPA Mackey Awards Banquet.
Even though the Mackey Awards began at 4:30 Sunday afternoon, Donnell Wolford of the Bears left early, carrying his little daughter Cara, who had fallen asleep in her chair. (Bears owner Mike McCaskey accepted Wolford’s award.)
Speaking of McCaskey, he was spotted deep in conversation with Cook County Board Chairman John Stroger, and there was hardly a Mackey winner who didn’t ask Bears great Gale Sayers for an autograph (though Richard Dent got the biggest welcome).
The Better Boys Foundation’s scholarship programs benefited from the event to the tune of $940,000.
– Saturday is shaping up as a benefit-heavy evening: Kohl Children’s Museum will hold its third annual Benefit for Grownups, a $100 a person event with a circus theme. Call 708-251-7781 for information on the party at the Field Museum. . . . Grant Park Music Festival celebrates its 1995 season opening with a pre-concert dinner in a tent, the concert of operatic and musical comedy favorites, and a post-concert reception honoring Frederica von Stade at LaStrada Ristorante. Tickets are $125; the Grant Parks Concert Society can be reached at 312-819-0614. . . . Hillary Rodham Clinton is honorary chairperson for Northeastern Illinois University Foundation’s eighth annual Recognition Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Call 312-794-6137. . . . Northern California wine country chefs and wine experts will collaborate with Chicago’s leading chefs for Food and Wine for Hope, a benefit for City of Hope National Medical Center at Arlington International Racecourse. Admission is $90; call City of Hope at 708-699-0100. . . . “Arriba! Arriba!” is the theme of the Evanston and Glenbrook Hospitals’ Ball to be held at Allstate Insurance in Northbrook. Tickets are $200; call 708-835-0775 for reservations.
