FROM GETTY FETE TO GIANTS GLOW
This year, for the first time in almost 20 years of pounding the party beat, I have witnessed a rare confluence of events bring the year full circle.
Especially since Gordon Getty, the billionaire composer and philanthropist, usually prefers listening to music at home or lunching with longtime pals.
Yet Getty starred as the alpha and omega of our social season: His was the first fete out of the gate in January when the San Francisco Symphony paid tribute to his 80th birthday. Then at the denouement of December, Ann
Getty hosted an intime, downhome holiday celebration for her husband’s 81st.
Like the musically minded Getty, 2014 was an uptempo year filled with fantastic fundraisers supported by deep-pocketed patrons, cultural confabs of all stripes, blockbuster exhibitions, a Tenderloin renaissance as well as a panoply of darn good parties.
Sir Jony Ive, chief designer of amazing Apple i-doodads, dazzled SFMOMA supporters in October at the Modern Art Council’s Bay Area Treasure Dinner. The Napa Valley weather wasn’t the only thing that sizzled this summer when Festival del Sole honored screen siren
Sophia Loren. Candlestick closed shop in August with a stellar show by Sir Paul McCartney. In June, “Beach Blanket Babylon” producer
Jo Schuman Silver celebrated 40 years of musical frolics at City Hall. And half a bridge was named in honor of good ol’ Willie Brown.
On the fundraising front: Tipping Point founder-CEO Daniel
Lurie raised a whopping $12 mil and change in May at his annual gala against poverty. In close big-bucks pursuit for good, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff followed suit in October at his Dreamforce Foundation concert starring Bru
no Mars that raised a healthy $9 million for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. More seniors will be able to sup thanks to chefs and sommeliers who served up a $2.6 million meal in June at the Meals on Wheels gala.
Local heroes were heralded in February at AT&T Ballpark, where S.F. General Hospital supporters raised a heartfelt $1.7 million. Though author Robert Mailer
Anderson may have sung his gala chairmanship swan song in May at the SFJazz gala, he and artistic director-founder Randall Kline jammed on a swinging soiree honoring Herbie Hancock to raise $1.4 million for SFJazz artistic and educational programs.
Mad modernists bid a colorful $3.2 million in May at the Modern Ball to support SFMOMA’s exhibition and education programs. Hearst Corp. VP Steve Hearst and his wife, Barbara Hearst, were not only honored in April at ZooFest but he also bid $11.5K to assist the S.F. Zoo in raising a wild $1.2 million. And though their take was a more modest $40K, film-house fans Owsley Brown, Diana Fuller and Jane Reed rallied cineasts in June to support the treasured Roxie Theatre Center.
All that said, we think that the beloved S.F. Giants’ third World Series win in five seasons may just mark #OrangeOctober as our favorite month this year.