Chicago opens its heart for Art Against AIDS

An uncharacteristically somber Oprah Winfrey made a briefappearance at the Art Against AIDS/Chicago benefit Wednesday night.

She wasn't able to stay because she was on her way to the wakeof her former producer.

Bill Rizzo, 33, died of complications from AIDS last Monday.

It's reasonable to believe that almost everyone in the crowdhad been similarly touched.

And that's why guests in the crowd of 400-plus paid anunusually high tariff ($500 to $1,000 each) to attend the fund-raiserat the Four Seasons Hotel.

Lest you think the evening lacked merriment, rest assured itwas a celebration of hope for the future.

Marshall Field & Co. CEO Phil Miller chaired the Chicagofund-raiser, and by the end of the evening reported that more than$800,000 had been raised to fight this terrible disease.

It was the first time in memory that anyone has been able toattract such magnificent support from such a wide cross-section ofour community.

Corporate donors and foundations joined social types andmembers of fine old families to respond to Miller's irresistiblerequests for contributions.

He's quite a guy.

Sara Lee Corp. led the pack with a $50,000 contribution.Winfrey and her Harpo Productions were the first major corporatedonors with a $25,000 gift.

John Wilson delivered a check for $47,000 from his LakesideGroup.

Elizabeth Arden, the Leslie Fay Companies, JockeyInternational, the John Buck Co. and Marshall Field's eachcontributed $25,000.

Honorary co-chair Gov. Jim Thompson and Jayne, just back froman economic development trip to Japan, admitted to being slightlywoozy from a case of jet lag. Jayne Thompson had heads turningagain - the result of a white lace minidress.

The Guv said he had met with more than 100 Japanese businessexecutives while there and "that might mean some good news forIllinois."

The other co-chair, Mayor Richard M. Daley, was on a shortEaster holiday with his family. He was ably represented by Chicago'sdirector of special events, Kathy Osterman. She was sporting alittle tan - and a big fish story about a 36-inch tuna caught offSarasota, Fla. It is being stuffed and will hang in her office verysoon.

Jason Spahn of Jason-Richards Florists said House & Gardenphotographed his weekend home in New Buffalo, Mich., and will featureit in the magazine this summer.

Miller visited with guests at every table in the ballroom, andthen thanked the crowd for their support. "We will find a cure forthis disease," he said.

Amen.

Sally and Miles Berger, Alberta and Bill Smithberg and WilliamWood Prince hosted a party Monday night at the Mayfair Regent Hotelin honor of Ballet Chicago.

The company will be seen at the Civic Opera House on April 25,27 and 28.

Jack Staley, president of the board of directors, said "thecompany has a million-dollar budget - and I think we'll finish thisfiscal year ending April 30 with money in the bank. Of course,that's music to my ears," said Staley, chairman of the accountingfirm of Ernst & Young.

There was a lot more glasnost going on at the Civic Theaterlast week than there was in Moscow or Lithuania.

Mikhail Shatrov's play "The Peace of Brest-Litovsk" (aboutLenin and the peace treaty signed there) was written in the 1960s butwas banned in the Soviet Union until last year.

Moscow's Vakhtangov Theatre brought the show, performed inRussian, to the Civic for a three-week engagement through May 6.Monday night's opening, with thundering organ music and simultaneoustranslation into English headphones, was compelling.

Jane Sahlins, executive director of the Chicago InternationalTheatre Festival, which opens May 23, said: "It's wonderful. I wishit was part of our festival."

Robert Falls, artistic director of the Goodman Theater, said,"It's one of the most important plays to be presented in the SovietUnion, and the fact that Chicago got the premiere in the UnitedStates is wonderful."

The play's presentation here has been orchestrated largely byNancy Haggerty of American Express, working with the Illinois RussianTheatre Association and the Union of Theatre Workers of the RussianFederation.

Actor Mikhail Ulyanov, who also heads the Russian union, playsthe tormented Lenin.

In remarks to opening-night guests at dinner in the lobby ofthe Civic Opera House, Ulyanov (a Spencer Tracy look-alike) referredto Haggerty as "the godmother of glasnost in the Russian theater.And I think of myself at the godfather."

And then he raised his glass of vodka and toasted just abouteverything he could think of, including the vodka.