Press

75th Charity Ball

The Tribune
Nancy Scott Anderson, Society Editor

“The extravaganza of white and silver decorations in the ballroom flittered safely within the confines of good taste. Balloons, mylar, feathers, white sprayed tree branches and yards and yards of tiny Italian lights were disciplined by decorations’ chairman Jean Collins and Richard Widney into a vaguely ‘40’s version of well-mannered High Society.”


Electric Décor Lights Up a Charity Affair

Los Angeles Times

San Diego on View
William Sullivan, Society Columnist

“There was no dancing in the dark at Reflections, the 1984 Charity Ball, held at the Hotel del Coronado ballroom. Chairman Barbara Williams enlisted designers Jean Collins and Richard Widney to gussie up the place. It was pretty enough to leave the lights turned up, and they did. The décor, a mix of white-and-silver materials from innocent gossamer to high-tech mylar, was the thing to talk about.


Charity Ball draws the Gang

The San Diego Union
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

“Reflections had been chosen as the party theme, so Jean Collins and Richard Widney decorated the ballroom with mirror-bright Mylar and arches of frosted eucalyptus branches that glittered with white lights. Great bunches of silver and white and crystal-clear balloons floated among the chandeliers and the stage was a shimmer of Mylar and mirrors. Widney, who has a miraculous touch with what he calls ‘junk’ used materials like plastic foam, shredded wax paper and quilted, corrugated ‘airplane lining’ to create the décor.”


Bar Mitzvah an In-Tents Experience

The San Diego Union
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

June, 1990

“Three generations had a tiptop time under Timmy Altbaum’s Big Top, helping him celebrate his bar mitzvah. Designer Richard Widney filled the huge white canvas tent-60 by 120 feet- with crayon-bright colors in table linens, balloons and festoons of lights. Tall arrangements of roses, chrysanthemums, delphiniums, gypsophilia and myrtle anchored a balloon bouquet in the center of each round table.”


Intimate Luncheon at Château Lorraine

La Jolla Light
Janet Gallison, Society Columnist

“Mauve was the predominant color on the décor palette that ranged from pink to blue-purple. Hundred of balloon’s marked the gateposts of the drive and covered the inside roof if the white tent on the garden terrace. Richard Widney’s party décor also included swags of mauve table cloths topped with short cloths swagged and caught with flowers, and as floral centerpieces baskets of stargazer lilies, blue iris, heather and pink dendrobium orchids.”


City Lights

Los Angeles Times
William Sullivan, Society Columnist

“The room itself was almost impossibly elegant-the exotic, fanciful, Art Deco styling, all designed by decorator Richard Widney, made the room look like a reincarnation of the Coconut Grove. Rising everywhere, from the centers of the tables and from spots along the periphery of the room, were towering, illuminated, gilded columns, each topped with spreading wheat-colored plumes.”



City Lights

San Diego Union Tribune
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

“You’ll notice there’s not a flower in the place,” Deane pointed out. “Tablecloths were deep burgundy, and shimmering art deco columns rose 6 feet from the center of each table, supporting a great spray of pampas plumes. (Richard Widney was the designer)”.


Ireland Fund Gala Brought Out the Green

San Diego Union Tribune
David Nelson, Society Columnist

March 1991

“It was probably inevitable that a St. Patrick in full bishop’s robes and miter should be on hand to shepherd the throng from the cocktail reception to the black-tie dinner in the Aventine Ballroom. Not at all inevitable but entirely delightful were designer Richard Widney’s clever table decoration: arrangements of moss, cattails, mushrooms, ferns, and truncated tulips meant to look like patches of the Old Sod, or perhaps, leprechaun habitats."


Jewel Ball Shines through the Weather

The Los Angeles Times
William Sullivan, Society Columnist

August 1983

“It was, as George Gafford enthused, a party to behold, thanks to the generous sprays of flowers by Richard Widney and sets by Dick Ford that reflected chairman Dixie Unruh’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ theme.


The Jewel Ball ends with a Gem of a Centerpiece Sale

The San Diego Union
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

August 1986

“Vintage was the theme Saturday night, and the courts at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club were walled in white lattice, garlanded with paper lanterns, crowned with fireworks, and planted with bowers pf flowers and trees. Floral designer, Richard Widney checks the scene from a bridge spanning the swimming pool and reeled off a few statistics: 225 ferns, 250 pots of impatiens, 150 azaleas, 100 begonias, 100 fuchsias, 100 palms, and 150 ficus trees-some of them 15 feet tall.”


La Jolla Debutante Ball

The Tribune
Nancy Scott Anderson, Society Editor

“Designer Richard Widney provided stage and table decorations. The 1984 ball was one of the prettiest ever. Massive bouquets of red and pink roses and baby’s breath studded banks or ferns and topiary trees next to the stage. Nosegays of same held aloft by ribbon-wrapped satin columns centered each table.”


Sun King Frivolity Unmasked

La Jolla Light
David Nelson, Society Columnist

May 24, 1984

“Designer Richard Widney had filled the room with so much greenery that it resembled a highly sophisticated jungle. Jean de la Quintinie, Louis XIV’s own Versailles gardener, would have been pleased by the effect. The décor was in some ways as fantastic as the masks carried by many of the women, and was highlighted by the soaring columned centerpieces that held masses of white roses, gladiolas and greenery high above the heads of the crowd. Living statues lined the walkway to the dance floor, and long-tailed finches fluttered in gilded cages.”


Bal Masque

San Diego Magazine
City Fair

Thomas Shess Jr., Society Editor

“The brilliant ballroom was suddenly the playground of King Louis XIV of France, thanks to the brainstorming of co-chairpersons Maureen King and Kathi Howard. Richard Widney, a genius at the stuff, designed the setting.”


Le Bal Masque

The Tribune
Nancy Scott Anderson, Society Editor

“Designer Richard Widney created a stunning set for the revelers. A classic promenade built from stage columns banked with topiary ligustrum, palms and ferns cut the room in two and made intimate what might have seemed empty. It also provided a frame for the living statues. White-covered tables were centered with tall white and green bouquets. Hurricane candles flickered throughout the room.”


A Solid Setting for Parties- Salk Institute Gala

The San Diego Union
Janet Sutter, Society Columnist

“White was the stamp of the evening, by designer Richard Widney. The dinner tables were all white, centered with white roses. Later guests moved into a towering white tent. Set up as a summer night club, with chandeliers, many more white tables, and a bandstand for Michael Carney’s orchestra with two grand pianos”.


Dressy Fund Raiser for Salk Institute Gala

Los Angeles Times
William Sullivan, Society Columnist

“The place was made even more formidable and breathtaking with Richard Widney’s decorations.”


The Party Line

The San Diego Union
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

“Party designer Richard Widney was there to hear raves for his witty, tongue-in-cheek décor, which proved that you can, too, make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Swags of kitchen foil, butcher’s paper and plastic bubble-wrap gave the ballroom a circus-tent ceiling helium-filled balloons bobbed above the tables; and strings of white lights capped the dance floor with a glittering coronet. The first impression was dazzling. And a second look was great fun. (Take those massive bouquets that framed the stage, concocted not from flowers but from paper plates on wooden dowels, wads of excelsior, pampas-grass plumes, nylon net, and other unlikely ingredients).


After touring the library, it’s lunch with Nancy

The San Diego Union
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

Simi Valley-“What could be better than breakfast at Tiffany’s? Try lunch with Nancy Reagan. Dorene Whitney who chairs the Smithsonian’s national Friends of First Ladies campaign, arranged for both of these treats-and more- during a five-day Southern California whirl honoring Friends from all over. Dorene, a La Jollan, imported San Diego’s versatile Richard Widney to stage the luncheon-food, flowers, music, the works. (Widney himself was at the piano.)


Barbara Bush tells White House Tales

The Tampa Tribune
Sarah Booth Conroy of the Washington Post

April, 1992

“The venue may not have been the White House, but two other volunteer preservation organizations recently had parties in fancy places, for a fancy price. For their donations of more than $1 million ($5,000 to $10,000 each), the undauntable Dorene Whitney and her 95 Friends of the First Ladies danced and feasted amid $50,000 worth of California Grower roses in a setting designed by San Diegoan Richard Widney at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.”


Local Connection

The San Diego Union
Burl Stiff, Society Columnist

“San Diego can boast of strong ties to “First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image,” a brand-new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Richard Widney of San Diego’s Widney House designed the décor for the opening gala, a turn-of-the-century extravaganza, and the California Cut Flower Commission donated thousands of snapdragons, lilies, chrysanthemums, anemones and such to the party.”