A Glittering City

August 11, 2003, The Examiner

RITA MORENO could not conceal her pride Thursday night at the Eleonore Austerer Gallery opening for Fernanda Fisher's jewelry design show. Fernanda is Rita's daughter. ... Mayor Willie Brown arrived at the Sutter St. gallery, proclaiming it "Fernanda Fisher Day" in San Francisco. ... Assemblyman Mark Leno offered encouraging words for the artist. Channel 7's Jessica Aguirre looked at home among beautiful things. Herv? Ernest, of the S.F. Conservation Corps, was earnestly charmed. Lovely young people wandered about wearing a few of Fernanda's dazzling pieces. Fernanda likes to combine textures and colors, such as, semi-precious stones with silver and antique beads ... "This is such a great night," said gallery owner Wendell Simmons. "We even made a few sales." That's a swell endorsement these days. ... "Swell -- that's a great word," sighed Rita. "That's the word that comes to mind when I look at my daughter." ...

Sergio & Marcia Giusti hosted a dinner for Fernanda and her husband, Daniel Fisher, after the show at the Giusti's friendly Firenze by Night restaurant on Stockton in North Beach. ... Rita Moreno ... her husband, the very funny Dr. Lenny Gordon ... KGO's Brian Copeland and his wife, Suzie. ... Wendell Simmons and his wife, Deborah. ... Judy's restaurant owner Charles Bain ... and the virtuous virtuoso of PR, Stefano Cassolato, were there. ... Rita's gig on HBO's "Oz" has ended but she remains very busy and supremely vivacious. I'm still amazed that she danced with Gene Kelly in "Singin in the Rain." ... "I had the greatest time at the opening of the new Napa Valley Opera House," she said. "Lenny and I are so glad we moved from L.A. to the Bay Area." They live in the Berkeley Hills. ... Rita opens her new show at The Plush Room, Oct. 21 through Nov. 15. "I have recently turned down Feinstein's and the Algonquin in New York. But I love the Plush Room. It's the best cabaret room in America." ... And she should know: She made "America" famous. ...

That was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy having dinner at Florio on Fillmore Friday night. He kept company with a couple of U.S. Marshals. Justice Kennedy was in town for the convention of the American Bar Association. ... At the Matrix/Fillmore Thursday, 150 supporters of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation held a kick-off party for the 13th annual "Race for the Cure" on Sept. 7. ... The party was thrown by Julie Down ... Sari Swig ... M.K. Fippinger ... Gavin and Kimberly Newsom ... Michael Macdonald ... Maria Quiros ... Andrea Schnitzer ... the recently married and still all-a-blush Lori Puccinneli. ... Also in attendance, the ever-alert writer, Michele Caprario. ... Nancy Brinker, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, was there with Richard Goldman. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is named for Nancy's sister. ...

It is startling to walk down Polk Street near California and notice how the block has changed -- now that the marquee at the old Royal Theater is suddenly gone. As a matter of fact, the venerable house itself has been razed. Behind a plywood facade lies a pit that was once a repository for millions of matinee memories. ... 30 years ago, my brother, Paul, managed the Royal. In a unlikely scenario from a dime store novel turned into a treacly movie, Paul married Bonnie, the girl behind the candy counter. ... Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango In Paris," played there for months in 1972. The bridge-and-tunnel crowd flocked to the Royal, in leisure suits and hip huggers. That's because "Last Tango ..." was the first big budget movie, "an art film," that featured fairly graphic sex scenes. It drew mainstream audiences from the 'burbs who didn't have to skulk to tawdry porn houses to take a peek at smut. This was acceptable smut. This was filmed in Paris. This was Art. ...

In those days, Polk Street or "Polkstrasse" had preceded the Castro District as a center of gay life. "Last Tango ..." was a cause celebre on the street for its notorious scene with Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and a stick of butter. ... Across the street from the Royal was the Gramophone record shop -- now a video store. Locals would stop and chuckle at the suggestive window display that remained there for weeks: copies of the great Gato Barbieri "Last Tango ..." soundtrack amid empty boxes of Challenge butter. ...If you want to say "Only in San Francisco," now is the time to say it.

Bruce Bellingham is the author of "Bellingham by the Bay." His e-mail is bruce@brucebellingham.com