Blissful Are They That Give

The citizens of no other nation give so generously as Americans, but it I still hurts a little bit. Most painless way yet has been discovered by the Combined Arts of San Diego (COMBO), a group of resolute citizens dedicated to resuscitating the city's cultural activities.

COMBO'S prescription is to ask mer chants and well-to-do residents to do nate virtually anything they can part with--except cash. Individuals are in vited to turn over their summer homes when they do not plan to use them. As for businesses, airlines are asked to give away empty seats on long-distance flights, laundries to volunteer a few weeks of free washing -- all taxdeductible. Then everything is auctioned off at a gala dinner attended by the city's best people.

The result last week was one of the merriest fund-raising functions ever. At San Diego's community auditorium, the auction was set in motion at 7:30 p.m. by COMBO President Robert Peterson and did not stop until the last thump of the gavel at 3:30 a.m. Meanwhile, 750 diners ate, drank, laughed and shouted themselves hoarse.

Most of the gaiety was supplied by the items themselves. Among the more bizarre were a marble sarcophagus once used as a bathtub by Rudolph Valentino, a year of ballet lessons, and eight hours of service by a ten-man parking team for a private party. For $475, two culture angels rented the Old Globe Theater for an evening with the intention of staging a play and cocktail party, and Shoe Magnate Harry Karl, husband of Debbie Reynolds, forked out $1,600 to rent an "executive bus" for two weeks, along with drivers, food and beverages. He plans to take a small group of friends on a tour of his out-of-the-way stores.

But the strangest bids were made by Real Estate Developer David Sapp. For $200 he won an hour with City Manager Thomas Fletcher, which he wanted in order to argue against high-rise apartments going up near the beach at La Jolla. For another $220, he bought all the space for a day on the marquees of the Mission Valley Shopping Center. His message, to be spelled out on December 17, will be a salute to his son: "Congratulations, Joey Sapp. Happy Bar Mitzvah."

At auction's end, COMBO happily counted up the proceeds. They amounted to $230,000--enough to buy the symphony a portable acoustical shell, to finance an opera production of Faust, and to start construction on a new rehearsal hall for the Old Globe Theater.

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