Before jet airplanes put the world at our fingertips, there were trains that chugged from coast to coast. Both modes of transportation were wonders of their timeand figured prominently in two recent fundraisers whose fun quotient skyrocketed by the number of guests that let the past be their wardrobe guide.
Flappers, doughboys and men on vintage penny-farthing bikes were among the 800 taking part in An Evening at Old Union Station, a dinner expected to net $100,000 for construction of a replica of the Mizpah Arch that greeted visitors arriving by train at Union Station from 1906 to 1931.
At the other end of town, The Spreading Wings Gala made $500,000 for Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum and honored actor Harrison Ford for his contributions to aviation. It also inspired several of the 950 guests to break out the bomber jackets and flyboy uniforms worn during their military service.
Ford flew his own plane to Denver for the benefit; passengers included fiancee Calista Flockhart of “Ally McBeal” and “Brothers and Sisters” fame; her son, Liam; and world-renowned stunt pilot Sean Tucker. Flockhart and Tucker accompanied him to the gala held at the Wings museum. The night before, they had dinner at Piatti before going on to the Pepsi Center to see the Nuggets play the Lakers.
Every time a star comes to town, it seems there’s always a Denver connection. At Spreading Wings it came from arts philanthropist Ellie Caulkins. She’d travelled to Seattle recently to visit her friends Sally and John Nordstrom, and during her stay they drank a bottle of wine that Ford had sent to the retailing magnate for his 70th birthday.
Perhaps the oldest guest at Spreading Wings was 89-year-old James “Pete” Peterson, who served in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He flew “34 or 35, I can’t remember” missions in P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs and says he plans to celebrate his 90th birthday by going sky diving.
Mike O’Dair, a pilot in the Vietnam war, looked sharp in one of his Air Force flight suits, while his wife, Annie, fit nicely into a “party suit” that the combat pilots wore for the hail-and-farewell parties held every 12 months to greet new arrivals and wish the departing pilots a safe trip home.
Honorary chairmen for the Spreading Wings Gala were Denver Center for the Performing Arts chief Dan Ritchie; Robinson Dairy co-CEO Dick Robinson; and Starz Entertainment founder John Sie. Jack and Viki Thompson and Holding Pictures were the presenting sponsors.
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum is in what once was an airplane hangar on the former Lowry Air Force Base. Jack Thompson is a pilot and former member of the museum board; Dick Robinson had been stationed at Lowry as a young Air Force pilot; and John Sie says: “I always wanted to be a pilot.” Ritchie was recuperating from surgery and was unable to attend.
Harold Smethills, chairman of the museum board, and his wife, Diane, had their picture taken with Ford right after Frank and Doris Southworth had theirs snapped with son-in-law Jeff Puckett, who had two of his airplanes — a Citation jet and a Diamond DA42 Twin Star — featured in “Reach,” a film Ford did to promote both the museum and the joys of aviation.
Emily Howell Warner, the first female commercial airline pilot and a member of the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, was there, as was Peter Luce, who flew a Mitsubishi MU-21 twin-engine propjet for 21 years and was one of the few private pilots in the world to log a million miles in the same plane. “I quit flying eight years ago, when I turned 72,” he said.
Gary Ray, a retired United Airlines pilot, said he had flown two of the planes on display at Wings Over the Rockies: an F-100 Super Saber and a F-105 Thunder Chief. Sunbird Aviation president Jack Cronin owns five planes — “one for going places and four to enter in air shows” — and had a ride in one of them up for bid in the silent auction.
Monica Owens, daughter of Frances and former Gov. Bill Owens, was there with boyfriend Jake Vanderslice, a real estate developer who earned his private pilot’s license at age 16.
Other familiar faces in the crowd: former Denverite Charlie Lyons, the CEO of Holding Pictures; Arapahoe County Commissioner Jim Dyer and his wife, Donna; Tom Allee; artist Malcolm Farley, who spent cocktail hour completing an oil painting of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones; 9News anchor Kim Christiansen and husband Greg Feith, a former investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board; Chris Chavez, whose 9-year-old son, Will, was among the youngsters invited to go flying with Ford the morning of the gala; and Greg Anderson, the museum’s president and CEO.
Elsewhere . . .
Developer Dana Crawford was the force behind An Evening at Old Union Station, and details about the costumes, the people and the food can be found in my Seen First blog: blogs.denverpost .
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
