Olivia At Derby Eve Party - Courier Journal

Photo caption: Gov. Martha Layne Collins and actress-singer Olivia Newton-John were seated together at the Maddens' after arriving late in the evening.

LEXINGTON - It is the stuff of which legends are made: the Derby Eve parties of Marylou and C. V. Sonny Whitney and Anita and Preston Madden, Lexington horse families who have made party giving an art.

At the Whitneys', you have splendor in the Blue-grass. At the Maddens' it is well, wild and crazy. ...

The Whitneys stood in a receiving line Friday night to greet their 150 guests. Also in the line were such celebrities as actresses Hope Lange and Arlene Francis.

The tent on the Whitney farm was decorated with baskets of impatiens, ostrich plumes and pastel colored tulle made into streamers and fans. Bigger-than-life-sized swans made of chrysanthe mums were floating in the pool. The Lester Lanin Orchestra played '30s and '40s hits, and two palm readers told fortunes.

I wish I had a camera, Miss Francis said as a half-dozen photographers snapped her picture while former Kentucky Gov. A. B. Happy Chandler and his wife strolled through the receiving line. I would love to take photos of all of this. It's lovely.

Miss Lange, too, was impressed. I'm absolutely thrilled, just overwhelmed with the beauty, she said.

Miss Francis and Miss Lange got to meet many of the Bluegrass horse set, including Juliette Trapp, the Nelson Bunker Hunts, the John Bells, the John Gaineses, the Charles Paysons (he wore a dinner jacket with Payson printed all over it).

Shortly after 10 p.m., Gov. Martha Layne Collins, husband Dr. Bill Collins and singer-actress Olivia Newton-John arrived while guests were finishing their main course. Mr. and Mrs. Whitney left their table to greet the latecomers, who arrived by helicopter.

Mrs. Whitney who earlier had worried about the lack of sunshine, rain-soaked carpets and guests bumping into propane heaters was all smiles and giggles, threading the governor and Miss Newton-John through the tables as if she were showing off a prize.

You are so marvelous to come, Mrs. Whitney said to the latecomers, who included the governor's daughter, Marla, and son, Steve. Everybody's waiting.

It was a different sort of elegance watching Mrs. Madden squeeze through the tables of 1,400 guests in a mammoth tent decorated with an eclectic mix of Marx brothers motif and an exhibit of diamond jewelry.

At the Maddens', there were the Pretty Young Things in risque outfits cut up to here and down to there, break dancers and one young man dressed as the androgynous rock star, Boy George. Partygoers danced to pop, disco and '50s rock. The sound level was deafening.

Groupies encircled actors Dennis Cole, Chuck Norris and Jim Varney, who in person is handsome and silky voiced, a striking contrast to the goofy character Ernest that he plays in the Convenient Food Mart commercials.

This is my first year here, Varney said. It's rather large, isn't it? I think everybody is here. Well, no, Gandhi isn't here.

Security guards kept the crowds from swallowing Miss Newton-John and the governor's party, who arrived before midnight. I've never seen so many parties like this, the singer-actress said.

As Mrs. Madden edged her way through the crush, many well-wishers embraced and kissed her for the first time since her April 20 acquittal on a charge of conspiring to leak secret testimony of a federal grand jury. I am terribly disturbed by that charge, she said.

But just as she survives her parties, she survived that ordeal. I feel great tonight, she said. It's so nice to still have friends. Someone who's not a good firm friend couldn't make it through a thing like that.

Or through her parties, which last well into the wee hours. I'm just trying to survive here, said one woman, trying to make it through the surge from the dance floor back to her table.

By Marie Bradby