Loose Ends

Gorilla talk. When host Billy Crystal introduced veteran actress Fay Wray at last week's Academy Awards, no one was more excited than Priscilla Beadle of Menlo Park. Miss Wray, best remembered as the brunette King Kong held in the palm of his hand back in 1931, wore at last week's Oscars ceremony a stylish beige ensemble from the studio of designer James Reva. Around her neck was a three-strand necklace of clear Venetian glass, beads, rock crystal and pearls, made by Mrs. Beadle. Mr. Reva carries Mrs. Beadle's jewelry, which ranges in price from $100 to $300, in his Los Angeles boutique.
Mrs. Beadle has been designing and making one-of-a-kind necklaces since entering a juried show at the Hong Kong Craft guild in 1994. Her jewelry is featured locally at the Phyllis Boutique in Palo Alto.
Ever in search of the local angle, the Almanac also reports that Woodside's own Shirley Temple, famed child star of the 1930s, was among a cavalcade of past Academy Award winners to appear at the conclusion of the show.

Sylvan sanctuary. The Peninsula in the period from 1860 to 1918 was a place where wealthly people from San Francisco established large country estates and built magnificent mansions in which to play. An eight-week class at Peninsula Volunteers Little House will focus on this period when the Peninsula served as a "sylvan sanctuary and an isolated oasis for the privileged socialites of San Francisco -- until the war came," says Hava Megiddo of Little House. The class will meet for eight weeks, starting April 16, from 10 a.m. to noon at Little House, 800 Middle Ave. in Menlo Park. Call 326-2025 for more information.

Menlo College is helping victims of El Nino storms by staging a "spring cleaning festival." People are invited to bring donations of clothing and non-perishable food to the college from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, April 7, 8 and 9.

Donations will go to Samaritan House, a nonprofit organization that assists low-income people in San Mateo County by providing food, shelter, clothing, and mental and dental services. Samaritan House particularly needs men's and women's clothing as well as sleeping bags, blankets, sheets and toiletries.

Menlo College is located at 1000 El Camino Real in Atherton. For more information, call the college at 853-1860.

El Nino apparently delivered some of the most bizarre weather of the season to the Skyline Boulevard area of Woodside midday last Wednesday when sunny skies were suddenly replaced by a violent hailstorm that covered the ground with a carpet of pea-sized hailstones, accompanied by a loud clap of thunder. In the meantime, a few miles away in central Woodside, it merely rained heavily, while Redwood City and Menlo Park were sunny and dry.