Celebrities and socialites united for a common cause at the Pierre for the annual “Bal du Printemps,” benefiting the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF). Stone Phillips of NBC’s Dateline presided as emcee over the black-tie gala, which included cocktails, dinner, dancing, an awards presentation, and a silent auction. (Phillips himself bid $1,800 to have lunch with Walter Cronkite at Le Perigord!)

PDF Chair Page Morton Black was unable to attend due to illness. (Her late philanthropist husband, William Black, who founded the Chock Full o’Nuts Corporation, established PDF in 1957.) Other Gala chairs included: Isobel Robins Konecky, Margo Catsimatidis, and Dr. Sandra Feagan Stern. In the throng: Morley Safer, Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford, Ruth Bowen and Billy Bryant, LeRoy Neiman, and Karen and Peter Goulandris.

John Catsimatidis, chairman and CEO of The Red Apple Group and one of the event’s three corporate co-chairs, introduced the other two: John Castle, chairman and CEO of Castle Harlan, and David Slackman, president of the New York Market, Commerce Bank. Actress and singer Kitty Carlisle Hart provided post-dinner entertainment.

During the awards ceremony, PDF’s Dr. Stanley Fahn (director of the Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Other Movement Disorders at Columbia University) honored “the Women Leaders of Parkinson’s Science”: Drs. Ann Martin Graybiel, Karen Marder, Caroline Tanner, and Anne Young. PDF Treas-urer Stephen Ackerman presented Kathy and Alan “Ace” Greenberg (chairman of the Executive Committee and director of Bear Stearns) with the first Page and William Black Humanitarian Award for their philanthropy over the past two decades.

The event was a celebration of hope … that this year’s “Bal du Printemps” was a springboard to heightened understanding and a cure for this devastating disease.