Washington: A Gala to Remember

ALTHOUGH it will not open for performances until September, Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was christened last week with one of the most spectacular parties the capital can remember. Roaming Edward Durell Stone's $66 million marble-and-glass national cultural center were 3,750 paying guests ($100 each; $40 for those under 35). Together they constituted a gallery from Camelot and Nixonian Washington. Matriarch Rose, 80, led the Kennedys, including the Sargent Shrivers, the Stephen Smiths and Pat Kennedy Lawford. Joan Kennedy played piano with Bandleader Peter Duchin. Ethel Kennedy appeared with Singer Andy Williams. President Nixon was represented by David and Julie Eisenhower; they escorted Mamie Eisenhower, whose husband signed a bill authorizing such a center 13 years ago. The President's men mingled with their predecessors in the cavernous riverside foyer, which is longer than two football fields. As fireworks burst across the Potomac, an old Kennedy friend observed: "The embers are falling on Arlington Cemetery."

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