Remembering the Women's Guild

6:00 AM PDT 7/24/2012 by Gary Baum

Anne Douglas, Joanna Carson, Wendy Goldberg and other members of the hospital's Women's Guild remember putting the screws to Hollywood for Cedars for their star-studded film premiere benefits. Recalls Douglas: "I would say, 'I need $10,000.' He'd say, 'You got it!' "

From 1958 to 1995, the well-connected Women's Guild of Cedars-Sinai held a black-tie, klieg-lighted film fund-raiser annually at such venues as the Egyptian, Grauman's and the Cinerama Dome, followed by a dinner-and-dancing party. Nicknamed "the fur premiere" because it typically took place in December, it was for decades the unrivaled charitable event on Hollywood's social calendar, pulling in major moolah with the debuts of everything from Funny Girl to Lawrence of Arabia. Here, members of the guild, which continues to raise millions for Cedars, tell THR all: