Physician’s Annual Bowl Event Provides Food, Fun for the In Crowd As Well As Lucky Podium for Political Candidates

Dr. Gary Gitnick, head of the digestive diseases division at UCLA Medical Center, is not the kind of guy who thinks small.

In the early 1970s, he started organizing Christmas parties for disabled children. Before you knew it, his involvement with children had evolved to the point where he founded the Fulfillment Fund, which now helps 2,000 students finish high school and go on to college.

The Super Bowl party he threw at his spacious six-bedroom Encino home followed the same route. It started 10 years ago as a way to pay back friends and acquaintances that had extended party and dinner invitations to Gitnick and his wife, Cherna, over the course of the year.

Now the party, usually attended by about 200 people, is one of the most prestigious Super Bowl parties in town. The guest list includes the heads of major film studios, talent agencies, banks and hospitals. There are big-time lawyers and politicians and even just plain folks who happen to know the Gitnicks.

“I remember last year walking in and (former Secretary of State) Warren Christopher was there, (former L.A. district attorney) Gil Garcetti was there and (actor) Brendan Fraser was there,” recalls Gerald Rosenberg, a Superior Court judge whose wife works for the Fulfillment Fund.

The Gitnicks’ party is not only a gathering of some of the most prestigious people in town, it has turned into a springboard for political candidates who speak at half time to the influential gathering.

“My understanding is that Dr. Gitnick has a history of inviting candidates to speak who have gone on to win their campaigns,” said mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, who spoke at the party last year and has been invited to do so again this year.

Indeed, the Gitnicks’ political track record is impressive. Richard Riordan was one of the first politicians to step up to the podium, so to speak, at a time when he was a relative unknown facing more than 50 competitors in the L.A. mayoral primaries.

Gil Garcetti spoke at the Super Bowl party one year and then went on to win his 1996 re-election bid for district attorney. Gray Davis was invited in 1996 and went on to become governor of California. Davis’ wife, Sharon, has been quoted as saying she knew they were in for a great campaign when Gray was invited by the Gitnicks to address the Super Bowl partygoers.

This year, the Gitnicks are spreading out their political odds by inviting four Los Angeles mayoral candidates to speak. They are Kathleen Connell, Xavier Becerra, James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa, who are competing against each other in the April primary. Mayoral candidates Steve Soboroff and Joel Wachs were invited, but won’t be attending.

The speeches will be limited to how the candidates plan to improve L.A.’s educational climate. One other rule: no campaign fund raising is allowed.

“I don’t think I got any campaign donations (last year) from the people there,” Villaraigosa said. “But I definitely walked away with people supportive of my candidacy. I was there to introduce myself and to share with them my vision for how to revitalize this city.”

Another candidate who will be attending the festivities this year is Eric Garcetti, son of the former DA. The younger Garcetti, who is running for City Council in the 13th District, knows the importance of this Super Bowl get-together. “It’s a real nice cross section of Los Angeles,” Eric said.

While the senior Garcetti won’t be attending because he will be in West Africa with his wife, working at eye clinics sponsored by the Ford Foundation, he is encouraging his son to go. “These are influential people,” he said. “Eric, I hope, will talk to people he may not know and introduce himself because he’s a new player.”

But despite all the talk of politics, there are people who attend the Super Bowl extravaganza just to have a good time, and maybe even watch some football.

It’s not a fancy party, Gil Gitnick said. The dress is casual and so is the atmosphere. “We serve hot dogs and hamburgers and no alcohol is served,” said the physician, who grew up in Omaha, Neb., and has a down-to-earth personality.

“The atmosphere is terrific,” said Manny Abascal, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office who now works for the law firm Latham & Watkins. He is on the Fulfillment Fund’s board of directors. “There is a social room where people like to socialize and keep one eye on the game. Then there is the die-hard room, which is smaller and people are focused on the game. And then there is another room where the game is on and no one is paying attention. That is usually the living room.”

Guests invited this year include Bob Goldman, chief financial officer of Creative Artists Agency; Dr. Gerald Levy, dean of the UCLA School of Medicine; News Corp. President Peter Chernin; Goldman Sachs & Co. Managing Director Willem Mesdag; former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and Wells Fargo Chief Operating Officer Les Biller. There will also be several students who have received help from the Fulfillment Fund, people who have volunteered for the fund and several UCLA doctors.

“It’s a very festive occasion,” Abascal said. “There are a lot of caring people who come because Dr. Gitnick has touched a lot of lives.”