first serve: november-december 2004

Michael Caulfield, getty images

It’s an exquisite night and the “beautiful people” are out in force. Tanned and beaming, their casual chic threads amply displayed, Orange County’s more-than-accomplished men and women have gathered at the exclusive Pelican Hills Golf Club just below Costa Mesa and above the Pacific.

And as the ocean sky meekly vanishes, offering its final shadings, they cluster by a party tent to sip Chardonnay and munch on delicate hors d’oeuvres as they chat and schmooze with effortless delight. The place exudes a jolly buzz. Life is good in these affluent states as the ensemble anticipates a private concert by Elton John to benefit his AIDS foundation, the kick-off event for World Team Tennis’ two-day Smash Hits event.

But just an hour later (between the subtle pear salad and the succulent lamb) the night will take a curious turn and venture to a land of disease and misery far from mall or merriment.

At the podium a familiar face, Billie Jean King, instructs us to stop munching and view the screen, which will tell a story — not of Nieman Marcus affluence or (“Thank God, quarterly gains are up again”) bounty — but a harrowing tale of two South African kids trying to make a morning fire by their hut. Eight and ten, Swey and Mbale have just lost their mother to AIDS, and now their father, too, lies motionless. Racked with pain, the hapless man is unable to combat either the devastating virus raging within him or the consuming terror that streams from the eyes of his angelic kids. Lost in their ocean of despair, they tremble then weep at the prospect of trying to survive on the unsparing African veldt without both of their parents.

Reflecting on the video, young Andy Roddick is poignant: “It’s amazing. It touches you. Selfishly, it made me think how lucky I am. It definitely struck home.” Sadly, Swey and Mbale are hardly obscure exceptions. Rather, they are just two victims of a still not that visible epidemic that, more than ever, ravages the planet. First dismissed as merely a gay catastrophe, then a disease of injection drug users, HIV/AIDS is now a disease of poverty that impacts many heterosexuals and far too many kids. In America infection rates are again on the rise and internationally the stats are staggering:

All these figures may seem a bit of a blur. But not to Billie Jean, who ruefully recalls her friend Arthur Ashe, who, like her, was born in ‘43 and went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open before becoming a tireless pioneer. “My connection with AIDS is because of Arthur [who succumbed in ‘93]. I’ll never forget — he took his cocktail of pills every day. But it was futile. He just deteriorated. To see the quality of his life slip...was awful. We just watched him wither away.”

Since then, tennis has repeatedly stepped up in the AIDS fight and this night is no different. After all, by now the deep-pockets crowd is touched. Full of empathy, the high rollers spring into action to bid on many a curious live-auction item.

Lunch with Billie Jean and Anna Kournikova? That’ll be $16,000. What about a lesson with Roddick? Two bids roll in for $20,000 each! Or would you prefer a private dinner with Elton John at one of his pads (in Venice, Nice, the London townhouse, the English country estate, or plain ol’ Atlanta)? Amazingly, there is so much sizzle on this one that even Sir Elton chimes in to bid, which prompts the auctioneer to quip, “Elton just bid $80,000 to go to dinner with himself.”

Michael Caulfield

After the laughs, Sir Elton (who, yes, like Jagger and McCartney, is a lord of the English realm) reports that the anti-AIDS campaign sometimes gets shadowed these days by Iraq. But sadly, the disease is more out of control than ever. When asked about America’s approach to the crisis (which some assert is way under-funded and favors hand-picked countries), Sir Elton contends that “all affluent countries are falling far short when it comes to stepping up to engage this battle. We just live in troubled times. I wish the world was a better place, but it isn’t. We have so much more work to do throughout the world. We must give people hope.”

Despite all, in the end the iconic rocker is upbeat. “Along with terrible failures,” he reflects, “there are tales of bravery, acts of courage and recovery. Ordinary people are doing extraordinary things, even when governments are paralyzed.”

And on a balmy mid-autumn evening, amidst heady affluence, a venerable rock legend joins tennis’ singular pioneer, her sport and a cadre of not-so-ordinary people to step up and raise over $1 million to help parentless kids in dusty South Africa, incarcerated women in shadowy cells and AIDS initiatives from inner-city Atlanta to rural China. Arthur Ashe, the first athlete to bravely combat the AIDS pandemic, would have been pleased.

So were we.

To help in the battle contact ejAIDSf@aol.com or (310) 535-1775.

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