A cookie with caramel filling and chocolate frosting won $25,000 for a Minneapolis housewife in the 13th annual Pillsbury Bake-Off Tuesday. Mrs. Alice H. Reese, wife of an engineer and mother of a 23-year-old son, was awarded the top prize at a luncheon in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Mrs. Reese entered 10 past bake-offs before she got into the finals. Second grand prize of $5,000 went to Mrs. Clara L. Oliver for her Hawaiian coffee ring, a rich yeast bread with coconut filling and vanilla glaze. Mother of five Mrs. Oliver is mother of five children and wife of a machinist. She lives in Wellsville, Mo. Mrs. Reese baked her cookies for only the third time in the Bake-off finals. And the third time was the charm. She dreamed up the cookie recipe, tried it, liked it and entered it in the contest. The second baking was for photographing when told she was a finalist. The third time was on the floor of the Beverly Hilton ballroom and for the critical eyes and tongues of judges. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Bolker will give a dinner on Friday at their home in Beverly Hills to honor Mrs. Norman Chandler, chairman of the Music Center Building Fund Committee, and Mr. Chandler. Mr. Bolker heads a group within the building and development industry to raise funds in support of this cultural center for the performing arts. A feature of the party will be a presentation by Welton Becket, center architect, of color slides and renderings of the three-building complex. Foliage will glow at formal fall party Fall foliage and flowers will decorate Los Angeles Country Club for the annual formal party Saturday evening. More than 200 are expected at the autumn event which is matched in the spring. Among those with reservations are Messrs. and Mmes. William A. Thompson, Van Cott Niven, A. B. Cox, David Bricker, Samuel Perry and Robert D. Stetson. Others are Drs. and Mmes. Alfred Robbins, and J. Lafe Ludwig and Gen. and Mrs. Leroy Watson. Guests from across U.S. honor Dr. Swim When Dr. W. A. Swim celebrated his 75th birthday at the Wilshire Country Club, guests came by chartered plane from all over the country. A flight originating in Florida picked up guests on the East Coast and Midwest and a plane left from Seattle taking on passengers at West Coast points. Cocktails and a buffet supper were served to more than 100 persons who had known Dr. Swim when he practiced in Los Angeles. He started practice in 1917, and served on the State Board of Medical Examiners. Giving up the violin opened a whole new career for Ilona Schmidl-Seeberg, a tiny Hungarian who Fritz Kreisler had predicted would have a promising career on the concert stage. A heart attack when she was barely 20 put an end to the 10-hour daily practicing. She put the violin away and took out some linen, needles and yarn to while away the long, idle days in Budapest. Now her modern tapestries have been exhibited on two continents and, at 26, she feels she is on the threshold of a whole new life in Los Angeles. Her days as an art student at the University of Budapest came to a sudden end during the Hungarian uprisings in 1957 and she and her husband Stephen fled to Vienna. There they continued their studies at the university, she in art, he in architecture. And there she had her first showing of tapestry work. There's a lot of talk about the problem of education in America today. What most people don't seem to realize, if they aren't tied up with the thing as I am, is that 90% of the problem is transportation. I never dreamed of the logistical difficulties involved until, at long last, both of my boys got squeezed into high school. It seems like only last year that we watched them set out up the hill hand in hand on a rainy day in their yellow raincoats to finger-paint at the grammar school. Getting to and from school was no problem. They either walked or were driven. Now they go to a high school that is two miles away. One might think the problem would be similar. They could walk, ride on a bus or be driven. It's much more complex than that. Generally, they go to school with a girl named Gloriana, who lives down the block, and has a car. This is a way of getting to school, but, I understand, it entails a certain loss of social status. A young man doesn't like to be driven up in front of a school in a car driven by a girl who isn't even in a higher class than he is, and is also a girl. "Why don't you walk to school then"? I suggested. "My father walked, through two miles of snow, in Illinois". "Did you"? I was asked. "No", I said, "I didn't happen to grow up in Illinois". I explained, however, that I had my share of hardship in making my daily pilgrimage to the feet of wisdom. I had to ride a streetcar two miles. Sometimes the streetcar was late. Sometimes there weren't even any seats. I had to stand up, with the ladies. Sometimes I got on the wrong car and didn't get to school at all, but wound up at the ocean, or some other dismal place, and had to spend the day there. I've tried to compromise by letting them take the little car now and then. When they do that my wife has to drive me to work in the big car. She has to have at least one car herself. I feel a certain loss of status when I am driven up in front of work in a car driven by my wife, who is only a woman. Even that isn't satisfactory. If they have to take any car, they'd rather take the big one. They say that when they take a car, Gloriana doesn't take her car, but rides with them. But when Gloriana rides with them they also have to take the two girls who usually ride with her, so the little car isn't big enough. The logic of that is impeccable, of course, except that I feel like a fool being driven up to work in a little car, by my wife, when everybody knows I have a big car and am capable of driving myself. The solution, naturally, is the bus. However, it's a half-mile walk down a steep hill from our house to the bus, and it's too hard on my legs. My wife could drive us down the hill and we could all walk from there. But that's hardly realistic. Nobody walks anymore but crackpots and Harry Truman, and he's already got an education. Advance publicity on the Los Angeles Blue Book does not mention names dropped as did the notices for the New York Social Register which made news last week. Published annually by William Hord Richardson, the 1962 edition, subtitled Society Register of Southern California, is scheduled to arrive with Monday morning's postman. Publisher Richardson has updated the Blue Book "but it still remains the compact reference book used by so many for those ever-changing telephone numbers, addresses, other residences, club affiliations and marriages". Stars for marriage Stars throughout the volume denote dates of marriages during the past year. Last two to be added before the book went to press were the marriages of Meredith Jane Cooper, daughter of the Grant B. Coopers, to Robert Knox Worrell, and of Mary Alice Ghormley to Willard Pen Tudor. Others are Carla Ruth Craig to Dan McFarland Chandler Jr.; Joanne Curry, daughter of the Ellsworth Currys, to James Hartley Gregg, and Valerie Smith to James McAlister Duque. Also noted are the marriages of Elizabeth Browning, daughter of the George L. Brownings, to Austin C. Smith Jr.; Cynthia Flower, daughter of the Ludlow Flowers Jr., to Todd Huntington, son of the David Huntingtons. Pasadena listings Listed as newly wed in the Pasadena section of the new book are Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Moody Haskins 3. She is the former Judy Chapman, daughter of John S. Chapman of this city. The young couple live in Pasadena. Another marriage of note is that of Jane McAlester and William Louis Pfau. Changes in address are noted. For instance, the Edwin Pauleys Jr., formerly of Chantilly Rd., are now at home on North Arden Dr. in Beverly Hills. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Moulton now live on Wilshire and the Franklin Moultons on S. Windsor Blvd. The Richard Beesemyers, formerly of Connecticut, have returned to Southern California and are now residing on South Arden Blvd. But the Raoul Esnards have exchanged their residence in Southern California for Mexico City. More new addresses Judge and Mrs. Julian Hazard are now at Laguna Beach, while the Frank Wangemans have moved from Beverly Hills to New York, where he is general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. And Lawrence Chase, son of the Ransom Chases, is listed at his new address in Oxford, Eng. Others listed at new addresses are the Richard T. Olerichs, the Joseph Aderholds Jr., the Henri De La Chapelles, the John Berteros and Dr. and Mrs. Egerton Crispin, the John Armisteads, the Allen Chases, the Howard Lockies, the Thomas Lockies, and Anthony Longinotti. Newcomers of social note from other parts of the country are the Ray Carbones, formerly of Panama; the Geddes MacGregors, formerly of Scotland, and Mr. and Mrs. Werner H. Althaus, formerly of Switzerland. Here's an idea for a child's room that is easy to execute and is completely charming, using puppets for lamp bases. Most children love the animated puppet faces and their flexible bodies, and they prefer to see them as though the puppets were in action, rather than put away in boxes. Displayed as lamps, the puppets delight the children and are decorative accent. To create such a lamp, order a wired pedestal from any lamp shop. Measure the puppet to determine the height of the light socket, allowing three to four inches above the puppet's head. Make sure that the metal tube through which the wire passes is in the shape of an inverted "L", the foot of the "L" about three inches long, so that the puppet can hang directly under the light. Pulling strings Using the strings that manipulate the puppet, suspend him from the light fixture by tying the strings to the lamp base. In this way, you can arrange his legs and arms in any desired position, with feet, or one foot, barely resting on the pedestal. If the puppets are of uniform size, you can change them in accord with your child's whims. Although a straight drum shade would be adequate and sufficiently neutral that the puppets could be changed without disharmony, it is far more fun to create shades in the gay spirit of a child's playtime. Those illustrated are reminiscent of a circus top or a merry-go-round. The scalloped edge is particularly appealing. Today's trend toward furniture designs from America's past is teaching home-owners and decorators a renewed respect for the shrewd cabinetmakers of our Colonial era. A generation ago there were plenty of people who appreciated antiques and fine reproductions. In the background lurked the feeling, however, that these pieces, beautiful as they were, lacked the utilitarian touch. So junior's bedroom was usually tricked out with heavy, nondescript pieces that supposedly could take the "hard knocks", while the fine secretary was relegated to the parlor where it was for show only. This isn't true of the many homemakers of the 1960's, according to decorator consultant, Leland Alden. Housewives are finding literally hundreds of ways of getting the maximum use out of traditional designs, says Mr. Alden and they are doing it largely because Colonial craftsmen had "an innate sense of the practical". Solid investment There are a number of reasons why the Eighteenth Century designer had to develop "down to earth" designs -- or go out of business.