By Claudia Wallis

No one noticed that the sculpted ice donkey had melted into something more like a beagle. For the bagpipes played and the booze flowed like the Boyne, and when a group named the Irish Bogtrotters crooned Danny Boy there was hardly a dry eye in the house. The O'casion? Tip O'Neill's party at O'Neal's Baloon, a restaurant near Lincoln Center. "I've been to every Democratic party in town and they all end up in bars like Rosie O'Grady's and O'Neal's," said the jubilant Speaker of the

House while jigging through the crowd. "These are all my friends. I know everyone here." And, indeed, there was Lannigan, Flanigan, Hilligan, Milligan, Duffy and New York Mayor Ed Koch. Well, all Dem-O'crats anyway.

Who is to say which was more tempestuous: the thunder, lightning and driving rain outside, or the music, the Technicolor light show and the frenzied stomping at Regine's? Some 1,100 people crammed into the Park Avenue nightspot for a Carter-Mondale party for black delegates on the convention's opening night. The revelers managed to down 40 cases of white wine and dance until 4 a.m. to the blaring beat of Kool and the Gang. Along about 1 a.m., in trooped Teddy, 22, Eleanor, 19, and William Mondale, 18, who proved they could dance up a storm of their own. Mingling freely with the spirited crowd, the vice-presidential progeny also proved that, as one Regine staff member observed, they can make things "a bit difficult for the Secret Service."

Betty Friedan, feminist author, after the women's platform victory at the Democratic Convention: "We took on the Establishment, and we made them say 'aunt.' "

Knockdown, drag-out affairs in Madison Square Garden are nothing new to one Carter supporter and unofficial Kentucky delegate. So while the convention droned on, former Heavyweight Champion Muhammad All was working the floor--signing autographs and pressing flesh. "I don't know nothing about politics," said the Greatest, with uncharacteristic modesty. He did, however, sport an ERA YES button, as well as a natty new mustache. Asked if he were sparring for a career in office, Ali replied: "The only thing I'd ever run for is President."

A gentleman who stooped to kiss the hand of Phyllis George Brown got a swift kick from behind and a lesson in Georgian etiquette. "You shouldn't kiss a married lady. She's married to the Governor of Kentucky," scolded Miss Lillian Carter. Thereafter, the President's mother stood close by fair Phyllis at a party hosted by the Browns aboard Publisher Malcolm Forbes' yacht. "I felt like my mother was there," giggled Phyllis. Among the weighty matters the two discussed were food and dieting. "We're shrimping it," said Phyllis, as she daintily split a plate of six prawns with Jimmy Carter's mother. There was no such forbearance when she remembered Lillian's 82nd birthday a few days later. Phyllis delivered a picture of Baby Lincoln George-Tyler Brown, born in June; a Steuben glass apple; and some of those irresistible chocolate-covered Kentucky bourbon balls.

Fritz Mondale, asked what changes he would like to see in the office of the Vice President: "I'd like a bathroom. Brzezinski has one."

Her father may like to dress his women in brief bunny suits with cute cottontails, but that does not make Christie Hefner, 27, a hare less rabid on the subject of women's rights. Hefner, a vice president of dad's Playboy Enterprises, says she came to the convention from Chicago as an alternate Carter delegate "to lobby for the minority platform on abortion and try to make a difference on women's issues." That is exactly what she did, dawn to dusk and gavel to gavel, while many another delegate was hopping around town. "People who don't know me thought I was here to play," she said, "but I came out of a sense of commitment." Only when it was over did Christie finally cut loose--at Xenon with Presidential Pollster Patrick Caddell, who was squiring his feminist friend. Said she: "We're just good friends." Said he: "We're political allies."

William Styron, novelist, on political conventions: "I don't like all those people in funny hats, and I don't like the cocktail parties, and I don't like people from places I never heard of. Like South Dakota."

When Ted Kennedy wanted a hot warmup act for his appearance at a pre-convention fund raiser, he whistled for Lauren Bacall. He got fireworks. As host of "Broadway for Kennedy" at the Shubert Theater, Bacall sauntered onstage to cheers and let loose some sizzlers: "They tell us that the convention is all sewed up, but these are the same people who told us that Gerald Ford would be Ronald Reagan's Vice President and that Chrysler stock is a good buy. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that should be sewed up is Brother Billy's mouth." That was just for starters. "Now, I'm a member of the acting profession," Bacall continued, "and if Ronald Reagan is no better at being President than he was at acting ... Well, as a producer I know says, 'No, no! Jimmy Stewart for President. Ronald Reagan for Vice President!' " Kennedy then stepped out and admonished his fervid supporter: "Betty, I just wish you wouldn't be so mealymouthed about coming out and saying what you think."

Edmund G. Brown, former California Governor, on the political future of his son: "We're not concerned about Jerry. He'll be younger than Ronald Reagan is today in the year 2004."

Walter and Barbara and Dan and John were all televisibly on the scene. But where, wondered fans of NBC's Saturday Night Live, was that mistress of digression, Rosanne Rosanna-Dana? "Rosanne won't be covering the convention this year, perhaps in '84," said Gilda Radner at a fund raiser for Manhattan Democratic Congressional Candidate Mark Green. As soon as she popped out of the elevator atop the Empire State Building, she was set upon by a swarm of would-be Woodsteins under age 14 reporting for Children's Express. Well, as Rosanne might have known, it's always something.

"I left New York feeling very sad," says Actress Shelley Winters, who came to Madison Square Garden as a guest of the California delegation. "After the vote on whether to open the convention, I felt that it was a script I had read before. The whole thing seemed scenarioed and choreographed." The disappointed Kennedy fan said she voted for Carter in 1976, but may not do it again. "This may be the first time since I was 21 that I won't vote," she lamented. What about fellow Hollywood Veter an Ronald Reagan? Said Shelley: "I met him during a screen test in 1945, and I seem to remember seeing a couple of gray hairs in his sideburns. He seemed old back then, but now his hair has gotten blacker, and he's gotten younger."

With reporting by Melissa Ludtke Lincoln

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