PEACH BUZZ: Hideaway team reunites for good cause

Johnny’s Hideaway namesake Johnny Esposito is teaming up with the iconic Atlanta nightclub’s former DJ Alan White tonight for a couple of great causes.

The longtime pals are throwing an old-fashioned record hop at the Knights of Columbus at 2620 Buford Highway N.E for members of “The Greatest Generation.” Or anybody who can dance like one. Everything from Glenn Miller to Benny Goodman to Frank Sinatra and 1950s doo wop groups will be on the turntable. The evening also is a benefit for the 77-year-old retired nightclub veteran’s favorite charity, the American Diabetes Association. It’s an ailment that is currently ravaging Esposito’s circulation and overall health.

“I’m not doin’ too good, to be honest,” Esposito told us Thursday morning during a brief phone call. “But I’m committed.” Choking up, Esposito added: “I’m doing this for folks with diabetes. I’m gonna be there if I gotta use a wheelchair.”

When we called White, 67, he was busy pulling a copy of Esposito’s signature song: Sinatra’s 1958 hit “All My Tomorrows.”

“We used to fight all the time when we worked together,” White recalled, laughing. “Johnny was always trying to push me back to the big band stuff, and I was always trying to pull him ahead.”

White recalled receiving an advance test-pressing of Madonna’s “Vogue” in the late 1980s. He pleaded with Esposito to give it a trial spin at the Hideaway.

Esposito’s response: “We’re not playing any Ma-doo-doo in my joint!”

After White explained the song was really a tribute to classic Hollywood, Esposito allowed a single spin of the Material Girl’s future hit. Patrons packed onto the Hideaway dance floor.

Recalled White: “He walked up, put a $100 bill in my tip jar and told me: ‘You can play that record any time you want. Thanks for paying attention.’ That’s Johnny. If the customers liked it, so did he.”

Johnny’s Seniors Dance, tonight from 8 to midnight. $13 cover. For info: www.djalanwhite.com.

‘Design’-ing outside the Perimeter

“Top Design” judge and Elle Decor chief Margaret Russell was spotted —- gasp! —- OTP this week, where she hosted a cocktail reception and lecture with designer friend Darryl Carter at the Thomasville furniture emporium by Perimeter Mall.

Sporting a foot brace on one leg and a fetching black pump on the other, Russell gushed that she loves Atlantans because “they ask questions.”

Russell admitted she normally plants Elle Decor employees in the audience to get a Q&A going. But here in Atlanta (even outside the Perimeter), it’s never necessary.

So will the petite home decor magnate appear in another season of “Top Design?”

“It’s up to Bravo,” she said.

And the answer is yes, her eyes are as piercing in person as they appear onscreen.

A real bridal train

We hear from our sources at Turner Field that the home of the Atlanta Braves is pinch-hitting today as a wedding chapel. That’s where train aficionado Horace Hunter, 87, plans to marry his sweetheart Camilla Jackson, 80. The Selma, Ala.-based couple is getting hitched aboard the historic rail car at the Braves Museum and Hall of Fame (ball players routinely traveled from game to game via train from the beginning of the sport until well into the 1950s, you see).

We’re told that Hunter met his bride in September 2007 at the senior living facility in Selma where they both reside. They began dating a year ago.

What convinced Jackson to go out with Hunter? Well, you younger guys may want to take some notes.

Hunter told her: “I see everything beautiful in you and what I expect of the wife I’m looking for.”

Camilla was smitten.

The couple is scheduled to honeymoon back in Selma.

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Singer Joan Baez (below) is 68. Guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin is 65. Singer Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band is 42. Singer A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys is 31. Guitarist Drew Brown of OneRepublic is 25. Singer Paolo Nutini is 22.

OVERSCENE

Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro checking into the W Atlanta Midtown and “Felicity” actor Scott Speedman shopping in the hotel’s gift shop.

“Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast member Kim Zolciak eating lunch and chain smoking at Twist at Phipps Plaza. And yes, she was sporting her trademark blond weave.

Contributing: Katie Leslie and news services

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