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November 10,1993
MEMORANDUM FOR CAPRICIA MARSHALL
FROM:
Kim
SUBJECT:
Kennedy Center Honors
"The Kennedy Center Honors", originated in 1978, is almost universally considered to
be one of most prestigious programs on television. The awards are made to
performing artists on the basis of life time contributions to the and American culture.
The first year honorees were Richard Rodgers, George Balanchine, Marian Anderson,
Arthur Rubenstein and Fred Astaire.
The event raises both money for the Kennedy Center and its profile as it celebrates
American artistry. CBS (the only network to ever air this event) pays the Center a
license fee to televise the program one time. The network then tries to recoups its
outlay through advertisers (I believe AT&T was initially a big underwriter, but
General Motors has been the program's major sponsor for the past ten years.) The
stars work for union minimum. After all the bills are paid, the leftover goes to the
Center.
The honorees selection process begins with an "artists committee" of famed
performing artists who make recommendations. A smaller committee then pares
down the list and the final selections are voted on by the Kennedy Center Board of
Trustees.
The gala (as reported by the media), begins with a reception at the White House.
The program at the Kennedy Center usually opens with the voice of John F.
Kennedy. The artists are seated in the Presidential box, each wearing his or her
medal. Each artist is given a separate tribune that includes a biographical film and
special performing material. I believe there is also a dinner-dance afterward, usually
held in the Kennedy Center foyer.
As mentioned previously, it appears there is a reception at the White House
preceding the Kennedy Center event at which the President makes remarks. (If the
First Lady speaks, it's not reported.). The focus for the media, however, appears to
be on the artists. While the articles did refer to the presence of the President and the
First Lady, the mention was more as a statement of the event's prestigiousness and
less on what they did or said. (The one exception was in '88 when President-elect
Bush made a surprise appearance on stage in tribute to out-going President Reagan.)
CLOTHING: Black tie. (I know, this doesn't answer your question of long or short
black tie.) Everyone follows this rule - except for Katherine Hepburn who wore
black trousers and black Reeboks.
Copyright 1992 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday
December 29, 1992, Tuesday, ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: PART II; Pg. 39
LENGTH: 458 words
HEADLINE: TV SPOTS
BYLINE: By Ben Kubasik. STAFF WRITER
BODY:
More, More 'Long Island Lolita'
File this under, say, dubious public service: Cable's USA
Network, in an unusual, quickie deal, will show CBS' "Casualties
of Love: The 'Long Island Lolita' Story" two more times within a
week of the CBS airing. CBS will premiere the film Sunday,
opposite ABC's "The Amy Fisher Story"; USA's showings of the
CBS-Amy Fisher movie are scheduled for Jan. 7 (9 p.m.) and Jan.
10 (2 p.m.). USA program vice president Neil Hoffman said he
obtained the film quickly because CBS had bought a one-time-only
showing from Columbia Pictures TV instead of the usual two
airings over two-to-four years. Hoffmann said he wanted the film
now because of widespread interest in the Fisher case.
, Kennedy Center' Versions
Producers George Stevens Jr. and Don Mischer have made two
versions of CBS' 15th annual " Kennedy Center Honors: A
Celebration of the Performing Arts." One is what the network is
ready to air tomorrow night at 9; the other is locked in a Los
Angeles vault. The latter could still be shown, Mischer said
yesterday, if Fred Astaire's widow, Robyn, ended demands to be
paid if film or still photos are used of her husband dancing with
Ginger Rogers, one of this year's honorees. "Something like this
has never happened before," said Mischer. "Film studios, rights
holders, and performers have always waived their rights so the
honors program could go on. The show every year would not be
possible without volunteers. Performers return their scale
payments to Kennedy Center. " Audiences at the actual
performance in Washington on Dec. 6 did see Rogers-Astaire film
and photos, but Astaire was removed from the broadcast version
after Robyn Astaire's demands. There's some question about
whether Robyn Astaire has any legal claim to the Astaire
materials, but Kennedy Center lawyers apparently are unwilling
to let the version with Astaire be shown without her OK. Other
honorees on TV's classiest annual event are jazz artist Lionel
Hampton, actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward,
cellist-conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and choreographer Paul
Taylor.
Lowdown on J. Edgar
"The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover" on PBS' "Frontline" (Feb.
9) promises to dissect the late FBI director's private life and
show how the master of political blackmail was vulnerable to
blackmail himself. The hour, its producers say, includes evidence
of the underworld's knowledge about Hoover's sex life, including
details of a homosexual relationship.
Jackie's Sour Grapes
Tonight's "Jackie Thomas Show" episode on ABC finds
temperamental new TV star Jackie as a guest on "The Arsenio Hall
Show" in a segment filmed on Hall's set. Tom Arnold's Jackie uses
the occasion to complain about his writers.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1992 Daily Variety Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
Daily Variety
December 29, 1992 Tuesday
SECTION: REVIEW
LENGTH: 740 words
HEADLINE: The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the
Performing Arts (Wed. (30), 9-11 p.m., CBS)
BYLINE: Todd Everett
BODY:
A production of the Kennedy Center, taped at the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Producers, George Stevens Jr., Don Mischer; associate producer,
Michael B. Seligman; director, William N. Cosel; writers, Bob
Shrum, Stevens Jr., Sara Lukinson, John Ellard Frook; musical
director, Nick Perito; lighting director, Bill Klages; editor,
Mike Weitzman; production designer, Bob Keene.
Host: Walter Cronkite.
Honorees: Lionel Hampton, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ginger
Rogers, Mstislav Rostropovich, Paul Taylor.
With: cast of "Crazy for You," Sally Field, Robert Redford,
the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Betty Comden, Paul Taylor Dance
Company, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, Milt Jackson, Golden
Men of Jazz, Gary Burton, Howard U. Jazz Ensemble, Pierre
Dulaine, Yvonne Marceau, American Ballroom Theater, Ann Reinking,
Jacques D'Amboise, Edward Villella, Cynthia Gregson, Cyd
Charisse, Maria Tallchief, Fayad & Harold Nicholas, Gregory Peck,
Yo Yo Ma, Massed Celli, Choral Arts Society of Washington,
Watkins Mills Elementary School Choir.
Nominally a celebration of artistry, this year's edition of
the Kennedy Center Honors became more newsworthy for the
absence of film clips of this year's honoree Ginger Rogers
dancing with longtime partner (and previous honoree) Fred
Astaire--the late dancer's estate wouldn't grant gratis usage of
footage it controlled. Sometimes you get the idea that
behind-the-scene politics of these events would make for more
involving TV fare than the awards themselves.
Fifteenth edition of annual Kennedy Center event is the 10th
under sponsorship of General Motors, which deserves a hand for
the support of a classy, entertaining show as CBS's annual
toe-dip into culture.
Add a juggler or a puppet Italian mouse, and show could have
been an "Ed Sullivan Show" rerun.
While the absence of the Astaire clips is notable, it gave the
producers the opportunity to spotlight Rogers' work in such films
as "Gold Diggers of 1933, ""Stage Door" and "Kitty Foyle."
Cast of current Broadway show "Crazy for You" perform "I Got
Rhythm,' featuring Susan Stroman's dazzling choreography; and
"Embraceable You, with Jodi Benson singing the number that
Rogers introduced in show's original form, 1930's "Girl Crazy."
Dancers Pierre Dulaine and Yvonne Marceau join members of
American Ballroom Theater dance troupe for pair of Gershwin
songs, "Cheek to Cheek" and "I Won't Dance" that presumably are
intended as a substitute for missing Rogers-Astaire footage;
segment is capped by line of noted dancers and choreographers,
including Ann Reinking, Edward Villella and two surviving
Nicholas Brothers.
Remainder of show balances artistic and commercial concerns,
with obvious ratings-grabbing names Sally Field, Aretha Franklin
and Robert Redford having at least some connection with the
performers they honored, though Tom Selleck could only admit to
being a fan of Rogers.
A little more time could have been spent explaining exactly
why jazzman Lionel Hampton and choreographer Paul Taylor merit
their awards; reasons given here are at best sketchy. And would
Woodward or Newman be more or less meritorious without the other?
Taylor, whose experimental, modernistic choreography is
performed by several international companies including his own,
is represented by excerpts from "Company B," his interpretation
of several songs popularized by the Andrews Sisters.
In addition to watching clips from many of their films, Newman
and Woodward are serenaded by members of the Hole in the Wall
Gang Camp, a facility for youngsters with life-threatening
illnesses.
Most interesting bio may be that of cellist Rostropovitch,
declared a "nonperson" by Communist government of his native
Soviet Union before emigrating to the U.S.
Classical musician's segment is reserved for the show's end,
with performances by cellist Yo Yo Ma, Washington (D.C.) Choral
Arts Society and an ensemble of 79 cellists.
Hampton segment consists of vibist Milt Jackson soloing on his
own "Bags' Groove," Gary Burton on old Benny Goodman Quartet
number "Seven Come Eleven," and Burton with Howard University
Jazz Band on Hampton's signature "Flyin' Home."
The members of "Golden Men of Jazz,' " who play during Hampton
segment but are never into'd, are pianist Junior Mance, bassist
Arvell Shaw, trombonist Al Gray, trumpeters Harry "Sweets" Edison
and Andrew McGhee and drummer Bobby Durham.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE-MDC: December 28, 1992
Copyright 1991 The Houston Chronicle Publishing
Company
The Houston Chronicle
December 26, 1991, Thursday, 2 STAR Edition
SECTION: HOUSTON; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 685 words
HEADLINE: CBS' " Kennedy Center Honors' recognizes artistic
excellence
BYLINE: GREG DAWSON; Orlando Sentinel
BODY:
CBS helps the television year go out on a lovely note --
several, in fact -- as it airs ""The Kennedy Center Honors: A
Celebration of the Performing Arts'' tonight. The show will air
at 8 p.m. on Channel 11.
This is the 14th renewal of an event that helps reorient us
toward that which is truly meritorious and sublime.
For two glorious but all-too-fleeting hours we bask not only
in artistic excellence, but also in the needed reassurance that
excellence is sometimes still rewarded in America, even if it's
never featured on the cover of People magazine.
Of the seven honorees tonight, it's likely that most viewers
could readily identify only two -- country music legend Roy Acuff
and actor Gregory Peck.
Broadway musical writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, tap
dancers Fayard and Harold Nicholas, even choral conductor Robert
Shaw, are names that belong in any book of cultural literacy but
probably would draw blanks from most viewers.
One reason, of course, is that we've been watching too much
TV, which has had little use for the sorts of entertainment
represented by those names, at least since ""The Ed Sullivan
Show'' went off the air.
"" Kennedy Center Honors'' has become television's sole
conservator and showcase for artistry that might otherwise vanish
from our collective consciousness. Plus, it's always a great
show, supremely entertaining and unabashedly schmaltzy as
show-biz friends and proteges honor the honorees with inspired
performances.
"" Kennedy Center Honors'' always leads the league in blown
kisses, to and from the balcony (even besting the Miss America
pageant), and in some years it leads in tears. This year's group
proves more stoic, but the occasion is no less moving.
My favorite moment is violinist Isaac Stern's lyrical
rendition of ""Danny Boy'' in tribute to Peck, whose roots are
Irish. Peck remains dry-eyed throughout, but when the camera
zooms in at the end, there's a clenching of the jaw, a pursing of
lips, a glistening of the eyes.
Gregory Hines and six other contemporary tap masters salute
the Nicholas brothers with a dazzling ensemble number. The
tribute to Acuff, who needs help standing to acknowledge the
hurrahs, features Emmylou Harris, Bill Monroe and Chet Atkins.
A startlingly aged Gene Kelly poignantly salutes Comden and
Green for the screenplay that made him immortal, at least in
reruns.
""Because of you, he says, ""somewhere tonight, on some
screen, I'm just singin', singin' in the rain. With unfailing
showmanship, the producers save the Shaw tribute for last.
Soprano Sylvia McNair performs ""All the Things You Are'', by
Jerome Kern, and in the balcony Shaw seems transfixed, almost as
if he were breathing with McNair.
The grand finale, though, is the ""Hallelujah" chorus from
Handel's ""Messiah", performed by a quartet of choral groups
including the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club and the Morehouse
College Glee Club, with which Shaw works closely in Atlanta.
The apple-cheeked Shaw can barely contain himself, his head
bobbing joyously, a man transported by beauty, as Handel's
majesty rises up from the stage to meet him.
Finally, this celebration is a welcome opportunity to hear the
Kennedy name invoked without ""assassination'" or ""rape" in the
same sentence. The night begins with Kennedy's voice, preserved
in all its audacious, pristine idealism.
""I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of
grace and beauty. I look forward to an America which will reward
achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or
statecraft. And I look forward to an America which commands
respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for
its civilization, as well.
""And I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed
over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or
defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the
human spirit. A tumultuous generation later, that no longer
feels like a certainty. But for two exultant hours tonight, ""
Kennedy Center Honors'' reminds us why it's not an
impossibility, either.
Copyright 1991 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
December 26, 1991, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
Correction Appended
SECTION: Section D; Page 18; Column 3; Cultural Desk; Word and
Image Page
LENGTH: 491 words
HEADLINE: Review/Television;
A Big Round of Applause at the Kennedy Center
BYLINE: By STEPHEN HOLDEN
BODY:
Those occasions when show business and official Washington rub
shoulders for the world to see are not all that common. But when
they do occur, as at the Kennedy Center's annual televised gala
honoring the lifetime achievements of American artists, show
business tends to turn pompous, while official Washington becomes
folksy. And in "The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the
Performing Arts, a two-hour special that airs tonight at 9 on
CBS, the blend of oratory and corn is thoroughly engaging, if a
bit overblown.
Taped on Dec. 8 in the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, with George and
Barbara Bush in attendance, this year's gala honors the musical
comedy writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the fraternal
tap-dancing team of Fayard and Harold Nicholas, the country music
giant Roy Acuff, the actor Gregory Peck and the conductor Robert
Shaw.
Produced by George Stevens Jr. and Don Mischer, directed by
William N. Coseland with Walter Cronkite as host, the show
follows the same general formula in sketching out the life and
achievements of each person honored. A formal tribute by famous
friends and admirers is followed by a well-selected montage of
biographical film clips. Each segment ends with a lavish
production number.
In honor of Comden and Green, Patti LuPone and Howard McGillin
sing an elaborate medley of their Broadway lyrics. For the
Nicholas Brothers, Gregory Hines leads a convocation of tap
dancers they influenced. Mr. Acuff is saluted by a host of
country music luminaries, including Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris
and Bill Monroe, who perform songs associated with him. Mr.
Peck's Irish ancestry is remembered in a performance of "The
Londonderry Air" by the violinist Isaac Stern. And several large
vocal ensembles converge to sing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" in
honor of Mr. Shaw.
The show's most iconoclastic moment, also part of the Shaw
tribute, is a vigorous performance by the Morehouse College Glee
Club of a Nigerian Christmas song, "Betelehemu." The evening's
high point in terms of sheer razzle-dazzle is the performance by
a grinning Keith Carradine and the
red-white-and-blue-outfitted chorus of "Our Favorite Son," the
knee-slapping choreographic centerpiece of Comden and Green's hit
Broadway show, "The Will Rogers Follies."
Both in its selection of honorees and in the opulent,
happy-go-lucky style of its production numbers, "The Kennedy
Center Honors" implies a great deal about official cultural
values in the George Bush era. Only one of the seven artists, Mr.
Shaw, comes from the world of high art. The others represent the
thoroughly commercial worlds of Broadway, the movies and country
music. In every case, the entertainment offered is vigorous,
hearty and extroverted. Echoes of the jingoistic praise that Mr.
Cronkite lavishes on Mr. Peck -- that he's an "American's
American" -- reverberate throughout the show.
CORRECTION-DATE: December 27, 1991, Friday
CORRECTION:
A caption yesterday with a picture by The Associated Press,
about the telecast of "The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration
of the Performing Arts," misidentified the man at the center in
the back row. He was George Stevens Jr., who produced the
program, not James D. Wolfensohn, chairman of the Kennedy
Center.
GRAPHIC: Photo: James D. Wolfenson, back row center, chairman of
the Kennedy Center, with this year's Kennedy Center
honorees. With him were, back row from left, Gregory Peck, Betty
Comden, Adolph Green and Robert Shaw. Front row, from the left:
Harold Nicholas, Fayard Nicholas and Roy Acuff. (Associated
Press)
TYPE: Review
SUBJECT: TELEVISION; REVIEWS
NAME: HOLDEN, STEPHEN
TITLE: KENNEDY CENTER HONORS: A CELEBRATION OF THE PERFORMING
ARTS
Copyright 1991 Sentinel Communications Co.
Orlando Sentinel Tribune
December 26, 1991 Thursday, 3 STAR
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. D1
LENGTH: 693 words
HEADLINE: , KENNEDY CENTER HONORS' IS SUBLIME ENTERTAINMENT
BYLINE: By Greg Dawson, Sentinel Television Critic
KEYWORD: TELEVISION REVIEW
BODY:
CBS helps the television year go out on a lovely note -
several, in fact - as it airs The Kennedy Center Honors: A
Celebration of the Performing Arts (9 to 11 tonight, WCPX-Channel
6).
This is the 14th renewal of an event that, coming on the heels
of a season when Merry Christmas often meant Meretricious, helps
reorient us toward that which is truly meritorious and sublime.
For two glorious but all-too-fleeting hours we bask not only
in artistic excellence, but in the needed reassurance that
excellence sometimes is still rewarded in America, even if it's
never featured on the cover of People magazine.
Of the seven honorees tonight, it's likely that most viewers
could readily identify only two - country music legend Roy Acuff
and actor Gregory Peck.
Broadway musical writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, tap
dancers Fayard and Harold Nicholas, even choral conductor Robert
Shaw, are names that belong in any book of cultural literacy but
probably would draw blanks from most viewers.
One reason, of course, is that we've been watching too much
TV, which has had little use for the sorts of entertainment
represented by those names, at least since The Ed Sullivan Show
went off the air.
Kennedy Center Honors has become television's sole
conservator and showcasefor artistry that might otherwise vanish
from our collective consciousness.
Plus, it's always a great show, supremely entertaining and
unabashedly schmaltzy as showbiz friends and proteges honor the
honorees with inspired performances.
Kennedy Center Honors always leads the league in blown
kisses, to and fromthe balcony (even besting the Miss America
pageant), and in some years it leads in tears. This year's group
proves more stoic, but the occasion is no less moving.
My favorite moment is violinist Isaac Stern's lyrical
rendition of Danny Boy in tribute to Peck, whose roots are Irish.
Peck remains dry-eyed throughout, but when the camera zooms in at
the end there's a clenching of the jaw, a pursing of lips, a
glistening of the eyes.
Gregory Hines and six other contemporary tap masters salute
the Nicholas brothers with a dazzling ensemble number. The
tribute to Acuff, who needs help standing to acknowledge the
hurrahs, features Emmylou Harris, Bill Monroe and Chet Atkins.
A startlingly aged Gene Kelly poignantly salutes Comden and
Green for the screenplay that made him immortal, at least in
reruns.
"Because of you, he says, "somewhere tonight, on some screen,
I'm just singin', singin' in the rain."
With unfailing showmanship, the producers save the Shaw
tribute for last. Soprano Sylvia McNair performs "All the Things
You Are, by Jerome Kern, and in the balcony Shaw seems
transfixed, almost as if he were breathing with McNair.
The grand finale, though, is the "Hallelujah" chorus from
Handel's Messiah, performed by a quartet of choral groups
including the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club and the Morehouse
College Glee Club, with which Shaw works closely in Atlanta.
The apple-cheeked Shaw can barely contain himself, his head
bobbing joyously, a man transported by beauty, as Handel's
majesty rises up from the stage to meet him.
Finally, this celebration is a welcome opportunity to hear the
Kennedy name invoked without "assassination" or "rape" in the
same sentence. The night begins with Kennedy's voice, preserved
in all its audacious, pristine idealism.
"I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of
grace and beauty. I look forward to an America which will reward
achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or
statecraft. And I look forward to an America which commands
respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for
its civilization as well.
"And I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed
over our cities, we too will be remembered not for victories or
defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the
human spirit."
A tumultuous generation later, with American society in
rudderless ferment, that no longer feels like a certainty. But
for two exultant hours tonight, Kennedy Center Honors reminds
us why it's not an impossibility, either.
TYPE: REVIEW
COLUMN: TELEVISION
Copyright 1990 The Christian Science Publishing
Society
The Christian Science Monitor
December 27, 1990, Thursday
SECTION: MEDIA; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 273 words
HEADLINE: WORTH NOTING ON TV
BYLINE: Alan Bunce
BODY:
FRIDAY
Kennedy Center Honors (CBS, 9-11 p.m.) : A wonderful event,
for all its hotair and pomposity, because it salutes people in
the performing arts who richly deserve the dignity and visibility
provided by the special setting. This year's tributes - hosted by
Walter Cronkite - go to Dizzy Gillespie, Katharine Hepburn, Rise
Stevens, Jule Styne, and Billy Wilder.
TUESDAY
From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration (PBS, 2:30-4 p.m.) :
This live show - musically and visually dazzling - is being aired
for the seventh time in the US and will likely to be seen by some
750 million people worldwide. Claudio Abbado leads the Vienna
Philharmonic in the Golden Hall of that city's historic
Musikverein - and host Walter Cronkite guides viewers on a trip
through Prague.
WEDNESDAY
Talking With David Frost (PBS, 8-9 p.m.) : The first of six
monthly shows - conducted by one of the medium's most thoughtful
and expansive interviewers - is a conversation between Frost and
President and Mrs. Bush at the midpoint of his term. But also get
ready for later guests as varied as Robin Williams and former
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Carnegie Hall at 100: A Place of Dreams (PBS, 9-10 p.m.) :
'Practice, practice, as the old joke explains, is how you get
there. And artists have been doing so ever since the acoustically
superb auditorium opened in 1891. To trace its fascinating
history, this salute taps rare footage of the greats and offers
reminiscent comments by a fascinating spectrum of artists like
Ray Charles and the late Leonard Bernstein.
Please check local listings for all programs, especially on
PBS.
Copyright 1990 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
December 26, 1990, Wednesday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 24; ZONE: C; OVERNIGHT/YEAREND. East coast
notes
LENGTH: 1372 words
HEADLINE: Social scene finds a new consciousness
BYLINE: By Lisa Anderson and Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: NEW YORK
BODY:
It was the best of times and the worst of times for the East
Coast social whirl this year - best as in Barbara Bush, Shelby
Foote and Katharine Hepburn; worst as in the Trumps, society
groupies like author Dominick Dunne and, yes, even Princess
Diana.
The glitzy junk-bond aristocracy that thought itself the
marvel of the public eye during the Reagan era found that, in
1990, the public didn't much care which of them went to whose
party wearing what. In fact, America seemed to be wishing that
they would just go away (as, thanks to federal prosecutors, a
number of them did). That's not to say the East Coast was bereft
of merry-making this year. It was just that the merriment tended
to take place on a smaller, more discreet scale.
Indeed, the most celebrated and satisfying social occasions
this year involved meaningful things like architecture,
literature, art, music, theater and international understanding.
They celebrated people who do, not simply people who have.
Consider Prince Charles, who has become a one-man royal
crusade against the ugliness of modern architecture and the
champion of preservation of the beauty of the old. Not content
with cutting ribbons and bestowing royal nods and waves in
parades, the heir to the British throne brought his concerns to
the United States and gave full, withering voice to them at a
gala black-tie dinner held by the American Institute of
Architects at Washington's beautiful old National Building
Museum. If stung by the criticism in his after-dinner remarks,
his audience was charmed by his delivery and by his praise of
modern American architects whose works manage to enhance rather
than despoil their surroundings.
One of the very nicest events of the year was the warm, cozy
and very literary reception given at Washington's Folger
Shakespeare Library that same month in honor of novelist E.L.
Doctorow's winning the Pen/Faulkner Award for fiction. The
genial, gentle author of gangster epic "Billy Bathgate" rejoiced
over playwright Vaclav Havel's becoming president of
Czechoslovakia and suggested that writers could do as good a job
of running the government as congressmen. He might have added
that Congress took as long in reaching agreement on steps to end
the budget crisis as most authors do in writing a book.
First Lady Barbara Bush had a warm, cozy literary evening of
her own in New York's venerable, velvet-draped Pierpont Morgan
Library in September. One should perhaps say it was a literary
evening of First Dog Millie's, because the occasion was the book
party for the best-selling White House memoir "Millie's Book" -
which Mrs. Bush insists was only dictated to her by Millie.
The literary types were back at the Folger again in October
for the Pen/Faulkner annual readings, dedicated this year to the
author's "sense of place. Novelist/historian Shelby Foote,
uncomfortable in his pop celebrity stemming from his role in the
PBS series "The Civil War," noted that legendary Southern author
William Faulkner "would have run barefoot over broken glass to
avoid a gathering like this.'
The most sought-after invitations any year are those to White
House state dinners, and the most sought-after in 1990 were those
to the state gala thrown in June for visiting Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev and his effervescent wife, Raisa.
At the White House dinner the Reagans gave for the Gorbachevs
in 1987, the most glittering thing there was the continuously icy
stare an indignant Nancy Reagan directed toward the impulsive
Raisa. The Bushes treated the Gorbachevs like old pals, and the
friendship between Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Gorbachev blossomed into
something truly marvelous when they both jetted off to Boston the
next day to take on the graduating girls of Wellesley College -
some of whom, later recanting, had protested Mrs. Bush giving the
commencement address as a mere "wife of
" The deafening
applause Wellesley gave both ladies at the end of their remarks
had to be the high point of the year on many counts.
The other state dinners in 1990 weren't quite so memorable,
though defrocked CBS morning TV anchor Kathleen Sullivan rather
vividly stuck in some minds by showing up at a state feed in
April in a lower-than-low-cut gold lame evening dress that
Fredericks of Hollywood wouldn't have dared design.
Except for inaugurations, the brightest occasions any year in
Washington are the celebrations attendant to the annual Kennedy
Center Honors, awarded for life contributions to the performing
arts. This December the honors went to actress Kate Hepburn,
opera star Rise Stevens, director Billy Wilder, jazz great Dizzy
Gillespie and songwriter Jule Styne, and it was Hepburn who stole
the show. Megastars in their own right, like Glenn Close,
approached Hepburn as they might divine royalty. Hepburn was
simply her old outspoken self. When a longtime friend, writer
Garson Kanin, remarked on her 50 years as a star at the
celebrity-jammed awards banquet, Hepburn shot back across the
room: "It's 60 years, Garson!"
There were so many stars crammed so tightly together at the
Museum of theMoving Image testimonial dinner for
comedian-turned-director Mike Nichols, held at New York's Waldorf
Astoria in March, that it seemed less a party than a riot.
Gentlemanly Harrison Ford and ladylike Sigourney Weaver stood out
for keeping their cool amongst all the pressing flesh and strobe
lights. Things calmed down when the multitude finally sat down at
their tables, especially when Hume Cronyn began telling jokes as
old as he is.
A far more refreshingly breezy affair was the party at New
York's Rainbow Room in June in which Helen Gurley Brown was
honored by media pals for her 25 years as editor of Cosmopolitan
Magazine. Supermodel Carol Alt turned up in a dress so revealing
as to make even Cosmo cover girls look frumpy. It was also Ivana
Trump's first big public outing as the estranged wife of the
Donald, only many didn't recognize her as she had just redesigned
herself to look like Brigitte Bardot.
There were so many face lifts in evidence at the jam-packed
book party for author "An Inconvenient Woman" Dominick Dunne at
New York's "our crowd" Cafe Mortimer's in May that a plastic
surgeon would have thought he was experiencing a nightmare in
which all of his patients had come back to haunt him. The hair
color of choice was ash blond. Names were dropped in such mass
profusion it was impossible to hear them.
If parties like that served as little more than the last gasps
of the nouveau crowd, probably the worst affair of the year was
the October dinner in Washington honoring visiting Princess Di of
Britain.
The event was held to raise funds for three worthy charities,
but the British organizers of the evening got so pushy and
charged so much ($2,500 a plate to eat in the same room with the
princess, $3,500 to actually meet her) that a number of promiment
American society ladies indignantly refused to attend, including
several who were on the dinner committee.
So few did come that the huge banquet hall looked as empty as
the cavernous dining chamber in the movie "Citizen Kane."
Princess Di reportedly was not amused at being stiffed in this
way, and Mrs. Bush reportedly was a little steamed at the
absentees for making such a public stir out of their boycott,
even if it was a bad show.
The annual Costume Institute gala at New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art in December, for years the party season's first
important stop to see and be seen, turned out to be a low-key
affair where the former "glitterati" could be more accurately
dubbed "glimmerati," so shorn of jewels and furs were they.
One of the most successful parties of the year actually took
place a few days earlier and may well have set the tone for many
party seasons to come. It was late November's gala benefit for
AIDS kicking off "7th on Sale, the fashion industry-sponsored
three-day sample sale extravaganza for the New York City AIDS
Fund. Some 900 guests ate, drank and shopped till they dropped
more than $1.4 million for the cause in one night alone. Because
everything, down to the table napkins, was donated, every cent
went to the charity. That's success in the no-frills '90s.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (color) : Princess Diana at a Washington fundraiser
that charged guests $3,500 each to actually meet her. Tribune
photo by Ernie Cox. PHOTO (color) : Cosmopolitan's Helen Gurley
Brown chats with Barbara Walters at at June bash honoring Brown's
25 years with the magazine. PHOTO (color) : Novelist/historian
Shelby Foote achieved a pop celebrity from his role in the PBS
series "The Civil War." AP Laserphotos. PHOTO (color) : Actress
Sonia Braga arriving at this year's low-key costume ball at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
PHOTO: Convivial first ladies Barbara Bush and Raisa Gorbachev
in June at Wellesley College's commencement.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1990 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San Francisco Chronicle
DECEMBER 23, 1990, SUNDAY, SUNDAY EDITION
SECTION: TV WEEK; Pg. 3; JOHN CARMAN
LENGTH: 633 words
HEADLINE: Honoring the Best
BYLINE: JOHN CARMAN, CHRONICLE TELEVISION CRITIC
BODY:
Two nationally televised awards programs stand head and proud
shoulders above the crass clamor of People's Choice Awards,
comedy awards, music awards, Emmy Awards and even Oscars.
They' re the American Film Institute annual award program and
"The Kennedy Center Honors'' program, both characterized by
a pleasing blend of dignity and intimacy.
One of them, The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of
the Performing Arts, will be on CBS this week, at 9 p.m. Friday
on Channels 5, 10, 12 and 46.
The AFI salutes and the Kennedy Center programs share
another common element. George Stevens Jr. conceived both of
them, and produces both -- Nick Vanoff is his co-producer of the
Kennedy Center programs.
Pressed to explain what makes these programs distinct, Stevens
said over the phone, "I was fortunate to grow up around and be
tutored by a talented father with good taste. In all my work, I
feel his presence over my shoulder.
His father, Oakland native George Stevens, who died in 1975,
directed such diverse films as Gunga Din, Woman of the
Year, Shane, Giant' and ''A Place in the Sun.
The younger Stevens added, ''We don't get phone calls saying,
can you book Milli Vanilli?"
The Kennedy Center Honors'' program, always shown on CBS,
originated in 1978 with Richard Rodgers, George Balanchine,
Marian Anderson, Arthur Rubenstein and Fred Astaire as that
year's honorees.
This year's ceremony, hosted as usual by Walter Cronkite, was
taped December 2 at the Opera House of the Kennedy Center in
Washington. This year's honorees for their contributions to the
performing arts:
* Actress Katharine Hepburn, 83, who'll be saluted from the
Kennedy Center stage by Angela Lansbury, Lauren Bacall and Glenn
Close.
* Film director Billy Wilder, 84, whose tribute will be
handled by Jack Lemmon, whom Wilder directed in ''Some Like It
Hot.
* Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, 73, of the puff adder cheeks and
bebop sound. Bill Cosby will lead the salute to him.
* Mezzo-soprano Rise Stevens, 77, who' be hailed by Marilyn
Horne as the first great exception" to the rule that sopranos
and tenors are opera's biggest stars.
* Jule Styne, 84, who wrote the scores for such Broadway hits
as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy''
and 'Funny Girl. Choreographer Jerome Robbins will lead the
tribute to him.
It's a relatively easy night for the batch of honorees. An
earmark of The Kennedy Center Honors' is that none of them
has to take the stage or utter a word. All they have to do is
watch from their box seats.
At the inception of these achievement awards, Stevens said, it
was decided that 'none of the honorees would be asked to sing
for their supper, so to speak.
The selection process begins with an "artists committee,'
dozens of famed performing artists who make recommendations for
the coveted Kennedy Center medallions.
Stevens said a smaller committee then pares down the list, and
the final selections are voted on by the Kennedy Center board
of trustees.
The award is an honor that virtually no contributor to
American culture is likely to refuse. But one star, Stevens said,
rejected offers for years.
That star is the eccentric Hepburn, no lover of pomp. Stevens,
whose father directed Hepburn in 'Woman of the Year,
intervened this year to persuade her to accept.
She and I had a telephone conversation,' Stevens said,
and she finally said, 'Oh, all right, yes, and hung up. I
guess she just decided it was time.
But Kate Hepburn wasn't about to dissolve all of her iron
merely to have people make a fuss over her.
Stevens said she arrived at the prestigious ceremony three
weeks ago clad in black trousers and shod in a pair of black
Reeboks. After all, black is formal, isn't it?
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1989 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
December 29, 1989, Friday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 20; ZONE: C; OVERNIGHT/YEAREND: Washington
notes
LENGTH: 515 words
HEADLINE: Bushes usher in new era of capital galas
BYLINE: By Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
LEAD: Certainly the most memorable after-hours moment in the
nation's capital this year came on the cold, starry night of Jan.
20, when newly sworn President George Bush and his lady Barbara
appeared in the midst of the Beaux Arts splendor of the newly
restored Union Station for their very first dance at their own
inaugural ball.
BODY:
Certainly the most memorable after-hours moment in the
nation's capital this year came on the cold, starry night of Jan.
20, when newly sworn President George Bush and his lady Barbara
appeared in the midst of the Beaux Arts splendor of the newly
restored Union Station for their very first dance at their own
inaugural ball.
"You saw it here first, " Bush said. "A lousy dancer, trying to
do his best, dancing with the First Lady of the United States."
They didn't dance for long - though the orchestra played "I
Could Have Danced All Night" - but they danced in a way that made
it obvious they would cherish the moment as much as any of the
6,000 people in the station watching them. They went on to repeat
the scene at seven other inaugural balls, but the first time was
the best.
Stars of the performing arts have a way of shining
particularly brightly when in Washington. Christopher "Superman"
Reeve and Kelly "Top Gun" McGillis, among others, comported
themselves with both luminescence and dignity at last May's very
black-tie dinner in the National Museum Building that honored
Kevin "A Fish Called Wanda" Kline with the Shakespeare Theater at
the Folger's annual Will Award - the aplomb of the occasion
uninterrupted even when musical star Sharon Scruggs kicked off a
shoe during a Shakespearean routine and nearly hit McGillis in
the head.
McGillis shone radiantly in her own right at the opening night
party following her triumphant debut in the Folger's production
of "Twelfth Night" in September.
A few weeks later, the Folger Library's Great Hall was the
setting for an extraordinary evening of readings, reminiscences
and confessions as such great American authors as William
Kennedy, Eudora Welty and William Styron recalled their
beginnings as writers before a black-tie audience at the annual
Pen-Faulkner Awards dinner.
The annual Kennedy Center Honors awarded to singer Harry
Belafonte, film star Claudette Colbert, ballerina Alexandra
Danilova, musical comedy queen Mary Martin and composer William
Schuman in December drew more glamorous names to Washington. At a
reception at the White House, First Lady Barbara Bush turned to
Belafonte and gushed, "I'm just wild about Harry."
It was very much a Russian year in the capital. In February,
Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony thrilled Washington music
lovers with a stirring concert performance of Dmitri
Shostakovich's 8th (or "Leningrad") Symphony. In June, National
Symphony Orchestra conductor Mstislav Rostroprovich led a
gigantic assemblage of more than 300 musicians and singers jammed
together on the Kennedy Center concert stage in a thunderous
rendering of the symphonic theme music for Russian director
Sergei Eisenstein's classic film, "Ivan the Terrible."
But Washingtonians took most warmly to their hearts the Soviet
Union's Red Army Chorus and Dance Ensemble, who, despite the Red
Army's bloody history, made themselves particularly lovable by
cavorting all over town, ending their concerts by singing "God
Bless America" and even serenading Bush from the White House
lawn.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (color) : The newly sworn President and the First
Lady enjoying themselves during the inauguration. Tribune Photo
by Paul F. Gero. PHOTO: AP Laserphoto. Author Eudora Welty and
writer Killy Kelley at the Pen/Faulkner Awards party in
Washington.
PHOTO: AP Laserphoto. Princess Diana in gold-trimmed ecru gown
dazzled New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
PHOTO (color) : Reuters photo. Malcolm Forbes and Elizabeth
Taylor greet hundreds at his $2 million birthday bash in
Tangiers.
PHOTO: Reuters photo. A dancer demonstrated "Vogueing" for the
first time to New Yorkers at an AIDS benefit in May.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Times Publishing Company
St. Petersburg Times
December 29, 1989, Friday, City Edition
SECTION: FLORIDIAN; prime-time pick; Pg. 5D
LENGTH: 209 words
HEADLINE: Prime-time pick
SOURCE: TV DATA
BYLINE: JON BURLINGAME
BODY:
The 12th annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the
Performing
Arts, which is not only one of the nation's highest honors but
traditionally
one of TV's classiest specials, airs at 9 p.m. on
WTVT-Ch. 13.
Walter
Cronkite once again is the host. Honored at the black-tie
gala taped Dec. 3
at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, D.C.,
are actress Claudette Colbert,
composer William Schuman,
singer-actor Harry
Belafonte, ballet star
Alexandra Danilova and singer-actress
Mary
Martin. Those paying tribute include, in the Colbert segment,
actors Gregory
Peck, Lynn Redgrave and
Don Ameche; in the Schuman segment,
pianist Van
Cliburn, actress Kelly
McGillis and conductor Leonard Slatkin,
a Schuman
protege who leads the
Juilliard orchestra in the composer's
New England
Triptych; in the
Belafonte segment, actor-director Sidney
Poitier and South
African
Archbishop Desmond Tutu; in the Danilova segment,
choreographers
Jerome Robbins and Jacques D'Amboise; and in the Martin
segment, actress
Bernadette Peters and Miss Martin's son, actor Larry Hagman. - JON
BURLINGAME, TV Data
GRAPHIC: BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO; WALTER CRONKITE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE-MDC: November 10, 1992
Copyright 1989 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
December 29, 1989, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: STYLE; PAGE D3
LENGTH: 718 words
HEADLINE: TV Preview;
The Class of 'Honors'
SERIES: Occasional
BYLINE: Megan Rosenfeld, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
It is not easy to give a good tribute -- one that is neither
phony nor maudlin, that explains the virtues of the honoree
without making everyone else squirm, that is personal but not
embarrassing. In these respects, the Kennedy Center Honors, a
telecast of which airs tonight at 9 on Channel 9, is exemplary.
This is a broadcast with class, and -- given the limits of the
format -- a moving and entertaining two hours.
Of course, the first requirement of a successful tribute is to
have worthy tributees. And for televisibility, it is wise to have
them come from different disciplines -- the old variety show
structure. Here we have Mary Martin from Broadway, Claudette
Colbert from Hollywood, Alexandra Danilova from classical dance,
Harry Belafonte from popular music, and William Schuman from
classical music. Among them they symbolize spunk and ham,
elegance, dedication to art, art informed by political
commitment, and the influence of great teaching.
Of the five, Schuman is the only one who is shortchanged a
bit, suffering, perhaps, from not being a household word and
because classical musicians playing their instruments don't make
for very dramatic video; nor do accomplishments such as heading
the Juilliard School and Lincoln Center, or winning a Pulitzer.
Danilova is not well known outside the ballet world, but dancing
is very telegenic.
The show is divided among the honorees, each getting a tribute
from a well-known friend, a biographical sketch with film and
photographs, a performed tribute, and a second personal toast.
Some of the choices -- such as having Washington's Eastern High
School choir sing "We Are the World" for Belafonte -- are
inspired. The U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club, on the other hand,
which sings "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" for Martin,
demonstrates the difference between performers and, well, glee
clubs. They are awfully cute, though.
Originally performed on Dec. 3, during the weekend President
Bush was meeting Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in the
turbulent seas off Malta, the program harnesses some of the
emotional afterglow of glasnost by hauling out the Red Army Song
and Dance Ensemble, which despite its incongruity creates high
spirits with high jumps. At the end the ensemble sings a
Russian-accented "God Bless America,' joined by the cute Middies,
the Eastern choir, the Watkins Mill Elementary School chorus from
Gaithersburg and, ultimately, the entire hall full of celebrities
and near celebrities, all singing their hearts out.
The crowd, which the camera scans every now and then in Oscar
style, includes faces that seem famous but you can't quite place
them. Was that Maureen Stapleton clapping her hand to her mouth
in surprise when the Soviets started "God Bless America?" Was
that Cicely Tyson gasping at the arrival of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu? Some were obvious -- a dignified Helen Hayes, a beefy Sen.
Ted Kennedy, a silver-haired Jimmy Stewart -- but with others the
worlds of politics and show business flowed into one well-groomed
but unidentifiable blur. In any case, they all got a lot of
exercise applauding and standing up during the show.
There are lovely moments, such as Jacques D'Amboise
demonstrating how Danilova taught him to bow in classical ham
style, complete with the "aw, shucks" nod of fake humility. There
is nostalgia, of course, such as the replay of the flying scene
from "Peter Pan" (with D'Amboise's daughter Charlotte as a
creditable Peter) and Colbert's famous hitchhiking scene from "It
Happened One Night." And there are unintentional moments, such as
Colbert and Martin helping Danilova to her feet.
But for all-around impact, Belafonte's segment is the most
indelible, first for the clearly heartfelt and eloquent tribute
from Sidney Poitier. And if it was disconcerting to have Tutu
presented to a crescendo of applause, rather like the entrance of
a movie star, his thoughtful comments quickly retrieved the mood.
Perhaps it is Belafonte himself who adds the resonance -- a man
who has gone beyond entertainment to art by virtue of his
commitment to causes that once put him at odds with the
establishment now honoring him. There is a glistening in his eye
that becomes a tear by the time the full multinational crowd of
children finishes singing -- and who could blame him.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, HONOREES MARY MARTIN AND HARRY BELAFONTE.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1988 The Christian Science Publishing
Society
The Christian Science Monitor
December 29, 1988, Thursday
SECTION: Arts and Leisure; TELEVISION; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 1078 words
HEADLINE: Tributes flow to Kennedy Center honorees
BYLINE: By Louise Sweeney, Staff writer of The Christian Science
Monitor
DATELINE: Washington
HIGHLIGHT:
Farewell to the Reagans, Bob Hope and his 'Thanks' draw smiles -
and tears
BODY:
THE glittering bouquet for the performing arts known as the
Kennedy Center Honors airs tomorrow for its 11th year over CBS.
This year it's poised somewhere between quotes - Bob Hope's
'Thanks for the Memory'' and novelist Katherine Anne Porter's
tart comment on why societies down through history bother with
the arts : The arts are what we find again when the ruins are
all cleared away.
There are whiffs of nostalgia throughout this year's two-hour
gala tribute, The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the
Performing Arts.
We see the honorees through the soft-focus lens of the past:
*There's actress Myrna Loy dishing up snappy repartee and
looking utterly glamorous in the 1930s detective hit "The Thin
Man.
*And comedian George Burns cutting up in a 1929 jazz-age film
short, ' Lamb Chops, with his delightfully dithery wife and
partner, Gracie Allen.
*Choreographer Alvin Ailey is saluted with a performance of
his early masterpiece, the 1960 '"Revelations.'"
*Violinist Alexander Schneider appears in a film clip of a few
ecstatic moments playing Bach with his friend Pablo Casals.
*We see Kennedy Center founder/chairman Roger Stevens
huddling with Leonard Bernstein to save the new 1957 musical its
backers wanted to scuttle, West Side Story.
In the tradition of the Honors, these are people who
'throughout their lifetimes have contributed significantly to
American culture through the performing arts.
The taping took place earlier this month in the vast scarlet
Opera House at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It
was a black-tie affair, with an invited audience that included
stars of stage, screen, and bipartisan politics. Secret Service
agents and metal detectors were thick as confetti because not
only the President and Mrs. Reagan were there in the presidential
box with the five honorees, but President-elect George Bush made
a surprise appearance on stage with an "Auld Lang Syne'' tribute
to the president, taking his last bow at Kennedy Center.
President Reagan, caught unawares and unmiked, projected his
voice in a booming one-liner heard throughout the hall: Beats
getting an Oscar! Nancy Reagan, in a white lace and black
sequin outfit, wiped tears from her eyes.
So it was Thanks for the Memory, that familiar Bob Hope
theme song which he walked on stage with, on many levels. But it
was also a witty, literate, and entertaining look at some of the
performing artists whose work may be left when, as host Walter
Cronkite quoted Miss Porter, the ruins are cleared away.
Kathleen Turner pranced out on stage in a black sequin pants
suit and praised the red-headed actress: 'Myrna Loy is the first
actress brave enough to put sass on screen. Jimmy Stewart was
quoted as having once said 'There's got to be a law against any
man who doesn't want to marry Myrna Loy After the verbal
applause for the art of her acting, they rolled out Bobby Short
and his piano for a serenade to the '30s ambiance of Loy's films
that included Cole Porter's Isn't It Romantic. Then came the
title song from Porter's '30s musical "Anything Goes, done by
the road company of the Lincoln Center revival. It included some
terrific tap dancing done by a razzle-dazzle cast starring Leslie
Uggams, who tried gallantly to fill the original Ethel Merman
role but lacked her brassy talent for stopping the show.
In show-biz terms, the most arresting part of the TV show was
the dancing: that tap number, the vintage soft shoe tribute that
hoofers Tommy Tune and Anne Reinking did as homage to
ex-vaudeville star George Burns, and the ecstatic dances from
"Revelations'" done by Ailey's American Dance Theater. The women
dancers whirled on stage in Panama straw hats and long, banana
colored dresses, the men in black pants with banana and black
vests, to perform numbers like "Rocking My Soul in the Bosom of
Abraham, afire with a joyous gospel exuberance. Framing them on
stage, a choir from Howard University. The less tele-visual
nature of the careers of some of this year's honorees may have
been more of a challenge than in some previous years for
long-time producers George Stevens Jr. and Nick Vanoff, who have
won two Emmy Awards for Honors telecasts in the past.
Even the less flamboyant TV moments, though, under Dwight
Hemion's deft direction, had their special charm. There were the
touching moments when violinist and teacher Alexander (Sasha)
Schneider, was introduced with warmth and a little schmaltz by
friend Isaac Stern before a group of Schneider's students from
orchestras around the nation played Bach's Brandenburg Concerto
No. 3, with Stern as first violinist. When was the last time you
heard any of the Brandenburgs on network TV?
And then there was the loving tribute to Roger Stevens, the
'modern-day Medici, as Hal Holbrook called the founder, and
recently retired chairman of Kennedy Center. He's so
unassuming, he was once called the faceless lamb among the
celebrity lions.
In a scene reminiscent of Our Town, the stars and creators
of the arts Stevens has brought to Kennedy Center gathered on
stage, along with members of the Center family'' from
red-jacketed ushers, who marched down the aisles, to stagehands
who rolled in on a tall ladder.
Actors like Faye Dunaway, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Gene
Hackman; dancers like Maria Tallchief, Edward Villella, Jacques
'Amboise; playwrights like Edward Albee, Garson Kanin, Arthur
Kopit; writers like Adolf Green and Betty Comden, opera stars
like William Warfield, Frederica von Stade, Dorothy Kirsten,
applauded Stevens as he took his final curtain call.
He also heard one of his favorite songs, the upbeat
'Tomorrow'' from another hit musical he rescued, 'Annie,' sung
by Rachael Graham in the title role and the dog Sandy who
contributed a few woofs.
At this writing, a finished tape of the show is not available
for review, so segments mentioned here may be edited. The one
scene you're not going to see happened afterward, when a woman
dressed in a black sequined gown and a woman dressed in a white
sequinned gown became entangled at the shoulders in what can only
be described as sequin gridlock.
After vain attempts to separate them, it was suggested that
they dine together at the gala dinner following the taping:
winter salad, veal cassoulet, and chocolate meringues served on
tables covered with red and green tartan tablecloths and
Christmas decorations.
GRAPHIC: Picture, Applauding the Reagans from the Kennedy Center
stage were President-elect George Bush, producer George Stevens
Jr., singer John Denver, actress Cicely Tyson, and comedian Bob
Hope.
Copyright 1985 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
December 27, 1985, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: First Section; Editorial; A16
LENGTH: 319 words
HEADLINE: Let's Hear It for Irving Berlin
BODY:
"obody writes popular songs," Irving Berlin once said.
"Popular songs are songs that become popular. That's all there is
to it."
And not just anybody honors popular songwriters. The popular
songwriters, it seems, are the songwriters honored by the
Kennedy Center. Is that all there is to it? You would be excused
for thinking SO.
For the past eight years, the Kennedy Center has bestowed
honors on artists for the achievements of a lifetime in a
glamorous televised awards ceremony. The recipients have included
songwriters Richard Rodgers and, this year, Alan Jay Lerner and
Frederick Loewe. But Irving Berlin, now 97 and the author of more
than 1,000 songs -- "White Christmas," "Easter Parade" and "God
Bless America" among them -- has yet to join the growing list of
Kennedy Center honorees. Renee E. Renzi, whose letter appears on
this page, wonders why. So do we.
The reason, evidently, has little to do with Mr. Berlin and
the songs he began selling as early as 1907. Roger Stevens, the
Kennedy Center's chairman, says he's been trying to "get Irving
Berlin for years." But the rules stipulate that the award be
granted only to those artists who can attend the ceremony, and
Mr. Berlin, who lives in New York, has not felt up to the trip.
The ceremony is a big fund-raising event for this city's renowned
cultural center, which is why the people in charge want the stars
in their seats during the show. "Box-office moxie," Mr. Stevens
calls it.
All right -- rules are rules. And it's not as if Mr. Berlin
had escaped all official notice: President Eisenhower presented
him with a gold medal in 1955 and President Ford with the
nation's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, in 1977.
Still, it does seem to us that rarely have prize and
prospective recipient been better matched than in the case of Mr.
Berlin and the Kennedy Center honors. Just this once couldn't
they bend the rules?
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1985 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
December 27, 1985, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: Style; B1
LENGTH: 904 words
HEADLINE: TV Preview;
Kennedy Center Honors: Class Act;
A Gala Affair, But Few Misty Moments
BYLINE: By Tom Shales, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Walter Cronkite emceed it despite a terrible backache, former
CBS chairman William S. Paley later told friends he'd wept
repeatedly during it, and actor Rex Harrison strolled out on
stage in the midst of it lost and bewildered until a crew member
rushed in from the wings and nudged him toward the podium.
Another year, another spectacular edition of "The Kennedy Center
Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts."
You won't see Harrison's bewilderment (it will be edited out)
or Paley's tears or hear Uncle Walter say "Oh, my aching back"
(he'd strained his back earlier in the day) on the two-hour CBS
version of the show, which airs tonight at 9 on Channel 9, but
you will see almost everything else the audience in the Kennedy
Center Opera House saw on Dec. 5, when the event was taped,
except that the taped version is tighter, brisker and, in fact, a
better show all around.
It's all very nice, lustrous and splashy, and even the
audience is star-studded -- from Larry Hagman to Brooke Shields
to Teddy Kennedy to, of course, our nation's contented couple,
Ronald and Nancy -- and yet it's not as good as in years past,
and it lacks a satisfying number of big, grand emotional moments.
There's a dearth of wowsers.
About the only really sentimental heart-tugger is the finale,
when massed troops of the American armed services sing "Thanks
for the Memory" to Bob Hope and recall how much his wartime
visits entertained and warmed them in years past. Even Hope gets
visibly misty on camera, and what seemed appallingly schmaltzy in
the hall plays much better scaled down to TV size. But still,
it's not as if Hope hasn't been thanked for these memories
before.
On the other hand, breathes there a soul who would really
begrudge the old boy the honor?
"The Kennedy Center Honors" remains among the few televised
awards ceremonies with some dignity and stature to them. The
question now is whether the dignity and stature are standing in
the way of putting on a really big show and honoring all the
people who deserve honoring.
Hope is, after all, the only real television star honored in
the eight years of the Kennedy Center event, and his television
work is barely mentioned in the tribute, which concentrates
instead on the war shows and his hilarious movies. This year's
other honorees are singer-actress Irene Dunne (who was kept from
the ceremony by a sudden illness), Broadway composing team Alan
Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe ("My Fair Lady"), opera star
Beverly Sills and offbeat choreographer Merce Cunningham.
Those in the arts world applaud the center's choice of
Cunningham, whose work was and is avant-garde, because it means a
maverick is getting an overdue Establishment bravo. One of his
kooky ballets is excerpted, however, and it proves at best
baffling. While Cunningham may deserve the honor, the choice
makes it all the more irksome that the center still has not seen
fit to cite such American television giants as Lucille Ball,
Milton Berle or Jackie Gleason in all its years of doling out the
accolades.
It would be my contention that Uncle Miltie in his baggy pants
has contributed at least as much to American culture as has Merce
Cunningham in his tights. And Berle always got his laughs on
purpose. Ball performed in movies as well as TV, and Gleason is a
multitalented giant whose work is as enviable and lasting as
Chaplin's or Keaton's.
But each year the nominating ballots for the Honors go out
mainly to figures in classical music, ballet, theater and film.
These people are not likely to nominate television performers
because they're just not hoity-toity enough. A center source does
say, however, that Carol Burnett "will probably get it in time,"
perhaps because she shows up every year to pay tribute to someone
else. This year it's Sills.
Certainly there are too many awards shows on TV that already
shower so-so stars with empty huzzahs. But "The Kennedy Center
Honors" is, after all, not just a Washington event but a
television event. Surely it would be an act of graciousness and
justice if, say, Lucy were to be included in next year's batch of
honorees.
Highlights of this year's show include opera star Frederica
von Stade's sung tribute (of Jerome Kern tunes) to Dunne. An
8-year-old classical pianist, Leah Yoon, is an impressive
charmer, though she picked a dull piece to play; as it happens,
the plucky little tyke ended up on the cutting room floor. Chevy
Chase, who rambled during his tribute to Hope, has been edited
into a more concise and funnier presentation. Kirk Douglas does a
particularly professional job in another Hope tribute, whereas
Harrison and Louis Jourdan come across as sloppily grandiose in
their paeans to Lerner and Loewe.
Disappointments? Yes. One might have thought Julie Andrews,
the first "Fair Lady," would have shown up for the Lerner-Loewe
salute, but she didn't. And for remarks about Hope's art, it
would have been wonderful for Woody Allen to make one of his very
rare TV appearances, since he is an avowed Hope buff.
George Stevens Jr. and Nick Vanoff do a magnificent job of
producing the show each year, and Don Mischer's TV direction is
somehow both official and intimate. It is a welcome oasis of
class and style. But this year's program is a tad flat, and it
suggests the whole structure of honor-giving might be looked into
so that the honor roll better reflects the talents America really
loves best.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright (c) 1985 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
December 27, 1985, Friday, Late City Final
Edition
SECTION: Section C; Page 29, Column 1; Weekend Desk
LENGTH: 523 words
HEADLINE: TV WEEKEND;
KENNEDY CENTER PAYS TRIBUTE TO 6 IN THE ARTS
BYLINE: By JOHN J. 0' CONNOR
BODY:
CONSIDER this for a fail-safe entertainment recipe: Open the
show with the National Anthem and the voice of John F. Kennedy
declaring, I look forward to an America that will reward
achievement in the arts as it rewards achievement in business'
cut to shots of President Reagan sitting in his Kennedy Center
box with Mrs. Reagan, while Walter Cronkite walks out on stage to
serve as narrator; then, for a finale two hours later, bring on
several military choral groups to sing a rousing medley of The
Army Goes Rolling Along, The Marine Corps Hymn'' and
"Anchors Aweigh. There is more than one way, obviously, to get
an audience to stand up and salute.
The occasion is the eighth annual presentation of The
Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts,
taped in Washington on Dec. 8 and now being shown, after
appropriate editing, on CBS this evening at 9. Being honored this
year for lifetime achievement" in the arts are Beverly Sills,
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, Irene Dunne, Merce
Cunningham and Bob Hope. Once again, the special has been
co-produced by Nick Vanoff and George Stevens Jr. and directed by
Don Mischer.
The formula is by now familiar, but still effective. There are
clips from an earlier White House reception at which the
President personally addressed the artists and invited guests.
Then, back in the Kennedy Center, each of the honorees, while
sitting in a box next to the President, is given a separate
tribute that includes a biographical film and special performing
material, followed by a standing ovation from the audience in
formal dress.
As an awards event, this occasion is unfailingly heartfelt and
dignified. These recipients represent the very best of American
artistic achievement, their careers spanning decades. The first
honorees in 1978 were Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George
Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein, and that level
of overall excellence has since been maintained admirably.
Some passing changes in the telecast can be noted. Art
Buchwald is not on hand this year to offer his satirical comments
on political antics in Washington. Also, this marks the first
time that one of the honorees is not present. Suffering from a
bad back, Miss Dunne was unable to attend, but her film career is
reviewed affectionately by James Stewart.
Carol Burnett praises Miss Sills, Mikhail Baryshnikov pays
tribute to Mr. Cunningham ("he reinvented dance and then waited
for the audience - it was a long wait''), Rex Harrison thanks
Lerner and Loewe for ' ' My Fair Lady'' and, for reasons that are
not entirely clear, Kirk Douglas is the celebrity chosen to offer
an homage to Mr. Hope. It is Mr. Hope, of course, who triggers
the choruses of military songs as his years of entertaining the
troops abroad are recalled. Veterans of World War II, Korea and
Vietnam step forward to offer their personal thanks to the
extraordinary entertainer.
In the end, President Reagan flashes a thumbs-up sign to the
choral groups and Mr. Cronkite reminds us that 'that's the way
it is. The honorees come up for one final bow and standing
ovation.
GRAPHIC: photo of Beverly Sills
TYPE: REVIEW
SUBJECT: TELEVISION; REVIEWS; AWARDS, DECORATIONS AND HONORS;
CULTURE
ORGANIZATION: KENNEDY CENTER (WASHINGTON, DC)
NAME: O'CONNOR, JOHN J; SILLS, BEVERLY
Proprietary to the United Press International 1980
December 26, 1980, Friday, AM cycle
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 79 words
HEADLINE: CAGNEY HONORS
BYLINE: By JOAN HANAUER, United Press International
BODY:
Television viewers get front row seats Dec. 27, thanks to CBS,
to the tribute to Jimmy Cagney that was part of the Kennedy
Center Honors program. The honors this year went to Cagney,
Lynne Fontanne, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price and Agnes de
Mill e at a sell-out show at Washington's Kennedy Center.
Mikhail Baryshnikov and John Travolta introduce the cast of the
Broadway musical "Tintypes," who perform 'Yankee Doodle
Dandy'' and ''You're a Grand Old Flag."
GRAPHIC: PICTURE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright (c) 1980 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
December 26, 1980, Friday, Late City Final
Edition
SECTION: Section C; Page 32, Column 1; Weekend Desk
LENGTH: 903 words
HEADLINE: TV WEEKEND;
'SHADOW BOX,' A PRIZE OFFERING FROM BROADWAY
BYLINE: By JOHN O' CONNOR
BODY:
THE holiday season's most outstanding production - indeed, one
of the best presentations of the entire year - is about death.
Sunday at 9 P.M., ABC is bringing the Pulitzer Prize-winning play
The Shadow Box' to television in a production that, in many
respects, is superior to the original Broadway version.
Michael Cristofer, the playwright, treads delicately but
incisively over the undeniably disturbing subject of terminal
illness. His characters are dying of cancer in a California
hospice, surrounded by loved ones and coming to the realization
that "people just don't want to let go, do they?''
The play focuses on three groupings of people. There is Joe
(James Broderick), the blue collar worker from Newark whose wife
(Valerie Harper) cannot face his reality. There is Brian
(Christopher Plummer), the unsuccessful writer, caught between
the demanding concerns of his former wife (Joanne Woodward) and
his present male lover (Ben Masters). And there is dedicated
Agnes (Melinda Dillon) caring for her aged mother (Sylvia Sidney)
with stories of a favorite daughter who, in fact, has been dead
for years.
Directed by Paul Newman, this production has obviously been
assembled with extraordinary care. Once in a while an actor is
given too much freedom, slipping into the fidgety overplaying
that is the hallmark of Actors Studio exercises. But for the most
part this is a splendidly controlled realization of Mr.
Cristofer's play. Not so incidentally, the adaptation was written
by Mr. Cristofer.
The subject of death, of course, is hardly conducive to
holiday cheer. It must be stressed that The Shadow Box'' is
finally invigorating, approaching with utter compassion that
last moment - absolutely alone, facing an unknown - there's
absolutely nothing you can do about it except give in.
The performances are uniformly superb. Miss Woodward reveals
still new layers of expertise as the nasty wife. Mr. Plummer
turns the impossible writer into a terribly moving character.
Miss Dillon is incredibly on target as the neglected daughter. I
could go on, but the message is: watch The Shadow Box' Sunday.
This afternoon at 4, CBS is introducing something called ''CBS
Children's Mystery Theater. The aim is a quality program for
young viewers. Unfortunately, The Treasure of Alpheus T.
Winterborn" is likely to drive the kiddies back to mindless
cartoons. The context provides Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as
guides to the story, in this case about a boy's search for
fortune hidden by a millionaire, Winterborn, whose name adorns
every institution in town. The devices are obvious, the show is
exhausting. Good intentions are not enough.
Tonight at 9, Bill Moyers' Journal'' goes back to 1973 for
an interview with Dorothy Day, the remarkable woman who founded
the Catholic Worker Movement. Mr. Moyers demonstrated, even then,
a rare ability to connect emotionally and intellectually with his
guests. Dorothy Day, who died laast month at the age of 83, is a
figure of commanding respect.
Tomorrow at 5, ABC's ''Wide World of Sports'' offers 90
minutes of United States amateur and professional figure skaters
on a 10-day exhibition tour of China. The company is headed by
Peggy Fleming, the 1968 Olympic gold medalist, Linda Fratianne,
the 1980 Olympic silver medalist, and Tai Babilonia and Randy
Gardner, the 1979 champions in pairs figure skating. It is a
special sports presentation that manages to be really special.
Later in the evening, at 9, CBS is carrying The Kennedy
Center Honors, taped on Dec. 7. This third annual
celebration of the performing arts'' honors, in alphabetical
order, Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Agnes de Mille, Lynn
Fontanne and Leontyne Price. The program opens with the voice of
John F. Kennedy, proclaiming the sentiments about the human
spirit that are etched in stone at Washington's Kennedy Center.
The rest, beginning with shots of President Carter and Walter
Cronkite, is indeed a celebration. It gets a bit mushy at times
but there's no doubt that it is deserved.
On the other two commercial networks tomorrow night, the menu
is dominated by news documentaries. At 9:30, NBC has a white
paper on 'Gambling. David Brinkley, who seems to have been
hauled in at the last moment, is the narrator. Lloyd Dobyns is
the reporter. Touring Nevada and Atlantic City, the 90-minute
survey covers familiar territory - from Gamblers Anonymous to
land ripoffs - but manages to be provocative.
ABC News has a 'Closeup,'' produced by Paul Altmeyer, on
policemen. The attitude is frankly sympathetic as the gruesome
stress statistics are kicked off on divorce, alcoholism and
suicide. Detroit, Philadelphia and Boston are the target cities.
This is a riveting and sorely needed profile of the men in blue.
Finally, on Sunday, there are two other efforts of note. The
''Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, running from 8 to midnight on
WPIX-Channel 11, is a benefit for the United Negro College Fund.
And at 11:30 on WNEW-Channel 5, , The David Susskind Show'' will
be given over largely to the singing talents of Jonathan
Schwartz, one of New York's best radio personalities.
GRAPHIC: Illustrations: photo of Joanne Woodward and Christopher
Plummer
TYPE: review
Copyright (c) 1980 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
December 21, 1980, Sunday, Late City Final
Edition
SECTION: Section 2; Page 37, Column 1; Arts and Leisure Desk
LENGTH: 2257 words
HEADLINE: THE KENNEDY CENTER AIMS FOR THE HOME AUDIENCE
BODY:
Peter Wood is a freelance writer who frequently reports on
the cultural scene.
By PETER WOOD
WASHINGTON, D.C. Question: How do you package high culture on
prime-time television? Answer: Very carefully and not too often.
The producers of the Kennedy Center Honors gala, a
star-spangled salute to five distinguished American performing
artists, have been as careful as can be, gift-wrapping opera,
ballet and classical music in a glitter of talent, celebrities,
shmaltz and grandeur. The result, a highclass cross between "The
Ed Sullivan Show'' and 'This Is Your Life, will be watched
this Saturday evening at 9 on CBS by an estimated 12 million
viewers - a dismal showing by ordinary commercial television
standards but roughly seven times the total number of live
patrons the Kennedy Center gets all year.
Besides Zubin Mehta conducting the Overture to The Marriage
of Figaro,' an Agnes de Mille ballet and ballet dancers Natalia
Makarova and Anthony Dowell in a sensuous pas de deux from
"Manon," the home audience will be treated to close-in views of
the honorees: Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Miss de Mille,
Lynn Fontanne and Leontyne Price.
The artists being saluted are seated in the Presidential box
of the National Opera House no less, each bedecked with the
handsome rainbow yoke of ribbon and brass marking their
achievement. (The actual awards had been made the night before at
an exclusive dinner at the State Department.) Beside them sit the
President and Mrs. Carter, throwing kisses and shaking hands at
the appropriate moments, standing and applauding with the rest of
the celebrity-studded audience at the conclusion of each film
sequence that traces the particular artist's career. Stars of
stage and screen and related disciplines are everywhere, on stage
and in the audience, neatly cameoed by roving hand-held cameras:
Julie Harris, John Travolta, Eli Wallach, Lauren Bacall, Joe
Namath, Senator Jacob Javits and on and on.
Little wonder, then, that getting the gala taped for
television (a couple of Sundays ago) ranks in complexity with a
World War II commando raid. The chief difference is that the
event has become an annual affair.
The military analogy works on another level, too. The forces
of high culture, long denied the continent of commercial
television, have made a strong stand on public television and are
actively pursuing the prospects of cable. The gala telecast in
prime time on a commercial network is considered by many as a
beachhead of sorts. Top CBS brass, looking to the future of their
newly announced cultureoriented cable network, which is scheduled
to become operational next year, will undoubtedly be studying the
ratings of this Honors telecast with extra care. So, too, will
the directors of not only the Kennedy Center but the nation's
14 other cultural centers. The ultimate objective, of course, is
to establish a nation-wide constituency willing to pay to see
cultural programming on subscription television.
A month before the more than 2,000 guests at the gala took
their seats in the Opera House, a command center had been set up,
appropriately enough, in the Eisenhower Rehearsal Room, a
windowless space somewhere inside the six-theater warehouse of
the arts that looms like a gigantic marble shoebox beside the
Potomac, hard by the Watergate Hotel-apartment complex. Inside
the rehearsal hall, temporary walls were set up, phones
installed, a refrigerator, copying machines and typewriters
brought in.
By mid-November, Nick Vanoff, a veteran producer of television
variety specials, had left Los Angeles to meet with his
co-producer, George Stevens Jr., already in place in Washington.
As chairman of the American Film Institute, a Kennedy Center
tenant, Mr. Stevens is an experienced hand at staging this sort
of spectacular. For the past eight years, A.F.I. has paid tribute
to elder statesmen and stateswomen of film with a Life
Achievement Award; these affairs have also been recorded for
television and broadcast on CBS, under Mr. Stevens's guidance.
Accompanying Mr. Vanoff was Michael Seligman, an associate
producer. Don Mischer, the director, moved into his suite on the
10th floor of the Watergate on the 24th. By Sunday, Nov. 30,
lighting director Bill Klages, stage manager Shelley Jensen,
music director Nick Perito and carpenter Mike Sullivan, all
Californians from the glossy world of television entertainment,
were in Washington with their various staffs.
On Dec. 2, the giant technical and audio trailer trucks
belonging to Orange Coast Video, a Hollywood firm, were backed up
to the freight delivery platform in the basement of the Center.
Heavy black cables, snaking through the maze-like corridors, were
taped to floors and ceilings. Backstage, special banks of lights
were added to the house's already elaborate equipment. Hidden
microphones and radio receivers were spotted about the set. Four
hulking cameras were fixed strategically among the orchestra
seats. As unobtrusively as possible, the Opera House assumed the
capability of a television studio.
A day later, the camera and audio crews checked into the
Howard Johnson's Hotel across the street from the Watergate.
Then the on-camera talent began arriving. Beverly Sills, who was
to act as the gala's host, flew in from California on Saturday
morning. A small flap occurred when it was discovered in Mr.
Stevens's office that the volunteer assigned to meet Miss Sills
at the airport, where she had arrived with loads of luggage, had
done so in a two-door sedan (compliments of a car-rental agency,
one of dozens of businesses to contribute goods and services to
the proceedings). Like any of a hundred minor crises that would
surface during the next 24 hours, it was dealt with swiftly. Miss
Sills was observed arriving at the circular carport of the
Watergate like any other celebrity: in a limousine.
Zubin Mehta made it just in time for the award dinner Saturday
night. Jason Robards arrived Sunday. Last of all was the cast of
the Broadway musical Tintypes. And that was a chancy bit of
timing, inasmuch as they had a matinee to perform that afternoon
in Manhattan and were expected in the capital that evening in
order to become the centerpiece of what was to be the gala's
grand finale: a dandy Yankee Doodle tribute to James Cagney. The
split-second "Tintypes" entrance merely typified the logistic
challenge faced by the producers.
The Kennedy Center Honors program is independently produced
by Messrs. Stevens and Vanoff. CBS pays the Center a license fee,
as it is called, to televise the program one time. The network
then tries to recoup as much of its outlay as possible through
advertisers such as A.T.&T. The actual dollar cost of the whole
production is privileged information. The most anyone will admit
to is that the bills do get paid. The stars work strictly for
union minimum - the equivalent, says Mr. Stevens, of giving it
away. The event is, after all, a charity. And in the end, if
anything is left over - though it is hard to see how there could
be - it goes to the Center.
But even without a surplus, the Center considers the
disruption caused by the televising of the Honors well worth the
Sturm und Drang. First of all, it gives national exposure to the
event and to the honorees, whose celebrated names alone are a
sort of publicity that nourishes itself. As the Honors
celebration gains national recognition, it becomes increasingly
easier to command the participation of the performing talent to
put the show on and to sign up patrons, sponsors and volunteers.
The talent, in turn, provides the bait for the tangible
contribution: ticket sales to the gala. They range from $25 in
the second tier to $200 per seat in the orchestra to $5,000 for a
first-tier box. In addition to the show, ticket-holders attended
a dinner-dance afterward, held in the Kennedy Center foyer
where the strains of Count Basie and his Orchestra were somehow
projected the length of three football fields. The net return to
the Center last year was in the neighborhood of a third of a
million dollars. This year promises a similar bounty.
The orchestra seats and boxes were snapped up the moment they
went on sale, explained Roger L. Stevens, chairman of the
Kennedy Center and its chief executive officer, a pleasant
change from the first year when some arm-twisting was necessary.
Mr. Stevens (no relation to George) made his fortune in real
estate - he once bought and sold the Empire State Building -and
is good at twisting arms. He is possibly the most successful
fund-raiser of all time. Virtually singlehandedly he raised the
millions and engineered the deals that made the Kennedy Center
possible in the first place. But the sums needed to support the
arts are growing ever larger.
Does Roger Stevens believe the Honors program to be a first
step toward putting the enormous resources of commercial
television to work for the arts? Not directly. He agrees with
John W. Mazzola, president of Lincoln Center, that commercial
television offers an outlet for only a very special kind of
program - the Honors a typical example. And negotiations are
underway for another program - whether with CBS or another major
network the Center won't say. The advantages are obvious -
lucrative contracts and wide national exposure. On the debit
side, to put it bluntly, the mass television audience, subsisting
on junk food, has a low tolerance for the sort of gourmet fare
the country's arts centers believe it is their duty to provide.
This is particularly true for the Kennedy Center, whose
trustees are keenly mindful of the Center's responsibility as a
national institution, mandated by Congress - though virtually
unfunded by Congress, Mr. Stevens is quick to point out.
If commercial television holds only limited possibilities of
filling the budget gap without compromising excellence, PBS and
cable television are another matter. Here in New York, Channel 13
is constantly reporting larger audiences for its Live From
Lincoln Center'' and 'Dance in America" series. The Kennedy
Center, for its part, not long ago and after 10 years of
existence, signed its own first public-television contract, with
WQED/Pittsburgh, for four programs a year over a three-year
period.
We were late getting into television,' explained Tom
Kendrick, director of operations at the Kennedy Center. We
couldn't see the advantage in the beginning. The money was not
much and the disruption factor high -cameras in the audience,
special lighting. First consideration, Mr. Kendrick explains,
went to the live audience and to establishing the Kennedy Center
in Washington. That done, the Center's second five years have
seen a concerted effort to honor its mandate to reach out
nationally with touring companies and the like.
We have high hopes for WQED, says Mr. Kendrick. Their
approach will be more complex than the 'Live From
format. We
taped our first broadcast in November, an 80th birthday
celebration for Aaron Copland, with Bernstein and Rostropovitch.
No broadcast date has been set yet. Other shows may go on live.
We are still discussing what they will be.
As for cable, Mr. Kendrick says it is still very much in the
exploratory stage. Yes, the Center has been approached by a
variety of cable outfits, including both CBS and ABC. And the
revenue potential is indeed large, but the sort of broadcasts
that prove possible on cable - and remember no profit, no cable -
may not be what the Kennedy Center will want to produce. In any
event, the cable industry is in such a snarl these days that Mr.
Kendrick estimates that contractual agreements are still years
away.
One clear sign, however, that the Center is preparing for its
eventual involvement with television was the disclosure last week
of the appointment of Chloe Aaron as television consultant in
charge of reviewing all the Center's future broadcast projects.
Miss Aaron comes from PBS where she was vice president in charge
of programming.
In the meantime, neither the CBS brass, the gala's producers
nor Roger Stevens could wish for a more gratifying response than
that given by a tousle-haired youth who happened to poke his head
into a screening room one day a few weeks past. A tape of last
year's gala show, which he'd never seen and probably never heard
of, was playing on the monitor. He watched for a few minutes from
the door and then, hooked, flopped into a nearby seat. When the
tape went briefly blank, signaling a commercial pause, he asked
what he was watching. Learning, he blurted out incredulously,
You mean this was shown on prime-time TV? What a surprise? This
is really good!' b
GRAPHIC: Illustrations: photo of crowd at gala at Kennedy Center