December 1986
The Ninth Annual Kennedy Center Honors was taped at the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts in Washington DC on December 7, 1986. It was
aired on CBS on December 26, 1986. The telecast earned an 11.1 rating share.
Hosted
by Walter
Cronkite
HONOREES
Comedienne Lucille Ball is honored for her contributions to television and entertainment at large. Ball is 76 years old at the time. Her fourth and final sitcom “Life With Lucy” was in production when the honor was announced, but was canceled three weeks prior to the event. She was also still grieving the death of Desi Arnaz, who passed away on December 2, 1987, after a long illness. Ball herself would only survive two more years, dying on April 26, 1989.
Ray
Charles,
55 years old at the time, had already won 10 Grammys and two Emmys,
despite the loss of his sight at age 6, due to glaucoma. Charles
learned to read and write music in Braille and broke the barriers
between black and white pop, mixing soul, gospel, country, jazz,
blues and pop into a style all his own.
Choreographer
Antony Tudor, 77, is credited with shaping the prestigious
American Ballet Theatre.
Actors
Jessica Tandy, 77, and Hume Cronyn, 75, are the only
married couple ever to receive the honors. They made a hit on Broadway in
1951 in the two-character comedy The Fourposter and again
later in The Gin Game. They are both Tony award winners.
Violinist
Yuhudi Menuhin, 70, launched his career at age 7 and was
instantly labeled a child prodigy. He debuted at Carnegie Hall with
the New York symphony at age 10 and at 12 began a distinguished
international career with the Berlin Symphony.
Others
In Attendance to Honor Lucy
- Ronald
Reagan, President of the United States - Nancy
Reagan, First Lady of the United States -
Gary Morton, Lucille Ball’s husband
- Walter
Matthau, Introducing the Lucille Ball Tribute Film - Robert
Stack, Reading a message from the late Desi Arnaz - Beatrice
Arthur, Performer in Lucille Ball’s Tribute Medley - Pam
Dawber, Performer in Lucille Ball’s Tribute Medley - Valerie
Harper, Performer in Lucille Ball’s Tribute Medley
The
honor began at a
black-tie dinner in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Dining
Room. The citations were read by Helen Hayes, a former honoree. Hayes had guest starred on “Here’s Lucy” in 1972. The
evening’s festivities included a reception in the East Room of the
White House, performances at the Kennedy Center, and a post-show
dinner dance at the Kennedy Center where guests dined on a post
performance meal of cold roast sirloin and rice salad, and danced to
the music of Woody Herman.
Clips
of the White House reception were incorporated into the telecast.
President
Reagan, speaking to the honorees at the White House, said:
“Tonight
we gather in this old grand house to pay tribute to six men and women
to to whom we Americans, and indeed millions around the world, find
ourselves deeply in debt. Others in the life of our nation have seen
to our material needs, built our roads, constructed our cities, given
us our daily bread. Still others have seen to the life of the mind,
founding our universities, expanding knowledge in every field. But
these six – these six – are artists and as such they performed a
different and singular task. To see to the deepest needs of the
heart.”
As
for Miss Ball, she could only nod her carrot-colored curls and, as
she looked about, and murmur, “I can’t believe it.”
~ The New York Times
Transcript of Reagan’s full remarks about Lucille Ball in the East Room:
When the first can of film arrived from California, it was taken by messenger from the airport to the offices of an advertising agency in Manhattan. An advertising executive, his friend, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, and the chairman of Philip Morris entered the screening room together. And then the lights went down, and the pilot film began. When it was over, Oscar Hammerstein gave his advice: “Buy the show. It’s a winner, and that actress is terrific.” And the name of that program was ‘I Love Lucy.’
In childhood, Lucille Ball loved going to vaudeville shows and movies, then reenacting the performances she had just seen. At 15 she left upstate New York to enroll in a drama school in New York City. But compared to the star pupil, Miss Ball felt, in her own words, ‘terrified and useless.’ So, she went back home to high school. By the way, that star pupil happened to be named Bette Davis. [Laughter] In time, Miss Ball returned to Broadway, worked as a soda jerk, got bit parts, then landed a job as the Chesterfield cigarette girl that led to her selection for a bit part in the 1933 Eddie Cantor film, ‘Roman Scandals.’ For the next decade and a half, Miss Ball learned her craft, appearing in more than 30 films. And then came ‘I Love Lucy.’
When it went on the air in 1951, “I Love Lucy” became the number one show within 6 months. It says something about the show’s hold on the country that on the occasion of little Ricky’s birth more people turned on ‘I Love Lucy’ than watched the inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower. [Laughter] And I know that Miss Ball would want us to pay tribute tonight to the man who produced ‘I Love Lucy’ and starred in it with her, one who meant so much to Lucy and all of us, the late Desi Arnaz. [Applause] ‘I Love Lucy’ was followed by more movies, including the 1974 production of ‘Mame,’ and by three more television shows: ‘The Lucy Show,’ ‘Here’s Lucy,’ and this year’s ‘Life With Lucy.’
It’s no secret that Lucy is a friend of Nancy’s and mine, and as far as I’m concerned, this redheaded bundle of energy is perhaps the finest comedienne of our time. And if I seem to get carried away, you’ll have to excuse me. You see, after all these years, just like every American and millions more around the world, I still love Lucy. [Laughter]
At
the Kennedy Center show the honorees sat in the box tier adjacent to
the Presidential Box as Walter Cronkite, the master of ceremonies,
greeted a glittering audience of more than 2,000 people.
Glenn
Close introduced the segment on Miss Tandy and Mr. Cronyn, and Quincy
Jones introduced the one on Mr. Charles, Agnes de Mille the one on Mr. Tudor, and
Peter Ustinov on Mr. Menuhin. Walter Matthau introduced the segment on Lucille Ball,
On
the program were a pas de deux by Leslie Browne and Robert Hill from
a Tudor ballet, The Leaves Are Fading; a song from Les
Miserables by Colm Wilkinson, a number from Me and My Girl with
Robert Lindsay and Jane Summerhays; appearances by Jose Ferrer,
Rosemary Harris and Edward Albee; a Stevie Wonder tribute to Ray
Charles with special lyrics to the tune of “I Just Called to Say I
Love You.”
Walter
Matthau recalled when Lucille Ball and Joe Lewis came to entertain the
troops during World War II. “They did different things.” This was Matthau’s first awareness of Lucille Ball.
A film retrospective charts Ball’s journey from New
York model to Hollywood’s Queen of the B Movies, to radio star and
television pioneer. The film includes a clip from “Lucy Does a
Television Commercial” aka “Vitameatavegamin.” The line
“It’s so tasty, too! Just like candy”
leads artfully to a clip from “Job Switching” aka “The
Chocolate Factory” with Lucy and Ethel fighting the ever escalating
speed of the conveyor belt. A third clip is from “The Operetta”
with Lucy (and the Pleasant Peasant Chorus) singing “Queen of the Gypsies.” The birth of Little
Ricky is depicted with “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (“This
is it!”) is
followed by a glimpse of Lucy Carmichael and Vivian Bagley dubbed in
a foreign language and a quick montage of stills from “The Lucy
Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” Wildcat and Mame
are seen at the film’s conclusion.
After
the film, the entire audience of 2,000 (including the President)
gives Lucille Ball a standing ovation. She seems genuinely moved by
this.
Robert
Stack enters to the theme music of “The Untouchables,” a Desilu
production. He reads a message from Desi Arnaz Sr., who had passed
away five days earlier. It ends with the words
“I Love Lucy was never just a
title.”
Stack introduces Beatrice Arthur (“The Golden Girls”),
Pam Dawber (“Mork and Mindy”), and Valerie Harper (“Rhoda”). Arthur had co-starred in Mame
with Lucille Ball. Harper was in the chorus of Wildcat
on Broadway. Lucy is noticeably surprised by Arthur’s appearance. The
trio sing a song parody of the “I Love Lucy” theme expressing
their affection for Lucy. The medley continues with the title song
from Mame
now
extolling Lucy. It ends with a specially-tailored “Hey Look Me
Over” from Wildcat.
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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