Night of Nostalgia at Kennedy Center Honors

The couple who married Hollywood to Washington wouldn’t take their final bow until the end of the star-studded weekend, but on Saturday night the mix of politics and performance that marked the Reagan Era was already colored with the soft patina of nostalgia.

As the 11th annual Kennedy Center Honors got under way, with the select crowd cramming the formal reception room and dining room in the State Department, one strong theme of conversation was that this was the last time the Reagans would preside over such pre-eminentawards. An additional note of sadness was the much-remarked absence of Bonita Wrather, the Reagan confidante and many-times chair of the Honors Gala, who died earlier this year.

“I miss her all the time,” said Marion Jorgensen, who stepped in to take over “Bunny’s” job this year.

There was a little more politics and a little less glitter than in past years--but maybe that too is part of the times. Despite the crowd, previous dinners have kept politics to a minimum. That tradition ended when violinist Isaac Stern took the podium to toast honoree Roger Stevens, founder of the National Endowment of the Arts and the man who helped make the Kennedy Center a reality. (The dinners always follow the same pattern--a short speech about each of the honorees, followed by a toast by a friend, followed by the awarding of the medal, this year by the new head of Kennedy Center, Ralph Davidson, and various functionaries.)

“First, I would like to say a word to (Secretary of State) George Shultz,” Stern began. In each American, Stern said, there was a “vision of what America can be, what America can represent, and what America can stand for . . . the ideal of being an American, George Shultz is one of those.”

(Shultz earlier in the receiving line was ebullient, saying that he was off Jan. 20 “to a couch at Stanford.”)

Created in 1978

The Kennedy Center Honors were created in 1978 to significantly salute those who have achieved lifelong distinction in the performing arts. But when Ronald and Nancy Reagan came to town in 1981, the star element--and the glamour element--took a quantum leap. The end of that era was made clear this year by a scheduling conflict that set a screening of “My Stepmother Is an Alien,” the new film from Jerry Weintraub, on Saturday night, which was attended by a number of top stars along with Weintraub’s great friend, President-elect George Bush.

Bush, however, was rumored to be set for making a surprise appearance Sunday night at the finale of the two-hour Honors Gala program. That would be the first time a current President and a President-elect both attended the Honors Gala. The show was to contain more than a soupcon of nostalgia because, insiders said, Bush would join the performers in singing “Auld Lang Syne”--as the Reagans and the honorees looked down from the presidential box.

The Honors was a lot more than that show itself. In the 36-hour-plus period, starting with the State Department dinner, celebrities and politicos then moved on to a jammed brunch at the Ritz-Carlton on Sunday. From there, it was the honors show itself and a gigantic post-gala dinner and dance in the Kennedy Center’s Grand Foyer. President and Mrs. Reagan also received the honorees and others at a pre-performance White House reception Sunday.

At the awards ceremony Saturday night, the five honorees--Stevens, comedian George Burns, actress Myrna Loy, choreographer Alvin Ailey and violinist Alexander Schneider--were warmly embraced by the audience and those who toasted them.

Isaac Stern on Stevens, who from 1961 to this year served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of what was called the National Cultural Center and is now Kennedy Center: “It was astounding to what degree that Roger fought our battles without ever letting us get near this warfare,” then added a lengthy imitation of Stevens’ mumbling style.

Actress Lee Remick on Loy: “She created an original character . . . sexuality, availability and great elegance . . . soft and vulnerable and strong.”

Actor Hal Holbrook on Ailey: “At first he wasn’t sure a black man would be allowed to succeed--outside the areas of tap or jazz or ethnic dance. . . . (But he) brought new life and new audiences to dance.”

Singer Dinah Shore on Burns: “As we embraced tonight, I realized he had slipped me his room key. I was flattered. . . . You are really something . . . every woman’s ideal and every man’s idol.”

In the audience, former New York Gov. Hugh Carey was seated next to actress Faye Dunaway; USIA Chief Charles Wick greeted Los Angeles interior designer Laura Mako; MCA’s Lew and Edie Wasserman were joined by former Sen. Abe and Casey Ribicoff and did a little star-sighting themselves. “Look,” said Edie Wasserman, happily surprised, “that’s Cab Calloway over there.”

Faces in the Crowd

Also in the crowd: Kennedy Honors co-producer Nick and Felicia Vanoff; Kennedy Center supporter Herb Huttner with his wife, Juli; Kennedy Center board member Dennis Stanfill with his wife, Terry; actor Roddy McDowall; actress Cicely Tyson; CBS chairman Lawrence Tisch and Fred Rappoport with his wife, actress Michelle Lee; Dan Rather; and Walter Cronkite. Also there were the Mark Taper’s Gordon and Judi Davidson, songwriter Marvin Hamlisch and actress Dina Merrill.

This theatrical bunch was interspersed with such political types as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Across town there was an equally interesting mix, but this time at a dinner party given by Democratic activist Pamela Harriman. She hosted “Mississippi Burning” star Gene Hackman and Orion Pictures head Mike Medavoy and his wife, Patricia, along with well-established political types such as former assistant secretary of state Dick Holbrook, there with Sarah Giles, joined for after-dinner coffee by the songwriting team of Adolph Green and Betty Comden and Green’s wife, actress Phyllis Newman. (That trio had attended the State Department dinner, but, interestingly, despite their extraordinary Broadway successes and Hollywood triumphs that included “Singing in the Rain,” they have never been given the Honors, nor has Claudette Colbert, another attendee at the formal dinner.)