Ongoing omissions a Kennedy Center dishonor

To: George Stevens Jr.

Producer and Co-Founder

Kennedy Center Honors

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Dear George:

I see you were scheduled to hand out this year’s Kennedy Center Honors over the weekend and Artie Shaw wasn’t on the list. Remember Artie Shaw? Only one of the greatest instrumentalists in the history of American popular music -- a living legend from the big-band era.

You thought he was dead? Wrong. Artie’s 93 years young and going strong. It might be a good idea for your selections committee to check details like that before next year’s ceremonies; otherwise people might get the idea that the KenCen honors don’t always go to -- as your news release says -- “the great artists who have made a profound contribution to American culture.”

No reflection on this year’s honorees [whose tribute ceremony will be telecast on CBS Dec. 26]. Who’s to argue that James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols and Itzhak Perlman aren’t great artists in their fields? Or that Carol, for example, isn’t “a nationally treasured icon of television comedy”?

Not me. I loved “The Carol Burnett Show.” But if we’re looking for nationally treasured icons, how is it that the godfather of TV comedy, Milton Berle, died last year, at age 94, without being honored?

Your Kennedy Center Chairman, James A. Johnson, claims the awards are made each year for “the unique contributions the recipients have made to the cultural life of our nation.” So tell me, George, where did Uncle Miltie fall short on that score? Could it be he was culturally incorrect, or that like Artie, his name was too far out of the past to draw the Emmy-type ratings you want for your televised awards show?

I’d hate to think so. But it’s either that or your selections committee is consistently out to lunch in overlooking such treasured icons as Sid Caesar (age 81), Oscar Peterson (78), Eli Wallach (88), Eddie Arnold (95) and Doris Day (79). Not to mention Tony Bennett (77), George Shearing (84) and -- though you gave Johnny Carson due honor 10 years ago -- the surviving godfather of late-night television, Jack Paar (85).

Understood, handing out awards is no easy matter. Even the Nobel Committee makes mistakes (Yasser Arafat wins the Peace Prize?). But what brought Artie to mind was the recent story of Donald O’Connor’s wry joke a few days before he died: “I’d just like to thank the Motion Picture Academy,” he told his daughter, “for the lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get.”

Remember Donald O’Connor? The “Make ‘em Laugh” routine from “Singin’ in the Rain.” Now there was a national treasure. Too bad he, like Uncle Miltie, didn’t stay around long enough to get what was coming to him.

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Victor Gold is national correspondent for Washingtonian magazine. He lives in Washington, D.C.