The Kennedy Center Honors, televised each year since 1978 as a tribute to great artists of stage, screen, television, musical theater, and dance, are a time we as a nation get a chance to reminisce about those artists that have seemingly always been a part of our lives. Each year the same approach is used: a well-known individual who knows the recipient introduces them, a video highlights the honorees life, the audience stands to applaud them (and so do we), another well-known "star" introduces the entertainment, and a variety show of sorts unfolds, usually in the genre reflecting that of the honoree. Although many of the almost 30 televised specials have been highly entertaining, the 1985 telecast is one of the best. Honorees Beverly Sills, Irene Dunne, Merce Cunningham, Lerner and Leowe, and Bob Hope are not only household names (well-perhaps not Cunningham), but certainly among the top-ten favorites of many of us. The video clips this year are exceptional in coverage and the introductions and entertainment of no less than Frederica van Stade, Sherill Milnes, Robert Goulet, Chevy Chase, Jimmy Stewart, and Carol Burnett, is outstanding. For those of us currently in our 50's or older, a lifetime of entertainment flashes before our eyes in this one show. As the men in uniform at the close of the show say to Bob Hope, we can say to all of these honorees: "Thanks for the memories."
