[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[December 6, 1998]
[Pages 2132-2134]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Kennedy Center Honors Reception
December 6, 1998

    Thank you very much. The next time there will be three, and then 
four. [Laughter]
    Hillary and I are honored to have you back again for another Kennedy 
Center honors. You know, the conviction that our land of liberty should 
also be a home for creativity in the performing arts goes all the way 
back to the very first President ever to live in this great house, John 
Adams. He wished for an America where, and I quote, ``pomp and parade, 
shows and illuminations flourish from one end of this continent to 
another.'' Today, the illumination of our performing arts shines not 
only across the continent but, indeed, across the world as a life force 
of our free society.
    Dostoyevski defined the mission of artists as ``incessantly and 
eternally to make new roads, wherever they may lead.'' All the artists 
we honor tonight have traveled lifetimes across our stages, each in 
their own way, making those new roads. Their gifts of talent, heart, and 
spirit are joyous, indelible threads in the fabric of our national life. 
It is my honor to introduce them.
    The ``Tonight Show'' has seen a lot of comedians come and go, but 
one night in 1963, a young man by the name of Bill Cosby took the stage 
and took the Nation by storm. His hilariously deadpan descriptions of 
Noah loading the ark with animals--[laughter]--I still remember it, too; 
it was pretty funny--launched his career. But it was his deeply 
personal, universally funny caricatures of his childhood friends--like 
Fat Albert and Weird Harold--that made him famous. One critic wrote, 
``No comic ever entered a child's mind with so much empathy and gusto.''
    Bill Cosby's remarkable gift is to be able to look inside the human 
experience and all its depth and diversity and hold it up to the 
universal light of laughter, and in so doing, to allow all of us to 
return to our child's mind. For more than 30 years, he has made the 
ordinary business of life extraordinarily funny business--in best 
selling books like ``Fatherhood'' and ``Time Flies,'' blockbuster movies 
like ``Uptown Saturday Night,'' eight gold records, and, of course, 
there were some minor successes in television along the way--
[laughter]--``I Spy,'' ``The Cosby Show,'' his new hit series.
    Bill once said he wanted to make jokes about people's similarities, 
about what's universal in their experience, and in so doing, to bring us 
closer together. That is exactly what he has done. We thank him for the 
lessons and the laughter.
    Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bill Cosby. [Applause]
    The curtain parted, the painted face popped out, and ``Cabaret'' 
forever changed the musical theater. John Kander and Fred Ebb have given 
us dark and gleaming shows suffused with metallic melodies. Their 
musical left the happy days

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for the harder passages of our century--Germany at the decadent edge of 
the Nazi nightmare, a desperate dance marathon in the Depression era of 
Atlantic City, a jazz-age murder in Chicago, a jail cell in 
revolutionary South America. The New York Times wrote that they shook 
the ground under our feet--and they certainly set them tapping.
    With ``Cabaret,'' ``Chicago,'' ``Steel Pier,'' and ``Kiss of the 
Spider Woman,'' Kander and Ebb took us a long way from ``Oklahoma'' and 
``South Pacific.'' It has been a relentlessly syncopated journey, with 
lyrical wit, musical drama, bold and lovely songs that infiltrate our 
minds and never leave. One of those songs, known to every American, has 
become the anthem of ``New York, New York.'' [Laughter] After all, what 
good is sitting alone in a room when you can go out and see hit revivals 
of ``Chicago'' and ``Cabaret''?
    Fred Kander and John Ebb have entertained us, challenged us, and 
touched our consciences. Tonight we salute them for all the daring, all 
the shows, all the razzle-dazzle.
    Ladies and gentlemen, John Kander and Fred Ebb. [Applause]
    Willie Nelson's music has been a part of my life--like everybody 
from my part of the country--for a very long time now. After years of 
campaigning, we can always identify, Hillary and I, with what it's like 
to be ``On the Road Again.'' [Laughter]
    Willie Nelson is like America--always in the process of becoming. He 
changed all the rules about what country music was supposed to be. The 
granite-faced, long-haired man of the soil put down roots in folk, 
swing, pop, and rock and roll. And everywhere he went, he gave us 
something new. His songs are rugged and beautiful, raw and lilting; 
they're an individual, stubborn declaration of pride and hope amid a 
world of troubles. They're as restless as he is.
    The American highway has been Willie Nelson's second home. In fact, 
I think that bus of his has gone more miles than Air Force One. 
[Laughter] When someone once asked him why he went into music, he 
replied, ``I thought I could sing pretty good.'' Well, 200 albums and 5 
Grammy Awards later, we know he was right.
    A few years ago, the Texas Legislature declared July 4th to be 
Willie Nelson Day. Let me say that tonight is Willie Nelson's night all 
across America.
    Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Willie Nelson. [Applause]
    Anyone who went to the movies in the 1950's knew the music of Andre 
Previn before they knew his name. From ``Kismet'' to ``My Fair Lady'' 
and 50 other films, his scores and orchestrations were the sounds of the 
silver screen, winning fans and Oscars.
    For some musicians, this achievement might have been more than 
enough. But Andre Previn's hunger for great music could not be 
contained. The arc of his music is long, and he has soared across it. He 
has been called the greatest crossover artist since George Gershwin, and 
over the course of 50 years, quite literally, he has done it all. As a 
jazz musician, he has jammed with the best, from Charlie Parker to Ella 
Fitzgerald. As a conductor, his repertoire ranges from Bach to 
Stravinsky to Frank Zappa. As a composer, he has blazed a new trail in 
contemporary music. His new opera, ``A Streetcar Named Desire,'' which 
opened in San Francisco, is simply the latest challenge in a fearless 
career.
    Andre Previn was 9 years old when his family left Germany to find 
refuge here in America. Maestro Previn, I'm here to thank you for giving 
so much to those of us in your adopted country.
    Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Andre Previn. [Applause]
    I'm happy to welcome Shirley Temple Black back to the White House. 
But I'm not the first President to do it. She was 7 years old when 
President Roosevelt asked to meet her, to thank her for the smiling face 
that helped America through the Great Depression. The price of movie 
tickets has gone up a little since then--[laughter]--but her smile 
hasn't changed, and Shirley Temple continues to be a household word for 
generations who weren't even born when she left the silver screen 
behind.
    Let's face it, all little children are adorable, but how many can 
dance, sing, and act? She was the first child actor ever to carry a 
full-length A-list picture. She was the most sought-after star in 
Hollywood. Once, the New York Times hailed her as ``the greatest trouper 
of all--greater than Garbo, Hepburn, and Ginger Rogers.''
    Shirley Temple had the greatest short career in movie history--
[laughter]--and then gracefully retired to, as we all know, the far less 
strenuous life of public service. [Laughter] She did a masterful job as 
Ambassador, from Ghana

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to Czechoslovakia, where she made common cause with Vaclav Havel in the 
final, decisive days of the cold war. In fact, she has to be the only 
person who both saved an entire movie studio from failure and 
contributed to the fall of communism. [Laughter] From her childhood to 
the present day, Shirley has always been an ambassador for what is best 
about America.
    Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Shirley Temple Black. [Applause]
    Ladies and gentlemen, I just told Shirley's husband of 48 years, 
Charles, that I was watching one of her movies the other day, about the 
Civil War, and he said, ``Yes, that's the one where she met President 
Lincoln.'' And she told me, ``I didn't just meet President Roosevelt; I 
sat on Abraham Lincoln's lap.'' [Laughter]
    Ladies and gentlemen, this has been a wonderful night. I know we 
look forward to the honors. I thank you all for being here. And once 
again, let me thank our honorees for the great gifts they have given us. 
Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:46 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also 
included the remarks of Hillary Clinton.