[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[December 3, 2000]
[Pages 2607-2609]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Kennedy Center Honors Reception
December 3, 2000

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator. [Laughter] I'm trying to get used to that. I want to--
[laughter]--look, I've got to take every opportunity I can to practice 
here. [Laughter]
    I want to welcome you all here, especially, of course, our honorees 
and other artists and former honorees; Members of Congress who are 
here--Senator and Mrs. Lott, welcome; we're glad to see you--and to all our other 
distinguished guests.
    As Hillary said, it has been a profound honor for us and a great joy 
to do these Kennedy Center Honors for 8 years in a row now. We thank the 
people we honor tonight and their predecessors for lifting our spirits 
and broadening our horizons.
    Thirty-eight years ago, President Kennedy wrote that ``art means 
more than a resuscitation of the past. It means the free and unconfined 
search for new ways of expressing the experience of the present and the 
vision of the future.'' Each in their own way, tonight's honorees have 
brought to a venerable art form a spark of the new and unexpected. And 
each has left it more modern, more brilliant, and forever changed for 
the better. Now, let me present them.
    Very few people visit the East Room, where we now are, and find 
themselves in danger of striking the 20-foot ceiling. [Laughter] But 
that is exactly what happened to Mikhail Baryshnikov when he arrived to rehearse for a White House 
performance in 1979. With a portable stage set up, even this stately 
ceiling was too low for his trademark soaring leaps. No ceiling or 
boundary, not even the Iron Curtain, has ever held him back for long.
    His successful performance of that 
night was televised for millions of Americans as ``Baryshnikov at the 
White House,'' another step towards cementing his reputation as the 
greatest male classical dancer of our time. With his daring leap to 
freedom in 1974, he also inspired millions with the idea of liberty, and 
he used his freedom to move beyond classical ballet to movies and to 
Broadway and, in 1976, to fulfill a lifelong dream by bounding onto the 
stage of American modern dance. And it has never been the same since.
    From ``Push Comes To Shove'' to his pathbreaking White Oak Dance 
Project, Mikhail Baryshnikov has pushed 
the boundaries of a challenging art form even as he has broadened its 
audience. He continues to give brilliant performances at an age when 
most of us are, frankly, being told to get our exercise in private. 
[Laughter]
    So tonight America says, thank you, Mikhail 
Baryshnikov, for the heights to which 
you have lifted the art of dance and the heights to which you have 
lifted all of us. Thank you.
    No less an authority than John Lennon once said, ``If you tried to 
give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.'' [Laughter] The Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling 
Stones all copied him, but Chuck Berry was the original. He fused 
country and blues into a new sound that was distinctly American and 
utterly new. And 40 years later, the Chuck Berry sound still blazes 
across our stages and from our radios.
    He is, quite simply, one of the 20th 
century's most influential musicians. His guitar riffs were some of 
rock's first, and they're still some of its greatest. His stage moves, 
especially the duckwalk, which he invented, are often imitated, 
sometimes intentionally--[laughter]--but never equalled. His fresh and 
vivid lyrics captured American life, whether you're rich or poor, young 
or not so young, and they suggested the rhythms of a new and better day 
for black and white Americans alike. NASA even sent Chuck Berry's music 
on a space probe searching for intelligent life in outer space. 
[Laughter] Well, now, if they're out there, they're duckwalking. 
[Laughter]
    It was my great honor to invite Chuck to 
play at both my Inaugurals and my 25th reunion

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at Georgetown University, which we held here on the White House grounds. 
I, too, have loved him for more than 40 years. So we say, thank you, 
Chuck Berry, for making us laugh, making us shout, making us dance, and 
making us happy together. Thank you.
    These days you hear a lot of people saying we need to change the 
tenor here in Washington. [Laughter] They are not talking about Placido 
Domingo. [Laughter] We are truly blessed to 
have him as artistic director, as a conductor, and still performing as 
one of the greatest operatic tenors of all time.
    It is almost now impossible to imagine opera without him. He has performed 118 roles, probably more than any 
other tenor ever. He is still adding new ones. He has set new standards, 
and he has worked unceasingly to bring opera to a wider audience through 
movies, television, and live concerts, and of course, especially as one 
of the famed Three Tenors. Their concerts have brought operatic singing 
to an audience of one billion people across the globe. Think about it: 
one in six people has thrilled to the sound of this man's voice.
    But he has always been more than a 
voice. As a young man, he prepared for later life in Washington as an 
amateur bullfighter. [Laughter] Now, instead of a cape, however, he 
waves the baton, which means that he is the only person in Washington 
who gets at least a finite group of people to do what he tells them to 
do. [Laughter]
    As a visionary artistic director of opera here in Washington and in 
Los Angeles, a frequent performer around our Nation, he has truly sparked the rebirth of American opera. And 
he has shared his prodigious gifts wider, in support of disaster relief 
efforts from Armenia to Acapulco. Through his annual vocal competition 
he has championed young singers all over the world and has worked to 
bring opera to places it has never before been heard.
    So we say thank you--thank you, Placido Domingo, for sharing with us your matchless artistry and for 
being a true citizen of the world.
    For more than 35 years now, Clint Eastwood has been one of America's favorite movie stars. Of 
course, he's also an Oscar-winning director. He's actually done pretty 
well for a former elected official. [Laughter] I hope I am half as 
successful. [Laughter]
    I think he didn't keep running for office 
because he realized once you get in politics, you can't do what he did 
in most of his movies to your adversaries--[laughter]--although you can 
wish to do it, from time to time. [Laughter]
    His path to stardom began with bit parts 
in movies that starred a tarantula and a talking mule. His break came in 
the spaghetti western ``A Fistful of Dollars,'' an Italian movie filmed 
in Spain, based on a classic Japanese film. [Laughter] But the rest is 
history for the Italians, the Spanish, the Japanese, and most of all, 
for the Americans.
    ``The Man With No Last Name'' has truly become a household name. 
His characters have ranged the peaks and 
valleys of human experience, from urban vigilantes to mythical cowboys, 
from troubled artists to Secret Service agents. And while he keeps 
making top-grossing movies, Clint Eastwood also keeps taking risks, 
playing against type, making small, thoughtful films that no one else 
would, quietly building a second career as one of our best directors, 
composing songs for five of his movies, and turning his lifelong love of 
jazz into a movie about the legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker.
    Like the strong, silent cowboy he so often played, Clint 
Eastwood has become a quiet force in American 
film and a star for the ages. We thank you, Clint Eastwood, for giving 
us a lot to cheer about and lately, a lot to think about. Thank you very 
much.
    Earlier this decade, TV Guide gave Angela Lansbury a perfect 100 on its lovability index. [Laughter] Now, 
that's what we need more of in Washington. [Laughter] There's no mystery 
why. She's known and adored by tens of millions of viewers as Jessica 
Fletcher on ``Murder She Wrote.'' But fans who have followed her 
remarkable career know her just as well as Broadway's greatest stage 
mother of them all, Gypsy Rose Lee. And everyone who loves movies about 
politics remembers her brilliant performances in ``The Manchurian 
Candidate'' and ``State of the Union.''
    The United States was lucky to welcome Angela Lansbury to our shores as a child refugee from the Nazi bombing 
of London in 1940. Just 4 years later, she made her first movie and won 
her first Oscar nomination. She went on to earn two more and became an 
acclaimed actress in an impressive variety of roles.
    Hollywood alone couldn't hold her. She 
conquered Broadway in ``Mame'' and went on to

[[Page 2609]]

win four Tony Awards. Then she found television, and ``Murder She 
Wrote,'' which began in 1984, continued for 12 successful seasons.
    Over her career her acting has given us 
a window into the full range of human emotion and experience. Her 
inventiveness and courage have inspired her colleagues, and her 
commitment to charity, especially the fight against AIDS, should inspire 
us all.
    Well, Angela, you earned your perfect 
score. And we thank you for a wonderful lifetime of gifts.
    Well, there they are, ladies and gentlemen: Mikhail 
Baryshnikov, who soared out of the 
Soviet Union and into our hearts; Chuck Berry, 
who rock-and-rolled his way from segregated St. Louis into the American 
mainstream; Placido Domingo, who brought the 
songs from Spain and changed the tenor of America's music; Clint 
Eastwood, who rose out of Depression-era 
California to earn a place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; and Angela 
Lansbury, who left her childhood home in 
England to become American royalty.
    Each one has given us something unique and enriched us beyond 
measure. Together they bring us closer to President Kennedy's vision of 
art as a great unifying and humanizing experience. Their triumphs have 
lifted our Nation and left us a better and richer place.
    Again let me say to all of you, this night and every night before, 
it has been a profound honor for Hillary and me. You may find people who 
do this night better in the future; you will never find anybody who 
loves it as much.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 6 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. 
In his remarks, he referred to Patricia Thompson Lott, wife of Senator 
Trent Lott.