Kennedy Center Honors

History

George Stevens, Jr. created the Kennedy Center Honors with the late Nick Vanoff, and produced the first gala in 1978. He was the producer and co-writer through the 2014 awards, after which he sold the production rights to the Kennedy Center.

The Kennedy Center Honors started in 1977, after that year's 10th-anniversary White House reception and Kennedy Center program for the American Film Institute (AFI). Roger L. Stevens, the founding chairman of the Kennedy Center, asked George Stevens, Jr., (no relation), the founding director of the AFI, to hold an event for the Center. George Stevens asked Isaac Stern to become involved, and then "pitched" the idea to the television network CBS, who "bought it." With the announcement of the first honors event and honorees, CBS vice president for specials Bernie Sofronski stated:

"George [Stevens] came to us with this. What turned us on is that this is the only show of its kind. In Europe and most countries, they have ways of honoring their actors and their athletes. England has its command performances for the queen. We see this as a national honoring of people who have contributed to society, not someone who happens to have a pop record hit at the moment...Our intention is not to do just another award show. We're going to make an effort in terms of a real special."

The first host was Leonard Bernstein in 1978, followed by Eric Sevareid in 1979 and Beverly Sills in 1980. Walter Cronkite hosted from 1981 to 2002 and Caroline Kennedy hosted from 2003 until 2012. Glenn Close was host in 2013 and Stephen Colbert has hosted since 2014.

Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss of White Cherry Entertainment were selected as Executive Producers of the 38th annual Kennedy Center Honors (2015) after George Stevens, Jr. stepped down.

This is one of the few awards shows that does not air live (with the exception of closed-circuit venues), but a re-edited 92-minute version generally airs on CBS after the Christmas holiday.

Selection process

Honoree recommendations are accepted from the general public, and the Kennedy Center initiated a Special Honors Advisory Committee, which comprises two members of the Board of Trustees as well as past Honorees and distinguished artists. The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees selects the Honoree recipients based on excellence in music, dance, theater, opera, motion pictures or television.

The events

The invitation-only weekend-long ceremony includes the Chairman's Luncheon, State Department dinner, White House reception and the Honors gala performances and supper.

Surrounded by the Honorees, the luncheon is held on Saturday at the Kennedy Center, with a welcoming speech by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. At that evening's reception and dinner at the State Department, presided over by the Secretary of State, the Honorees are introduced and the Honors medallions are presented by the Chairman of the Board. The wide rainbow-colored ribbon then hung around the necks of the recipients, and prominently noticeable when the events are televised, symbolizes "a spectrum of many skills within the performing arts" according to creator Ivan Chermayeff.

On Sunday, there is an early-evening White House reception hosted by the President of the United States and the First Lady, followed by the Honors gala performance at the Kennedy Center and supper.

For the 2015 gala performance, President Barack Obama did attend, after addressing the nation in a live telecast. There have been three occasions where the President did not attend the gala performances: President Jimmy Carter did not attend the December 1979 gala performance during the hostage crisis, President George H.W. Bush did not attend in December 1989 and President Bill Clinton did not attend in 1994.

Recipients

There have been 200 recipients to date of the Kennedy Center Honors Awards during the Honor's 39 years. The vast majority have been bestowed on individuals. On ten occasions since 1985, awards have been presented to duos or groups, including three married couples: lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, actors Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, musical-comedy duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green, dancers Fayard Nicholas and Harold Nicholas, actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb, actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, musicians Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who and the members of Led Zeppelin and The Eagles.

1970s

1978 — Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers, and Arthur Rubinstein

1979 — Aaron Copland, Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Fonda, Martha Graham, and Tennessee Williams

1980s

1980 — Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Agnes de Mille, Lynn Fontanne, and Leontyne Price

1981 — Count Basie, Cary Grant, Helen Hayes, Jerome Robbins, and Rudolf Serkin

1982 — George Abbott, Lillian Gish, Benny Goodman, Gene Kelly, and Eugene Ormandy

1983 — Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, and Virgil Thomson

1984 — Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Gian Carlo Menotti, Arthur Miller, and Isaac Stern

1985 — Merce Cunningham, Irene Dunne, Bob Hope, Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe, and Beverly Sills

1986 — Lucille Ball, Ray Charles, Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy, Yehudi Menuhin, and Antony Tudor

1987 — Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Nathan Milstein, and Alwin Nikolais

1988 — Alvin Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider, and Roger L. Stevens

1989 — Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert, Alexandra Danilova, Mary Martin, and William Schuman

1990s

1990 — Dizzy Gillespie, Katharine Hepburn, Risë Stevens, Jule Styne, and Billy Wilder

1991 — Roy Acuff, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Fayard & Harold Nicholas, Gregory Peck, and Robert Shaw

1992 — Lionel Hampton, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Ginger Rogers, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Paul Taylor

1993 — Johnny Carson, Arthur Mitchell, Georg Solti, Stephen Sondheim, and Marion Williams

1994 — Kirk Douglas, Aretha Franklin, Morton Gould, Harold Prince, and Pete Seeger

1995 — Jacques d'Amboise, Marilyn Horne, B.B. King, Sidney Poitier, and Neil Simon

1996 — Edward Albee, Benny Carter, Johnny Cash, Jack Lemmon, and Maria Tallchief

1997 — Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Jessye Norman, and Edward Villella

1998 — Bill Cosby, Fred Ebb & John Kander, Willie Nelson, André Previn, and Shirley Temple Black

1999 — Victor Borge, Sean Connery, Judith Jamison, Jason Robards, and Stevie Wonder

2000s

2000 — Mikhail Baryshnikov, Chuck Berry, Plácido Domingo, Clint Eastwood, and Angela Lansbury

2001 — Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson, and Luciano Pavarotti

2002 — James Earl Jones, James Levine, Chita Rivera, Paul Simon, and Elizabeth Taylor

2003 — James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols, and Itzhak Perlman

2004 — Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, Elton John, Joan Sutherland, and John Williams

2005 — Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris, Robert Redford, and Tina Turner

2006 — Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Steven Spielberg, and Andrew Lloyd Webber

2007 — Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese, and Brian Wilson

2008 — Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Twyla Tharp, and The Who (Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey)

2009 — Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro, and Bruce Springsteen

2010s

2010 — Merle Haggard, Jerry Herman, Bill T. Jones, Paul McCartney, and Oprah Winfrey

2011 — Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins, and Meryl Streep

2012 — Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman, Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant), David Letterman, and Natalia Makarova

2013 — Martina Arroyo, Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine, and Carlos Santana

2014 — Al Green, Tom Hanks, Patricia McBride, Sting, and Lily Tomlin

2015 — Carole King, George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Seiji Ozawa, and Cicely Tyson

2016 — Martha Argerich, Eagles (Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit and Joe Walsh, with Glenn Frey), Al Pacino, Mavis Staples, James Taylor

Prospective honorees who declined, canceled or postponed

Pianist Vladimir Horowitz was to be an honoree, but the selection committee withdrew the offer when Horowitz conditioned his acceptance on being honored alone and at 4 in the afternoon. Actress Katharine Hepburn declined the committee's first offer, though she relented in 1990.

Doris Day repeatedly turned down the honors because her fear of flying prevented her from attending the ceremony.

When considering Irving Berlin for the 1987 awards because of criticism for overlooking him, the Center was informed that Berlin wanted to be honored only if he surpassed his 100th birthday (which would not be until May 1988). Also, he was in failing health, being confined to a wheelchair following a series of strokes, and could not attend a public event. The Center instead chose to pay special tribute to him at the 1987 Gala. He died in 1989.

Paul McCartney was selected as an honoree in 2002, but was unable to attend because of an "inescapable personal obligation," his cousin's previously planned wedding. After initially saying that McCartney's award would be postponed until the following year, the Kennedy Center announced in August 2003 that "Paul McCartney will not be receiving a Kennedy Center Honor." McCartney later became a 2010 honoree.

In November 2015, one month before the actual ceremony, the Eagles postponed their honors until the following year because Glenn Frey had intestinal problems that required major surgery and a long recovery period. Despite their absence, they were still honored in 2015 via a performance of "Desperado" by country singer Miranda Lambert. Glenn Frey died on January 18, 2016, though the Center made him and the three surviving members a 2016 honoree.