Kennedy Center Honors Ella Fitzgerald 1979 w/ Peggy Lee

[+ WilliamM]

In a few days the Kennedy Center will broadcast the 2015 honors (from late November/early December). We do not write much about jazz here, But jazz singers do not get much better than Ella.

 

[bigvalboy]

In a few days the Kennedy Center will broadcast the 2015 honors (from late November/early December). We do not write much about jazz here, But jazz singers do not get much better than Ella.

 

 

Thanks William....this made my day.

[+ WilliamM]

Ella and Peggy Lee both appeared in Jack Webb's 1950s film "Pete Kelly's Blues." It was Lee who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

 

Tennessee Williams is sitting next to Ella Fitzgerald.

[MrMiniver]

In a few days the Kennedy Center will broadcast the 2015 honors (from late November/early December). We do not write much about jazz here, But jazz singers do not get much better than Ella.

 

 

Those were the days I was still involved with that event. I attended every single one from the first one in 1978 until around 2005 when they really started going downhill. They started ignoring great older artists and started honoring people that have no business being in that box of honor (Oprah, Letterman, Led Zeppelin, The Who). Just look at this year's list .... Rita Moreno. Really? George Lucas. Really? Seiji Ozawa. Really? It just keeps getting worse.

 

The year Ella was honored, they also honored Henry Fonda, Aaron Copland, Martha Graham and Tennessee Williams. Now those were artists.

[+ WilliamM]

 

The year Ella was honored, they also honored Henry Fonda, Aaron Copland, Martha Graham and Tennessee Williams. Now those were artists.

 

The year Ella was honored was the second Kennedy Center Honors. The Kennedy Center had a pick from dozens of people who deserved the honor. Common sense is that eventually that large group of people would pass from the scene. As you well know, MrMiniver, even Ethel Merman did not make the cut, but Mary Martin, who lived longer, did.

[MrMiniver]

The year Ella was honored was the second Kennedy Center Honors. The Kennedy Center had a pick from dozens of people who deserved the honor. Common sense is that eventually that large group of people would pass from the scene. As you well know, MrMiniver, even Ethel Merman did not make the cut, but Mary Martin, who lived longer, did.

 

They have still had a large group to pick from who were still alive at the time they've been honoring undeserving people like Hanks, Oprah, Letterman. Merman would've been honored had she not died as would Gwen Verdon.

 

But they passed over everyone from Mickey Rooney to Olivia de Havilland to Carol Channing to Elaine Stritch and any number of rock pioneers of the 1950s and 60s to honor "bigger younger names" and that is quite sad. Those people hadn't "passed from the scene" they were just passed over.

 

They've also passed over Gene Hackman, James Garner, Mary Tyler Moore, Robert Duvall ... any one of which would be far more deserving than Rita Moreno.

[+ WilliamM]

 

They've also passed over Gene Hackman, James Garner, Mary Tyler Moore, Robert Duvall ... any one of which would be far more deserving than Rita Moreno.

 

James Garner died in 2014, so Rita Moreno did not take his spot this year. Isn't the Kennedy Center attempting more racial diversity in its selection, thus Rita Moreno.

 

I understand why Merman was not honored. The point was there were so many people richly deserving of the Kennedy Center Honors in the first decade and longer, it was impossible to get to everyone.

[MrMiniver]

James Garner died in 2014, so Rita Moreno did not take his spot this year. Isn't the Kennedy Center attempting more racial diversity in its selection, thus Rita Moreno.

 

I understand why Merman was not honored. The point was there were so many people richly deserving of the Kennedy Center Honors in the first decade and longer, it was impossible to get to everyone.

 

So the Kennedy Center had 35 years to honor Garner and chose not to and chose younger honorees like Oprah and Tom Hanks. Wanna make that case? And you picked one person ... how about Duvall? Hackman? You seriously think that Rita Moreno's career is of more artistic significance than either of those? It's basically been milking one role almost 60 years ago for 60 plus years without any truly significant work since.

 

Yes, in the first decade that was true ... but all of the people I mentioned lived for 2 plus more decades after and many are still alive and they are still not being honored.

 

As for racial quotas (not diversity), yes, that's when I stopped being involved. When it became more and more obvious that instead of honoring the MOST deserving artists they decided there had to be at least one woman every year, one black, one this, one that. If that's the case, they should call it LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT in the ARTS with a RACIAL QUOTA. At least be honest about what they're doing.

 

But affirmative action when giving out artistic awards is completely wrong, IMHO.

[+ WilliamM]

 

As for racial quotas (not diversity), yes, that's when I stopped being involved. When it became more and more obvious that instead of honoring the MOST deserving artists they decided there had to be at least one woman every year, one black, one this, one that. If that's the case, they should call it LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT in the ARTS with a RACIAL QUOTA. At least be honest about what they're doing.

 

But affirmative action when giving out artistic awards is completely wrong, IMHO.

 

At least one woman was selected for the Kennedy Center Honors every year since the beginning. And almost every year there was at least one African-American since the beginning

 

There were fewer Latino, thus the effort to correct the error.

 

As for being honest about Latinos and others, the Kennedy Center was honest about developing more outreach to neglected communities.

[MrMiniver]

At least one woman was selected for the Kennedy Center Honors every year since the beginning. And almost every year there was at least one African-American since the beginning

 

There were fewer Latino, thus the effort to correct the error.

 

As for being honest about Latinos and others, the Kennedy Center was honest about developing more outreach to neglected communities.

 

Okay, let's play that game. Name a deserving Latino artist in the past 35 years who was undeservedly overlooked while they honored a lesser white or black or female person. Just one.

 

It wasn't an "error" to honor people who were deserving regardless of skin tone or gender. It is an "error" to honor people solely for that reason.

 

Yes, there's always been a time when there was often a woman or more than one and a black honored in any given year but they were all deserving. It's only in the past decade when they ran out of deserving minorities that they started overlooking deserving artists and started honoring people solely for skin color. I find that sad.

 

But it's even sadder that you would defend a practice that sees deserving artists overlooked in order to "outreach to neglected communities." That's exactly what's wrong with our world.

 

I'd still like to hear the case that Rita Moreno or Morgan Freeman was more deserving than Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, or Mary Tyler Moore -- all of who have been icons in this country for over 4 decades.

[+ WilliamM]

.

 

Yes, there's always been a time when there was often a woman or more than one and a black honored in any given year but they were all deserving. It's only in the past decade when they ran out of deserving minorities that they started overlooking deserving artists and started honoring people solely for skin color. I find that sad.

 

But it's even sadder that you would defend a practice that sees deserving artists overlooked in order to "outreach to neglected communities." That's exactly what's wrong with our world.

 

I'd still like to hear the case that Rita Moreno or Morgan Freeman was more deserving than Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, or Mary Tyler Moore -- all of who have been icons in this country for over 4 decades.

 

a) I am not playing your "game."

 

b) (paragraph 1 above) That is not what you said about women in your previous post

 

c) It was the Kennedy Center's decision to make a change, not mine.

 

d) Everyone who follows the Kennedy Center Honors has favorites, seldom the same people. I am not playing that game either

 

e) Your issues with the Kennedy Center should be discussed in the appropriate forum, the political forum. I shall be happy to discuss it with you there.