"An American Pageant of the Arts" with JFK, Yo-Yo Ma, Newhart, Belafonte, Bernstein, Frost... (1962)

An historic release from the Kennedy Center's archives -- Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower are special guests at "An American Pageant of the Arts" -- a fundraising event for the National Cultural Center, on November 29, 1962.

The main stage was at the D.C. National Guard Armory, where five thousand attendees paid $100 a plate to attend the black-tie event. Other performances were beamed in from Chicago, Illinois, and President Eisenhower attended from Augusta, Georgia.

Leonard Bernstein hosted the evening, expounding on the significance and importance of the arts while introducing some of the nation's top performers across music, dance and theater.

The lineup included actor/comedian Danny Kaye, singer Marian Anderson, poet Robert Frost, dancer Maria Tallchief, pianists Andre Previn and Van Cliburn, seven-year-old cellist Yo-Yo Ma and sister Yeou-Cheng Ma on piano, actor Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain, comedian Bob Newhart, singer Harry Belafonte, actors Frederic March, Florence Eldridge, Bradford Dillman, Colleen Dewhurst, and Jason Robards Jr. under the direction of Jose Quintero, soprano Dorothy Kiersten and tenor Richard Tucker, the United States Navy Band, the National Symphony Orchestra, and many more.

The purpose of the event was to raise funds for the National Cultural Center, begun under Eisenhower's administration and encouraged under Kennedy's. First Ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower were particularly involved as Honorary Chairs of the institution.

Two months after President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the National Cultural Center (designed by Edward Durell Stone) as a "living memorial" to John F. Kennedy.

Source:
https://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2017/11/28/creating-national-culture-center

More info on the history of the Kennedy Center can be found here: https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/history/

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