Giving Awards for the Memories : Bob Hope, Beverly Sills Among Kennedy Center Honorees

WASHINGTON â€”  Do you want to give thanks for the memories?

Do you remember Mama?

Those who vote for the Kennedy Center Honors--America’s closest thing to knighthood--do.

Starting Saturday, Washingtonians will have an entire weekend to thank Bob Hope for the memories and remember Irene Dunne’s performance in “I Remember Mama� as the two join dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham, singer Beverly Sills and the team of lyricist/playwright Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe in the 1985 Kennedy Center Honors gala weekend.

Chosen for their lifetime “artistic achievement� and “significant contributions to American culture,� the honorees will receive their awards at the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees dinner Saturday, to be followed by a Sunday bash that traditionally has left Washington star-struck ever since the awards began in 1978.

“To quote my friend Bob Hope,� Dunne said, “this is a goodie. I’m delighted.�

Sunday’s activities begin with a brunch at the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel. President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, then have the honorees and the star-studded cast of the evening’s gala salute to the White House for a reception, where it is always hard to tell who is oogling harder: the nation’s top politicians eyeing the Hollywood stars, or vice versa.

The Sunday night gala salute, which will be taped for a two-hour special to be aired on CBS on Dec. 27, is always the highlight of the affair. Names of the 30 top participants who will salute the honorees are held tightly under wraps, but it always includes an impressive list of the best of old and new Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the opera and dance world.

Hundreds of Washingtonians are expected to gather outside the Kennedy Center in freezing temperatures for a glimpse of the stars as they walk in, much the way fans gather outside the Academy Awards (but in better weather).

Highest Honor

The President and Mrs. Reagan attend, lending the affair its aura of official government recognition. It is widely considered the highest honor this country bestows its performing artists.

Past winners have included Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Helen Hayes, Ella Fitzgerald and Fred Astaire. Last year’s winners were singer Lena Horne, comedian Danny Kaye, composer-director Gian Carlo Menotti, playwright Arthur Miller and violinist Isaac Stern.

Winners are selected by the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.

Lerner, 67, was on the nominating committee for the awards, but said his award was “a total surprise.�

Lerner and his partner, Loewe, 81, are the first team to be honored. Together they are remembered for songs such as, “I Could Have Danced All Night,� “If Ever I Would Leave You� and “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,� and their most famous plays, “My Fair Lady,� “Camelot� and “Gigi.�

Hope, 82, is remembered for entertaining American troops, for his “Road to . . . “ movies with the late Bing Crosby, his television specials and his golf games with U.S. presidents.

In addition to playing the beloved Norwegian mother in “I Remember Mama,� Dunne is remembered for playing a variety of characters, from Magnolia in “Showboat� to the lively divorcee in “The Awful Truth.� She was nominated for Academy Awards for her roles in “Cimarron,� “Theodora Goes Wild,� “The Awful Truth,� “Love Affair� and “I Remember Mama.�

Sills, the youngest recipient at age 56, attained fame in the 1960s as a leading soprano with the New York City Opera. She has sung leading roles at virtually every major opera house in the world.

Cunningham, 66, has been considered a liberating force in the field of modern dance. Considered one of the dance world’s few revolutionaries, Cunningham is a recent recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant� and continues to experiment with chance as a choreographic tool.