Six Performers Receive Kennedy Center Honor

For all the awards given in the performing arts, many people feel none tops the Kennedy Center Honors.

Commemorating lifetime achievement, the medal bestowed upon several recipients each year designates the best of the best in American entertainment. Staged earlier this month in Washington, D.C., the 1998 ceremony will be televised at 9 p.m. Wednesday on KIRO-TV, with Walter Cronkite in his traditional role as host.

This year's recipients are: comedian Bill Cosby, the Broadway songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb ("Cabaret"), country-music star Willie Nelson, composer-conductor Andre Previn and child movie star turned U.S. diplomat Shirley Temple Black.

Performers saluting them during the two-hour broadcast include Christine Baranski, Joel Grey, Kris Kristofferson, Jack Lemmon, Lyle Lovett, Shelby Lynne, Liza Minnelli, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita Rivera, Sinbad and Dwight Yoakam. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also appears, paying tribute to Black's international goodwill efforts during four presidential administrations.

"Federal Express," Black laughed in explaining how she learned she was a Kennedy Center honoree. "I was home alone one morning, and the truck came and put a big envelope at the front door. I opened it, it said `The Kennedy Center Honors,' and I thought it was a request for me to present an award to someone. I read the letter and gave a wonderful shriek, but my dog was the only one who heard me. You're sworn to secrecy until the other honorees have accepted or declined, but I can't imagine anyone saying, `Sorry, I'm busy that night.' "

Black broke the rules a bit by telling her husband, marine researcher Charles Black, about the award when he came home that evening. "He's very trustworthy," she insists. "We've just had our 48th anniversary, so he knows all my secrets."

Musing that it's still "pretty lively when I go to my local market," Black hasn't made many public appearances since ending her political career in 1992. She returned to Hollywood last March for an Oscar-ceremony gathering of Academy Award-winning stars. When her name was announced, she received the longest, most thunderous applause of any of the actors there.

"Marisa Tomei was sitting next to me," Black recalls. "I had never met her, and we talked quietly while the other actors were being introduced. She told me that she admired me and that I had been an inspiration for her, then when I got that ovation, I was really shocked. She said, `I told you so!' "

The many classics Black made in her younger years - including "Little Miss Marker," "Curly Top," "Bright Eyes," "Stand Up and Cheer," "Wee Willie Winkie," "The Little Colonel" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" - have a new audience thanks to home video. She has her own favorites.

"I like `Heidi,' and `The Little Princess' was a fine movie. That one was made in Technicolor. I went to a video store not long ago, and the clerk didn't recognize me. I asked him, `Do you have any Shirley Temple movies?' He said, `Oh, we have a lot of them. I have one called `The Little Princess' that's been colorized.' I said, `Sir, that was made in Technicolor originally.' He said, `No, no. They didn't have that then.' Finally, I said, `Look, I was there. Trust me.' "

Such films built an image that served Black well in government work. "When I arrived somewhere like Czechoslovakia, the people already knew me because they had seen the movies. They had formed Shirley Temple fan clubs, and the reception was as if they were greeting an old friend or even a relative. That's well and good, but it doesn't help you if you have to tell off a foreign ministry."

The mother of three children, Black has a granddaughter who turned 18 last week. "We used to watch some of (my movies) together," Black said, "and also some of my television programs, which I'm very proud of." The anthology series "Shirley Temple's Storybook" aired on ABC between 1958 and 1960, then moved to NBC and was retitled "The Shirley Temple Show."

Black gets plenty of TV exposure this week. She's also the grand marshal of a New Year's Day tradition, the Tournament of Roses Parade, which ABC, CBS and NBC will televise Friday at 8 a.m. "That'll be the third time I've done that," she reports, "since I also did it in 1939 and 1989. It's been quite an astounding year for me. Next year will be nice and quiet, I hope."

That may not be possible, given the new generations of devotees Black has. "The fan mail has gotten out of hand because of the Internet," she says. "For the first time in my life, I've had to have a stamp made to put on the outsides of many of the envelopes I receive. It says, `Return to sender. Overwhelming autograph requests require suspension of my usual compliance. Sincere regrets from Shirley.' Some fans aren't taking it well, but I just don't have the time to do the proper job of answering them."