Giving Our Regards
This is the 1980 Kennedy Center Honors to celebrate James Cagney. It's introduced surprisingly by Mikhail Baryshnikov. The first assumption is that the producers drew an amusing connection between them with dance, but also, it turns out, they were actually neighbors in Connecticut.
The whole thing is a gem. Not shockingly, the film tribute is glorious. (And listen for the rhythmic clapping to him singing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" -- that's not sound from the audience in the movie, but the Kennedy Center audience.) When honoring actors, though, the Kennedy Center tends to have more difficult with the staged homage than for honorees from other disciplines. But here, they figured it out beautifully. The tribute is a number from the musical revue Tintypes, which was then playing on Broadway, a pastiche about the turn-of-the-century America. As a fun side note, the main performer is an actor most people won’t know, Jerry Zaks, but he went on to huge success as a stage director, winning four Tony Awards. He’s really wonderful – and the scene is wonderful…and eventually it becomes even more clear why they chose this particular number to perform in honor of Cagney. There’s also a moment later on with Cagney’s reaction to something on stage that is memorable.
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