To Hope: A Cultural Center and Star-Studded Dedication

PALM DESERT — “Naming a cultural center for me,” Bob Hope said with the kind of self-deprecating wit that makes troops stand up and cheer, “is like naming a monastery for Gary Hart.”

At his side, toward the close of dedication ceremonies for the new Bob Hope Cultural Center here Saturday night, President Reagan laughed. After all, Hope had let Reagan off easy, thanking the President for saying “nice things about me--even if I’m not Russian.”

What the President said about the 84-year-old entertainer was that Hope “has given us the most precious gift of all--the gift of laughter.”

Presenting the first “America’s Hope Award” to the comedian, who recently returned from a Christmas-cheer gig for U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, Reagan noted that as “commander in chief I have a special place in my heart, as do all Americans,” for all that Hope has done “to entertain our servicemen and women overseas, especially in times of conflict and crisis.”

Hope’s name, Reagan added, is “a description of his life, and where there is life, there is Hope.”

In subsequent years, the Hope Award will be presented annually by Cultural Center officials, who know a thing or two about publicity, to “outstanding individuals who exemplify the spirit of America.”

In his remarks, Hope suggested to Reagan that “after you finish your term (next year) you might want to come here and do a stage run of ‘King’s Row.’ ” (The 1941 movie had been one of actor Ronald Reagan’s better ones.)

Hope also targeted his desert neighbor, former President Gerald R. Ford, who was seated next to the presidential box in the plush, mauve-colored McCallum Theatre for the Performing Arts. The 1,166-seat theater is the main feature of the Cultural Center at present.

Alluding to Ford’s controversial pardon of former President Richard Nixon in 1974, Hope quipped: “I bumped into President Gerald Ford this afternoon and I said, ‘Pardon me.’ And he said, ‘I don’t do that anymore.’ ”

Hope’s audience laughed and applauded all at once. Ford appeared to enjoy the joke and blushed a little.

Ford was obviously in a good mood. He was said to have confided to friends that he would be taking his wife, Betty, out of Eisenhower Medical Center on Sunday. Earlier in the week she had been operated on for what was described as “a minor wound problem” that resulted from heart surgery in November, raising concern that Ford, like former Presidents Nixon and Jimmy Carter, might not be able to attend the gala dedication event.

Hope Cultural Center officials had sought to bring together the nation’s four living Presidents, rather grandly suggesting that the dedication would be their first reunion since the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Despite some no-shows--including Kirk Douglas, Mary Martin and George C. Scott, who had been touted as celebrity guests--everyone at Saturday’s event clearly was in good spirits. Among those in attendance were California Gov. George Deukmejian, Sens. Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson and a batch of Reagan Administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker and Charles Z. Wick, director of the U. S. Information Agency.

With tickets ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 a pair, another $2 million was raised for the $20-million Cultural Center, which is blessed with a $5-million endowment.

In addition, the sand-colored, concrete Cultural Center, which is accented in mauve and set off by a three-tiered fountain, lots of glass and row upon row of palm trees, got the kind of commercial that all the money in the desert couldn’t buy: a TV special. The entertainment portion of the evening--”America’s Tribute to Bob Hope”--was taped and will air on NBC Feb. 6.

Here, after all, in the middle of the tribute was composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Evita,” “Cats”) unveiling for television several numbers from his latest musical, “Phantom of the Opera,” and also giving a plug to the Cultural Center.

“What a space!” he exulted.

Van Cliburn, touted by executive producer Greg Willenborg as performing for the first time on television in more than a decade (despite all the coverage the pianist received last month during the Reagan-Gorbachev summit), played the National Anthem and about a four-minute portion of the Schumann-Liszt piece “Widmung,” which he had also played at the White House in December for the two world leaders.

The 53-year-old pianist, a national hero 30 years ago after becoming the first American to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky competition, also acted as a kind of lead-in master of ceremonies, introducing “our current head of state and beloved First Lady. . . .”

Looking elegant and fit, Nancy Reagan wore red satin with a gold and diamond necklace.

“Without the performing arts,” Cliburn said, not using a TelePrompTer as virtually everyone else did, “we would all truly lack an important spiritual dimension to our daily living. After all, music and beauty, dance, drama and poetry . . . represent the deepest longings of the human soul.”

Lucille Ball, wearing a shimmering aquamarine gown with a thigh-high slit that sent audience members into admiring whispers about the great shape of her legs, got humor back on track by tweaking Hope about his extensive desert property.

She introduced the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and 10-year-old violinist Leila Josefowicz of Westlake, who also had played at the Young Musicians’ Foundation tribute to Leonard Bernstein last fall.

“Dynasty’s” John Forsythe served as the second master of ceremonies, introducing Diahann Carroll and Vic Damone, who held hands tightly while singing a medley of romantic musical comedy numbers.

Damone and Carroll, who were married a year ago Jan. 3 in Atlantic City, said at a brief press conference in the Gerald R. Ford Founders Room after the performance that they would have gone to the Persian Gulf with Hope this year had Damone not developed kidney stones.

Carroll noted that Hope played an important role in her career and her life about 10 years ago following the death of her husband, Robert De Leon, the managing editor of Jet magazine, in an automobile accident. “It was a very painful time for me,” Carroll said. “I was in shock, I was down, I didn’t want to do anything.”

Hope helped her get back to work, she said.

Saturday’s dedication ceremonies were hosted by Ambassador and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, at whose desert estate the Reagans spent the New Year holiday.

Willenborg, who also is the Cultural Center’s fund-raising director, said the facility was named for Hope because he is “an American institution” and because he has long been a resident of the Coachella Valley.

Cultural Center officials said the site already is booked until 1990, with the exception of 30 days in 1988. Hope said he will do a concert performance here in February.

For Hope fans in the audience, the highlight of the evening was a three-minute video featuring such entertainers as George Burns, Ann-Margret, Johnny Carson and Hope’s wife, Dolores, doing quickie versions of “Thanks for the Memories,” Hope’s theme song, which he introduced in the movie “The Big Broadcast of 1938” 50 years ago.

Hope had the last words. Growing serious for just a moment, he noted: “Millions of people have a special fascination for this desert. Anything we can do to bring a little beauty into our lives is important.

“The entertainment and joy that will be represented here in this center,” he said, “will bring such great feeling to so many that I am so delighted that my name is connected with it.”

Knowing his audience was not just in McCallum Theatre but nationwide, Hope added: “I invite all of you across the country to pay us a visit.”