I Don’t Know How I Got Here … But I’m Just Thrilled to Death

"I'll remember this foreverโ€”and I'm 95, that's not so long!"

I love her! Thank you, Chita. I cannot tell youโ€”this woman! She started my career! We were rehearsing Bye Bye Birdie in Philadelphia, doing tryouts. One day they came down with a new song & dance number for Chita. And Chita said โ€˜Dick, the skinny kid, doesnโ€™t have anything to do in the first act. Why donโ€™t you let him do it?โ€™ It was โ€˜Put on a Happy Face,โ€™ which started my whole career! God bless you! I couldnโ€™t danceโ€”sheโ€™s the strongest dancer there is in the world. She held me on and kept me out of the orchestra pit.

I donโ€™t know how I got here. I have no credentials at all. But Iโ€™m just thrilled to death. You know thereโ€™s nobody left alive to know that I was the first emcee of the Kennedy Center awards! Nobody remembers! It was in a houseโ€”I got to dance with one of the daughters, I remember, but nobody is around who remembers that!

You know, I donโ€™t think entertainers go into the business to get awards. Your recognition by your peers, I guess, is always a little icing on the cake. But this! I mean this is outta sight. This is, you know… Canterbury Tales, knighthood… thereโ€™s nothing beyond this! This is the end!

And I donโ€™t think I earned it, but by God, thank you so much. Iโ€™ll remember this foreverโ€”and Iโ€™m 95, thatโ€™s not so long! I apologize for the cane. Four or five hundred falls over a footstool did that. Thank you!

[Immediately following this speech, Dick descended the stage stairs with a flourish and shouted “Ta-da!”]

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