White House Dinner Honoring Labor Leaders Remarks Introducing the After-Dinner Entertainment.

About 35 years ago I went to New York for the first time and saw my first Broadway play. I spent more than half my monthly salary to get in. [Laughter] At the time I was a youngster at the Naval Academy in 1945, and I was making $7 a month. But it was money well spent. I never had seen anything like that before, and I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it, the emotion of it. I wept and still get emotional when I hear some of the songs from "Carousel." The performer that night was John Raitt, and, as you know, it was a superb musical achievement that has set records throughout the Nation for beauty and, in many places, for attendance as well.

Later he performed in "Carousel," "Pajama Game," more recently in "Shenandoah," both on the stage and also in motion pictures. He's a performer whose natural talent is obvious as soon as he delights the audience with the music that he provides. But I think if you go down the list of those plays and others in which he has performed, you see that they're a very good cross section of what America is. Nobody could listen to those lyrics and see the performances and remember the sentiments expressed without being filled with a sense of patriotism, love for our country, appreciation of beauty, and the admiration of superb talent.

This is the last group that we will entertain here during this administration, and I'm very grateful that you are very close friends, all our guests this evening. And because we think so much of you and feel so close to you, we wanted to provide this special program for your entertainment.

And now John Raitt will come and delight us with selections from the plays in which he's performed, when he's delighted hundreds of thousands, even millions of Americans, with his superb talent. I know you join with me in welcoming him to the East Room of the White House to entertain some of our close friends. Thank you.