In 1865, after President Lincoln's assassination Ford's
Theater in Washington D.C. closed for 103 years. It reopened in 1968 with an all-star television gala. Tonight, another gala marks the 10th anniversary of its rebirth.
The scheduled highlights presented in this special are excerpts from plays produced at Ford's, featuring the stars who appeared in them...one-man shows with James Whitmore as Will Rogers and Vincent Price as Oscar Wilde; Billy Dee Williams as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in "I Have a Dream"; Patti LuPone, Mary Joan Negro and Mary Lou Rosato in Chekhov's "Three Sisters"; Linda Hopkins, singing "A Good Man's Hard to Find," in "Bessie and Me"; and the cast of "Oh Coward!"-Roderick Cook, Jamie Ross and Barbara Cason-singing "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" and "Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington."
Lorne Green is the host; Alexis Smith, John Houseman and Henry Fonda are scheduled to introduce the segments.