Summary

One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented at The Paley Center for Media in New York. This evening celebrates the long career of singer Tony Bennett. After a screening of clips from Bennett's upcoming concert special, "Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best is Yet to Come," host Maureen Reidy (president and CEO, The Paley Center for Media) offers opening remarks and introduces Lester Holt (anchor, "NBC Nightly News").

Holt moderates a conversation with Bennett; and son Danny Bennett (concert executive producer).

The conversation touches on such topics as: bringing Tony's music to new audiences through his duets with younger performers like Lady Gaga; Danny's work with "Chicago" (2002) director on the concert special, and why it is a "celebration" and not a tribute; visual inspiration from "Fantasia" (1940) for the concert sets; Alec Baldwin's affectionate impersonation of Tony, originating from "Saturday Night Live"; why the concert, with its many special guests, is "the biggest thing he's ever done"; praise for Bing Crosby's "honesty" in his singing; Tony's interest in working with Beyoncé Knowles; his surprise appearance at one of Billy Joel's Madison Square Garden shows; his founding of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in his hometown of Astoria; receiving his Anglicized stage name from Bob Hope; why it took him nine years to "learn how to perform"; his enjoyment of making crowds happy and why he will never tire of performing his high-quality classic songs; and his praise for jazz singer Michael Bublé, whose upcoming TV special precedes Tony's.

Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics, among others: early inspiration from Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and others; his friendship with Fred Astaire, for whom many jazz standards were originally written; his World War II service and views on war in general; his older brother John's talents as an opera singer, for which he was nicknamed "Little Caruso"; his son Daegal's role as music engineer on many of his albums; his long-standing Italian cooking habits; and his love of painting, including displays of his works at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.