 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and of Mrs. Reagan. I've been called the Theater of Presidents as each Chief Executive has had a performance of this theater since 1835. We are honored indeed to have you carry on this tradition and inaugurate the reopening of our theater by your presence this evening. Thank you, sir, for chairing this evening with us. You're gonna toss away all that dough because of a day? Come on! In the funeral of half a hundred kids who've danced their feet off and gave me the kind of a show you'd be proud of. You're gonna put them out on the street too? Well, Mr. Dillon, you wouldn't do that, would you? I'm not after you. Oh, switchboard. Now, she's an old town of mine and she just told me Dorothy Brock has been calling all over town to get packed in. So that's right. Denny's in town. Let's get back in now. Let's not lose. All right. One of those big, broad, bright, broadway productions, 42nd Street Cat. Them sing and dance, as they did, made me wonder if I was seeing the reason why my own career, show business, took a different term. The National Theater opened as you were told by, on this site in 1835, when the occupant of the White House was Andrew Jackson, Americans perched on the roof and appeared through the windows of this building to watch the horseback inaugural parades McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt. They saw the face of the National when they watched newsreels of the inaugural parades of Wilson, Coolidge, and FDR. Parades that took place on American admirals still wore top-aid cats' hats. And through all those years, the National was staging productions that entertained and delighted the people of this city. In recent years, though, the National fell on hard times. Some even talked of tearing or downing. And then a year and a half ago, an army of designers, electricians, and carpenters went to work. They cleaned the exterior. They've refurbished the interior as we have been able to see tonight. Installed a new lighting and a sound system and added a whole new building, four stories high for dressing rooms and storage. And they did it all without a penny of government money to enjoy the results. A special thanks to Jay Adams, the chairman of the National Theater, to the Schubert's, Gerald Schoenfeld, and Bernard Jacobs, and of course to Carol Laxalt and Betty Wright, the co-chairman of Tonight's Gala. Claught everyone who had a hand in this wonderful restoration. With this reopening, Downtown Washington has a splendid theater and a living linked with the past. And speaking as two who live in the neighborhood, they're all delighted. One more thing, now that the national has reopened, even those of us in Washington, we'll be able to hear the lullaby of Broadway. Thank you, God bless you all.