People: May 19, 1986

The gilded chair with the ridiculous plugged-in halo was enough to make Walter Cronkite visibly uncomfortable. And with good reason. In Washington last week some 300 diners had come not to honor but to baste him. America’s favorite former anchorman had agreed to the $1,000-a-plate roast to raise funds for the newly created Cronkite Regents Chair in Communication at the University of Texas, Austin. Trouble was that try as they might, such luminaries as Dick Cavett, CBS’s Andy Rooney and Beverly Sills could barely generate enough heat to toast, much less broil, kindly Uncle Walter. Then came Cronkite’s turn, and he gave better than he got. On Rooney: “We’ve all had the experience of listening to him talk until an idea comes along. I don’t know how Andy can make 60 seconds on 60 Minutes seem like 60 hours.” On one effort to savage him: “I can’t be the rascal you make me out to be. If I was, I’d be a politician.”