Producer
Jack Sobel communicated with the office of President
Gerald Ford, recommending
Arthur Fiedler for the Presidential Medal of Freedom and requesting that the honor be bestowed on October 24, 1976 in New York City, where Fiedler and the
Boston Pops Orchestra would be performing at Carnegie Hall for this television special (and also, coincidentally, United Nations Day). The made-for-TV event would be taped ahead of time, in full cooperation with the White House and its wishes for public press, and then aired as part of the "Monsanto Night" special in mid-December, around the occasion of Fiedler's 82nd birthday. President Ford was in the heat of his election campaign, and the proposed Medal of Freedom ceremony would have occurred shortly before the November election, though the televised special would not air until weeks afterward. Ultimately Fiedler was part of a slate of twenty-one honorees to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 10, 1977 (a diverse group that also included
Irving Berlin,
Omar N. Bradley,
Joe DiMaggio,
Lady Bird Johnson,
Georgia O'Keeffe,
Nelson Rockefeller, and
Norman Rockwell), ten days before President Ford left office.
