Americana Awards: A Brief History

Americana’s Origin

A letter sent 45 years ago to Cypress College from then-president Gerald Ford encouraging organizations to pay tribute to the upcoming 1976 Bicentennial was the impetus for what has become the college’s signature event as well as an Orange County tradition. Based on this letter, Marion “Stoney” Stoneking, then community services director, along with associates Kaleta Brown, theater instructor, and Don Cantrell, public information officer, conceived of a “Community and Americana Awards night,” the purpose of which would be to recognize people, “the sum and substance of America.”

Honorees

Stoney met with the mayors of each of the college’s seven (now eight) service cities and asked each to identify someone who had made “contributions of service” to their city. The people the mayors selected became the Citizens of the Year. (Today, each of the eight cities has a designated committee that selects an honoree from nominations received from the entire community.)

For the first nine years, seven well-known people in various categories (entertainment, business, sports, the arts, the media, etc.) were given the Americana Award. One of these seven honorees also provided the evening’s entertainment. These honorees included Ray Bolger, Edgar Bergen and Ella Mae Morse. Other known honorees with a more local connection were: Marion Knott, Mickey Mouse, Carl Karcher, Buddy Ebsen, Dr. Sammy Lee, Cypress alumna Geri Jewell, Florence Arnold, and the Sons of the Pioneers. Since 1985 a Man and/or Woman of the Year has been chosen from numerous nominations. Among those honored have been: Tommy Lasorda, Irv Pickler, Frank Garcia, Bill Medley, Bruno Serato, and Trevor Hoffman, Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.

The Evening

From 1976-1984, the event was held on campus. The first Americana evening started with a dinner prepared by the faculty and students in the Culinary Arts program. The dinner was held in the Band Room although in subsequent years it moved to the Culinary Arts Dining Room, which is now the Art Gallery.

Following dinner, the awards ceremony and entertainment were scheduled. Since the theater had not yet been completed, the show that first night, with Ray Bolger performing, was held in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. A year later, the program moved to the theater and was held there every year until it was moved off campus. The event was well received by the community, and the theater was generally full. The awards were given out by Stoney and the college president. At one point, the mayors asked if they could give out the awards, but Stoney said no because he didn’t want the event to become political.

The expenses for the program were paid by the community service tax that colleges were allowed to collect at the time. However, when Prop. 13 was passed, that money was no longer available, which is why Jack Scott, then president, saw the opportunity to raise funds, and the current format was established. The event was moved off campus and has been at the Disneyland Resort since 1986.

In 2005, as the 30th anniversary of the Americana Awards was being celebrated, an Emeritus program was implemented, as over 200 past honorees were recognized and presented with bronze medallions attached to red, white and blue ribbons. Since then, each year’s honorees receive their own medallions.

The on-campus event drew more than 600 attendees to the campus theater. The 200 who attended the dinner prior to the awards and entertainment paid $10 for a dinner of beef stroganoff served over noodles. Of course, today’s event brings 600 together for slightly more than $10 for a four-course dinner in a spectacular setting, the proceeds of which support the work of the Cypress College Foundation. Each year the Foundation provides student scholarships, student emergency assistance, student book loans, and faculty grants among other programs.

The Closing

Stoney had seen a video of Frank Sinatra singing “The House I Live In (That’s America to Me)”, and he thought the ideas expressed in the lyrics fit the theme of Americana perfectly, so each year he ended the program by reading the lyrics of that song.

He particularly emphasized the last two lines—“But especially the people/That’s America to me”—because in his mind, that’s what Americana was all about: the importance of people doing their best, serving their communities, and sharing their talents with others.

For 48 years, since that first Americana in 1976, Cypress College has continued to recognize outstanding community volunteers. We sincerely thank you for helping us celebrate these citizens and for assisting us in raising millions of dollars in support of the College.

In spring 2019, Cypress College selected its first cohort of Presidential Scholars of Distinction, a scholarship intended to recognize nine students — one from each college pathway — who exemplify what it means to be a Cypress College student. We’re pleased to introduce our 2022 cohort of Presidential Scholars of Distinction!