The 23rd annual Abraham Lincoln Remembrance will be held Thursday at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood, featuring the reciting of the Gettysburg Address by actor Steven Bauer.
The program on the 206th anniversary of the birth of the 16th president will be held from noon-2 p.m. and include performances of music that Lincoln admired, according to event chairman Jack De Merit. Birthday cake will be served at the conclusion of the remembrance. Admission is free.
The event began in 1993 when retired television lighting technician Duke Russell learned there was no celebration planned in Los Angeles for Lincoln’s birthday, went to the Hollywood Bowl and delivered the Gettysburg Address in front of his daughter, Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith and an otherwise empty facility.
The remembrance has been held at the Los Angeles National Cemetery since 1994. Actors Charlton Heston, Hal Holbrook, Mickey Rooney and Michael York, comedian Steve Allen and author Ray Bradbury have been among those reciting the Gettysburg Address.
