Screen Actors Guild Presents Prestigious Howard Keel Award at Washington, D.C. Event

What: Screen Actors Guild Regional Branch Division leadership and the Washington-Baltimore leadership of SAG/AFTRA host a special celebration to honor Sheldon Smith, recipient of the prestigious Howard Keel Award.

Who: Ken Howard, Screen Actors Guild President, Amy Aquino, Screen Actors Guild Secretary-Treasurer, David Hartley-Margolin, Screen Actors Guild 3rd National Vice President, Kirk Penberthy, SAG Washington-Baltimore Branch President, Sheldon Smith, Honoree, David White, Screen Actors Guild National Executive Director and elected SAG Regional Branch Division leaders

Roberta Reardon, AFTRA National President, Bob Edwards, AFTRA National First Vice President (and Radio Hall of Famer), Paul Almeida, President, Department for Professional Employees AFL-CIO, David Cohen, Executive Director, Department for Professional Employees AFL-CIO, Julie Wright, AFTRA Washington-Baltimore Local President, Jane Beard, Past SAG Washington-Baltimore Branch President and former Washington-Baltimore Branch National Board Director, John Badila, Past SAG Washington-Baltimore Branch President, Past AFTRA Washington-Baltimore Local President and current AFTRA National Board member, Joe Krebs, Past AFTRA Washington-Baltimore Local President, AFTRA National Board and morning news anchor on NBC’s  WRC-TV in Washington, Jim Bohannan, Radio Hall of Fame host of Westwood One’s syndicated Jim Bohannan Show and Marice Tobias, preeminent Los Angeles based voice-over coach (and first female director to win a CLIO award).

A number of prominent political media consultants including: Tom Edmonds, Edmonds & Associates, Doug Bailey, formerly of Bailey Deardorfff & Associates (one of the “fathers” of political media consulting dating back to the early 70s), Paul Wilson, Wilson Grand Communications, Rick Reed, Rick Reed Media, Art Hackney, Hackney & Hackney, Paul Curcio, SRCP Media and John Marcus, McCarthy Marcus Hennings Ltd.

Master of Ceremonies: Paul Anthony. A member colleague of Smith, Anthony is well known in D.C. for his work on PBS and in New York where he was with Sirius Radio for a time. He is the announcer for 1010 WINS NYC.

When: 6 p.m. Cocktails and Dinner*
8 p.m. Tribute to Sheldon Smith

Where: The National Press Club
529 14th Street, NW
13th Floor
Washington, DC  20045

*Dinner is invitation only and not open to the media or public.

Members of the media interested in covering this event, please contact: Pamela Greenwalt, Screen Actors Guild, (323) 549-6872, cell (323) 440-2892,  pgreenwalt@sag.org

About the Honoree and Howard Keel Award:
SAG/AFTRA Washington-Baltimore Branch member Sheldon Smith will receive the 2nd Annual Howard Keel Award for his tireless contributions to Screen Actors Guild. Smith joined SAG in Detroit in 1968. Based in Washington, D.C. since 1986, Smith is an award-winning actor/narrator and perhaps the best-known voice of Republican media campaigns in America. He is a four-time winner of the Peer Award for Voiceover/Narration, most recently the 2009 Peer Gold Award for A Restless Giant - The Ever-Changing Nature of Mount Rainier, produced for the National Park Service by Henninger Productions. Smith is also the recipient of 19 Telly Awards, multiple Pollie Awards and Reed Awards, and a CINE Golden Eagle Award, among other recognitions. For more than 30 years, he has specialized exclusively in voiceover.

For the past several years, Smith has presented a very popular workshop nationwide which teaches members how to convert non-union work into union jobs. Smith has also participated in every Branch Wages & Working Conditions Committee for both the Commercials and Industrial Contracts for over 20 years.

Named for the legendary actor-singer and former SAG president, the Howard Keel Award is annually presented to persons who make a significant contribution to the promotion of Screen Actors Guild and to the welfare and benefit of members in their Branch, or nationally, as part of the Regional Branch Division. Keel was SAG’s 10th president (1958-59) and during his term, the SAG National Board was increased from 39 to 52 seats, allowing for Branch representation — for the first time — from New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and Boston.