The Parents Television Council has presented its “Integrity In Entertainment Award” to veteran actor, author and singer Pat Boone for lifetime service to “uplifting, enlightening, educational and wholesome media messages.”
PTC president Tim Winter honored Boone during a 30-minute segment that aired July 14 on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. It included a short video that highlighted Boone’s half-century career in film, television and music.
The PTC is an organization that has generated millions of complaints at the Federal Communications Commission about indecent TV shows and has backed FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s effort to impose a la carte mandates on cable operators and programmers.
Boone was nominated for an Oscar and sold 45 million records. But he refused a film role with Marilyn Monroe because, he said, “the story was an immoral story,” an act of protest that risked suspension by 20th Century Fox.
“I never made a movie or recorded a song that I didn’t want my kids and grandkids to hear or see,” Boone told TBN viewers.
Boone may have forgotten, as most of us have, his 1997 release of In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, with an album cover that pictured a bare-chested Boone wearing a black leather vest and earring.
The song list included Boone covers of such artists as Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, and Guns 'n’ Roses. Not surprisingly, several lyrics dwelled on drugs, violence, and dystopia. But PTC isn’t taking back its award.
“Pat Boone’s image and reputation is certainly as a family-friendly icon, and he’s loved by millions of Americans,” PTC spokeswoman Kelly Oliver told The Wire. “The album you mention contains music of the ’80s rearranged to big band music, the intent of which was to be a spoof of heavy metal music.”
Boone may have been referring to his heavy metal phase when he told the TBN audience: “Like everybody else, you know, I stub my toe and make mistakes. I don’t always hit what I’m aiming at. But at least I aim high.”
