There was a touch of “Jeffrey Katzenberg: This is Your Life” at the BevHilton when the Anti-Defamation League feted the DreamWorks Animation topper as its 2013 Entertainment Industry Award recipient. Dick Cook, George Lucas, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jim Gianopulos and other luminaries gathered for the May 8 event, which raised $1.1 million for the ADL.

Kirk Douglas, one of Katzenberg’s heroes, kicked off the evening by noting the org was celebrating its centennial. “That’s almost my age,” quipped the 96-year-old. A video from President Barack Obama saluted the org and an ADL video, set to the tune of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” conjured what the futures might have been for Anne Frank, Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard, if they’d not been killed.

Katzenberg used his time onstage to take issue with Samuel Goldwyn’s oft-quoted dictum “If you want to send a message, call Western Union.” Katzenberg called on the entertainment industry to help the ADL reach its goal of “a world without hate,” saying, “Every time the cameras roll, we have an opportunity to say something, if softly, about matters that matter.” Katzenberg wrapped by joking that he hoped that in 2113, when the ADL celebrates its bicentennial, “both Kirk and I will be here to see it.”