Herman Melville had an on-going friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne. They were, in fact, neighbors for a period. Here he writes how he is having trouble focusing on his “Whale” book as he is being distracted hither and thither. Fortunately for us all, he completed “Whale” and we have Moby Dick … Continue reading
May 31, 1889, Walt Whitman’s seventieth birthday, occasioned a celebration of the poet in his hometown of Camden, New Jersey, with a several course dinner called “The Feast of Reason” followed by a program called “The Flow of Soul,” a succession of testimonial speeches and readings by prominent politicians and … Continue reading
Hear video artist Courtney Harmel describe Keith Haring’s 1980′s NYC party on May 16, 1984. The party drew great artists and New York City fixtures, as well as icons like Madonna and Diana Ross.
Watch this amazing footage of Laurel and Hardy later in life. This footage is from 1956 after Stan Laurel had had a stroke and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) had lost a lot of his famous girth. The famed duo looked like they were having a great time being back in each … Continue reading
George Martin discusses the making of the Beatles “Please Please Me”, the debut album by the Beatles was released on 22 March 1963. Of the album’s fourteen songs, eight were written by Lennon–McCartney (originally credited “McCartney–Lennon”), early evidence of what Rolling Stone later called “[their invention of] the idea of … Continue reading
Academy Award winning screenwriter, Walter Bernstein on his film The Front. The Front starred Woody Allen and explores what it was like to be a writer on the Hollywood Blacklist during the red scare and McCarthyism. He brings humor and candor to the ordeal that impacted his career for over … Continue reading
Academy Award winning screenwriter, Walter Bernstein describes what it was like to be on the Hollywood Blacklist during the red scare and McCarthyism. He brings humor and candor to the ordeal that impacted his career for over a decade.
November 1973. A 15 year-old high school sophomore from Lakewood, New Jersey, I take a bus north up Route 9 with a small group of friends to attend a Todd Rundgren concert at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. Lights are still up, VIPS dot the audience. Bette Midler, just to our … Continue reading
W.H. Auden reads his elegy poem In Memory of W.B. Yeats. Yeats died on January 28, 1939 and in his poem, Auden called the day of his death a “dark, cold day.” James Joyce sent flowers, albeit late, and called Yeats “the golden mouth” in one of his own poems. … Continue reading
Natalie Cole discusses creating the new mix of Unforgettable of her father, Nat King Cole’s, classic hit.
