Airing the day after JFK's assassination, the first episode, & quot;An Unearthly Child, & quot; humbly launched one of the entertainment world & rsquo;s first super-brands. We begin with a look at the programming of the day and the original pitch documents for this family show b…
From 1993 through 1998, NBC exploded every conventional notion of what a broadcast network could accomplish with the greatest prime-time line-up in television history. Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders' account of the greatest era in television history -- told by…
A study of the life and work of the legendary violin maker Antonio Stradivari explores the accomplishments of the seventeenth-century Italian whose craftmanship revolutionized the making of the violin, cello, and viola.
"We see Bob Fosse's legacy everywhere--from Broadway to "Billy Jean" to Beyonce;'s moves in the "Single Ladies" video. Yet in spite of Fosse's deep cultural significance, no biography has ever brought him fully to life, unveiling the man behind the bowler hat and the swaggering …
The Beatles Are Here! explores the emotional impact'some might call it hysteria'of the Fab Four's February 1964 arrival on our shores through the voices of those who witnessed it, those who were swept up in it indirectly, and those who, born too late, came to love the band decad…
In Extended Play, one of the country's most innovative music writers conducts a wide-ranging tour through the outer limits of contemporary music. Over the course of more than twenty-five portraits, interviews, and essays, John Corbett engages artists from lands as distant as Swe…
Edward "Kid" Ory (1886-1973) was a trombonist, composer, recording artist, and early New Orleans jazz band leader. Creole Trombone tells his story from birth on a rural sugar cane plantation in a French-speaking, ethnically mixed family, to his emergence in New Orleans as the ci…
An esteemed music historian provides a rich, detailed overview of the life of Ludwig van Beethoven, traveling from Enlightenment-era Bonn to the musical capital of Europe, Vienna, to vividly describe the composer's career, ill health and romantic rejections.
A groundbreaking portrait of one of Hollywood's most successful stars, from critically acclaimed and bestselling biographer Marc Eliot.
"As a child in 1950s Brooklyn, Kenneth Turan often turned to television programs like "Million Dollar Movie" on WOR-TV. Featuring a much-loved theme song from Gone with the Wind, "Million Dollar Movie" would run one feature film twice a day, every day, all week. It was there tha…
Traces the history of the film series from the difficult creation of the original film to the preparations for a new trilogy, providing portraits of the people who labored behind the scenes to turn George Lucas' idea into a legend.
For many of his theater contemporaries, Lee J. Cobb (1911-1976) was the greatest actor of his generation. In Hollywood he became the definitive embodiment of gangsters, psychiatrists, and roaring lunatics. From 1939 until his death, Cobb contributed riveting performances to a nu…
Spike Lee has directed, written, produced, and acted in dozens of films that present an expansive, nuanced, proudly opinionated, and richly multifaceted portrait of American society. As the only African-American filmmaker ever to establish a world-class career, Lee has paid acut…
Ranging from the dawn of the silent era to today's blockbusters and independent films, this revamped second edition chronicles the significant contributions by Chicago and Chicagoans to more than a century of American filmmaking. Among the Windy City's unique honors in this hist…
