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S16 Ep8
Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer
Gene Kelly
The potency of Kelly’s gifts, his remarkable achievements in dance and choreography and the creativity and charisma with which he exploded in a handful of films continues to endure and to inform. Gene Kelly’s final filmed words are from 1994’s That’s Entertainment III quoting Irving Berlin, he remarked: “The song has ended, but the melody lingers on.”
Premiered: 3/3/2002
S5 Ep6
Edward R. Murrow: This Reporter
Edward R. Murrow began a journalistic career that has had no equal. From the opening days of World War II through his death in 1965, Murrow had an unparalleled influence on broadcast journalism. His voice was universally recognized, and a generation of radio and television newsmen emulated his style.
Premiered: 7/30/1990
S13 Ep1
Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note
A presence on Broadway, in Hollywood, at Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein was a major force in twentieth century music. His exuberant and dramatic style caught the heart of America, bringing classical music to thousands of people from diverse backgrounds. More than any American conductor before him, Bernstein expanded the audience of classical music.
Premiered: 10/28/1998
S5 Ep9
John Cage: I have Nothing to Say and I'm Saying It
In 1952, David Tudor sat down in front of a piano for four minutes and thirty-three seconds and did nothing. The piece 4’33” written by John Cage, is possibly the most famous and important piece in twentieth century avant-garde. 4’33” was a distillation of years of working with found sound, noise, and alternative instruments.
Premiered: 9/17/1990
S7 Ep2
George Lucas: Heros, Myths and Magic
George Lucas
Based on the classic story of a young man’s battle with the forces of evil, George Lucas’s 1977 film STAR WARS introduced a modern myth to a new generation. A primal tale set in a distant galaxy, STAR WARS revolutionized special effects, forged new frontiers in sound design, and brought audiences to movie theaters in record numbers.
Premiered: 3/17/1993
S3 Ep1
Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me
The delicate damsel in distress, fainting on an ice floe, cowering before a brutal bounder, languishing in a garret. She has been called “the first lady of the silent screen,” and film director D.W. Griffith extolled her “exquisite, ethereal beauty.” She was Lillian Gish, the star of movies, television, radio, & the stage for nearly all of the 20th century.
Premiered: 7/11/1988
S4 Ep10
Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius
“The King of Daredevil Comedy,” Harold Lloyd is best remembered today as the young man dangling desperately from a clock tower in the 1923 classic Safety Last. At the height of his career, Lloyd was one of the most popular and highest-paid stars of his time. While his achievements have been overshadowed by the work of contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, he made more films than both.
Premiered: 11/15/1989
S23 Ep5
Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes
America’s foremost humorist and social pundit, Garrison Keillor takes his skits and monologues across the country in his popular radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. American Masters trails this yarn-smith and his crew of actors and musicians as they spin stories and song into American gold in Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes.
Premiered: 7/1/2009
S23 Ep7
Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound
Joan Baez 1973
Joan Baez made her debut appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. Fifty years later she returned to that same Rhode Island stage on August 2, marking her and the festival’s 50th anniversaries. She is presently on a worldwide tour in celebration of her 50 years as a performer and in support of her Grammy-nominated CD, Day After Tomorrow.
Premiered: 10/14/2009
S15 Ep3
George Cuckor: On Cukor
Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933)
Premiered: 11/22/2000
S15 Ep8
Edward Curtis: Coming to Light
Beginning in 1900 and continuing over the next thirty years, Edward Sheriff Curtis, or the “Shadow Catcher” as he was later called by some of the tribes, took over 40,000 images and recorded rare ethnographic information from over eighty American Indian tribal groups, ranging from the Eskimo or Inuit people of the far north to the Hopi people of the Southwest.
Premiered: 4/23/2001
S16 Ep2
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams
Fitzgerald was an American fiction writer, whose works helped to illustrate the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age. While he achieved popular success, fame, and fortune in his lifetime, he did not receive much critical acclaim until after his death. Fitzgerald is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Premiered: 10/14/2001

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