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S18 Ep2
James Brown: Soul Survivor
“The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business,” “Soul Brother Number One,” “the Godfather of Soul,” — in whatever guise, James Brown is unquestionably one of the most charismatic musical icons of the 20th century. An irrepressible performer, ruthless but highly proficient bandleader, awesome dancer, and, unquestionably, the man who flipped soul music on its head.
Premiered: 10/29/2003
S18 Ep3
Balanchine – Master of The Dance
By the time of his death on April 30, 1983, George Balanchine had created over 400 works and was recognized as a 20th-century master alongside Picasso and Stravinsky. Here is the story of how the man born Georg Melitonovitch Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1904 went on to become the artistic director and primary choreographer of the New York City Ballet.
Premiered: 1/14/2004
S3 Ep7
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Group Theatre
In 1931, 3 young idealists, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg, were inspired by a passionate dream of transforming the American theater. They recruited 28 actors to form a permanent ensemble dedicated to dramatizing the life of their times. They conceived The Group Theatre as a response to what they saw as the old-fashioned light entertainment that dominated their contemporaries.
Premiered: 6/26/1989
S20 Ep1
John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend
John Ford and John Wayne — a friendship and professional collaboration that spanned 50 years, changed each others’ lives, changed the movies, and in the process, changed the way America saw itself. It was a relationship that reflected all the elements and all the paradoxes of 20th century America — generosity of spirit, abuse of power, a sense of loyalty, and a restless nationalism.
Premiered: 5/10/2006
S17 Ep2
Lon Chaney: Thousand Faces
Lon Chaney
Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Clara Bow, were stars who created trademark personas and spent their entire careers testing the limits of those characters. For many in the industry, both then and now, this type of career is considered the pinnacle of success, but for one actor it was the antithesis of the his art. For Lon Chaney, the art of acting was the art of continual transformation.
Premiered: 10/30/2002
S14 Ep3
Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For
One of the early “scat” performers, Fitzgerald found a place among the growing jazz innovators, making recordings with such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Through fifty-eight years of performing, thirteen Grammys and more than forty million records sold, she elevated swing, bebop, and ballads to their highest potential. She was, undeniably, the First Lady of Song.
Premiered: 12/8/1999
S6 Ep2
Miracle On 44th Street: A Portrait of the Actor's Studio
For the past fifty years, the Old Labor Stage on 44th street in New York City has been home to some of the most inventive acting, directing, and playwrighting in the country. Its members have included such greats as Marlon Brando, Robert de Niro, Norman Mailer, Eli Wallach, Sidney Poitier, Edward Albee, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean.
Premiered: 7/8/1991
S3 Ep3
Andre Kertész of The Cities
Known for his extended study of Washington Square Park and his distorted nudes of the 1930s, Andre Kertesz was a quiet but important influence on the coming of age of photojournalism and the art of photography. For more than seventy years, his subtle and penetrating vision helped to define a medium in its infancy.
Premiered: 8/8/1988
S2 Ep10
Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow
Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton is considered one of the greatest comic actors of all time. His influence on physical comedy is rivaled only by Charlie Chaplin. Like many of the great actors of the silent era, Keaton’s work was cast into near obscurity for many years. Only toward the end of his life was there a renewed interest in his films.
Premiered: 11/18/1987
S3 Ep5
Diego Rivera: Rivera In America
Considered the greatest Mexican painter of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera had a profound effect on the international art world. Among his many contributions, Rivera is credited with the reintroduction of fresco painting into modern art and architecture. His radical political views and tempestuous romance with the painter Frieda Kahlo were then, and remain today, a source of public intrigue.
Premiered: 8/29/1988
S12 Ep6
Alexander Calder
In a time of constant artistic upheaval, Alexander Calder’s aesthetic revolution concerned itself with a somewhat taboo topic in the art world — fun. His prolific and passionate output brought with it a humor and sense of play unlike any before.
Premiered: 6/17/1998
S12 Ep3
BILLY WILDER: THE HUMAN COMEDY
From the late 1930s to the early 1960s, Billy Wilder dominated Hollywood’s Golden Age. With over fifty films and six Academy Awards to his credit, he is one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest directors, producers and screenwriters.
Premiered: 2/4/1998
S3 Ep6
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Throughout the United States there are thousands of parks in which can be found bronze and marble statues of the major historical figures of times past. Among the greatest American sculptors and monument builders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Premiered: 9/5/1988
S1 Ep7
Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day
Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.
Premiered: 8/4/1986

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