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American music specialist Robert Wyatt walks you through the lives of the Gershwin brothers, from their simple roots, through their Tin Pan Alley apprenticeship and to the glory years which proved to be so very short. Through original cast recordings, film clips, interviews, intimate home movies, correspondence and other primary materials furnished by The Library […]

Light on his feet, Fred Astaire revolutionized the movie musical with his elegant and seemingly effortless dance style. He may have made dancing look easy, but he was a well-known perfectionist, and his work was the product of endless hours of practice. Astaire started performing as a child, partnering up with his older sister Adele. […]

During a 43-year Hollywood career, Walter Elias Disney established himself and his products as an authentic part of Americana. Beginning his career as an advertising cartoonist in Kansas City, he relocated in Hollywood in 1923 where he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons. Mickey Mouse entered popular culture in 1928, followed by a [...]

In this lively and engaging afternoon, pianist, raconteur, and American music specialist Robert Wyatt celebrates the lives and works of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Through original cast recordings, film clips, interviews, correspondence, and other primary materials furnished by The Library of Congress and The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, learn about the lives of these two icons [...]

For over five decades he spun his words and music to be sung on the stages of Broadway theaters. Two other musical poets, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, had crafted their musical dramas earlier in the century but Stephen Sondheim’s work is simply different: it transforms musical theater into psychodrama, exploring feelings and emotions in [...]

Jazz music is now more than a century old and any of the turbulent periods through which the art form has passed could be accurately justified as having been a 'Golden Age'. The music's incubation in New Orleans, its travel up to Chicago, the Swing era, and the Be-bop revolution all occurred within the relatively [...]