entertainment — Bunk History

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Actor Maurice Chevalier signing his MGM contract

In the Lions’ Studio

A new dual biography turns the lens on the towering architects of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

by Noah Isenberg via The American Scholar on February 13, 2025

Soldiers sing at the end of the day in Vietnam, January 1968.

The Soundtrack to Vietnam War History Isn’t Quite Historically Accurate

Why rock overtook every other genre to define our understanding of America at war.

by David Suisman via HNN on December 3, 2024

A ticket to the 1854 Anti-Slavery Bazaar for 1854-1855.

Women’s Work: The Anti-Slavery Fairs of the 1800s

Women abolitionists held annual Christmas bazaars to raise money for the cause; these fairs sold everything from needlework to books to Parisian dresses.

by Tanya L. Roth via The Saturday Evening Post on December 3, 2024

Photo of 5 skeletons controlling panels.

Notes from the Cold War Underground

The weapons infrastructure of the Cold War is now getting rented out on Airbnb or memorialized as patriotic kitsch.

by Emily Harnett via The Baffler on October 22, 2024

The title card for Little House of a Prairie on a green hill.

50 Years Ago: America Loved a Little House

The beloved family show left a lasting legacy.

by Troy Brownfield via The Saturday Evening Post on September 11, 2024

Reflections in a store window of people watching the 9/11 attack on television.

The World That September 11 Made

Richard Beck’s “Homeland” traces the far-reaching aftereffects of the attacks and tries to recover the events of the day, as they happened.

by Ed Burmila via The New Republic on September 9, 2024

Harris on a tv screen.

TV Still Runs Politics

Just about every major development in the current presidential campaign started as a television event.

by Paul Farhi via The Atlantic on August 22, 2024

From left, Sam Warner, Harry M. Warner, Jack L. Warner, and Albert Warner.

Are Hollywood’s Jewish Founders Worth Defending?

Jews in the industry called for the Academy Museum to highlight the men who created the movie business. A voice in my head went, Uh-oh.

by Michael Schulman via The New Yorker on July 17, 2024

A photograph of Bonnie Erickson posing with the Phillie Phanatic mascot.

Miss Piggy Has a Mother

Everyone’s heard of Jim Henson. It’s time to give Bonnie Erickson — creator of beloved Muppets and mascots including the Phillie Phanatic — her due.

by Nell McShane Wulfhart via The Cut on June 13, 2024

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert giving two thumbs up.

When the Movies Mattered

Siskel and Ebert and the heyday of popular movie criticism.

by Annie Berke via The Yale Review on June 12, 2024

Henry Ward Beecher.

When Preachers Were Rock Stars

A classic New Yorker account of the Henry Ward Beecher adultery trial recalls a time in America that seems both incomprehensible and familiar.

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on April 14, 2024

Larry David.

The End of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Marks the End of an Era

Larry David is the last of his kind—and in several ways.

by Daniel Bessner via The Nation on April 8, 2024

The Annotated Oppenheimer

Celebrated and damned as the “father of the atomic bomb,” theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer lived a complicated scientific and political life.

by Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on March 7, 2024

Bottom half of a red sheet music cover with the words "Sung by Aida Overton Walker with the Smart Set Co" written on it with a portrait of Aida to the right

Sheet Music Covers for the Gotham-Attucks Company, ca. 1905–1911

Beginning in 1905, one star-studded song-publishing company would push the aesthetic limits of how Black popular music was shown to the public.

by Dorothy Berry via The Public Domain Review on February 1, 2024

flickr.com/photos/dalelanham

Playing to the Cameras

The prominence of politicos-turned-pundits is a product of cable news' turn to opinion commentary as a cheap and easy way to meet the needs of 24/7 coverage.

by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via HNN on December 12, 2023

Football player on the ground, grabbing his head in pain.

‘Another Player Down’

How concern about injuries is changing sports.

via Retro Report on November 20, 2023

Colorful collage of Rocky Horror characters

Rocky Horror Has Surprising Roots in Victorian Seances

‘Time Warp’ all the way back to the 1800s.

by Victoria Linchong via Atlas Obscura on October 11, 2023

Pete Rose and Bud Harrelson fighting during a baseball game.

Pete Rose Remembers the Biggest Postseason Brawl in Baseball History

“You know how many second basemen or shortstops I knocked on their ass in my career?”

by Keith O'Brien via Intelligencer on October 8, 2023

Performers at the 1963 Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Ron Patterson, a co-founder of the event, appears in orange at the far right.

The Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair

The first of these festivals debuted in the early 1960s, serving as a prime example of the United States' burgeoning counterculture.

by Gillian Bagwell via Smithsonian on September 28, 2023

2024 Republican presidential debate on Fox News.

How Cable News Upended American Politics

Cable TV's backers sold the technology as a boon to democracy, but embraced a business model that chased niche audiences.

by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via Made By History on September 27, 2023

A man sits at a bar countertop. His face is turned away from the camera.

1973: A Golden Year for Film That Rewrote the Rules of Cinema

It was a year that showcased the audacious talent in Hollywood experimenting with darker themes and new film techniques.

by Lesley Harbidge via The Conversation on September 12, 2023

Collage of a shirtless performer and a cutaway image of an egg.

My Generation

Anthem for a forgotten cohort.

by Justin E. H. Smith via Harper’s on June 9, 2023

The Ferguson Unit Rhythmeer Band plays at the Jim Ferguson Unit in Madison County, Texas.

The Blues Behind Bars: How Southern Prisons Shaped American Music

Incarcerated musicians have crafted some of the most iconic songs in American music history while prisons reap the profits.

by Zeb Larson via Scalawag on June 8, 2023

Will Smith as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Tracing the Evolution of Celebrity Memoirs, from Charles Lindbergh to Will Smith

Creating a personal myth allows celebrities to create just that—a myth.

by Landon Y. Jones via Literary Hub on May 9, 2023

Car interior with Chuck Berry reflected in side view mirror.

An Anthropologist of Filth

On Chuck Berry.

by Ian Penman via Harper’s on May 4, 2023

Lithograph of the 1870 Great Mississippi Steamboat Race.

When Deadly Steamboat Races Enthralled America

Already prone to boiler explosions that regularly killed scores of passengers, steamboats were pushed to their limits in races that valued speed over safety.

by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on April 26, 2023

Painting called "Hudibras’ Discomfiture at the Hands of the Skimmington," by Francis Le Piper, seventeenth century.

American Charivari

The history and context of the made-up aesthetics of the early Ku Klux Klan.

by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 24, 2023

A painting of a Victorian-style room with an ornate bookshelf and books sitting on a table.

A Degenerate Assemblage

How Charles Lamb and his collection of well-loved books inspired a generation of American collectors.

by Anthony Grafton via London Review of Books on April 13, 2023

Drawing of performers and different audio technologies.

The End of the Music Business

A century of recorded music has culminated in the infinite archive of streaming platforms. But is it really better for listeners?

by Ethan Iverson via The Nation on April 10, 2023

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo with his wife Cleo at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947. Bertoldt Brecht can be seen in the background.

Monopolywood: Why the Paramount Accords Should Not Be Repealed

If studios can again harness the income from exhibition, we may see a return of traditional vertical integration.

by Vaughn Joy via Red Pepper on March 13, 2023

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