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Buster Keaton holds himself up against two walls.

Puzzled Puss: Buster Keaton’s Star Turn

Keaton had been on the stage longest, risen the highest, fallen the furthest, and left the most indelible legacy.
Looney Tunes "That's all Folks" on a TV screen.

HBO Max’s Great Looney Tunes Purge

Hundreds of classic cartoons vanished without warning. How can you raise your kids on favorites you can’t access anymore?
Lobby card for film titled "Ritzy" starring Betty Bronson, featuring Betty on the left in a gold dress, and a central image of a man holding Betty's hand as they look at each other

See the Stunning Lobby Cards Keeping Silent Movies Alive

Thanks to a collector, thousands of lobby cards from the silent film era will soon be digitized.
Noble Johnson (left rear), Jimmie Smith, and Beulah Hall in “The Trooper of Troop K”

Looking (and Looking Again) at Black Film History

Uncovering the earliest surviving fragment of Black-produced cinema.
Exhibit

Moving Pictures

Tracing the history of Americans' relationships with the silver screen, from film's earliest days to the cinematic creations of our own times.

Collage of two photos of Marilyn Monroe.

Who Was the Real Marilyn Monroe?

"Blonde," a heavily fictionalized film by Andrew Dominik, explores the star's life and legend in a narrative that's equal parts glamorous and disturbing.
Actor Eugenio Derbez at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Spanish 'Dracula' Finds New Blood, More Than 90 Years After Its Release

In 1931, an entire new cast and crew reshot Dracula in Spanish on the Universal Studios lot.
Drawing of onomatopoetic words, exclamation points, and objects used to make noises.

The Weird, Analog Delights of Foley Sound Effects

E.T. was jello in a T-shirt. The Mummy was scratchy potpourri. For Foley artists, deception is an essential part of the enterprise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, paying a visit to a hospital with wounded soldiers.

How Propaganda Became Entertaining

Ukraine’s wartime communications strategies have roots in World War II.
Actors James Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary Hatch, and Frank Faylen as Ernie in the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images)

That Time the FBI Scrutinized “It's a Wonderful Life” for Communist Messaging

The film “deliberately maligned the upper class,” according to a report that didn’t like the portrayal of Mr. Potter as a bad guy.
Jewish actress and filmmaker Ellen Richter, striking a pose on screen while two men give her suspicious looks.

The Silences of the Silent Era

We can’t allow the impression of a historical lack of diversity in the art form to limit access to the industry today.
Barbed wire with an American flag hanging on it

For Two Decades, Americans Told One Lie After Another About What They Were Doing in Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan was nasty and brutish, marked by the same imperial arrogance that doomed U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
A photo of Harrison Post.

“In 1934, My Life Snapped”

Hollywood has long abused conservatorships. I spent the past decade studying one of the darkest cases.
Drawing of the Alamo

How Racism, American Idealism, and Patriotism Created the Modern Myth of the Alamo and Davy Crockett

Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford on the making of a misrepresented narrative.
Black and white photo of Barbara Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Nancy Reagan, in 1994.

What Do We Want in a First Lady?

Lady Bird Johnson and Nancy Reagan grappled with the contradictions of a role that is at once public and private, superficial and serious.
An illustration featuring a man smoking a cigarette.

When the CIA Was Everywhere—Except on Screen

Hollywood was just fine avoiding all portrayals of the Central Intelligence Agency for years after the agency's founding in 1947.
Joseph McCarthy appearing on CBS television
partner

The Cold War on TV: Joseph McCarthy vs. Edward R. Murrow

In the heat of the Cold War, Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade became a media sensation.
Nancy Reagan standing behind a railing.

Nancy Reagan’s Real Role in the AIDS Crisis

The former first lady fought the conservative Reagan administration in an attempt to get her husband to pay more attention to the deadly pandemic.
Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez (left), "Empire's Mistress" book cover with image of Isabel Cooper (right)

The General, the Mistress, and the Love Stories That Blind Us

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez discusses her new book on Isabel Cooper, a Filipina American actress and Douglas MacArthur’s lover.
Alfred Hitchcock directing

The Haunted Imagination of Alfred Hitchcock

How the master of suspense got his sadistic streak.
A graffiti mural in Los Angeles

The Emergence Of Gangsta Rap

A review of "To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America."
Drawing of Speedy Gonzales

Why Do So Many Mexican Americans Defend Speedy Gonzales?

A stereotype? Definitely. Problematic? You bet. But many Mexican Americans still love the cartoon character.
A collage including Betty Boop.

The Mixed-Up Masters of Early Animation

Pioneering cartoonists were experimental, satiric, erotic, and artistically ambitious.
Headshot of William Faulkner

‘A Land Where the Dead Past Walks’

Faulkner’s chroniclers have to reconcile the novelist’s often repellent political positions with the extraordinary meditations on race, violence, and cruelty in his fiction.
Two people watching Cliff Edwards perform on the ukelele.

Ukulele Ike, a.k.a. Cliff Edwards, Sings Again

Ukulele Ike, otherwise known as Cliff Edwards, was a major American pop star and an important early force in jazz. It’s time to give him another hearing.
Cover of "Little Lindy is Kidnapped"

We Had Witnessed an Exhibition

A new book about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping focuses on the role played by the media.
Freddie Bartholomew in fighting stance as Little Lord Fauntleroy for the film.

The Masculinization of Little Lord Fauntleroy

The 1936 movie Little Lord Fauntleroy broke box office records, only to be toned down and masculinized amid cultural fears of the “sissified” male.
partner

How Oscar Speeches Became So Political

Oscar night has become a platform for stars to pitch political causes.

McCarthyism at the Oscars

As José Ferrer was being handed his Oscar—making him the first Latino actor to win—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Why Artist Hank Willis Thomas Smashed Up 'The Dukes of Hazzard's' General Lee

Thomas crunches history and Hollywood tropes in his first solo show in L.A.

What Should a Slavery Epic Do?

If there’s anything the 2010s taught us, it’s that there is no getting these stories right, no honoring with grace the dead and ghosts.

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