Cascade PBS Passport Members gain extended access to thousands of hours of streaming video. Binge your favorite PBS programming and thought-provoking exclusives from around the world.
Against All Odds: Meet the Woman Behind American Masters
Show title:
American Masters
Video title:
Against All Odds: Meet the Woman Behind American Masters
Video duration:
5m 29s
Video description:
Susan Lacy, creator of American Masters, reflects on the beginnings of the series, and how she secured a primetime slot in the summer of 1986. As a young, tenacious staffer at WNET, she saw the promise of telling the compelling stories of artists and “those who create and achieve against all odds.”
Reed was always at the forefront of American avant-garde music, beginning with creation of the Velvet Underground in 1965. Gritty and realistic, the brutal honesty in Reed’s lyrics and sound made him a cultural icon of the disenfranchised throughout the ’60s and ’70s. From punk rock to grunge, he has had an unparalleled influence on the American music scene.
Bebop, a style of jazz developed in the 1940's, changed American music but wasn't taken seriously for much of Charlie Parker's life. This mid-century popcorn television commercial shows how the public's perception of bebop was riddled with stereotypes.
Charlie Parker's nickname "Yardbird" came to be while he was on the way to a gig with some fellow musicians and involved a bird in a yard that had an unfortunate fate.