Peabody win for 'Eames: The Architect & the Painter'
American Masters wins a Peabody for its documentary, 'Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect & the Painter.' Watch and listen as director Jason Cohn accepts the award.
The Atlanta Race Riot 1906
Born in 1900, young Margaret Mitchell was profoundly influenced by a violent race riot perpetrated by white mobs against innocent blacks. The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 ravaged her home city and haunted the hub of the South for decades.
James McBride on To Kill a Mockingbird
James McBride, author of the memoir The Color of Water, discusses how Harper Lee used the voice of her protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird to bravely provide an accessible and radical point of view about racism in 1960. He describes and how today's authors can expand upon Lee's views. HarperLee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).
Mark Childress on To Kill a Mockingbird
Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama, describes how Harper Lee's protagonist Scout Finch, the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird, was a radical voice of change in the segregated south of his childhood. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).
Pat Conroy: My Mother and Gone With The Wind
One of the great writers of our time, Pat Conroy tells a poignant story of growing up in the South and listening to his mother read Gone With the Wind with heartfelt emotion and joy. The author of The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini and The Lords of Discipline attributes his mother's impassioned love of Gone With the Wind to his decision to become a novelist.
Wally Lamb on To Kill a Mockingbird
Wally Lamb, author of the critically acclaimed She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True and former Director of Creative Writing at University of Connecticut, discusses Scout's universally sympathetic voice and the ways in which To Kill a Mockingbird and all literature can act as an agent of change. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).
Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel
Margaret Mitchell was no ordinary writer. The one book she published in her lifetime - Gone With the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, 75 years ago. With over 30 million copies sold to date, it is one of the world's best-selling novels. The film adaptation broke all box office records, and received 10 Academy Awards. Premieres nationally Monday, April 2 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
Interview with Pamela Roberts
As part of a segment filmed during pledge for Georgia Public Broadcasting, Pamela Roberts, director of Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel, gave an interview about her creative process and commitment to telling the true story of Gone With The Wind and the life of Margaret Mitchell. Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel premieres nationally on Monday, April 2 from 9-10 p.m.
Richard Russo on To Kill a Mockingbird
Novelist Richard Russo describes how he reluctantly read To Kill a Mockingbird as a student in Catholic school. Russo explains how the relationships described in the book influenced him as a writer and provided inspiration for his own characters in his Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Empire Falls. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. (check local listings).
The Grand Premiere
The premiere of the blockbuster movie Gone With the Wind took place in Atlanta on December 15, 1939. With crowds swelling to the hundreds of thousands, it was apparent the South had been waiting a long time for this moment. For many, Margaret Mitchell's story of survival helped to redeem the South from decades of pain and suffering experienced after the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize Night
Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize in the spring of 1937, to the dismay of some critics and the delight of others. Mitchell received news of the prize by phone, along with multiple requests for interviews. Hating publicity, she fled to a gospel concert at a small black church in Atlanta with her husband and close associates. The press scoured the city but never found her.
Maybelle Stephens Mitchell, Southern Suffragist
The most important person in Margaret Mitchell's life was her mother Maybelle Stephens Mitchell. Maybelle was a powerful public figure who fought in the first two decades of the 20th century to get women the right to vote. Mitchell was in awe of her mother and felt she could never live up to her mother's expectations.
Is Gone With The Wind Literature?
Scholars and devoted readers of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 classic novel have been arguing the book's literary merits for decades. Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel premieres nationally on Monday, April 2 from 9-10 p.m.
Steve Brodner sketches Cab Calloway Part 2
Stever Brodner creates a second sketch of Cab Calloway to Calloway's classic hit "Minnie The Moocher" for the documentary AMERICAN MASTERS Cab Calloway: Sketches, premiering nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). Brodner's completed sketch comes alives and dances alongside Matthew Rushing, choreographer/principal dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Danny Holgate plays Gershwin
Danny Holgate plays a section of George Gershwin's "Ain't Necesarily So" from Porgy and Bess, a song sung by a Cab inspired character, in an outtake from the documentary Cab Calloway: Sketches. Cab Calloway: Sketches premieres nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). In the New York metro-area the film airs Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN.
Steve Brodner sketches Cab Calloway Part 1
Watch Steve Brodner create one of the sketches used in the documentary AMERICAN MASTERS Cab Calloway: Sketches to the soundtrack of Cab Calloway's "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House."Cab Calloway: Sketches premiering nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).
Chris Calloway Brooks Discuss His Grandfather
Chris Calloway Brooks, musician and current director of the Cab Calloway Orchestra, discusses his grandfather Cab Calloway's accomplishments and style. Cab Calloway: Sketches premieres nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). In the New York metro-area the film airs Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN.
Cab Calloway: Sketches
Calloway was also an ambassador for his race, leading one of the most popular African American big bands during the Harlem Renaissance and jazz and swing eras of the 1930s-40s. American Masters celebrates "The Hi De Ho Man's" legacy during Black History Month with the documentary Cab Calloway: Sketches premiering nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).
Cab Calloway's Straight Hair
Horn player Gerald Wilson, jazz writer Gary Giddens, and jazz critic/cultural historian Stanley Crouch discuss how Cab's straight hair, unusual in people of African American descent, and his ability to toss it while performing, played into his persona and popularity as an entertainer. Cab Calloway: Sketches premieres nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (check local listings).
Cab Calloway vs. Dizzy Gillespie
Jazz writer Gary Giddens and jazz critic/cultural historian Stanley Crouch tell one of the great stories about the rivalry between Cab Calloway and Dizzy Gillespie, both eccentric performers in their own right, when Gillespie played trumpet in Calloway's band. Cab Calloway: Sketches premieres nationally Monday, February 27 at 10 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).
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