Posts by John Calhoun

Exploring the Library for the Performing Arts' Cinema Series 40 Years of London and New York Theatre on Film.

Frank Sinatra is known first and foremost as a singer and recording artist; after all, before he acquired the nicknames “Chairman of the Board” or “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” he was known as “The Voice.” But his career as a movie actor earned him nearly as much fame and acclaim as did his musical career.

Vivien Leigh, who was born November 5, 1913, may not have lived to see her 54th birthday, but she is one of the rare performers whose fame has long outlasted her death. Leigh's distinctive blend of delicacy and power as an actress, coupled with her great beauty, have helped to enshrine her.

Mildred Pierce (T Photo B, Billy Rose Theatre Division)The fourth annual TCM Classic Film Festival, held April 25 to 28 in Hollywood, included screenings of roughly 80 films and featured at least as many special guests, including Jane Fonda, Eva Marie Saint, Max von Sydow, and Mel Brooks. Festivalgoers got to watch Fonda add her hand and footprints to the TCL (formerly Graumann's) Chinese Theatre forecourt, listen to Tippi Hedren discuss her experience working with Alfred Hitchcock, 

Boris Karloff, who will be paid tribute to in a Thursday, October 27 program at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, played Frankenstein’s Monster in three films, the first of which was released 80 years ago next month.

Karloff played the title characters in The Mummy, The Ghoul, and T

Noted always for her beauty, sometimes for her acting, and equally frequently for her scandalous romances and charitable acts, Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of a star right up to her passing earlier this year at age 79.

Over an eight-part salute in July and August, LPA Cinema Series traces Taylor's career from MGM child actress to Hollywood icon. Along the way, the 

The great W. C. Fields may have resented being buttoned up, but he had little choice in the silent film era. Without being able to show off his gift for gab, the comedian had to rely on his vaudeville-honed physical gifts, which were also prodigious.

For a rare opportunity to catch some of Fields' pre-talkie movie work, drop in to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter Auditorium (111 Amsterdam Avenue between 64th and 65th Sts.) Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 2:30pm. The latest program in the film series

In the mood for an eclectic combination of animated, experimental, documentary, and narrative-based short films? Then don't miss Award-Winning Works from the 29th Black Maria Film + Video Festival, presented Saturday, April 24 at 2:30pm at Jefferson Market Library.

Since 1981, the Black Maria Film + Video Festival has been fulfilling its mission to "advocate, exhibit, and reward cutting 

Pete Seeger may be best known as a folk music icon, but his history as a political activist is as important as his musical legacy. The activism gets pride of place in Pamela Timmins' documentary Clearwater Nation, which will be shown Monday, April 5, 2010 at 6pm at Jefferson Market Branch.

The 

Global women's issues are the focus of Jefferson Market Branch's Monday night film series in March, which is National Women's History Month. The series, titled 21st-Century Women on Film, includes five movies made in the first decade of the 2000s, and examines contemporary challenges facing women across four continents.

Jefferson Market to screen some of the winning foreign-lingo movies in February  Now that Oscar season is upon us, Jefferson Market Branch is devoting its Monday night film series in February to Academy Award-winning foreign-language films.   Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will screen February 1 at Jefferson MarketEvery year, one of the most controversial categories at the Oscars is Best Foreign Language Film. 

In 1919, D.W. Griffith announced that he was opening an independent film studio in Mamaroneck, New York; it had been only five years since the director left the East Coast for Hollywood. But that five-year period had been a momentous one, not only for Griffith—whose West Coast output during this time included Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and Broken Blossoms—but for the film industry in general. By 1915, 80 percent of American films were made in southern California, and by 1919, the factory system that came to characterize Hollywood production during its classical period was largely in 

Who better to take a fresh look at Scarlett O’Hara than the author of a book titled From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies? Molly Haskell made her name with that 1973 work, a watershed chronicle of female images through Hollywood history. In her new book Frankly My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited, Haskell has turned her lively analytical style to Margaret Mitchell’s tempestuous heroine, both in her literary and cinematic incarnations.