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Film History

American Culture and 1920s Netherlands

September 22, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The interior of dancing Pschorr, Coolsingel, Rotterdam ca. 1928-1932 (Stadsarchief Rotterdam, collection topography Rotterdam)During the 1920s, the Netherlands excelled in dullness, it is said. But Kees Wouters shows how the cobwebs of pillarized society were blown away by a new musical wind from the West: Jazz! Exalted by many, vilified by others, Dutch musicians playing American jazz conquered music halls and radio waves alike and even made the Dutch dance.

According to Dutch historian Hermann von der Dunk, writing in the early 1980s, life in the Netherlands after World War I was as exciting as in a girls’ boarding school. Nothing much happened. Despite the presence of about a million destitute Belgian refugees, the horrors of the war had largely passed the Netherlands by. [Read more…] about American Culture and 1920s Netherlands

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Catholicism, Cultural History, Dance, Dutch History, Film History, Jazz, Musical History, Netherlands, Performing Arts, Religious History, Theatre, Vice, World War One, World War Two

The ‘Tree’ of Us: Richford Boys Who Changed The World

July 28, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The 'Tree' of Us: Richford Boys Who Changed The World And What They Left BehindCharles Yaple’s latest book, The ‘Tree’ of Us: Richford Boys Who Changed The World And What They Left Behind (2023) is a deeply personal narrative mixing biography, history, and memoir to encourage the furtherance of a land ethic as envisioned by famed ecologist Aldo Leopold.  The story follows the lives of three men, from the steeply forested hills of Richford, in Tioga County, NY, who changed the world. [Read more…] about The ‘Tree’ of Us: Richford Boys Who Changed The World

Filed Under: Arts, Books, History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Environmental History, Film History, Finger Lakes, John D. Rockefeller, Richford, Tioga County, wilderness

Josephine Baker and Illustrator Paul Colin

July 25, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Detail of photo of Joséphine Baker in 1940, photographed by Studio HarcourtA century ago this year, Josephine Baker traveled on a one way ticket from Philadelphia to New York City, having left her recently-wed husband behind.

Born an illegitimate child in a St Louis ghetto on June 3, 1906, Freda Josephine McDonald had a dismal childhood of poverty living in an area of rooming houses, run-down apartments and brothels near Union Station. The city was beset by racial tension and violence. [Read more…] about Josephine Baker and Illustrator Paul Colin

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Art Deco, Art History, Black History, Cultural History, Film History, French History, Harlem, illustrators, Jazz, Josephine Baker, modernism, Musical History, New York City, Performing Arts, Theatre, womens history, World War One

Before Hollywood: Early Filmmaking in New York State

July 21, 2023 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians PodcastThis week on the Historians Podcast, film historian Audrey Kupferberg discusses filmmaking in New York State before the Hollywood era.

Audrey Kupferberg is a film commentator for WAMC public radio in Albany. She is an emeritus lecturer in film history at the University at Albany and previously was director of the film study center at Yale. [Read more…] about Before Hollywood: Early Filmmaking in New York State

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Film History, Podcasts

Here in Manhattan: A New Pop-History Guide

June 22, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Here in ManhattanThe new book Here in Manhattan: A site-by-site guide to the history of the world’s greatest city (Sutherland House Books, 2023) by Tom Begnal tells the story of Manhattan, ranging from Fort Washington to Wall Street, bridging important history and pop-culture moments. Here in Manhattan is a site-by-site guide to the wonders of the city. [Read more…] about Here in Manhattan: A New Pop-History Guide

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Culinary History, Cultural History, Edgar Alan Poe, Film History, Fort Washington, Manhattan, New York City, Performing Arts, Pop Culture History, Wall Street

Zita Johann: Rockland County’s Classic Movie Star

May 26, 2023 by Clare Sheridan Leave a Comment

crossroads of rockland historyZita Johann (1904–1993), best known for her role in The Mummy (1932) starring Boris Karloff, lived for many years in Rockland County. The latest episode of Crossroads of Rockland History explores a new book on the actor by local author Tom Stratford, Along Came Zita (BookBaby, 2023). [Read more…] about Zita Johann: Rockland County’s Classic Movie Star

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Film History, Historical Society of Rockland County, Nyack, Performing Arts, Podcasts, Rockland County, Spiritualism, Theatre

What Do We Tell Our Children about the Holocaust?

May 12, 2023 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, Meryl Frank in her book Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Hachette Books, 2023) tells the story of her cousin Franya Winter, a celebrated Yiddish stage actress in Vilna in Eastern Europe who died in the Holocaust. [Read more…] about What Do We Tell Our Children about the Holocaust?

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Education, Film History, Genealogy, Holocaust, Jewish History, Performing Arts, Podcasts, Theatre, World War Two

The Migration of European Modern Art to New York: Solomon Guggenheim & Karl Nierendorf

April 27, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

SS Europa prior to her maiden voyage in March 1930Born on April 18, 1889, in Remagen am Rhein into a Catholic family, Karl Nierendorf was educated in Cologne. He worked as a banker before World War I, but his career was disrupted in 1913 by the social upheaval in the Weimar Republic. One of his acquaintances, an art collector, introduced him to the Swiss-born German painter Paul Klee who persuaded him to attempt a career as an art dealer. The two would remain close. When Klee died in June 1940, Nierendorf published Paul Klee Paintings Watercolors 1913 to 1939 (New York: Oxford UP, 1941) as a tribute and an act of friendship. [Read more…] about The Migration of European Modern Art to New York: Solomon Guggenheim & Karl Nierendorf

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, Film History, Frank Lloyd Wright, French History, German-American History, Guggenheim Museum, Jewish History, Manhattan, modernism, Museums, New York City, painting

Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton & The Hague Women’s Congress

April 26, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton, Aletta Jacobs in BerlinBerlin, May 1915. Three feminists on an historical mission — Jane Addams and New York native Alice Hamilton from the United States, and Aletta Jacobs from the Netherlands — meet Wilbur H. Durborough. The American photographer and filmmaker had traveled to Berlin with his cameraman, Irving G. Ries, to shoot footage for his war documentary On the Firing Line with the Germans (1915). [Read more…] about Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton & The Hague Women’s Congress

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Alice Hamilton, Chicago, Documentary, Dutch History, feminism, film, Film History, Foreign Policy, Immigration, Netherlands, Pacifism, Peace Studies, Political History, poverty, Suffrage Movement, Women, womens history, Woodrow Wilson, World War One

Movie-Mad Girls: Early 20th Century Female Suicidality

March 29, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

movie-mad girlsDiana W. Anselmo’s recent publication “Movie-Mad Girls: Female Suicidality in Early Twentieth-Century United States” explores the cultural and political reach of “bad feelings” beyond the strictly psychoanalytic. [Read more…] about Movie-Mad Girls: Early 20th Century Female Suicidality

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Cultural History, Film History, Massachusetts Historical Society, Medical History, Mental Health, Pop Culture History, Public Health, womens history

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