2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
Lilli Palmer interviews Thornton Wilder in an extremely rare TV appearance on The Lilli Palmer Show. This clip was originally telecast on NBC in 1952:Â
(This is the latest in a series…
"Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression."
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
Continue reading Almanac: Dodie Smith on depression at About Last Night.
The last play I saw on stage, Katori Hall's The Hot Wing King, had a short off-Broadway run before New York's theaters were closed down in mid-March. Earlier that same week, my beloved wife …
From 2010:
Today's episode of Fresh Air is all about the history of songs in Hollywood, and the producers invited those who follow the series on Twitter to vote for their favorite movie s…
"My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known"no wonder, then, that I return the love."
Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
Continue reading Almanac: Kierkegaard on depression at …
John Steinbeck talks to the Voice of America about how America has changed since he wrote The Grapes of Wrath. This radio interview was originally broadcast on February 11, 1952:
(This i…
"That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward."
Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald (September 13, 1929)
Continue read…
I've written an essay for Saturday's Wall Street Journal about the history of summer movies in America. Here's an excerpt.
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Summer is here"but there are no movies to mark …
In today's Wall Street Journal I review an Original Theater Company/59E59 Theaters webcast of Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art. Here's an excerpt.
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Except for "The Histo…
Richard Burton talks about Dylan Thomas and Under Milk Wood in a BBC interview originally telecast on February 15, 1971:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related vide…
"Depression is the inability to construct a future."
Rollo May, Love and Will
Continue reading Almanac: Rollo May on depression at About Last Night.
"As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe only antidote for melancholia is action. However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth."
Edward Abbey, A Voi…
Johnny Cash performs his "Big River" on an episode of Pet Milk Grand Ole Opry originally telecast on February 12, 1962:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related video…
"The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny."
Edward Abbey, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto)
Continue reading Almanac: Edward Abbey on wit at About Last Ni…
From 2005:
Very few people who don't write for a living understand that writing is work, much less that a writer who is sitting in a chair, reading a book or staring absently into the dis…
"Any innocent pleasure is a real good; there are not so many of them."
Patrick O'Brian, Post Captain
Continue reading Almanac: Patrick O'Brian on pleasure at About Last Night.
Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor dance a medley of songs from their films. This clip is an excerpt from Pontiac Star Parade, a TV special that was originally telecast by NBC on November 21,…
"Few things are more irritating than to discover, after you have been at great pains to spare a person some painful intelligence, that he has known it all along and is not nearly so mch affe…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I review a webcast version of Lincoln Center Theater's 2014 production of James Lapine's Act One. Here's an excerpt.
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James Lap…
My latest Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column is about Lennox Berkeley, an English composer whose music is all but unknown in this country and deserves much wider recognition. Here's an e…
A new episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening …
Nat King Cole appears as the mystery guest on What's My Line?John Daly is the host and the panelists are Steve Allen, Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, and Dorothy Kilgallen. This episode was…
"But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence. The least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of."
Lord Byron, letter…
"Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen."
Michel de Montalgne, Essays (trans. Donald M. Frame)
Continue reading Almanac: Montaigne on the propens…
Mark Knopfler is interviewed by Michael Parkinson on Parkinson, originally telecast by the BBC in 2000:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in…
