2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
Vladimir Horowitz plays Scriabin's D-Sharp Minor Etude, Op. 8, No. 12, at Carnegie Hall in 1968. The video is from a concert telecast by CBS. The audio has been synchronized from a high-qual…
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never"in nothing, great or small, large or petty"never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense."
Winston Churchill, speech,…
In today's Wall Street Journal I review the Irish Repertory Theatre's online webcast version of Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney. Here's an excerpt.
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I've been eagerly waiting …
A BBC "Arena" TV documentary about Paul Scofield, produced and directed by David Thompson and originally telecast on December 24, 2008:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-…
"Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very p…
"It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy."
Cary Grant, interviewed by Sheilah Graham (Motion Picture, June 1964)
Continue readi…
Count Basie and His Orchestra play Freddie Green's "Corner Pocket" live in Sweden in 1962:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each…
"Happiness in the ordinary sense is not what one needs in life, though one is right to aim at it. The true satisfaction is to come through and see those whom one loves come through."
E.M. Fo…
From 2004:
"I watched the tail end of Master and Commander after I got home from a dinner party in Washington Heights last night, then read myself to sleep with the last chapter of Dav…
"Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship."
Epicurus, Principal Doctrines (trans. Robert Drew Hicks)
C…
It's no secret, since I haven't made it one here or elsewhere, that I've been having a rocky time of it for the past month. Grief maintains its own inexorable schedule without reference to t…
A rare 1953 promotional film for the Hollywood String Quartet, a group led by Felix Slatkin (Leonard Slatkin's father) and comprised of the first-chair string players of Hollywood's film-stu…
"To have been happy, madame, leads to calamity."
Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn
Continue reading Almanac: Beaumont and Fletcher on happiness at About Last Night.
In today's Wall Street Journal I review a webcast of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' "TourCo" production of Cymbeline. Here's an excerpt.
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Earlier this season, Shakespeare…
Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, and Marian Seldes appear in "The Laugh Maker," a drama by A.J. Russell, directed by Paul Nickell and originally telecast live by CBS on Studio One in 1953:
(This…
"Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."
James Russell Lowell, "Dryden"
Continue reading Almanac: James Russell Lowell on solitude at About Last…
Until I truly loved, I was alone.
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, "The Lady of La Garaye"
Continue reading Almanac: Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton on love and loneliness at About Last Nigh…
"Diary of a Sergeant," a 1945 U.S. Signal Corps documentary short about Harold Russell, a paratroop sergeant who lost his hands in a World War II demolition accident. (In the film, Alfred Dr…
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
W.S. Merwin, "Separation" (courtesy of Emily Gordon)
Continue reading Almanac: W.S.…
From 2004:
My friends all take vacations, and swear by them. I don't, and after due consideration I've decided to blame this idiosyncrasy on my late father, who planned the family vacations …
"Best thing to do with memories is"forget 'em."
Dudley Nichols, screenplay for The Long Voyage Home (based on the plays of Eugene O'Neill)
Continue reading Almanac: Dudley Nichols (and Eu…
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 …
Eubie Blake, the great ragtime and jazz pianist and composer, talks about his life and work, endorses Dr Pepper, and sings and plays the Dr Pepper jingle in a recording session for a 1974 TV…
"Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good."
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (trans. George Lon…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review a webcast production of The Diary of Anne Frank from St. Paul, Minnesota. Here's an excerpt.
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Why can't theater compa…
