2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
Imogene Coca and James Starbuck perform their comedy version of the pas de deux from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty on TV in 1951. This performance was originally telecast live as part…
"Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence." Sholem Asch, The Nazarene
As I watched Dolemite Is My Name on Netflix the other day, I realized that I never anticipated living to see the end of movies as a public and collective viewing experience. Yet it's well…
From 2005: I went to my framer yesterday afternoon and picked up the presidential commission for my appointment to the National Council on the Arts. It is a splendidly old-fashioned document…
"Lately I have had the feeling that I have my whole life to consider and enjoy, especially the periods that were especially nice and that when I was younger I might have regretted because th…
One month ago this past Saturday, Mrs. T and I were sitting on the couch in our living room in upper Manhattan, watching Gone With the Wind on TCM, when she went into a full-scale respira…
Glenn Gould plays his own transcription for solo piano of Maurice Ravel's La Valse. This performance was originally telecast by the CBC in 1975: (This is the latest in a series of arts- a…
"One of the advantages of almost losing everything is the knowledge that everything is a gift. It's given and can be abruptly taken away. There's no entitlement. Few of us, fortunately, get …
A rare 1995 TV interview with the film composer Jerry Goldsmith, originally telecast by The Movie Channel as part of its "Take One" series: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and histo…
"Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all." Ray Bradbury, "The Queen's Own Evaders, an Afterword"
"I have said that this pseudo-rational view of human nature led to a thinness, a superficiality, not only of judgment, but also of feeling." John Maynard Keynes, "My Early Beliefs"
Johnny Carson interviews Bette Davis on The Tonight Show. This episode was originally telecast by NBC on January 7, 1988: (This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related vide…
"To look back is to relax one's vigil." Bette Davis, The Lonely Life: An Autobiography
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that Mrs. T is gravely ill and has been in the intensive-care unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital for the past three weeks"but that she r…
From 2004: Blogs are the 21st-century counterpart of the periodical essays of the eighteenth century, the Spectators and Ramblers and Idlers that supplied familiar essayists w…
"Leisure is a form of that stillness that is the necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear." Josef Pieper, …
"Behind the Tunes: A Conversation with Tex Avery," an undated interview with the animator-director who created the prototypes for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig: (This is …
"Comedy is the salt of civilization, its critical voice." Guy Davenport, "That Faire Field of Enna" (courtesy of Anecdotal Evidence)
In today's Wall Street Journal I review Lincoln Center Theater's off-Broadway production of Samuel D. Hunter's Greater Clements. Here's an excerpt. *Â Â *Â Â * Now that Horton Foote …
Ida Lupino appears as the guest on This Is Your Life. The host is Ralph Edwards. This episode was originally telecast live by NBC on March 3, 1958: (This is the latest in a series of arts…
"Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in their capacity to arrive at the truth." W.H. Auden, "The Protes…
"Those who do not doubt do not believe. Faith is maintained by resolving doubts, and again resolving those further doubts which are suggested by the resolution of previous doubts." Miguel de…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I write about the different ways in which playwrights make stage dialogue sound "realistic." Here's an excerpt. *  *  * Step…
George Balanchine's version of The Nutcracker, performed by the New York City Ballet and originally telecast by CBS in 1958 as an episode of Playhouse 90. The score is by Tchaikovsky. …
"When there is no hope, there can be no endeavour." Samuel Johnson, The Rambler (November 6, 1750)
