Archives for September 14, 2009

ArtsJournal, which hosts this blog, turned ten years old yesterday. Doug McLennan, the founding genius and tutelary spirit of the site that Web-savvy people who take the arts seriously visit every day, has blogged about the anniversary here. His post is very much worth reading.
It was Doug who invited me to become ArtsJournal’s first blogger. I went live nine years ago. More than six thousand postings later, Our Girl, CAAF, and I are still going strong, and still proud to be associated with the most important and influential arts-related site on the Web. At a time when newspaper and magazine coverage of the arts is in a tailspin, Doug has changed the face of arts journalism for the better.
I can’t thank you enough, Doug, for making it possible for me to join the revolution. We’re still here–and we’re not going anywhere.

In 1977 CBS aired When Television Was Young, a two-hour-long documentary hosted by Charles Kuralt (remember him?) that consisted for the most part of excerpts from kinescope recordings of live TV broadcasts that originally aired between 1949 and 1961. The programs include Captain Kangaroo, CBS Reports, Douglas Edwards with the News, The Edsel Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, The Garry Moore Show, The Goldbergs, The Honeymooners, Howdy Doody, I Love Lucy, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, The Mickey Mouse Club, Mary Martin and Noël Coward: Together With Music, Mr. I. Magination, Playhouse 90, The Red Skelton Show, See It Now, The $64,000 Question, Studio One, Suspense, Texaco Star Theater, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, You Are There, and Your Show of Shows. Some anonymous benefactor has posted the whole show on YouTube in seven installments. I commend all seven to your attention.
Don’t be thrown by the fact that the program gets off to such a slow start. Television used to be like that:

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong has received yet another pre-publication rave, this one in the August issue of Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association. Here’s an excerpt:

Teachout excels when explaining such things as why the early Armstrong recordings with his Hot Five and Seven groups are cornerstones of jazz. He provides a fresh musician’s perspective when analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of such foundational compositions as “Heebie Jeebies” and “West End Blues.” Teachout also argues for the merits of Armstrong’s popular music done in the manner of Bing Crosby. And he disagrees with the later bebop players who didn’t like Armstrong’s act, which they viewed as pandering to white audiences. What they didn’t understand, and what Teachout vigorously argues while simultaneously revealing the soul of his subject, is that being an entertainer was wrapped up in Armstrong’s personality and genius. Ultimately, Teachout’s fine biography shows how much of Armstrong’s love of music–and people–was behind that signature million-watt smile….

Nice, huh?
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A boy must peddle his book, so I now have a personalized author page at Amazon. To see it, go here.

“The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.”
Willa Cather, One of Ours