Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

American television was all set to launch in the late 1930s, but its progress was interrupted by the start of World War II. Finally, by the end of the 1940s, NBC and CBS began broadcasting to their east coast affiliates. They offered viewers a wide variety of programs: situation comedies, vaudeville-style revues, and most impressively, live original dramas. Within a few years, these anthology programs, like Kraft Television Theatre and Ford Television Theatre launched the careers of soon-to-be famous directors like Arthur Penn and John Frankenheimer, actors like Paul Newman and James Dean, and playwrights like Paddy Chayevsky and Rod Serling. But by the end of the 1950s, the era of live TV “theater” was over. So too was New York City as a center of TV production. This presentation will look at the forces that made this “golden age” such an intriguing chapter in TV history and why it was so short-lived (including brief examinations of blacklisting and the TV quiz show scandals).

Ever since the movie industry was born in the 1890s, audiences have thrilled to watch stories come to life on the big screen. At first, this screen wasn’t very big—nor was attending the stuffy local nickelodeon all that pleasant. But by the 1920s, extravagant movie palaces were constructed in downtowns all over the country and moviegoing was transformed into a luxury experience. Sadly, this would end in the 1950s with the rise of the suburbs and the explosion of drive-in theaters, followed by shopping mall multiplexes. Today, going to the movies can be either overwhelming—at seven-story IMAX theaters—or thoroughly unpleasant, as your neighbor gobbles nachos and beer and teenagers talk and text throughout the film. And with the advent of the pandemic, for most of us, moviegoing is now just a memory. This presentation will look at the fascinating history of movie theaters and examine how the experience of moviegoing has changed over the decades. And whether movie theaters will survive in the age of Netflix.

From the late 1920s through the end of World War II, studios like MGM, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and RKO would dominate film production, not only in America but throughout the world. The reasons for Hollywood’s success during this period are intriguing. Despite the economic problems posed by the Depression, the studios became virtual entertainment factories, with each studio producing more than 50 movies a year. The legacy of these years of frenzied activity are among the best-loved, and most significant films, ever made. This presentation will examine the forces that made Hollywood the giant of global film-making and the special nature of its achievements during its Golden Age, including discussions of studio politics and economics, the star system, and the nature of the movie-going experience. There will also be an analysis of why this period was so short-lived and of Hollywood’s desperate attempts, beginning in the 1950s, to recapture its faded glory.