American Entertainment

Starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, author Jeremy Dauber whizzes listeners through the progress of comics in the 20th century and beyond. Follow the history from the golden age of newspaper comic strips - Krazy Kat, Yellow Kid, Dick Tracy - to the midcentury superhero boom - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman - and from the moral panic of the Eisenhower era to the underground comix movement; from the grim and gritty Dark Knights to the graphic novel’s rise.

When Robert Redford first entered the national spotlight in the early 1960s, he was hardly viewed as a serious actor, and with his red hair, blond complexion, and athletic build, he was seen more as a handsome man than a skilled one. On top of that, he came at a time in which most Hollywood stars were tall, dark, and slender - like one of his most famous costars, Paul Newman - and by comparison, Redford looked more like a surfer.

Elevate your acting skills and expand your casting potential with this comprehensive American accent guide designed specifically for actors. Unlike traditional accent books that focus on rigid rules, this practical acting resource blends accent mastery with authentic character work, helping you deliver believable performances every time. Learn the key features of American accents, from mouth placement and speech rhythm to intonation patterns, ensuring your delivery sounds natural and convincing. The book covers regional American accents across the U.S.

Depravity, redemption, terror, and spiritual deliverance abound in this physically and psychologically complex memoir from the front man of the pioneer punk band True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL). Spanning the extremes between hard-core punk memoir and handbook for recovery and survival, this narrative documents a youth rebellion that changed the world and offered life lessons rooted in 1980s punk culture.

From West Side Story in 1957 to Road Show in 2008, the musicals of Stephen Sondheim and his collaborators have challenged the conventions of American musical theater and expanded the possibilities of what musical plays can do, how they work, and what they mean.

When the American Film Institute assembled a list of its top 100 actors, one of the top 10 was James Cagney, an actor whose acting and dancing talents spawned a career that spanned over five decades and once compelled Orson Welles to call him "maybe the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera." Ultimately it was portraying tough guys and gangsters in the 1930s that turned Cagney into a massive star, the kinds of roles he was born to play after growing up rough in Manhattan at the turn of the 20th century.

Warner Bros charts the rise of an unpromising film studio from its shaky beginnings in the early 20th century through its ascent to the pinnacle of Hollywood influence and popularity. The Warner Brothers - Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack - arrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood.

In 1994, the American Film Institute gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to Jack Nicholson, who became one of the youngest actors to ever receive the award. Such tributes typically come as a capstone to a star's career, not when the actor is still in his 50s. In fact, Nicholson would go on to win the Oscar for Best Actor just a few years after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award as a result of As Good As It Gets (1997), and he would earn another Academy Award nomination for About Schmidt (2002). Those two would give him 12 Academy Award nominations, more than any other man in history, and make him one of just two actors to be nominated in every decade between 1960 and 2010.

If one assembled a list of the most iconic actors of the film noir genre, Robert Mitchum would surely rank at the top of the list. With his deadpan façade and slow, monotone verbal delivery, Mitchum encapsulated the disillusioned hero of the postwar crime genre.

At the time of Buddy Holly's birth in 1936, in Lubbock Texas, rock music and its various hybrid genres were in early infancy. Signs of rock's future magnitude would soon be seen in the sexual charisma of the young Elvis Presley, the rhythm and passion of Chuck Berry, the riveting musical dialogues of Little Richard, and the raw virtuosity of Jerry Lee Lewis. Even then, however, no one yet knew what a rock star really was, and who could become one.

Throughout the history of Hollywood, perhaps no actor has a reputation as unique as Johnny Depp. Depp began his career in a very traditional manner by being a teen heartthrob on shows like 21 Jump Street, but as he once admitted, "As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too."

Years before comedians like Chris Farley made their reputations with a particularly physical form of humor, there was John Belushi, the legendary comedian known for iconic performances in Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live. Not surprisingly, posters of Belushi as Bluto Blutarsky wearing a shirt that simply says "College" still adorn the walls of countless dorm rooms over 35 years after Animal House came out, and The Blues Brothers is still a cult classic.

As we approach the 50th anniversaries of Alex Haley's novel Roots (1976) and its landmark television adaptation (1977), journalist and storyteller Lucas L. Johnson II reflects on the enduring legacy of Haley's work through the voices of those it continues to move, including scholars, artists, genealogists, students, and original cast members like LeVar Burton and Ben Vereen. With vivid personal anecdotes, emotional tributes, and probing reflections, Remembering Roots shows how Haley's vision gave birth to a genealogy movement and inspired generations to reclaim their identities.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER With the critically acclaimed Sin in the Second City, bestselling author Karen Abbott “pioneered sizzle history” (USA Today). Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of America’s coming-of-age—told through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee...

Of all the show business icons in American history, one of the most beloved was Bob Hope, whose career spanned over six decades across film, television, vaudeville, comedy, and touring and earned him too many accolades to count. On the day of his 100th birthday, more than half of the states in America declared it "Bob Hope Day", a sign of just how monumental and influential he was as an entertainer.

Today, the name Clint Eastwood conjures up many different and unforgettable images. While many will always associate him as the quintessential Western hero in classics like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, new generations know him as a critically acclaimed director and even an outspoken conservative firebrand.

In the 1960s and 1970s, no actor personified cool, calm and collected like Steve McQueen, whose suave anti-hero protagonists made men jealous and women swoon. As actor Donald Logue puts it in The Tao of Steve, "Steve is the prototypical cool American male. He's the guy on his horse, the guy alone. He has his own code of honor, his own code of ethics, his own rules of living. He never, ever tries to impress the women, but he always gets the girl."

The leading men of the 1940s and ‘50s ably represented the visual and cultural expectations of those decades in their iconic films. Some were handsome and glib with quasi-classical dialogue, some could sing, and a few could dance, while others brought an imposing athletic presence to thrillers, westerns, and urban crime dramas.

In the history of television programming, no show was as consistently excellent in the ratings as The Ed Sullivan Show, a variety show that brought on all kinds of acts, from dancers to artists and singers. It was the longest-running show to maintain one time slot, and today it is widely remembered for introducing the nation to the likes of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. When Elvis was on the show in 1956, over 82% of the nation's entire television audience tuned in, a rating that would make even the Super Bowl blush.

Like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin is an American legend for his longevity and success across a garden variety of different platforms. Martin began as a nightclub singer, performed in a comedy act, starred in films, recorded hit albums, and capped his career by serving as a television host. In fact, there may be no star who was better able to transcend the different avenues of entertainment.