We're The New York Public Library and we're here to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.
Today would have been the 77th birthday for music icon and legend Roy Orbison. You want to read about Roy’s life? You want to listen to his solo albums? Or how about checking out the great Traveling Wilbury’s album that Roy was a part of? Well as Roy would say, YOU GOT IT! Or in this case, the NYPL has all of your Roy Orbison materials available at your local branch. Happy birthday Roy!
The balcony has closed. It is with great sadness that the NYPL learned of the passing of the legendary film critic Roger Ebert today. We were enormous fans of both Ebert’s film reviews - in print and on television - as well as the many different books that he penned. You can find all of his great books such as I HATED, HATED, HATED THIS MOVIE, and his fantastic memoir LIFE ITSELF at branches throughout the entire New York Public Library system. We give the great Roger Ebert two very big enthusiastic thumbs up, WAY UP. You will be missed.
Happy 70th Birthday to the great Christopher Walken! In celebration our amazing librarian at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jeremy Megraw, wrote an awesome blog about Walken. Jeremy also uncovered some rarely seen photos of a VERY YOUNG Walken from The Library’s incredible Billy Rose Theatre Collection. The photo above is from Ronnie Walken’s (his birth name) 1955 acting resume. Our friends at Gothamist also shared some of these photos as well as some that they found as well…
The series Rhapsodic City: Music of New York brings you an evening featuring a collection of short films that focus on the experiences of young Punks in New York. Works to be screened include:
Punking Out, 1979. Directed by Maggi Carson, Juliusz Kossakowski, Frederic A. Shore: Shot in 1977, this 25-minute film features performance and interview footage of the Ramones, The Dead Boys, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids at CBGB.
Jane, 1974. Directed by John Rosen: A mini-portrait of Jane Barrington, a self-proclaimed groupie as she explains her reasons for choosing her lifestyle, her conflicts with her mother, her intention to marry a rock star, her preference for British bands and her definition of a groupie.
Kidnapped, 1978. Directed by Eric Mitchell: The director’s first film, shot in super-8, stars Mitchell, Anya Phillips, Patti Astor, and Duncan Smith among a crowd of hip “poseurs,” talking sex, manners and politics.
Join NYPL on March 26 @ 6:00 pm to view these great short films. Haven’t gotten your fill of the punk lifestyle? Join music icons Debbie Harry and Blondie co-founder Chris Stein, and senior critic for Rolling Stone, Will Hermes on March 27 at 6:00 pm for a discussion of how music in the 1970s created its own personality and style.
It’s FLAMENCO time!!! Opening this week at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Vincent Astor Gallery is the free multimedia exhibition 100 Years of Flamenco in NYC . The exhibition featuresall things Flamenco including costumes, photographs, posters and video. Doing the Flamenco while visiting the exhibition is optional.
Winner of the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983 Sundance Film Festival, Style Wars is regarded as the indispensable document of New York street culture and subway graffiti art of the early ’80s, Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s filmic record of a golden age of youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in crisis. In partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Chalfant will join a panel of artists and scholars - including sculptor/painter Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez and moderated by painter/DJ iona rozeal brown - to discuss the documentary’s influence and presence thirty years later.
Charlie Chaplin took the silent film era by storm in 1914 when his first film, “Making a Living” debuted on February 2.
He was one of the most iconic figures to fashion the toothbrush mustache when he first added it to his costume for his Mack Sennett silent comedies beginning in 1914. He claimed that the mustache - depicted here in a beautiful photograph courtesy of NYPL’s Billy Rose Theater Collection - added to his comical appearance while still allowing the audience to still see his expressions.
Happy Mustache Monday!
Congratulations to all of the Academy Award nominees today! In celebration of the nominations it has becoming an annual tradition for us to post a photo of one of our most famous treasures at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Yep, believe it or not, but The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses TWO Academy Awards in its collections. One is the Oscar that Paul Muni won in 1937 for Best Actor in THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR and the other belonged to Burl Ives who won it for Best Supporting Actor in 1959 for THE BIG COUNTRY.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts‘ Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen is making a splash across the pond, too. The BBC visited the exhibit - currently on display until January 12 - to take a look at some of the beloved star’s costumes, khakis and archives, and uncover what makes Hepburn an enduring fashion icon around the world. Watch the story here, and click here for more details on Dressed for Stage and Screen.
Today, we honor the work of award-winning actor Jack Klugman, who passed away on Monday. The Emmy Award winner was best known for his work in Gypsy (photo with Ethel Merman courtesy of NYPL’s Digital Gallery/Billy Rose Theater Division), Quincy, M.E., Ben Casey, and The Odd Couple with Tony Randall.
He will be missed.
