Extra Credit: 1914 Blues Challenge
W.C. Handy was called “the father of the blues” — he gave himself the title and put it on his letterhead. It wasn’t an idle boast. The son of former slaves raised in a log cabin, Handy became a major...
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A Century of Blues
William Christopher Handy was truly a self-made man. The son of ex-slaves, raised in a log cabin in Alabama, Handy went on to teach college and publish on Broadway. W.C. Handy was the first to publish...
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You've Got the Yellow Dog Blues
W.C. Handy was the first to publish a body of songs identified as blues, based on lyrics and melodies from black Southern culture, that became known throughout America. Two of his biggest hits, “St....
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Give Us the Yellow Dog Blues
W.C. Handy was the first to publish a body of songs identified as blues, based on lyrics and melodies from black Southern culture, that became known throughout America. Two of his biggest hits, “St....
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The Yellow Dog Blues Get Looped
A few weeks ago, we asked listeners to send in cover versions of W.C. Handy’s classic “Yellow Dog Blues,” to help us celebrate the song’s centennial. So far, we’ve received dozens of versions,...
View ArticleHow a Happy Ending Ruined Pygmalion
People love a makeover. So when George Bernard Shaw decided to write a play filled with feminist ideas, he borrowed from the myth of Pygmalion, the ultimate makeover story. In the story told by Ovid, a...
View ArticleAmerican Icons: The Tramp
This is silent film's most memorable character.Charlie Chaplin was a music-hall comedian when he started shooting pictures at the Keystone Studios in Los Angeles in 1914, right at the dawn of silent...
View ArticleGertie, the Dinosaur Who Gave Birth to a Mouse
Winsor McCay drew beautiful and inventive comics for Hearst papers around the turn of the 20th century — strips like “Little Nemo” and “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend” that still seem fresh today. But...
View ArticleBroadcasting Live from 1914
This week, Studio 360 is broadcasting from 1914, covering the cultural happenings of a remarkable year. Charlie Chaplin debuted the Tramp, the character who defines the silent film era, in that year;...
View Article1914 Blues Challenge: Marc Anthony Thompson Picks a Winner(s)
W.C. Handy was the first to publish a body of songs identified as blues, based on lyrics and melodies from black Southern culture. Two of his biggest hits, “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues,”...
View ArticleAleksandar Hemon: The Accordion
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, was the most fateful event of the twentieth century, leading to a war that needn’t have happened. In this...
View ArticleAleksandar Hemon: The Accordion
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, was the most fateful event of the twentieth century, leading to a war that needn’t have happened. In this...
View ArticleGertie, The Dinosaur Who Gave Birth to a Mouse
Winsor McCay drew beautiful and inventive comics for Hearst papers around the turn of the 20th century — strips like “Little Nemo” and “Dream of the Rarebit Fiend” that still seem fresh today. But...
View ArticleBroadcasting Live From 1914
This week, Studio 360 is broadcasting from 1914, covering the cultural happenings of a remarkable year. Charlie Chaplin debuted the Tramp, the character who defines the silent film era, in that year;...
View Article1914 Blues Challenge: Marc Anthony Thompson Picks a Winner(s)
W.C. Handy was the first to publish a body of songs identified as blues, based on lyrics and melodies from black Southern culture. Two of his biggest hits, “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues,”...
View ArticleHow a Happy Ending Ruined Pygmalion
People love a makeover. So when George Bernard Shaw decided to write a play filled with feminist ideas, he borrowed from the myth of Pygmalion, the ultimate makeover story. In the story told by Ovid, a...
View Article