Gary Giddins

Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Tab Hunter himself shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image.

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Bing Crosby was, without a doubt, the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the twentieth century, pulling audiences in with his intimate, laid-back voice and innate charm. Narrated by Stanley Tucci and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this film explores the life and legend of this iconic performer, revealing a personality far more complex than the image the public had only thought they'd known.

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Each installment focuses on a different era of American movie history, from the invention of the first moving pictures to the revolutionary, cutting-edge films of the 1960s.

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'Black Orpheus' introduced an international audience to the sights and sounds of Rio de Janeiro. In this program, jazz historian Gary Giddins and Brazilian author Ruy Castro recall the roots of the film’s score and the role it played in popularizing the bossa nova sound.

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This recently produced behind-the-scenes documentary digs into Gershwin's original work, the genesis of the cinematic adaptation, casting, the shoot, and the eventual reception of the film.

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Documentary on the making of Gigi

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Brief overview of the two actors at the Fox Studio.

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Louis Armstrong is one of the most recognizable figures in jazz, with his incomparable trumpet playing and beaming smile. This video profiles Armstrong from his humble beginnings in New Orleans through his career as America's Ambassador of Good Will. Film clips, vintage photographs and interviews with family, friends, fellow musicians and Armstrong himself are woven together to tell the story of this legendary personality.

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Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced Saxophone Colossus, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums.

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In 2006, jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis and critic Gary Giddins discuss the iconic Miles Davis and the critical time in his career when the score for ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS was recorded.

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