Clare Boothe Luce © Alan R. Cartoun

To coincide with CBS's 75th anniversary, Backstage at CBS-TV's Chronoscope: A Portrait of the Post–World War II Era is an exhibit of photographs taken backstage during the 1951-55 late-night current events program titled Longines Chronoscope. The exhibit, which features images of Joseph R. McCarthy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., John Foster Dulles, Clare Boothe Luce, and Henry Ford II, among others, marks the first time ever that these photographs will be publicly displayed.

It also features clips from the series with other guests, including John F. Kennedy, Hubert H. Humphrey, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Ahead of Its Time Formatted like such Sunday-morning news shows as Meet the Press and Face the Nation, Chronoscope featured a rotating panel of journalists (dubbed coeditors) grilling congressmen, senators, diplomats, politicians, military leaders, and assorted other movers and shakers on pressing domestic and international issues. The show was produced and directed by Alan R. Cartoun, an amateur photographer. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s book, The Decisive Moment, he took advantage of preshow “warmup” sessions in backstage dressing rooms to snap informal portraits of his guests.

Although Cartoun processed the negatives and produced contact sheets in the stainless steel kitchen of his New York City hotel room every night, he was too busy to strike the prints. Fifty years later, while packing for a move, Cartoun rediscovered the contact sheets and, while the negatives themselves had been lost, was finally able to bring these images—now a half century old—to life, through the use of powerful computer technology.

Chronoscope was hosted most often by Frank Knight, who also delivered the commercials for Longines-Wittnauer. Some of the more notable coeditors over the years were William F. Buckley, Jr., then associate editor of American Mercury; Harrison Salisbury of the New York Times; author, poet, and editor Max Eastman; and Charles Collinwood, Walter Cronkite, Daniel Schorr, and Robert Trout, all of CBS News.

Portraits of an Era Portraits to be exhibited include William Bullitt, America’s first ambassador to the Soviet Union; Hale Boggs, majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; Frank Knight, television and radio announcer; Herman Talmadge, governor of Georgia and U.S. senator; Krishna Menon, Indian diplomat and nationalist; Larry LaSeuer, CBS newsman and coeditor of Chronoscope; Joseph R. McCarthy, senator; Eric Johnson, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and head of the precursor to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America); General Lemuel C. Shepperd, Jr., commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps; Henri Bonnet, French diplomat and scholar; Henry Ford II, industrialist and alternate delegate to the United Nations General Assembly; Clare Boothe Luce, journalist, playwright, Connecticut representative, and U.S. ambassador to Italy; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., New York representative; George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); John Foster Dulles, secretary of state under Eisenhower; and Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York, two-time presidential nominee, and renowned organized-crime buster.

Henry Ford II © Alan R. Cartoun

The Museum of Television & Radio, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, is a nonprofit organization founded by William S. Paley to collect and preserve television and radio programs and advertisements and to make them available to the public. Since opening in 1976, the Museum has organized exhibitions, screening and listening series, seminars, and education classes to showcase its collection of over 100,000 television and radio programs and advertisements. In 2001 the Museum initiated a process to acquire Internet programming for the collection. Programs in the Museum’s permanent collection are selected for their artistic, cultural, and historic significance.

The Museum of Television & Radio in New York, located at 25 West 52 Street in Manhattan, is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6:00 p.m. and until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays.
Closed on New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Suggested contribution:
Members free; $10.00 for adults;
$8.00 for senior citizens and students;
$5.00 for children under fourteen.

Public areas are accessible to wheelchairs, and assisted listening devices are available.

Call +1 212 621-6800  FOR DETAILS

visual arts Editor, November 10, 2003

Next time you are in New York and you have nothing to do, take a shot trip to Chelsea to Dia:Chelsea, 548 West 22nd Street.  The first floor of the gallery is truly a design paradise. 

Jorge Pardo has created a new admissions lobby, bookshop, and exhibition gallery on Dia’s 9,000-square-foot first floor, infusing the environment with natural and refracted light by means of a lively palette of ceramic tiles.

"Project" is just fabulous - if that is your taste - and I would no doubt be the first in line (when they dissemble the work next year) to grab a few tiles (subject to availability!)

Since the opening, Dia has presented a series of exhibitions within Pardo’s unique and vibrant design. In 2001–02, a collaborative exhibition between Pardo and Italian artist Gilberto Zorio, titled “Reverb,” was exhibited. For “Reverb,” Microfoni, a sound work first created by Zorio in 1969, was interwoven into “Project” and partially enveloped by a monumental curtain created by Pardo. In September 2002, Dia opened “Refraction,” a focused selection of works by Gerhard Richter installed in the ground-floor gallery and set in Pardo’s environment. “Refraction” highlighted the artists’ shared interest in issues of framing, representation, and the relationship between a work of art and its environment. For the current exhibition, Pardo’s Prototype, a structure of variable construction, reflects the artist’s interest in prefabricated structures that may be assembled to serve diverse functions.

Prototype is a new work by Jorge Pardo that will be installed in Dia’s first-floor gallery in multiple phases. Dia recently commissioned  this large-scale plywood structure, which is designed to be adaptable for a variety of functions. It comprises components—computer-generated forms based on irregular geometries—that are laser-cut from plywood following the computer’s instructions. As a full-scale model for a prefabricated structure, it can be modified and reassembled depending on the function of the structure, whether that is an outdoor pavilion, a residence, or a performance space. While it was created in the artist’s Los Angeles studio, the kit is intended to be assembled on-site and will be on view through Sunday, January 11, 2004. Exhibition hours for the 2003–04 season are Wednesday though Sunday, 12 noon to 6 pm.

Jorge Pardo

Pardo was born in 1963 in Havana, Cuba, and moved to the United States in 1969. He earned his BFA at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and has exhibited widely since his first solo show in 1988. Throughout his career, Pardo has mixed work devised for traditional museum spaces with artistic pursuits sited in other venues. In 1997, he held a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. This followed a substantial commission to create a café for the Leipzig Messe, in Germany, in 1996. Pardo’s large-scale work ranges from a temporary pier for Sculptur.Projekte Münster in 1997, which subsequently became permanent, to a house, 4166 Sea View Lane, which he presented in 1998 in the context of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Pardo lives and works in Los Angeles and on Long Island.s.

Related Programming

Artist Jessica Stockholder will lecture on Pardo’s work on Thursday, December 18, 2003 as part of Dia’s Artists on Artists lecture series. The lecture takes place at 6:30 pm at Dia’s exhibition facility at 548 West 22nd Street. Admission is $6; $3 for members, students and seniors. Tickets are available on the day of the lecture only. For more information please call +1 212 989 5566.

Dia

Dia Art Foundation was founded in 1974. A nonprofit institution, Dia plays a vital role among visual arts organizations nationally and internationally by initiating, supporting, presenting, and preserving art projects, and by serving as a locus for interdisciplinary art and criticism. Dia presents its permanent collection at Dia:Beacon, in Beacon, New York; exhibitions and public programming at Dia:Chelsea (formerly Dia Center for the Arts) in New York City; and long-term, site-specific projects in the western United States, in New York City, and on Long Island.

visual arts Editor, October 9, 2003

Andy Goldsworthy's first permanent commission in New York City, 'Garden of Stones' opened to the public in September 2003 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

Garden of Stones is an outdoor space that is a central feature of the Museum's new Robert M. Morgenthau Wing. The garden which was commissioned by the Museum and organized by the Public Art Fund is not at ground level, but rises out as if projecting from the roof.  At night you feel that you are almost in space, surrounded by 18 stones with just small signs of life from little trees bursting out though each sculpture.

The austerity of the design of this new wing is the perfect setting for the memorial garden.  As the garden takes precedent over the new building. you stand among the stones as if you are about to be launched outward to the sky.

The space acts as an ideal tranquil environment where you can reflect upon the inequalities and injustices which reflect and affect modern society.

The Memorial Garden is a contemplative space dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and honoring those who survived. For Garden of Stones, Goldsworthy worked with nature's most elemental materials - stone, trees, and soil - to create a garden that is the artist's metaphor for the tenacity and fragility of life. Eighteen boulders form a series of narrow pathways in the Memorial Garden's 4,150-square-foot space. A single dwarf oak sapling emerges from the top of each boulder, growing straight from the stone. As the trees mature in the coming years, each will grow to become a part of the stone, its trunk widening and fusing to the base.

Garden of Stones reflects the inherent tension between the ephemeral and the timeless, between young and old, and between the unyielding and the pliable. More importantly, it demonstrates how elements of nature can survive in seemingly impossible places. In Jewish tradition, stones are often placed on graves as a sign of remembrance. Here, Goldsworthy brings stone and trees together as a representation of life cycles intertwined. As a living memorial, the garden is a tribute to the hardship, struggle, tenacity, and survival experienced by those who endured the Holocaust. This contemplative space, meant to be revisited and experienced differently over time as the garden matures, is visible from almost every floor of the Museum.

The effect of time on humans and nature, a key factor in Goldsworthy's work, is richly present in Garden of Stones, as the sculpture will be viewed, as well as cared for, by future generations.

As with his previous permanent works, which are typically site-inspired, Goldsworthy noted that Garden of Stones draws inspiration from its local surroundings: "One of the most powerful images I have of New York was staying in a hotel on Broadway. My room was high up in the building, I think on the 17th floor. I looked out of the window of my room and I saw a tree that had seeded itself, growing out of the side of the building opposite. It was for me a potent image of nature's ability to grow, even in the most difficult circumstances."

Garden of Stones: The Process

Goldsworthy began working on the Garden of Stones in late 2002. In the winter and early spring of 2003, he traveled to forests and quarries in the northeastern United States seeking out suitable boulders, which he located in Barre, Vermont. Searching for boulders that were free of flaws, Goldsworthy selected stones which range in size and physical character. He noted that "there is an energy within a group of stones of various sizes. It becomes a family." The smallest stone is three tons, while the largest weighs more than 13 tons.

Most of the boulders he selected had been removed from nearby farmlands hundreds of years ago, something that appealed to Goldsworthy since there was a tradition of human involvement with the stone. "My working of the stones is a continuation of the journey these stones have made. They have a history of movement, struggle, and change which I hope will resonate with the garden." He chose to include eighteen boulders in part because of the number's symbolic significance: In Hebrew every letter also possesses a number value. Chai, whose number value is 18, is the Hebrew word for life, and is known to many in the traditional toast "L'chaim" - to life!

In all of Goldsworthy's works, the process of selecting and becoming familiar with the natural materials he uses is a key element of the work itself. For Garden of Stones, he researched several different methods of hollowing the stones, including coring, water jet cutting, and burning with a flame torch. "I rarely repeat a work twice, so each work is a step into the unknown," he has said. He chose the flame torch method, in part because it was the most efficient, but also because granite is a fire-formed stone: Goldsworthy saw an affinity between the way the stone came into being and the way in which it became part of Garden of Stones. This spectacular technique melted away the interior of the stones, transforming solid granite into molten liquid.

For the trees, Goldsworthy selected a species of dwarf oak, Quercus prinoides. The trees will begin as small saplings, and over the course of decades will grow to be around 12 feet tall. "Amidst the mass of stone the trees will appear as fragile, vulnerable flickers of life - an expression of hope for the future. The stones are not mere containers. The partnership between tree and stone will be stronger for having grown from the stone."

Goldsworthy is most known for his fleeting works with nature. "I try whenever possible to make one or two ephemeral works each day," Goldsworthy has said. But his permanent works are "much more thought-out and reasoned....I take seriously the responsibility of leaving behind something that will last a long time." Garden of Stones, while using stone, one of nature's more immutable materials, is balanced by the delicacy of the young tree. In no other of Goldsworthy's permanent commissions is there such a marriage of the ephemeral and the timeless.

The first exhibtion in the new Robert M. Morgenthau Wing - "Ours To Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War" -  will open on October 21, 2003.

About Andy Goldsworthy

Goldsworthy was selected for this major commission from a group of more than 60 internationally known artists. The Museum and Public Art Fund collaborated on the Memorial Garden selection process, inviting artists and landscape architects to submit materials for consideration. Five artists were commissioned to make full proposals by a panel that included input from the Trustees of the Museum, Holocaust survivors, and members of the larger community. The artist competition was funded by Museum Trustee Michael Steinhardt.

Andy Goldsworthy is known for his outdoor sculptural interventions and indoor installations that transform nature's most familiar elements into graceful designs. Using color and geometric form to order found materials - such as stone, trees, mud, grass, snow, ice, and leaves - Goldsworthy creates visual displays in which the changing nature of the materials is as much a part of the work as the design itself. With their apparent effortlessness, Goldsworthy's creations impart a sense of wonder, drawing attention to the inherent power, beauty, and mystery of nature. The simplicity of each work belies its labor-intensive origins, the hours spent gathering stones of a certain type, layering colored leaves into a circle, or patiently waiting as a circle of water freezes to ice.

Andy Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire, England in 1956. Since the 1970s, he has been making sculptures and installations with and about nature. Solo museum exhibitions of his work have been held in the Setagaya Art Museum, Japan (1994); the Barbican Centre, London (2000); Site Santa Fe, New Mexico (2000); the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2002); and elsewhere around the world. His other major permanent commissions in the United States include Storm King Wall (1995-97) at Storm King Art Center, River (2000) at Stanford University, and Three Cairns (2002) at the Des Moines Art Center. Andy Goldsworthy was the subject of the award-winning documentary by Thomas Riesshleimer, Rivers and Tides. In New York he is represented by Galerie Lelong.

About the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust opened to the public in September 1997. Its mission is to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the 20th century Jewish experience before, during, and after the Holocaust. With more than 2,000 photographs, 800 artifacts, and 24 original documentary films, the Museum's core exhibition combines archival material with modern media to provide a thoughtful and moving chronicle of history, keeping the memory of the past alive and offering hope for the future.

About the Museum's Expansion

The Museum's four-story Robert M. Morgenthau Wing, designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, architects of the original Museum building, complements the main building and houses a theater, an educational center with classrooms and multimedia capabilities, expanded exhibition space, library and resource center, café and catering hall, offices, as well as the Memorial Garden. The 82,000 square feet Morgenthau Wing opens in September. Support for the Memorial Garden came from the New York City Council.

About the Public Art Fund

The Public Art Fund is New York's leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, installations and exhibitions in public spaces. With twenty-five years of experience and an international reputation, the Public Art Fund identifies, coordinates, and realizes a diversity of major projects by both established and emerging artists throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

For this project, the Public Art Fund has partnered with the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, overseeing the artist selection process and the creation and installation of the Memorial Garden.

The Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported by generous gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Garden of Stones

Hours
Sunday through Friday during the Museum's regular visiting hours.
There is no museum admission charge to visit the garden.
You can enter via the Museum's new Kosher cafe, Abigael's at the Museum

LocationThe Museum is located at
36 Battery Place across from the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Subways
N, R to Whitehall; 4, 5 to Bowling Green; 1, 9 to South Ferry.

Editor, September 22, 2003

to

Tuesday September 30, 2003

6:00 p. to. 10:00 p.m.

The Regent Wall Street Hotel

Ballroom

55 Wall Street

New York City

Tasting Stations	Open Bar	Silent Auction	Live Entertainment	tickets $150

Contact Becky at +1 212 509 0300 ext. 10 for more information

Wall Street Rising is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was established in October 2001 as a direct response to the devastating events of September 11. With a mission is to help restore vibrancy and vitality to Lower Manhattan the organization seeks to promote Lower Manhattan as a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week destination of choice for workers, residents, businesses, New Yorkers and tourists alike. The goals are to increase foot traffic and to retain and attract retail, cultural institutions, residents and large corporations to the Downtown area. Wall Street Rising intends to continue to act as one of the primary vehicles for outreach, programming, advertising and marketing for the revitalization of Lower Manhattan.

Participating Restaurants, Beverage Companies and Purveyors*

14 Wall Street Restaurant " 2 West at The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park " 325 Spring Street " 55 Wall " 85 West " A&M Roadhouse " A&M Roadhouse GoinFishin" Aigo " Alfama " American Park Restaurant " Anheuser-Busch Inc. " Artisanal " Becketts " Bouley " Bread Tribeca " Bridgewaters " Bubble Lounge " Bull Run Restaurant " Caballeros - Scorpion Mezcal and Mezcals De Oaxaca " Camus Cognac " Capsouto Freres " Captains Ketch Restaurant " Casa La Femme " Chambers Street Wines " Charmer Industries representing Champagne Mumm, Perrier Jouët, and Bacardi USA " Christopher Norman Chocolates " Coca Cola Bottling Co. " Danube " El Teddy's " Evian " Fizzy Lizzy LLC " Fraunces Tavern Restaurant " fresh. " Gigino Trattoria " Giovanni's Atrium " Great Spirits Company representing Knappogue Castle and Sea Wynde " HappyHours.com " Harrys at Hanover Square " ITO ENs TEAS TEA " Kobrand Corp. representing Benziger Family Winery, St. Francis and Domaine Carneros " La Belle Epoque " Labatt USA " Le Zinc " Les Halles Downtown " Martin Scott Wines, Ltd. representing Groth Vineyards and Winery, Saintsbury, Schramsberg and Silverado Vineyards " Mary's Fish Camp " Matusalem Rum " Metro Diet " Morrell & Company " Morrells Restaurant " Myriad Restaurant Group/TriBakery " Nathan Hales Bar & Grill " Papoos Italian Restaurant & Bar " Pellegrini Vineyards " Pernod Ricard Jacobs Creek " Pilsner Urquell, a division of Miller Brewing Company " Red Bull " Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory " Roys New York " Salaam Bombay " Salt " Sam Adams " Ston Vodka " shore. " The Art Institute of New York City (formerly the New York Restaurant School) " Vine " Wallsé " Winebow representing De Loach, François Montand and Wolffer

Andy Roddick and James Blake ©BBB WorldWide

CHOCOLATE

at

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

THE DELICIOUS STORY OF CHOCOLATE

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 7, 2003

Chocolate, a fascinating exhibition focusing on the delicious story of chocolate,at the American Museum of Natural History is a mouth-watering presentation.  It's your chance to explore the legends, history, ecology, economics, and enduring allure of chocolate, which has across time been used to express love, to flaunt wealth, to pay debts, and to venerate the gods.

The exhibit traces the long history of this delectable phenomenon, beginning more than two thousand years ago in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America where cacao trees, the seeds of which are made into chocolate, first grew. Examining the plant and its products, history, and culture through the lenses of botany and ecology, anthropology and economics, conservation and popular culture, the exhibition features more than 200 objects, including pre-Columbian ceramics and ritual objects; European silver and porcelain chocolate services; 19th- and 20th-century cocoa tins and advertisements; holiday and festival candy molds; botanical specimens; and agricultural tools.

Chocolate features a broad range of artifacts, from ancient ceremonial items to modern machinery including an interactive Aztec marketplace, demonstrating the purchasing power of a handful of cacao beans; a running ticker showing nearly real-time prices from the Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange at the New York Board of Trade; and lavishly designed Maya vessels for serving chocolate drinks as part of religious and cultural ceremonies. The exhibition also examines the cacao tree itself, its lowland rain forest ecology, and how it is grown today.

Chocolate is divided into several sections:

Tropical Rainforest introduces visitors to the lush and beautiful environment in which cacao trees, which can grow up to 30 feet tall, thrive. Tiny flies that pollinate the tree and the birds that nest in its branches are part of the complex ecosystem that supports the healthy growth of the remarkable Theobroma cacao. A highlight of this introductory section is a striking replica of a cacao tree with its seedpods.

Ancient Maya examines the earliest evidence of chocolate consumption. The Maya were the first to turn the bitter seeds of the cacao tree into a spicy drink that was used in royal and religious ceremonies and traded with other cultures. A highlight of this section is a small lump of chocolate residue found during an excavation conducted in the late 1990s at an archaeological site at Copán, Honduras, where an early local Maya king was buried. The chocolate residue has been dated to about 437 C.E.-making it one of the oldest pieces of chocolate yet found-and is on public view for the first time and only at the American Museum of Natural History.

Aztec explores the use of cacao throughout Mesoamerica and the role it played in the Aztec's trade empire in the 1400s. On view in this section are a selection of ritual artifacts illustrating that chocolate was considered a luxury, a special drink for warriors, nobility, and the gods, and how it was used in rituals and ceremonies. Other highlights include clay incense burners that priests carried in processions, a conch shell trumpet used during certain ceremonies, and an interactive Aztec marketplace showing visitors the purchasing power of a handful of cacao seeds.

Chocolate in Europe reveals the transformation of cacao that took place once the spicy drink was discovered in the 16th century by the Spanish searching for gold in the New World. Finding the drink bitter, the Spanish added sugar and kept their discovery a virtual secret for almost a century. Eventually, travelers to Spain from Germany, France, England, Holland, and Italy returned home with samples of this new drink and the chocolate we know today became hugely popular. On view in this section are molinillos-wooden stirring sticks (still used today) to whip a pot of chocolate to create a bubbly froth, delicate porcelain cups and saucers used to serve chocolate, and silver chocolate pots.

Cacao Growers examines the daily work of cacao growers all over the world. Machetes for cutting the pods off the tree, a net bag for collecting cacao pods, woven baskets for gathering loose seeds, and manta mats for drying them show visitors how modern farmers harvest, prepare, and ship their crops. A highlight of this section is a 7-foot-long, 2½-foot-high coffin in the shape of a cacao pod attached to a 3-foot-high tree trunk, a 20th-century piece owned by the Museum and only on view in New York City.

Chocolate Today illustrates the different uses and meanings of chocolate to people around the world. The use of chocolate in celebrating holidays in different cultures is explored in this section, which features novelty molds, contemporary chocolate tins, and painted cups. Chocolate plays a central role in many festive occasions, and several examples are on view in this section: foil-wrapped chocolate coins given to children as "Hanukkah gelt," chocolate offerings for the Mexican Day of the Dead, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate for Valentine's Day, and pumpkin-shaped baskets that might hold wrapped candies for Halloween trick-or-treaters. Also on display are modern-day marketing materials and packaging for traditional foods that contain cacao, including cake mix and Mexican mole sauce.

Special Programming, including Chocolate Tastings All Summer Long The American Museum of Natural History has developed a wide array of public programs in conjunction with Chocolate. Lectures and panel discussions examine a range of topics, including the conservation of the rain forests where cacao trees grow and the pre-Columbian history of chocolate. Demonstrations and performances bring ancient and colorful traditions to the Museum, with the sounds of Aztec music and a concert by the Kotchegna Dance Company, which brings stories of the Ivory Coast to life with stilt dancers, colorful costumes, and rhythmic drummers. The Museum also is presenting hands-on family programs, showing parents and children how to roll their own truffles, classify chocolate, and prepare traditional Mexican chocolate.   Call +1212-769-5200 to register.

In adddition, the Museum is offering a series of special gourmet tastings, which will take place each weekend over the summer either in The Chocolate Shop or in the Chocolate Café, which has been created on the Museum's fourth floor in conjunction with the exhibition by Restaurant Associates. The Chocolate Shop offers a broad selection of merchandise inspired by the global allure of chocolate. Shoppers can choose from a wide array of items and gifts, from chocolate candy bars to chocolate-scented soaps and votive candles.

Hours:
10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m.

Admission:
Timed tickets to Chocolate, which include Museum admission, are $17 for adults, $12.50 for students and seniors, and $10 for children. Tickets can be reserved in advance by calling +1212-769-5200

For additional information call +1212-769-5100

Martin Howard, Brasserie 8½

PERFORMANCES

Chocolate Performance: Passing on Traditions: Aztec Music and Dance Saturday, August 9, 2:15-3:15 p.m. Free Program The performing group Cetiliztli Nauhcampa Quetzalcoatl in Ixachitlan, which means "Group of the Four Directions on the East of the Continent, Land of the Red People" in Nahuatl, an ancient language of Mexico, presents the traditional music and dance of the Mexica, or Aztec, people. A question-and-answer session follows the performance.

Chocolate Performance: Kotchegna Dance Company Sunday, August 10, 1:15-2:15 p.m. and 4:15-5:15 p.m. Free Program Stories and legends of the Ivory Coast-the largest chocolate-producing country in the world-come to life via the choreography of Vado Diomande and the Kotchegna Dance Company. Masked dancers, stilt walkers, and drummers form this spectacularly captivating company. Copresented with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

CHOCOLATE TASTINGS AND MORE Weekends, beginning at 1:00 p.m. (while samples last), in The Chocolate Shop (third floor) or the Chocolate Café (fourth floor)

Chocolate Event: MarieBelle Fine Treats and Chocolate Tasting Saturday and Sunday, August 2 and 3 The Chocolate Shop (third floor) Free Program Take a taste of luxurious artisanal chocolates from this SoHo chocolate boutique.

Chocolate Event: The New Taste of Chocolate Book Signing and Tasting Saturday, August 16 The Chocolate Shop (third floor) and Chocolate Café (fourth floor) Free Program Maricel Presilla discusses and signs copies of her book and invites visitors to try the new taste of chocolate in The Chocolate Shop. Also, enjoy a special tasting event in the Chocolate Café.

Chocolate Event: Balthazar Bakery Tasting Saturday, August 16 Chocolate Café (fourth floor) Free Program Enjoy a sampling of scrumptious chocolate wonders from the renowned SoHo restaurant and bakery.

Chocolate Event: Greystone Tasting Sunday, August 17 Chocolate Café (fourth floor) Free Program Taste assorted desserts from the gourmet bakery whose cakes and tarts have been served at the White House.

Chocolate Event: City Baking Tasting Saturday and Sunday, August 23 and 24 Chocolate Café (fourth floor) Free Program Taste chocolate desserts from this widely acclaimed maker of fine epicurean delights.

July 27, 2003, the Editor

all images © Christies

A TREASURE-TROVE FOR MUSIC AND MOVIE FANS:
CHRISTIE'S SALE OF ENTERTAINMENT MEMORABILIA

Christie's mixes movies and music to come up with a great cocktail of actors' and musicians' memorabilia. The star lot of the sale is the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award won by Orson Welles in 1941 for 'Citizen Kane' (estimate: $300,000-$400,000 - separate release available). Music fans will have a large variety of items to pick from: never-before-seen film footage depicting John Lennon in New York City (estimate: $45,000-50,000); Lennon's handwritten lyrics to the Beatles' song 'If You've Got Trouble' (on The Beatles Anthology 2 album) (estimate: $30,000-35,000) and Bruce Springsteen's personally owned and used guitar (estimate: $35,000-40,000).

A true discovery is the much trodden world of John Lennon are two reels of never-before-seen 16 millimeter film footage showing a much relaxed Lennon in November 1974 in the city he loved, New York (estimate: $45,000-50,000). The project was initiated by a young filmmaker who approached John Lennon and asked to film him with his new camera. The post-Beatle agreed on condition that he could 'direct' the film and be able to edit and keep portions of it for his own use. Since Lennon knew that the film was done without sound, he became quite creative and the result is a spontaneous, candid and intimate portrait of him. These are the original camera film reels and last approximately 40 minutes. They are the only known prints to exist.

Two other lots for Beatles aficionados are the John Lennon handwritten lyrics to 'If You Got Trouble' (estimate: $30,000-35,000) and George Harrison's handwritten lyrics to 'It Don't Come Easy' (estimate: $18,000-20,000). (Interestingly, both tunes were recorded and sung by Ringo Starr.) Lennon wrote the text on the verso of printed sheet music for Bob Dylan's song 'Down the Highway', and planned the song to be part of the 1965 album and movie 'Help'. It was recorded in 1965 but later eliminated by Lennon and McCartney. It finally came out in 1996 as part of the album 'The Beatles Anthology 2'. The lines for 'It Don't Come Easy' were neatly written on a piece of lined notebook by Harrison so that Ringo Starr could read it effortlessly during 'The Concert for Bangla Desh' on July 31, 1971. Starr taped this sheet to his drum-set while onstage and the tape and its residue are still apparent on the page.

From the Beatles to Springsteen is a small step in this sale. The Boss's 1967 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar (estimate: $35,000-40,000) is a key item for Springsteen fans. Springsteen used this guitar in his formative years circa 1968-1972 when he played with Child, Doctor Zoom, Sonic Boom, Steel Mill and The Bruce Springsteen Band, the groups preceding The E Street Band.

The cinematic world also ventures out on stage and in the wake of the amazing Orson Welles' Academy Award for 'Citizen Kane,' appears the tailcoat Orson Welles wears portraying Charles Foster Kane in this memorable movie (estimate: $8,000-10,000). Welles is shown in this coat in the 'mad clapping scene' at the opera when Kane stands up to cheer after the bad performance of his wife, Susan Alexander. The large 'K' embroidered on each cuff is symbolic and turns up on almost every piece of clothing worn by Welles as Kane.

From another era but equally characteristic of its time, is 'Top Gun', one of the movies that strongly evokes the 1980s. Tom Cruise plays the irresistible Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and offered for sale is the flight suite he wears during the major sequences (estimate: $5,000-6,000). For Cruise fans this item will not fail to take their breath away.

The languid beauty and nonchalant charm of the heroes that peopled the silver screen in the 1930s may be long past but it's definitely not forgotten. Clark Gable is one of those incomparable suave actors and the sale includes a very personal item of this first class seducer: his signed operator's (driver's) license issued by the New York Bureau of Motor Vehicles on May 10, 1929, filled out by the 28 year old actor in his own hand (estimate: $500-700). Another Gable-linked item is an early 1930s photograph of Joan Crawford with an inscription to Gable reading Clarke [sic]/How am I doin?/I think you're swell/As ever/Joan (estimate: $2,000-3,000).

But in movie land, Marilyn Monroe still is the sun around which the rest turns and the sale would not have been complete without her. A datebook with her handwritten entries for April 18, 19 and 20, 1962 is among one of the most touching items (estimate: $3,000-5,000). It reflects three days in the life of a clearly distracted MM, barely 3 months and 2 weeks before she would tragically die. A hardcover copy of the book 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' by Anita Loos and signed by Marilyn (estimate: $1,200-1,400) is also included.

The lowest estimates in the sale are $100-$200 for a Marilyn Monroe Pin Ups magazine from 1953; a Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans signed photograph and for several Clark Gable items such as watercolors painted for him by fans......... but no guarantees on the outome of any items on sale!. 

The number to call to get info and order a catalogue is +1 212 636 2000

A 1967 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar owned and used by The Boss in his formative years circa 1968-1972 when he played with Child, Doctor Zooom, Sonic Boom, Steel Mill and The Bruce Springsteen Band, the groups preceeding The E Street Band. Guitar has blond finish, mahogany binding, mahogany neck, 23 fret fingerboard with rectangular abalone inlays, 2 silver humbucking pick-ups, 1 input, control plate with 1 toggle switch (includes bass, rhythm and treble) and 4 rotary controls, chrome bridge and metal tailpiece and Grover tuning pegs. Included is a hardshell guitar case with key. Estimate: $35,000 - 40,000

June 25, 2003, the Editor

Entertaining America: Jews, Movies and Broadcasting

through September 14, 2003

at

From the early daysof Jewish home movies, through the first talkies, to TV classics such as Seinfeld, and celebrities from Marilyn to the Marx Brothers to the beautiful Betty Boop, this exhibit encompasses the educational, the entertaining and the informative.  Discover the blacklist and some of those Reds under the Beds and much more of the history of American Movies and Television through the tumultuous eras of the twentieth century.

Thomas L. Fluharty  

SEINFELD

During the 1990s Jewish characters populated network television series, especially comedies, in unprecedented numbers. These series not only situated Jewish characters prominently in the American cultural mainstream, they also served a host of Jewish performers, writers, directors, and producers as vehicles for self-exploration. Frequently, this took the form of communal satire, which positioned Jews — especially young male Manhattanites — as archetypes for a national audience.

The pinnacle of this phenomenon was the tremendously popular series Seinfeld (NBC, 1990-98), which provoked more public conversation than any television comedy had in years. Discussions went well beyond analyzing Seinfeld's provocative disquisitions on everyday life to address the show's uncompromisingly sharp humor, its tweaking of television comedy's conventions, and its convoluted self-reflexivity. Complicating this discourse was Seinfeld's paradoxical claim that, unlike explicitly issue-oriented situation comedies, it was "about nothing." One of the many issues that Seinfeld did (or did not) engage was the Jewish sensibility epitomized by the series' title character, who was (and was not) the same as stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

BETTY BOOP

Created in New York City, 1930 The star of the Fleischer Brothers animation studio as well as one of the most durable cartoon icons of the 1930s, Betty Boop is — it has been argued in recent years — a version of the Lower East Side "ghetto girl."

Her creator, Max Fleischer, was born in Vienna in 1889 and brought as a child by his immigrant Jewish parents to New York. A cartoonist and mechanical illustrator, Fleischer worked with his younger brother Dave to invent the rotoscope, a device permitting the frame-by-frame tracing of live-action footage. The Fleischer brothers were the last New York-based movie moguls. Their cartoons are replete with references to Jewish culture, ethnic humor, and, in the case of the 1931 Minnie the Moocher, a plot straight out of the contemporary Yiddish cinema, involving a conflict between Betty's East European parents and Betty herself, a thoroughly American flapper.

THE MARX BROTHERS

Developing their personas — the acerbic, leering Groucho, the pseudo-Italian con artist Chico, the libidinous, mute clown Harpo — on the vaudeville stage, the three oldest of the Marx Brothers went on to become the most famous comedy team in American movies during the first decade of talking pictures.

Though written by some of Hollywood's cleverest comic scenarists, including George S. Kaufman and S. J. Perelman, the Marx Brothers' films are best remembered for the anarchic energy with which their stars assaulted respectable social institutions — the university, the military, the opera — to say nothing of their fellow actors, scenery, and the films' storylines. The sons of Jewish immigrants from Alsace and Germany, the Marx Brothers inspired extensive speculation as to the Jewish origins of their comedy. Significantly, most of this discussion did not take place until decades after they had made their most popular films, when their comedy was "rediscovered" by a new generation of film scholars and enthusiasts.

BLACKLISTING

The Cold War reignited American anticommunism, and again the entertainment business was a particularly visible target. The House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation of communist influence on Hollywood inspired independent pressure groups to scrutinize the broadcasting industry for communist infiltration.

Location and Directions:
1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street (between Fifth and Madison)
New York, NY 10128
Phone: 212.423.3200

The Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of 92nd Street.
Subway: Lexington Avenue IRT trains 4, 5, or 6 to 86th Street, walk to Fifth Avenue and then north to 92nd Street.
Bus: M1, M2, M3, or M4 bus running south on Fifth Avenue or north on Madison Avenue, stopping between 91st and 92nd Streets.

Tickets and Opening Times

Admission:
Adults, $10.00
Students and Senior Citizens, $7.50
Children under 12 and Jewish Museum Members, Free
THURSDAYS 5:00 to 8:00 pm, PAY WHAT YOU WISH

Open:
Sunday through Wednesday, 11 am - 5:45 pm
Thursday, 11 am - 8 pm. "Pay What You Wish" after 5 pm.
Friday, 11 am - 3 pm
Closed Saturday, and major Jewish holidays

Closed:
Passover: after 3pm on Wednesday, April 16,all day Thursday, April 17, Friday, April 18, Wednesday, April 23, and Thursday, April 24, 2003
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Thanksgiving Day
New Year's Day


The Cooper Shop and Celebrations, The Jewish Museum Design Shop are open during Museum public hours.

Cafe Weissman, operated by Foremost Glatt Kosher Caterers, offers innovative kosher cuisine during Museum hours. 

 

April 9, 2003, the Editor

Vaslav Nijinsky.
Photo by A. Bert. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, NYPL.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza

February 12 - May 3, 2003

L. Roosen. Photograph of Nijinsky in Giselle, Paris, 1910.
Roger Pryor Dodge Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950) was one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent artists. This major exhibition focuses on his career as a dancer and choreographer in a time marked by international disruptions of war as well as avant-garde collaborations and artistic energy.  And discovering Nijinsky is simple pure pleasure.  This is your chance to see a perfectionist who is totally in love and absorbed in his work.

Uncredited photographer.
Nijinsky photographed at Krasnoe Selo, summer 1907.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Nijinsky was a principal member of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg and then became an international star through his performances with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in its seasons in Western Europe, from 1908. His celebrity and lasting fame resulted from his premiere performances in Mikhail Fokine ballets such as Petrouchka and Les Sylphides. His own choreography -- L'Après-midi d'un Faune (1913), Jeux (1913), Le Sacre du Printemps (1913), and Till Eulenspiegel (1916) -- was revolutionary in rejecting standard ballet technique for new vocabularies of movement.

Dover Street Studio.
Photograph of Nijinsky in Petrouchka, London, 1911.
Roger Pryor Dodge Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

The exhibition includes 250 items from the Library’s dance, theater, and music holdings. Particularly revealing is Nijinsky's diary. Among other treasures, the exhibit features original costume designs by Robert Edmond Jones for Till Eulenspiegel; the score of the seminal Le Sacre du Printemps, composed by Stravinsky, with the composer’s markings; and posters designed by Jean Cocteau for the Ballets Russes. Performance and personal photographs from among the 2,000 held by the Library are also shown. Posters and other promotional artifacts place his performances, tours, and choreography in cultural and historical context.

Brochure cover:
Baron Adolf de Meyer.
Photograph of Nijinsky as the Faun in L’Après-midi d’un Faune, Paris, 1911.
Roger Pryor Dodge Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

And a selection of videotapes are showing in the gallery. And they are absolutely fabulous.

* Le Spectre de la Rose performed by Rudolf Nureyev and The Joffrey Ballet.  Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, staged by Nicholas Beriozoff.  Danced by Rudolf Nureyev and Denise Jackson.

Jean Cocteau.
Poster for the 1911 Ballet Russe season showing
Nijinsky in costume for Le Spectre de la Rose, Paris, 1911.
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

* L'Après-midi d'un Faune performed by Rudolf Nureyev and The Joffrey Ballet.  Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, reconstructed by Elisabeth Schooling and William Chappell.  Danced by Rudolf Nureyev and Charlene Gehm with Cameron Basden, Ursula Burke, Lynne Chervony, Krystyna Jurkowski, Patricia Miller and Carole Valleskey. 
* Telecast by WNET/Thirteen, New York, on the Great Performances: Dance in America series on March 9, 1981 as part of the documentary titled In Tribute to Nijinsky, by WNET/Thirteen in association with the British Broadcasting Corporation, directed by Emile Ardolino, produced by Emile Ardolino and Judy Kinberg. Gift of WNET/13, New York, and the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation.

* Le Sacre du Printemps performed by The Joffrey Ballet.  Choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, reconstructed and staged by Millicent Hodson.  Scenery and costumes by Nikolai Roerich, reconstructed by Kenneth Archer.  Artistic supervision of reconstruction by Robert Joffrey.  Danced by The Joffrey Ballet, featuring Beatriz Rodriguez, Carole Valleskey and Paul Shoemaker. Music performed by the Orchestra of the National Theatre, Prague, conducted by Allan Lewis.  Production executive, Rhoda Grauer.
* Telecast by WNET/13, New York, on the Great Performances: Dance in America series on November 24, 1989 as part of the documentary titled The search for Nijinsky's Rite of Spring, a co-production of WNET/New York and Danmarks Radio is association with Czechoslovak Television and BBC, La Sept,NOS Television, dance directed by Thomas Grimm, produced by Judy Kinberg and Thomas Grimm. Gift of WNET/13, New York.

This is a must exhibit for fans of the fantastic!

February 18, 2003

Down(town) to the wire

As the two survivors of the design award contest of the new millennium were announced at a recent Press Conference, local politicians congratulated themselves, the architects and the general public on a job well done.   But only time will tell if deeds live up to the words of the well-intentioned.

An analysis of the submissions of the final two may be found below and with a very weeks opportunity to revise their plans, the final winner will be announced around the end of this month.

In the meantime two other points of interest:

1. The Winter Gardens will display the two candidates designs from February 7 through D(decision) Day

and

2. Your best opportunity to participate in the process kicks off with the launch of a international competition to design the September 11 Memorial to be located at the site.  (more details to follow.)

LMDC Board Member and Site Planning Working Group Chair, Roland Betts estimates there will in the region of 5,000 entries however, my bet's on in excess of 10,000.

Hopefully, the process will attract submissions from around the world and the selection will made as quickly as is realistic.

Certainly all bodes well for the downtown area as final plans are drawn up for a promised early start of the construction phase.   We'll keep you posted!