Vampires come in many fictional forms, some of them serious, some of them silly. But what form do real vampires come in? Do vampires exist? There is a fascinating and suggestive tale from the history of New...
How did two Italian immigrants help transform Galveston, the island city on the Texas Gulf Coast, into the Playground of the Southwest? From its earliest days in the 1800s, Galveston was separated from the rest of colonized...
Edgar Allan Poe wrote his great works while living in several homes across several cities, scattered along America's East Coast. While Baltimore's claim is the most famous -- it was there that Poe died in 1849 --...
Billy the Kid. What pops into your head? Gunslinger? Bandit? Folk hero? The notorious William Bonney was a cipher. He took on the wild of the frontier, and came to embody all of the adventure, romance, and...
Do you believe scientists? It’s a hot topic lately as we grapple with a global pandemic. Strangely, Americans have a long tradition of mistrust towards the scientific community — just look at climate change deniers, conspiracy theorists,...
Who comes to mind when you think of innovators in the movie business? Spielberg? Hitchcock? Chaplin? What about Thomas Edison? Following breakthroughs with the first phonograph, incandescent light bulbs, and the delivery of electricity itself, Edison made...
During the 1950s and 1960s, walking down Indiana Avenue was a cultural adventure. The Indianapolis thoroughfare, sometimes referred to as just “the Avenue,” offered musical venues, restaurants, and theaters that catered to the city’s black community.
Joe Exotic isn't the first self-made Tiger-whisperer or Lion Tamer in American history--not by a long shot.The curious man made famous in Netflix's series, Tiger King, may seem like a novelty--he's eccentric, there's no doubt about it--but...
How important is filming on location, rather than at the studio?
The answer lies in the opening scene of a 1960 Paramount film called The Rat Race. Tony Curtis...
Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the best-known pieces of American literature. But the story is not just a work of imagination. It is rooted in the landscapes and lore of New York's...
