Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Exhibit Reveals History of Slavery in New York City (N-YHS)

GWEN IFILL: There are many myths about slavery: that it was confined only to the Civil War era; that it only occurred in the South; that all Northerners were abolitionists. History tells another story, much of it now on view at the New York Historical Society in the exhibit New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War. The exhibit showcases the contributions of more than 200 scholars, historians, and academics. And it continues through next September. James Oliver Horton

1847 Irish famine migrants' tragic history dug up in film

Under Toronto's theater district lie the ruins of a hospital where hundreds of refugees from the Irish famine of 1847 died after arriving in Canada on crowded and unsanitary ships. Little is known of many of the famine victims but a new documentary is hoping to put names and faces to some of those who died and highlight the plight of more than 38,000 migrants who poured into what was then a town of just 20,000 people. A recent archeological dig has helped shed more li

Exhibition reveals secret history of Nazi sex slaves

There are no photographs and no names, just scores of faded brown index cards with anonymous prisoner numbers, dates of birth, and the hideously functional term "brothel woman" handwritten in black ink on the bottom right-hand corner of each form. The files, stacked on desks in a former garage for SS guards at the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp museum in Germany, provide evidence about one of the most sordid but least known aspects of Nazi rule. They recall how h

Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man? (film documentary)

The new film about Ralph Nader, An Unreasonable Man, draws its title from a George Bernard Shaw apothegm: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself." The film rightly claims to be a documentary. But as the title hints, it's also a suspense movie. The film's first sequence briefly recounts Nader's much-maligned independent campaign for president in 2004. Although it shows him defending his candidac

Wanted: People Who Helped Bury 1957 Plymouth (Oklahoma)

TULSA, Okla. -- Organizers of a coming out party for a brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere could use some help. The car, buried under the lawn of the Tulsa County Courthouse in 1957, is scheduled to be unearthed June 15 as part of the Oklahoma Centennial. Promoters are looking for people who helped lower the car into its crypt in 1957 to perhaps shed some light on what to expect when the car is unearthed. There's speculation the car may have turned into a pile of rust.

Shining a Light on the History of Black Athletes

Mike Glenn, a former Knick, has a passion for history and a library large enough to prove it. Glenn, who spent 10 seasons in the N.B.A. and is now a television analyst for the Atlanta Hawks, has been an avid collector of African-American literature, a part of it relating to sports, for about 10 years. His library has more than 3,000 items, many of which he displays at exhibitions. He will hold an exhibit on black athletes from Feb. 10-24 at the African American Museum o

1903 Model A, oldest surviving Ford, sold at auction for $630,000

A 1903 Model A, considered to be the oldest surviving Ford, sold for $630,000 on Friday at a collector car auction in Phoenix. Following a flurry of bidding at a Phoenix resort, well-known Houston lawyer John O'Quinn took home the brick-red, black-upholstered car that was one of the first three sold by newly incorporated Ford Motor Co. Pre-auction estimates had pegged the sale price at between $400,000 and $800,000. "History, history, history,"

Assassination: The night Bobby Kennedy was shot ("Bobby")

For many, 5 June 1968 represented the end of hopes for a better America. Two months previously, Martin Luther King had been murdered. Now senator Robert F Kennedy, heir apparent to his brother's presidency, was dead too. The night of 4 June was one of triumph for Bobby and his supporters. Five years after the assassination of President John F Kennedy, his younger brother Bobby had assumed the political mantle. He had just won the Californian primary for the presidency. He was on hi

Bidders fight for mystery Rembrandt

The paint is thickly caked on the canvas, just as the dirt appears to be heavily layered on the arms and the collar of the pilgrim's cloak, yet this impoverished Saint James the Greater is likely to fetch more than £12m when he is sold at auction on Thursday in New York. The portrait by Rembrandt, dated 1661, comes from the final decade of the painter's life, when he was facing penury in Amsterdam. It is one of a mysterious group of works that has intrigued art historians for many

Lincoln and Bush Compared: Daily Show Video

Ken Kesey's Bus ... Whatever happened to it?

magine THE SCRAPBOOK's dilemma when we ran across an Associated Press account last week about the blighted efforts to restore the late Ken (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) Kesey's psychedelic bus, which seems to be dissolving into the weeds somewhere in rural Oregon. For those younger readers who don't know what we're talking about, here's the AP's description of this national treasure: "With a jug of LSD-laced juice in the refrigerator, clean-cut Kesey pals known as the Merry

Disney-Dali premiere is 60 years late

An unfinished film made by Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí is to receive its British premiere this summer after its completion six decades later. Their collaboration was a surrealist dream come true, but financial problems after the war forced the studio to close down work on the production. Destino, a six-minute animated cartoon that shows a woman dancing through surreal scenery inspired by some of Dalí’s most iconic imagery, will be screened at Tate Modern in London.

Norman Mailer's new novel puts Hitler on the couch

The wise beekeeper does not wear dark clothing, lest it pick up light-colored pollen. Italian bees are gentler and more chic than the Austrian variety. The mating box, capping fork and spur-wheel embedder are essential tools for apiculture. And all power in the beehive rests with a treacherous but fragrant bitch. All this bee talk crops up in “The Castle in the Forest,” Norman Mailer’s zzzzz-filled new novel about Adolf Hitler’s tender, metaphor-fraught and (in this book’s view) lit

Comparing "Exodus" and "Kedma"

[Larry Portis is a professor of American Studies at Montpellier University in France. He an be reached at larry.portis@univ-montp3.fr] The slogan “never again”, as used in relation to the Nazi genocides during the Second World War, and those which have succeeded, seems empty when we consider the ethnic cleansing carried out in Palestine after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and after the Israeli occupation of the remains of historic

'The Day the Music Died' in '59 Crash -- Murder and Cover-up?

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The son of "The Big Bopper" has hired a forensic anthropologist to try to answer questions about how his father died in the 1959 plane crash that also took the lives of famous early rock `n' rollers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Jay Richardson, who performs tribute shows as "The Big Bopper Jr.," hopes an examination of his father's remains will settle rumors a gun might have been fired on board the plane, and tell whether the Big Bopper migh

The Passion of "Pan's Labyrinth"

[Jennifer Schuberth is a PhD candidate in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School.]"Pan's Labyrinth," Guillermo del Toro's fantastical allegorical film about fascists in 1944 Spain, has been hailed as one of the best movies of the year -- "movingly honest"; "a one-of-a-kind nightmare that has a soaring, spiritual center"; and a film in which "violence is used not for titillation but to create a world we can be fearful about

Hitler comedy storms German box office

A comedy about Hitler by a Jewish filmmaker rocketed to the top of the German box office charts in its first week in cinemas, said the country's biggest movie theater chain.My Fuehrer The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler by Swiss-born, Berlin-based director Dani Levy shot to first place ahead of a raft of Hollywood blockbusters and the latest James Bond film Casino Royale. Audiences have responded enthusiastically to the picture which sends up the genocidal

Texas lawmaker challenges official hamburger history

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A burger battle is brewing between a Texas state legislator and the owners of Louis' Lunch, a restaurant established in 1895, where it has been claimed that the hamburger was invented. However, with the new session of the Texas legislature now under way, Republican State Rep. Betty Brown has proposed a resolution declaring Athens, Texas, is the original home of the hamburger. Brown, an Athens resident, says that a long ago resident of the town, Fle

African tyrant: The truth about Amin

(Like the young British doctor in 'The Last King of Scotland', Richard Dowden was living in Uganda when Idi Amin seized power. But he says the film is wrong to blame the UK for the coup that brought the tyrant to power.)[Richard Dowden is the director of the Royal African Society.] The first time I saw Idi Amin was when - as in the film - he leapt on to a platform in my local town to address the people. He used much the same words as he does in the film. "I am o

Who wants a museum to Edward Heath?

There is discontent brewing in the tranquil waters of The Close, Salisbury. For some time before his death, Sir Edward Heath let it be known that he would leave his beautiful house there, Arundells, to a trust. In due course, Arundells would be opened to the public as a museum to his own life and work. The day is fast approaching. Mr James Elder, a former secretary to the great man, confided in hushed tones that "it will be as Sir Edward left it - that was his wish." It will open, he h