Joe Smith Donates Recorded Interviews with Music's Who's Who to the Library of Congress

More than 25 years ago, retired music executive Joe Smith accomplished a Herculean feat?he got more than 200 celebrated singers, musicians and industry icons to talk about their lives, music, experiences and contemporaries. The Library of Congress announced today that Smith has donated this treasure trove of unedited sound recordings to the nation's library.

The list of noted artists and executives is a veritable who's who in the music industry.  They include Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Elton John, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Sting, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Dick Clark, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, B. B. King, Quincy Jones, David Geffen, Mickey Hart, Harry Belafonte and many others.  All types of popular music are represented?from rock 'n' roll, jazz, rhythm & blues and pop to big-band, heavy metal, folk and country-western.

While president of Capitol Records/EMI, Smith recorded 238 hours of interviews over two years, excerpts of which he compiled and presented in his groundbreaking book, "Off the Record," published by Warner Books in 1988.  These candid and unabridged interviews have been digitized by the Library and initially will be accessible in its Capitol Hill reading room.  Some of the recordings also will be streamed on the Library's website (www.loc.gov) later this year.

The Joe Smith Collection is an invaluable addition to the Library's comprehensive collection of recorded sound," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "These frank and poignant oral histories of many of the nation's musical icons give us unique insights into them as artists, entertainers and human beings.  The world knows these great musicians through their songs, but Joe Smith has provided us an intimate window into their lives through their own words.

"Smith's career in music started in the 1950s at the dawn of the rock 'n' roll era.  Following his graduation from Yale, Smith worked as a sportscaster and later as a disc jockey at WMEX and WBZ in Boston.  He transitioned into record promotions when he moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and rose to legendary status in the industry as president of three major labels?Warner Bros., Elektra/Asylum and Capitol/EMI.  Smith signed such notable artists as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles.

His relationship with the industry's creative community over four decades enabled him to compile a history of popular music by presenting the artists' stories in their own voices.  One critic wrote that "Joe Smith has done what no historian, musician, pop critic or rock writer has been able to do. He's compiled a history of popular music, ranging from the big bands of the '20s to the chart-toppers of today ... a paper jukebox that's chock-full of pop."

A couple of decades following the success of his book, Smith (now 84) envisioned sharing his original unabridged interviews with scholars, researchers and the American public. "In recent years, it dawned on me that, if anything, the significance of recollections from Jerry Lee Lewis, Mick Jagger, Smokey Robinson, Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Alpert, Ruth Brown and all the other notables I was fortunate enough to interview, are truly part of the fabric of our cultural history," said Smith. "I wanted to share this treasure trove with any and all who might be interested. The Library of Congress is, clearly, the venue most appropriate and best equipped to do just that now and into the future.  I hope that generations to come will benefit from hearing the voices of these brilliant artists and industry luminaries recounting their personal histories.  I'm just thrilled that the Library of Congress has agreed to preserve and safeguard these audio artifacts."

As an insider, Smith connected with the artists on a personal level, leading to some interesting revelations.

· Bo Diddley talking about his own death
· Mickey Hart's revealing story about his father
· Steven Tyler's problems with drug addiction
· Peter Frampton's short-lived popularity
· Bob Dylan's surprising assessment of the turbulent '60s
· David Bowie's description of Mick Jagger as conservative
· Paul McCartney's frank admission of professional superiority
· Les Paul's creation of an electric guitar in 1929
· Motown's restrictive work environment
· Herb Jeffries' and Dave Brubeck's recollections of working in a racially segregated society

The recordings in the Joe Smith Collection will be housed in the Library's Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., a state-of-the-art facility that was made possible through the generosity of David Woodley Packard and the Packard Humanities Institute, with benefaction from the U.S. Congress.  The Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division's collections include nearly 3 million sound recordings.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.


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Fifty years later, the Vietnam War remains part of the nation's collective consciousness. For the veterans who served during this era, this conflict has particular meaning.

The Veterans History Project (VHP) has launched the latest installment in its Experiencing War website presentation, titled "Vietnam War: Looking Back, Part 1." The website feature, one of 37 created thus far, highlights the wartime stories of veterans who served during the Vietnam War. These remarkable and intriguing stories are digitized and accessible on VHP's website, www.loc.gov/vets/.  

"Veterans who served during the Vietnam War are still affected to this very day by what they saw, heard and experienced, and this new web feature provides a peek into some of the most intimate details from that era," said Veterans History Project Director Robert Patrick. "The Veterans History Project is honored to join the Department of Defense and the entire nation in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War - a period in history that will never be forgotten."

Vietnam veteran Tom Hagel said, "When we think of war, whether it's Vietnam or any other war, we think of it as a unitary subject ... but there are millions of Vietnam Wars."

One of the veterans spotlighted in VHP's new feature is Second Lt. Michael Burns, an Air Force pilot who tells the harrowing tale of being shot down on his 18th combat mission over North Vietnam and spending the next 56 months in captivity. Others include Army chaplain David Polhemus and Navy nurse Gail Gutierrez, both of whom share how they worked to heal the mental and physical wounds of the war and witnessed firsthand the toll that it took on their fellow servicemen and women and themselves. Air Force Col. Frank Tomlinson and Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Ralph Garcia describe what it was like to go on to have careers in the military, while other veterans struggled to put their service experiences behind them.  

"Vietnam War: Looking Back, Part 1" is the first of four Vietnam War-related features to be launched over the next year. The stories shared are but a few of the "millions of Vietnam Wars" embodied by the stories of Vietnam veterans. These interviews represent a wide variety of branches, service locations and military roles. Collectively, they illuminate the dramatic and ongoing effects of the war on those who participated.  

Congress created the Veterans History Project in 2000 to collect, preserve and make accessible the firsthand remembrances of America's war veterans from WWI through the current conflicts, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/vets/ or call the toll-free message line at (888) 371-5848. Subscribe to the VHP RSS to receive periodic updates of VHP news.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to advance the knowledge and creativity of the American people through its collections, programs and services. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.

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Additions Mark 10th Anniversary of Registry

The voices of former slaves, the sounds of Native American culture, the creative wordplay of "Rapper's Delight," Donna Summer's electric 1977 hit and the only surviving recording of a stage icon are among the sound recordings selected for induction into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.  Marking the 10th anniversary of the registry, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected 25 sound recordings that will be preserved as cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures for generations to come.

"America's sound heritage is an important part of the nation's history and culture and this year's selections reflect the diversity and creativity of the American experience," said Billington.  "These songs, words and natural sounds must be preserved for future generations." Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian, with advice from the Library's National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), is tasked with selecting annually 25 recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and are at least 10 years old.  The selections for the 2011 registry bring the total number of recordings to 350.

The selections named to the registry feature a diverse array of spoken-word and musical recordings?representing nearly every musical category?spanning the years 1888-1984.  They cover a great breadth of sounds and music, ranging from the first commercial recording and the authoritative voice of journalist Edward R. Murrow to the innovative music of Hawaiian Sol Hoopii and the novelty of the all-women's jazz band International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

Among this year's selections are Dolly Parton's autobiographical song, "Coat of Many Colors"; Prince and the Revolution's "Purple Rain," the soundtrack from Prince's 1984 movie debut; Leonard Bernstein's debut performance with the New York Philharmonic; the 1912 "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star," the only surviving recording of Lillian Russell who is considered one of the greatest stars of the American musical stage; the Grateful Dead's 1977 Barton Hall concert; an album from "A Charlie Brown Christmas";  and the pioneering hip-hop album "Rapper's Delight."

Other additions to the registry feature notable performances by Ruth Etting, Bo Diddley, the Dixie Hummingbirds, Love, Parliament, Booker T. & the M.G.'s and the Gregg Smith Singers.

Nominations were gathered through online submissions from the public and from the NRPB, which comprises leaders in the fields of music, recorded sound and preservation. The Library is currently accepting nominations for the next registry at the NRPB website (www.loc.gov/nrpb/).

As part of its congressional mandate, the Library is identifying and preserving the best existing versions of each recording on the registry.  These recordings will be housed in the Library's Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., a state-of-the-art facility that was made possible through the generosity of David Woodley Packard and the Packard Humanities Institute, with benefaction from the U.S. Congress. The Packard Campus (www.loc.gov/avconservation/)  is home to more than 6 million collection items, including nearly 3 million sound recordings.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.


2011 National Recording Registry


1.  Edison Talking Doll cylinder (1888)

Few, if any, sound recordings can lay claim to as many "firsts" as the small, mangled artifact of a failed business venture discovered in 1967 in the desk of an assistant to Thomas Edison.  This cylinder recording, only five-eighths of an inch wide, represents the foundation of many aspects of recording history. It was created in 1888 by a short-lived Edison company established to make talking dolls for children, and is the only surviving example from the experimental stage of the Edison doll production when the cylinders were made of tin. As such, this recording of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," as sung by an anonymous Edison employee, is the earliest-known commercial sound recording in existence.  It is also the first children's recording and, quite possibly, the first recording to be made by someone who was paid to perform for a sound recording.  Due to its poor condition, the recording was considered unplayable until 2011 when its surface was scanned in three dimensions using digital mapping tools created at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and developed in collaboration with the Library of Congress.

2.  "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star," Lillian Russell (1912)

"Come Down Ma Evenin' Star" is the only surviving recording of Lillian Russell, one of the greatest stars the American musical stage has ever known.  She was a versatile performer at home in operetta, burlesque and vaudeville whose personal life often generated as much publicity as her performances. Born in 1861, she was a star before movies and recordings, which in their early days could not do justice to her famous beauty, voice, style and stage presence.  "Come Down" was her signature song.  She introduced it in the 1902 burlesque review "Twirly-Whirly," parodying the nouveau-riche society figure she had become, but investing it with a poignancy that reflected its troubled history. Russell's former music director John Stromberg wrote the song.  Hours after finishing it, he committed suicide because of the pain of chronic, untreatable rheumatism.  Russell recorded the song in 1912, but it was not released until years later.  In 1943, rare record dealer Jack L. Caidin found a lone test pressing of "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star," inscribed by Russell herself, and released it on his own specialty label, providing us with a brief echo of the Lillian Russell phenomenon and a fleeting glimpse into 19th-century American theater.

3.  "Ten Cents a Dance," Ruth Etting (1930)

Singer Ruth Etting was one of the first great singers of the electrical era of recording, the period after the mid-1920s when the microphone replaced the acoustic recording horn.  As with the best of the male crooners of the period, Etting's vocal delivery was artfully understated and personal. In the words of popular music writers Phil Hardy and Dave Laing, Etting, "[b]y turns peppy, fragile, and gallant ... evinced the contradictory spirits of America in the Depression:  sometimes beaten down, sometimes bearing up, whenever possible blithe."  All these characteristics are evident in her recording of Rodgers and Hart's "Ten Cents a Dance," recorded only two weeks after Etting introduced the song on stage in the musical "Simple Simon."

4.  "Voices from the Days of Slavery," various speakers (1932-1941 interviews; 2002 compilation)

In 2002, the American Folklife Center created the online presentation "Voices from the Days of Slavery," gathering together 24 interviews with former African-American slaves conducted mostly between 1932 and 1941 and across nine Southern states as part of various field recording projects.  During this period, thousands of slave narratives were also collected on paper by WPA workers, but these are the only known audio recordings of former slaves.  As historian C. Vann Woodward said of the WPA narratives, these recordings "represent the voices of the normally voiceless," but with all the nuances of expression that written transcriptions cannot reproduce. They recall aspects of slave life and culture, including family relations, work routines, songs, dances and tales, as well as the harsh realities of slavery, including punishments and auctions.  They recount experiences of the Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction.  One interviewee worked for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, as did his father and grandfather. These are fragments of history and reflect the technical and social limitations of the  recording sessions.  The voices of these ex-slaves, however, provide invaluable insight into their lives, communities and the world of slavery they left behind.

5.  "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart," Patsy Montana (1935)

Singer Patsy Montana's signature song, "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart," was written in 1934 when she was feeling lonely and missing her boyfriend.  Montana recorded the song a year later when Art Satherly of ARC Records needed one more song for a recording session with the Prairie Ramblers.  Her song's lively, quick polka tempo and yodeling refrain, and Montana's exuberant delivery, resulted in it being requested at every performance.  The song became one of the first hits by a female country-and-western singer.  A popular performer on the WLS radio program "National Barn Dance," Montana was the soloist with the Prairie Ramblers, a group that successfully melded jazz and string-band music.  Montana's film appearance in the Gene Autry film "Colorado Sunset" in 1939 introduced her to a wider audience, and her independent, high-spirited personality and singing style quickly secured her popularity as a singing cowgirl.  Montana was named to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

6.  "Fascinating Rhythm," Sol Hoopii and his Novelty Five (1938)

In the 1890s, Hawaiian musicians began playing open-tuned guitars flat in their laps, fretting the strings with steel to produce distinctive sliding tones.  The style soon reached the U.S. mainland, and when young Sol Hoopii arrived in California in 1924, the Hawaiian steel guitar was a mature and demanding instrument with national popularity.  Hoopii emerged as its greatest exponent, applying it to traditional hulas, ragtime, jazz and pop.  He and his peers influenced blues and country slide guitarists, and Dobros and pedal steel guitars are descended from the Hawaiian model.  Hoopii switched to electric guitar in the 1930s and displays his formidable technique on this Gershwin standard, deftly mixing tonal variations, a chord solo and bass runs into an adventurous and swinging improvisation.

7. "Artistry in Rhythm," Stan Kenton and his Orchestra (1943)

That Stan Kenton led a jazz orchestra, not a dance band, is obvious from the first notes of "Artistry in Rhythm." This was no smooth, melodic song intended for swaying couples in the big-band ballrooms, but a complex jazz concert piece.  Though he composed the song in 1941, Kenton was unable to record it until 1943 because of the recording ban imposed by the American Federation of Musicians over royalty payments.  The music stood out then and its freshness remains obvious to listeners today.  Arranged as well as composed by Kenton, "Artistry in Rhythm" exhibits traits that are typical of his work?an aggressive sound, innovative for the layering of one section of the orchestra playing over another, then another layer over both.  As one reviewer observed, Kenton's music "was always controversial, but never sleepy."

8. Debut performance with the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (November 14, 1943)

On Nov. 14, 1943, 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein, then the little-known assistant conductor of the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, made his conducting debut with the ensemble as a last-minute substitute in unenviable circumstances.  Guest conductor Bruno Walter was sick, regular conductor Artur Rodzi?ski was hundreds of miles away, and the concert was to be broadcast live across the country by CBS Radio.  Bernstein met briefly with Walter, but had no time to rehearse.  Concertgoers and radio listeners were moved deeply as Bernstein led the orchestra through the program.  After the second piece, he was brought back to the podium four times and excitement continued to grow.  In Boston, Bernstein's mentor Serge Koussevitzky dictated a telegram:  "Listening now. Wonderful."  Bernstein's triumph made the front page of the next day's New York Times and was reported across the country.

9. International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Hottest Women's Band of the 1940s (1944-1946)

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was an interracial all women jazz band formed in the late 1930s at the Piney Woods Country Life School, a boarding school for African-American children in Mississippi.  The band made very few commercial recordings, but toured extensively in the 1940s, performing in Europe as well as at predominantly African-American theaters.  The band also was showcased in several motion pictures.  Professional musicians who joined the band include vocalist Anna Mae Winburn, Viola Burnside on tenor saxophone and Ernestine "Tiny" Davis on trumpet.  The International Sweethearts of Rhythm album, released in 1984 by Rosetta Records?a record label dedicated exclusively to reissuing performances by female jazz and blues artists?includes commercially recorded tracks by the band and excerpts from an appearance on the Armed Forces Radio Service program "Jubilee."

10. "The Indians for Indians Hour"  (March 25, 1947)

Originated by Don Whistler (a.k.a. Chief Kesh-Ke-Kosh), radio show "The Indians for Indians Hour" aired on the University of Oklahoma's WNAD in Norman, Okla., from 1941 until 1985.  It was a weekly venue for Native American music and cultural exchange featuring guests and music from 18 tribes reached by the station's signal, including Apaches, Arapahos, Caddos, Cheyennes, Choctaws, Comanches, Kaws, Kiowas, Osages, Otos, Pawnees, Poncas, Seminoles, Shawnees and Wichitas.  Whistler allowed only Indian music and had no non-Indian guests unless they worked for Indian Services.  This program, one of 320 known to survive, includes news of a recent powwow and songs praising Indian war veterans sung by a group of Kiowa war mothers.  Though the program was sometimes criticized for primarily highlighting music and entertainment instead of issues, it nevertheless served as an important tool for generational sharing and the popularization and preservation of  Native American culture.  In 1946, the show reached an estimated weekly audience of over 75,000, nearly all of Native American origin. Whistler hosted the show until his death in 1951. Later hosts included Boyce Timmons, Elton Yellowfish, David Timmons and Sammy "Tonekel" White.

11.  "Hula Medley," Gabby Pahinui (1947)

Gabby Pahinui was a master of slack-key guitar, a style originating in Hawaii.  In slack key, one or more of a guitar's strings are loosened or "slacked" from the standard EADGBE format to create a different tuning, usually a chord that allows it to be played without using the fretboard.  Often the thumb plays rhythm on the lower strings, while the fingers play the melody on the higher strings.  Pahinui made some of the first modern recordings in this genre, including the lovely instrumental "Hula Medley" in 1947.

12.  "I Can Hear It Now," Fred W. Friendly and Edward R. Murrow (1948)

"I Can Hear It Now" was an unlikely hit?a collection of speech excerpts and news reports from 1933 to 1945 featuring a wide array of speakers from Will Rogers to Adolph Hitler.  Columbia Records gambled on radio producer Fred Friendly's idea when a musicians' strike limited the recording of new music.  Friendly, later president of CBS News, spent months locating and copying 100 hours of broadcast disc recordings, using newly introduced magnetic recording tape to create compelling montages.  CBS Radio's Edward R. Murrow added star power as narrator and co-writer.  "I Can Hear It Now" found Americans eager to relive their own history, and sold briskly on 78-rpm discs and in Columbia's new LP format.  The ease of editing and recording on magnetic tape allowed the creation of portions of the album that are now controversial, such as the fabrication of a break-in announcement of the Pearl Harbor attack, and the re-recording of a newscast to replace a damaged original.  However, the recording was widely imitated and Friendly and Murrow produced two sequels, along with radio and television spin-offs.

13.  "Let's Go Out to the Programs," The Dixie Hummingbirds (1953)

At the time of its release, "Let's Go Out to the Programs" was considered to be a novelty, but it now stands as a celebration of a golden age of African-American gospel music.  In the '50s, high-energy quartets and quintets like the Dixie Hummingbirds played multi-artist shows known as "programs," where several top gospel acts pushed each other to the limit.  Led by the legendary Ira Tucker, the Hummingbirds recreate such a program in less than three minutes with striking although good-natured imitations of four gospel groups:  the Soul Stirrers (with their young lead singer, Sam Cooke), the Blind Boys of Mississippi, the Pilgrim Travelers and the Bells of Joy.  The Dixie Hummingbirds continue to perform today, led by Ira Tucker Jr.  Younger singers carry on the legacy of the Soul Stirrers while original members of the Bells of Joy still sing in their home of Austin, Texas.

14.  "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1954, 1958)

Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was recorded several times during the 78 rpm era, but had to wait for magnetic tape, superior microphones and advances in disc mastering for its extremely wide dynamics to be fully captured as recorded sound.  The dawn of high-fidelity recording happily coincided with the beginning of the Fritz Reiner era at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, when the ensemble was hailed by Igor Stravinsky as "the most precise and flexible orchestra in the world."  One of Reiner's first recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, "Zarathustra," was taped simultaneously in mono and stereo by two RCA Victor teams although only the mono version was initially issued.  The album's 1958 release in RCA's Living Stereo line a few years later showed just how great the recording and performance were, with the perspective and balance Reiner drew from the orchestra fully revealed.

15.  "Bo Diddley" and "I'm a Man," Bo Diddley (1955)

Born Elias Otha Bates in Mississippi in 1928, Bo Diddley acquired his stage name after moving to Chicago as a child.  He played guitar locally with a small group, drawing inspiration from the polyrhythmic song and music emanating from storefront churches, a pulsing blend that he distilled into the song "Bo Diddley," the A-side of his first single.  Drummer Clifton James played the defining beat, and Bo's guitar and Jerome Greene's maracas added further rhythmic layers beneath the chanted couplets.  Having introduced himself, he threw down the gauntlet on the B-side, "I'm a Man," a throbbing slow blues that, as simple as it seems, took nearly 30 takes to get down just right.  It was also a major hit and inspired Muddy Waters' answer song, "Manish Boy."

16.  "Green Onions," Booker T. & the M.G.'s  (1962)

Booker T. & the M.G.'s were a rarity when they were formed in the early 1960s?a racially integrated rhythm-and-blues group.  Formed as a house band for Stax Records, Booker T. & the M.G.'s were playing around in the studio in early 1962 when they came up with two catchy instrumentals.  "Green Onions" was originally intended as the B-side to "Behave Yourself," but was quickly reissued as the A-side, then later as the title cut to their first LP.  Anchored by the rhythm section of drummer Al Jackson Jr. and bassist Lewie Steinberg, "Green Onions" is propelled by Booker T. Jones' driving organ and Steve Cropper's stinging guitar.

17.  "Forever Changes," Love (1967)

Love was an integrated psychedelic band from Los Angeles that played an aggressively original mix of rock, folk and blues, but the band was falling apart as its members prepared for their third album, "Forever Changes."  Leader Arthur Lee was alarmed and pessimistic about the state of the world and was convinced his own demise was imminent, although he lived until 2006.  His new songs were filled with unexpected shifts and rife with foreboding, though his message was ultimately about resolution and self-reliance in the face of uncertainty and impermanence.  Two compositions by second guitarist Bryan MacLean somewhat augmented Lee's musings, but were no less striking and unusual.  Rock was growing more electric in 1967, but "Forever Changes" is essentially acoustic, with a restrained and supple rhythm section supporting the ambitious horn and string charts of pop arranger David Angel, making Johnny Echols' searing guitar solos all the more memorable.  The fusion of psychedelic, mainstream and classical styles, now seen as a landmark, found few takers at the time. Love soon disintegrated, but "Forever Changes" continues to loom large.

18.  "The Continental Harmony: Music of William Billings," Gregg Smith Singers (1969)

Composer William Billings published six collections of his choral music between 1770 and 1794.  His "New England Psalm Singer" (1770) was the first tune book devoted entirely to the compositions of a single American composer.  Billings was largely self-taught, yet his a cappella choral writing, featuring the melody in the tenor, created an indigenous sacred music that expanded the musical language of America.  While Billings was well-known in his lifetime?his song "Chester" was nearly as popular as "Yankee Doodle" during the American Revolution?his work was largely forgotten for more than a century.  Despite his having composed over 340 works, little of Billings' music was included in mainstream American sacred choral music collections after 1820.  His musical style and some of his pieces, however, were kept alive within America's Southern shape-note singing tradition.  Following World War II, a generation of scholars and performers rediscovered his fresh and vigorous music.  This recording by the Gregg Smith Singers, a 16-member choral ensemble dedicated to the performance of American music, helped re-introduce Billings' music to the world.

19.  "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Vince Guaraldi Trio (1970)

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" introduced jazz to millions of listeners.  The television soundtrack album includes expanded themes from the animated "Peanuts" special of the same name as well as jazz versions of both traditional and popular Christmas music, performed primarily by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.  The original music is credited to pianist Guaraldi and television producer Lee Mendelson.  Best remembered is the "Linus and Lucy" theme, originally composed by Guaraldi for an earlier "Peanuts" project, which remains beloved by fans of the popular television specials, those devoted to the daily newspaper comic strip and music lovers alike.

20.  "Coat of Many Colors," Dolly Parton (1971)

Dolly Parton's autobiographical song, "Coat of Many Colors," affectionately recounts an impoverished childhood in the hills of Tennessee that was made rich by the love of her family. The song was instrumental in establishing Parton's credibility as a songwriter.  Her voice uplifts the song with emotion and tender remembrances of her close-knit musical family.  Parton has called "Coat of Many Colors" the favorite of her compositions because of the attitude and philosophy it reflects.  Parton's prolific songwriting career has embraced many different musical styles, including pop, jazz and bluegrass, as well as country.  Dolly Parton was voted the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the year for 1975 and 1976, and the its Entertainer of the Year in 1978. She also was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

21.  "Mothership Connection," Parliament (1975)

"Ain't nothin' but a party, y'all" intones George Clinton on the title track of this lively and rhythmic funk album.  While this undeniably is a party record, it is also rooted in the deepest currents of African-American musical culture and history.  For example, the words "Swing down, sweet chariot/Stop, and let me ride" are an unmistakable reference to the influential spiritual recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. "Mothership Connection" was released in late 1975 shortly after the arrival to Parliament of saxophonist Maceo Parker and trombonist and arranger extraordinaire Fred Wesley.  Like Parker and Wesley, bass player Bootsy Collins, dubbed by one critic a "bass deity," had played with pioneer of funk James Brown.  Add to such assembled talent the classically trained Bernie Worrell, whose synthesizer conjures galaxies of  cosmic sound but whose piano, as heard on the track "P-Funk," evokes the ethereal chords of jazz pianist McCoy Tyner.  DJ, conductor, arranger and wild lyricist George Clinton oversees the whole, providing an amazing range of space characters (Lollipop Man, Star Child) outlandish vocabulary ("supergroovalistic," "prosifunkstication") and all-around funkiness.  The album has had an enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music.

22.  Barton Hall concert by the Grateful Dead (May 8, 1977)

The Grateful Dead was known for its eclectic style that drew on many genres of popular and vernacular music, an improvisational foundation, and a commitment to touring and "live" performances.  The Grateful Dead was one of the few musical groups to not only allow, but encourage fans to record its concerts, offering tickets to a special "tapers" section at their shows. The organized trading of Grateful Dead tapes goes back at least to 1971 with the formation of the First Free Underground Grateful Dead Tape Exchange.  Fans of the Grateful Dead will never completely agree about which one of their over 2,300 concerts was the best, but there is some consensus about the tape of their Barton Hall performance at Cornell University on May 8, 1977. The soundboard recording of this show has achieved almost mythic status among "Deadhead" tape traders because of its excellent sound quality and early accessibility, as well as its musical performances.

23.  "I Feel Love," Donna Summer (1977)

Brian Eno famously declared after hearing Donna Summer's single "I Feel Love" that the track would "change the sound of club music for the next 15 years."  Summer wrote the song in collaboration with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Belotte, who felt that the song was supposed to represent the music of the future and should be entirely electronic.  Consequently, they hired Robbie Wedel who brought four cases of Moog synthesizers to the session.  Those produced nearly all the sounds on the record, including synthesized bass drums and cymbals. Particularly notable was the bass line that Belotte has described as "a giant's hammer on a wall."  When the thunderous sound was combined with Summer's breathy and ethereal vocal, the cut?as Eno predicted--took the clubs by storm.  Partly through the involvement of Patrick Cowley, who made a 15-minute remix along with an 8-minute one, the song won particular popularity in gay dance clubs and soon achieved the status of an anthem in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

24.  "Rapper's Delight," Sugarhill Gang (1979)

The Sugarhill Gang's infectious dance number from late 1979 might be said to have launched an entire genre.  Although spoken word had been a component of recorded American popular music for decades, this trio's rhythmic rhyming inspired many future MCs and rap artists. The album version of "Rapper's Delight" is an epic 14 1/2 minute salvo of irreverent stories and creative wordplay.  The song dates from hip-hop's infancy.  As such, it does not address subject matter that has given rap music both positive and negative notoriety, but the song's inventive rhymes, complex counter-rhythms and brash boastfulness presage the tenets of hip hop. "Rapper's Delight" also reflects an early instance of music sampling, drawing its bass line and other features from Chic's 1979 hit "Good Times."  As a result of an out-of-court settlement for copyright infringement, songwriting credits for "Rapper's Delight" include that song's composers, Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards, as well as Sylvia Robinson and the Sugarhill Gang (Michael Wright, Guy O'Brien, and Henry Jackson).

25.  "Purple Rain," Prince and the Revolution (1984)

Prince was already a hit-maker and a critically acclaimed artist when his sixth album, the soundtrack for his 1984 movie debut, launched him into superstardom.  Earlier, he had played all the instruments on his records to get the sounds he wanted, but now he led an integrated band of men and women who could realize the dense, ambitious fusion that he sought, blending funk, synth-pop and soul with guitar-based rock and a lyrical sensibility that mixed the psychedelic and the sensual.  Prince experimented throughout the album, dropping the bass line from "When Doves Cry" to fashion a one-of-a-kind sound, and mixing analog and electronic percussion frequently.  Portions of "Purple Rain" were recorded live at the First Avenue Club in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis.  The success of the album served notice that the Twin Cities were a major center for pop music as numerous rock and R&B artists from the region emerged in its wake.  Like much of Prince's other work, "Purple Rain" was provocative and controversial, and some of its most explicit lyrics led directly to the founding of the Parents Music Resource Center.

 

2011 National Recording Registry (Listing in Chronological Order)

 

1.  Edison Talking Doll cylinder (1888)
2. "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star," Lillian Russell (1912)
3.  "Ten Cents a Dance," Ruth Etting (1930)
4.  "Voices from the Days of Slavery," Various speakers (1932-1941 interviews; 2002 compilation)
5.  "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart," Patsy Montana (1935)
6.  "Fascinating Rhythm," Sol Hoopii and his Novelty Five (1938)
7.   "Artistry in Rhythm," Stan Kenton & and his Orchestra (1943)
8.  Debut performance with the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (November 14, 1943)
9.  International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Hottest Women's Band of the 1940s (1944-1946)
10. "The Indians for Indians Hour"  (March 25, 1947)
11.  "Hula Medley," Gabby Pahinui (1947)
12.  "I Can Hear It Now," Fred W. Friendly and Edward R. Murrow (1948)
13.  "Let's Go Out to the Programs," The Dixie Hummingbirds (1953)
14.  "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1954, 1958)
15.  "Bo Diddley" and "I'm a Man," Bo Diddley (1955)
16.  "Green Onions,"  Booker T. & the M.G.'s  (1962)
17.  "Forever Changes," Love (1967)
18.  "The Continental Harmony: Music of William Billings," Gregg Smith Singers (1969)
19.  "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Vince Guaraldi Trio (1970)
20.  "Coat of Many Colors," Dolly Parton (1971)
21.  "Mothership Connection," Parliament (1975)
22.  Barton Hall concert by the Grateful Dead (May 8, 1977)
23.  "I Feel Love," Donna Summer (1977)
24.  "Rapper's Delight," Sugarhill Gang (1979)
25.  "Purple Rain," Prince and the Revolution (1984)

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The Veterans History Project (VHP) will host the closing event of a weeklong initiative to promote creativity, wellness and resiliency in military communities on Friday, May 18 at 7 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, located at 10 First St., S.E., Washington, D.C. The program features staged readings of excerpts from author Kate Wenner's play, "Make Sure It's Me," based on her interviews with Iraq war veterans who sustained life-changing traumatic brain injuries. VHP Director Bob Patrick will accept into the Library of Congress collection veterans' stories recorded as part of "The Telling Project" workshops. Togo D. West, Jr., former Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Former Secretary of the Army, will offer remarks.

"The arts have an important role to play in the healing of physical and emotional wounds of our nation's veterans," said Patrick. "The Veterans History Project is proud to be a collaborator in this effort and to have veterans' stories collected through this unique initiative become part of the Library of Congress' permanent collection."

The closing event caps a six-day collaboration titled, "Arts, Military + Healing," occurring in Washington, D.C., May 13-18. Artists, veterans and cultural institutions will unite to raise awareness of the role of the arts in the healing process for veterans and military families. A full schedule of workshops and events may be found at www.artsandmilitary.org.   

The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, is the world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library's rich resources and treasures may also be accessed through the Library's website, www.loc.gov.

Congress created The Veterans History Project in 2000 as a national documentation program of the American Folklife Center (www.loc.gov/folklife/) to record, preserve and make accessible the first-hand remembrances of American wartime veterans from World War I through the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. More than 80,000 individual stories comprise the collection to date. The project relies on volunteers to record veterans' remembrances using guidelines accessible at www.loc.gov/vets. Volunteer interviewers may request information at vohp@loc.gov or the toll-free message line at (888) 371-5848. Subscribe to the VHP RSS to receive periodic updates of VHP news.

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2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates: "Forrest Gump," "Bambi," "Stand and Deliver" Among Registry Picks

"My momma always said, 'Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'"  That line was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the award-winning movie "Forest Gump" in 1994.  Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today selected that film and 24 others to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Spanning the period 1912-1994, the films named to the registry include Hollywood classics, documentaries, animation, home movies, avant-garde shorts and experimental motion pictures.   Representing the rich creative and cultural diversity of the American cinematic experience, the selections range from Walt Disney's timeless classic "Bambi" and Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend," a landmark film about the devastating effects of alcoholism, to a real-life drama between a U.S. president and a governor over the desegregation of the University of Alabama.  The selections also include home movies of the famous Nicholas Brothers dancing team and such avant-garde films as George Kuchar's hilarious short "I, an Actress."  This year's selections bring the number of films in the registry to 575.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant.  "These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture," said Billington.  "Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams."

Annual selections to the registry are finalized by the Librarian after reviewing hundreds of titles nominated by the public (this year 2,228 films were nominated) and conferring with Library film curators and the distinguished members of the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB).  The public is urged to make nominations for next year's registry at NFPB's website (www. loc.gov/film).

In other news about the registry, "These Amazing Shadows," a documentary about the National Film Registry, will air nationally on the award-winning PBS series "Independent Lens" on Thursday, Dec. 29, at 10 p.m (check local listings). Written and directed by Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton, this critically acclaimed documentary has also been released on DVD and Blu-ray and will be available through the Library of Congress Shop (www.loc.gov/shop/).

For each title named to the registry, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation works to ensure that the film is preserved for future generations, either through the Library's massive motion-picture preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion-picture studios and independent filmmakers.  The Packard Campus is a state-of-the-art facility where the nation's library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings (www.loc.gov/avconservation/).

The Packard Campus is home to more than six million collection items, including nearly three million sound recordings. It provides staff support for the Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board, the National Recording Preservation Board and the National Registries for film and recorded sound.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. It seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

2011 National Film Registry

Allures (1961)   
Called the master of "cosmic cinema," Jordan Belson excelled in creating abstract imagery with a spiritual dimension that featured dazzling displays of color, light, and ever-moving patterns and objects. Trained as a painter and profoundly influenced by the artist and theorist Wassily Kandinsky, Belson collaborated in the late 1950s with electronic music composer Henry Jacobs to create elaborate sound and light shows in the San Francisco Morrison Planetarium, an experience that informed his subsequent films.  The film, Belson has stated, "was probably the space-iest film that had been done until then. It creates a feeling of moving into the void." Inspired by Eastern spiritual thought, "Allures" (which took a year and a half to make) is, Belson suggests, a "mathematically precise" work intended to express the process of becoming that the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin has named "cosmogenesis."

Bambi (1942)
One of Walt Disney's timeless classics (and his own personal favorite), this animated coming-of-age tale of a wide-eyed fawn's life in the forest has enchanted generations since its debut nearly 70 years ago.  Filled with iconic characters and moments, the film features beautiful images that were the result of extensive nature studies by Disney's animators.  Its realistic characters capture human and animal qualities in the time-honored tradition of folklore and fable, which enhance the movie's resonating, emotional power.  Treasured as one of film's most heart-rending stories of parental love, "Bambi" also has come to be recognized for its eloquent message of nature conservation.

The Big Heat (1953)
One of the great post-war noir films, "The Big Heat" stars Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin and Gloria Graham.  Set in a fictional American town, "The Big Heat" tells the story of a tough cop (Ford) who takes on a local crime syndicate, exposing tensions within his own corrupt police department as well as insecurities and hypocrisies of domestic life in the 1950s.  Filled with atmosphere, fascinating female characters, and a jolting?yet not gratuitous?degree of violence, "The Big Heat," through its subtly expressive technique and resistance to formulaic denouement, manages to be both stylized and brutally realistic, a signature of its director Fritz Lang.

A Computer Animated Hand (1972)
Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, renowned for its CGI (computer generated image) animated films, created a program for digitally animating a human hand in 1972 as a graduate student project, one of the earliest examples of 3D computer animation. The one-minute film displays the hand turning, opening and closing, pointing at the viewer, and flexing its fingers, ending with a shot that seemingly travels up inside the hand. In creating the film, which was incorporated into the 1976 film "Futureworld," Catmull worked out concepts that become the foundation for computer graphics that followed.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)
Robert Drew was a pioneer of American cinema-verite (a style of documentary filmmaking that strives to record unfolding events non-intrusively).  In 1963, he gathered together a stellar group of filmmakers, including D. A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, Gregory Shuker, James Lipscomb, and Patricia Powell, to capture on film the dramatic unfolding of an ideological crisis, one that revealed political decision-making at the highest levels. The result, "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment," focuses on Gov. George Wallace's attempt to prevent two African-American students from enrolling in the University of Alabama?his infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" confrontation?and the response of President John F. Kennedy. The filmmakers observe the crisis evolve by following a number of participants, including Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Gov. Wallace and the two students, Vivian Malone and James Hood.  The film also shows deliberations between the president and his staff that led to a peaceful resolution, a decision by the president to deliver a major address on civil rights and a commitment by Wallace to continue his battle in subsequent national election campaigns. The film has proven to be a uniquely revealing complement to written histories of the period, providing viewers the rare opportunity to witness historical events from an insider's perspective.

The Cry of the Children (1912)
Recognized as a key work that both reflected and contributed to the pre-World War I child labor reform movement, the two-reel silent melodrama "The Cry of the Children" takes its title and fatalistic, uncompromising tone of hopelessness from the 1842 poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  "The Cry of the Children" was part of a wave of "social problem" films released during the 1910s on such subjects as drugs and alcohol, white slavery, immigrants and women's suffrage.  Some were sensationalist attempts to exploit lurid topics, while others, like "The Cry of the Children," were realistic exposés that championed social reform and demanded change. Shot partially in a working textile factory, "The Cry of the Children" was recognized by an influential critic of the time as "The boldest, most timely and most effective appeal for the stamping out of the cruelest of all social abuses."

A Cure for Pokeritis (1912) 
Largely forgotten today, actor John Bunny merits significant historical importance as the American film industry's earliest comic superstar.  A stage actor prior to the start of his film career, Bunny starred in over 150 Vitagraph Company productions from 1910 until his death in 1915. Many of his films (affectionately known as "Bunnygraphs") were gentle "domestic" comedies, in which he portrayed a henpecked husband alongside co-star Flora Finch. "A Cure for Pokeritis" exemplifies the genre, as Finch conspires with similarly displeased wives to break up their husbands' weekly poker game. When Bunny died in 1915, a New York Times editorial noted that "Thousands who had never heard him speak...recognized him as the living symbol of wholesome merriment." The paper presciently commented on the importance of preserving motion pictures and sound recordings for future generations: "His loss will be felt all over the country, and the films, which preserve his humorous personality in action, may in time have a new value. It is a subject worthy of reflection, the value of a perfect record of a departed singer's voice, of the photographic films perpetuating the drolleries of a comedian who developed such extraordinary capacity for acting before the camera."

El Mariachi (1992)
Directed, edited, co-produced, and written in two weeks by Robert Rodriguez for $7,000 while a film student at the University of Texas, "El Mariachi" proved a favorite on the film festival circuit. After Columbia Pictures picked it up for distribution, the film helped usher in the independent movie boom of the early 1990s. "El Mariachi" is an energetic, highly entertaining tale of an itinerant musician, portrayed by co-producer and Rodriguez crony Carlos Gallardo, who arrives at a Mexican border town during a drug war and is mistaken for a hit man who recently escaped from prison. The story, as film historian Charles Ramirez Berg has suggested, plays with expectations common to two popular exploitation genres?the narcotraficante film, a Mexican police genre, and the transnational warrior-action film, itself rooted in Hollywood Westerns. Rodriguez's success derived from invigorating these genres with creative variants despite the constraints of a shoestring budget.  Rodriguez has gone on to direct films for major studios, becoming, in Berg's estimation, "arguably the most successful Latino director ever to work in Hollywood."

Faces (1968)
Writer-director John Cassavetes described "Faces," considered by many to be his first mature work, as "a barrage of attack on contemporary middle-class America." The film depicts a married couple, "safe in their suburban home, narrow in their thinking," he wrote, who experience a break up that "releases them from the conformity of their existence, forces them into a different context, when all barriers are down." An example of cinematic excess, "Faces" places its viewers inside intense lengthy scenes to allow them to discover within its relentless confrontations emotions and relations of power between men and women that rarely emerge in more conventionally structured films. In provoking remarkable performances by Lynn Carlin, John Marley and Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes has created a style of independent filmmaking that has inspired filmmakers around the world.

Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
An expressive, sympathetic look at the everyday lives of young Mexican women who create ornamental papier m?ché fruits and vegetables, "Fake Fruit Factory" exemplifies filmmaker Chick Strand's unique style that deftly blends documentary, avant-garde and ethnographic techniques.  After studying anthropology and ethnographic film at the University of California, Strand, who helped noted independent filmmaker Bruce Baillie create the independent film distribution cooperative Canyon Cinema, taught filmmaking for 24 years at Occidental College. She developed a collagist process to create her films, shooting footage of people she encountered over several decades of annual summer stays in Mexico and then editing together individual films. In "Fake Fruit Factory," Strand employs a moving camera at close range to create colorfully vivid images often verging on abstraction, while her soundtrack picks up snatches of conversation to evoke, in her words, "the spirit of the people." "I want to know," Strand wrote, "really what it is like to be a breathing, talking, moving, emotional, relating individual in the society."

Forrest Gump (1994)     
As "Forrest Gump," Tom Hanks portrays an earnest, guileless "everyman" whose open-heartedness and sense of the unexpected unwittingly draws him into some of the most iconic events of the 1960s and 1970s.  A smash hit, "Forrest Gump" has been honored for its technological innovations (the digital insertion of Gump seamlessly into vintage archival footage), its resonance within the culture that has elevated Gump (and what he represents in terms of American innocence) to the status of folk hero, and its attempt to engage both playfully and seriously with contentious aspects of the era's traumatic history. The film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Growing Up Female (1971)
Among the first films to emerge from the women's liberation movement, "Growing Up Female" is a documentary portrait of America on the brink of profound change in its attitudes toward women. Filmed in spring 1970 by Ohio college students Julia Reichert and Jim Klein, "Growing Up Female" focuses on six girls and women aged 4 to 34 and the home, school, work and advertising environments that have impacted their identities. Through open-ended interviews and lyrical documentation of their surroundings, the film strived, in Reichert's words, to "give women a new lens through which to see their own lives." Widely distributed to libraries, universities, churches and youth groups, the film launched a cooperative of female filmmakers that bypassed traditional distribution mechanisms to get its message communicated.

Hester Street (1975)
Joan Micklin Silver's first feature-length film, "Hester Street," was an adaption of preeminent Yiddish author Abraham Cahan's 1896 well-received first novel "Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto."  In the 1975 film, the writer-director brought to the screen a portrait of Eastern European Jewish life in America that historians have praised for its accuracy of detail and sensitivity to the challenges immigrants faced during their acculturation process. Shot in black-and-white and partly in Yiddish with English subtitles, the independent production, financed with money raised by the filmmaker's husband, was shunned by Hollywood until it established a reputation at the Cannes Film Festival and in European markets. "Hester Street" focuses on stresses that occur when a "greenhorn" wife, played by Carol Kane (nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal), and her young son arrive in New York to join her Americanized husband. Silver, one of the first women directors of American features to emerge during the women's liberation movement, shifted the story's emphasis from the husband, as in the novel, to the wife. Historian Joyce Antler has written admiringly, "In indicating the hardships experienced by women and their resiliency, as well as the deep strains assimilation posed to masculinity, 'Hester Street' touches on a fundamental cultural challenge confronting immigrants."

I, an Actress (1977)
Underground filmmaker George Kuchar and his twin brother Mike began making 8mm films as 12-year-old kids in the Bronx, often on their family's apartment rooftop.  Before his death in 2011, George created over 200 outlandish low-budget films filled with absurdist melodrama, crazed dialogue and plots, and affection for Hollywood film conventions and genres. A professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, Kuchar documented his directing techniques in the hilarious "I, an Actress" as he encourages an acting student to embellish a melodramatic monologue with increasingly excessive gestures and emotions. Like most of Kuchar's films, "I, an Actress" embodies a "camp" sensibility, defined by the cultural critic Susan Sontag as deriving from an aesthetics that valorizes not beauty but "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration." Filmmaker John Waters has cited the Kuchars as "my first inspiration" and credited them with giving him "the self-confidence to believe in my own tawdry vision."

The Iron Horse (1924) 
John Ford's epic Western "The Iron Horse" established his reputation as one of Hollywood's most accomplished directors.  Intended by Fox studios to rival Paramount's 1923 epic "The Covered Wagon," Ford's film employed more than 5,000 extras, advertised authenticity in its attention to realistic detail, and provided him with the opportunity to create iconic visual images of the Old West, inspired by such master painters as Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. A tale of national unity achieved after the Civil War through the construction of the transcontinental railroad, "The Iron Horse" celebrated the contributions of Irish, Italian and Chinese immigrants although the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country legally was severely restricted at the time of its production.  A classic silent film, "The Iron Horse" introduced to American and world audiences a reverential, elegiac mythology that has influenced many subsequent Westerns.

The Kid (1921)     
Charles Chaplin's first full-length feature, the silent classic "The Kid," is an artful melding of touching drama, social commentary and inventive comedy.  The tale of a foundling (Jackie Coogan, soon to be a major child star) taken in by the Little Tramp, "The Kid" represents a high point in Chaplin's evolving cinematic style, proving he could sustain his artistry beyond the length of his usual short subjects and could deftly elicit a variety of emotions from his audiences by skillfully blending slapstick and pathos.

The Lost Weekend (1945)
A landmark social-problem film, "The Lost Weekend" provided audiences of 1945 with an uncompromising look at the devastating effects of alcoholism. Directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder and Charles Brackett, the film melded an expressionistic film-noir style with documentary realism to immerse viewers in the harrowing experiences of an aspiring New York writer willing to do almost anything for a drink. Despite opposition from his studio, the Hays Office and the liquor industry, Wilder created a film ranked as one of the best of the decade that won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Direction, Screenplay and Actor (Ray Milland), and established him as one of America's leading filmmakers.

The Negro Soldier (1944)
Produced by Frank Capra's renowned World War II U.S. Army filming unit, "The Negro Soldier" showcased the contributions of blacks to American society and their heroism in the nation's wars, portraying them in a dignified, realistic, and far less stereotypical manner than they had been depicted in previous Hollywood films. Considered by film historian Thomas Cripps as "a watershed in the use of film to promote racial tolerance," "The Negro Soldier" was produced in reaction to instances of discrimination against African-Americans stationed in the South. Written by Carlton Moss, a young black writer for radio and the Federal Theatre Project, directed by Stuart Heisler, and scored by Dmitri Tiomkin, the film highlights the role of the church in the black community and charts the progress of a black soldier through basic training and officer's candidate school before he enters into combat.  It became mandatory viewing for all soldiers in American replacement centers from spring 1944 until the war's end.

Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies (1930s-1940s)
Fayard and Harold Nicholas, renowned for their innovative and exuberant dance routines, began in vaudeville in the late 1920s before headlining at the Cotton Club in Harlem, starring on Broadway and performing in Hollywood films. Fred Astaire is reported to have called their dance sequence in "Stormy Weather" (1943) the greatest movie musical number he had ever seen. Their home movies capture a golden age of show business?with extraordinary footage of Broadway, Harlem and Hollywood?and also document the middle-class African-American life of that era, images made rare by the considerable cost of home-movie equipment during the Great Depression. Highlights include the only footage shot inside the Cotton Club, the only footage of famous Broadway shows like "Babes in Arms," home movies of an all African-American regiment during World War II, films of street life in Harlem in the 1930s, and the family's cross-country tour in 1934.

Norma Rae (1979)     
Highlighted by Sally Field's Oscar-winning performance, "Norma Rae" is the tale of an unlikely activist.  A poorly-educated single mother, Norma Rae Webster works at a Southern textile mill where her attempt to improve working conditions through unionization, though undermined by her factory bosses, ultimately succeeds after her courageous stand on the factory floor wins the support of her co-workers.  The film is less a polemical pro-union statement than a treatise about maturation, personal willpower, fairness and the empowerment of women.  Directed by Martin Ritt, "Norma Rae" was based on the real-life efforts of Crystal Lee Sutton to unionize the J. P. Stevens Mills in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., which finally agreed to allow union representation one year after the film's release.

Porgy and Bess (1959)     
Composer George Gershwin considered his masterpiece "Porgy and Bess" to be a "folk opera." Gershwin's score reflected traditional songs he encountered in visits to Charleston, S.C., and in Gullah revival meetings he attended on nearby James Island.  Controversy has stalked the production history of the opera that Gershwin created with DuBose Heyward, who had written the original novel and play (with his wife Dorothy) and penned lyrics with Gershwin's brother Ira.  The lavish film version was produced in the late 1950s as the civil rights movement gained momentum and a number of African-American actors turned down roles they considered demeaning.  Harry Belafonte, who refused the part of Porgy, explained, "in this period of our social development, I doubt that it is healthy to expose certain images of the Negro. In a period of calm, perhaps this picture could be viewed historically." Dissension also resulted when producer Samuel Goldwyn dismissed Rouben Mamoulian, who had directed the play and musical on Broadway, and replaced him with Otto Preminger. Produced in Todd-AO, a state-of-the-art widescreen and stereophonic sound recording process, with an all-star cast that included Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll, "Porgy and Bess," now considered an "overlooked masterpiece" by one contemporary scholar, rarely has been screened in the ensuing years.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins and director Jonathan Demme won accolades for this chilling thriller based upon a book by Thomas Harris.  Foster plays rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling who must tap into the disturbed mind of imprisoned cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in order to aid her search for a murderer and torturer still at large.  A film whose violence is as much psychological as graphic, "Silence of the Lambs"?winner of Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay?has been celebrated for its superb lead performances, its blending of crime and horror genres, and its taut direction that brought to the screen one of film's greatest villains and some of its most memorable imagery.

Stand and Deliver (1988)   
Based on a true story, "Stand and Deliver" stars Edward James Olmos in an Oscar-nominated performance as crusading educator Jaime Escalante.  A math teacher in East Los Angeles, Ca., Escalante inspired his underprivileged students to undertake an intensive program in calculus, achieve high test scores, and improve their sense of self-worth.  Co-produced by Olmos and directed by Cuban-born Ramón Menéndez, "Stand and Deliver" became one of the most popular of a new wave of narrative feature films produced in the 1980s by Latino filmmakers. The film celebrates in a direct, approachable, and impactful way, values of self-betterment through hard work and power through knowledge.

Twentieth Century (1934)
A satire on the theatrical milieu and its oversized egos, "Twentieth Century" marked the first of director Howard Hawks' frenetic comedies that had leading actors of the day "make damn fools of themselves."  In Hawks' words, the genre became affectionately known as "screwball comedy." Hawks had writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who penned the original play, craft dialogue scenes in which lines overlapped as in ordinary conversations, but still remained understandable, a style he continued in later films. This sophisticated farce about the tempestuous romance of an egocentric impresario and the star he creates did not fare well on its release, but has come to be recognized as one of the era's finest film comedies, one that gave John Barrymore his last great film role and Carole Lombard her first.

War of the Worlds (1953)
Released at the height of cold-war hysteria, producer George Pal's lavishly-designed take on H. G. Wells' 1898 novel of alien invasion was provocatively transplanted from Victorian England to a mid-20th-century Southern California small town in this 1953 film version. Capitalizing on the apocalyptic paranoia of the atomic age, Barré Lyndon's screenplay wryly replaces Wells' original commentary on the British class system with religious metaphor. Directed by Byron Haskin, formerly a special effects cameraman, the critically and commercially successful film chronicles an apparent meteor crash discovered by a local scientist (Gene Barry) that turns out to be a Martian spacecraft. Gordon Jennings, who died shortly before the film's release, avoided stereotypical flying saucer-style creations in his Academy Award-winning special effects described by reviewers as soul-chilling, hackle-raising and not for the faint of heart.


Films Selected to the 2011 National Film Registry

1. Allures (1961)
2. Bambi (1942)
3. The Big Heat (1953)
4. A Computer Animated Hand (1972)
5. Crisis: Behind A Presidential Commitment (1963)
6. The Cry of the Children (1912)
7. A Cure for Pokeritis (1912)
8. El Mariachi (1992)
9. Faces (1968)
10. Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
11. Forrest Gump (1994)
12. Growing Up Female (1971)
13. Hester Street (1975)
14. I, an Actress (1977)
15. The Iron Horse (1924)
16. The Kid (1921)
17. The Lost Weekend (1945)
18. The Negro Soldier (1944)
19. Nicholas Brothers Family Home Movies (1930s-40s)
20. Norma Rae (1979)
21. Porgy and Bess (1959)
22. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
23. Stand and Deliver (1988)
24. Twentieth Century (1934)
25. War of the Worlds (1953)

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