Once again, World War II is alive in popular culture. This year alone we can expect the launch of 3 new films, a 14-hour documentary TV series, and at least 8 new books on the subject. WNYC’s Sara Fishko, considers our endless fascination with the most documented event in history. ...

Though her fans have been observing it all year, the official Barbara Stanwyck centennial is this Monday. In this edition of the Fishko Files, Sara Fishko considers the remarkable collection of strong-willed, distinctive Hollywood women who populated movies when the studio system was in full swing.

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Sixty years ago this month, the debut of a new radio show--using a hidden microphone--blurred the line between surveillance and entertainment. These days, as WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, the line is blurrier than ever. Here is the next Fishko Files.

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Profiling, an ...

It’s been said that CRITICS become critics because they’re unfit to be anything else. As WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us, that’s not necessarily the case. This edition of the Fishko Files looks at Harris Goldsmith’s double life.

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At this time of the year, people circulate and celebrate at social gatherings. They’re called parties, and as WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us, nobody does parties better than the movies. Here is the next Fishko Files....

Holiday is available on DVD from Amazon.com

This famous scene from the movie ‘Big’ featured Tom Hanks, jumping around on a giant piano keyboard. It resonated with moviegoers partly because the tune he was dancing-out was one nearly everybody recognized. Why? WNYC’s Sara Fishko meditates on the mysteries of a popular tune....in this edition of the Fishko ...

‘Reds,’ Warren Beatty’s improbable epic saga about the Leftist American journalist John Reed, was released 25 years ago, just as a generation of early 20th Century activists was aging. Beatty’s film captured their stories and combined them with the star-studded drama. As WNYC’s

Sara Fishko tells us, ...

There are a couple of films around town, this summer, that have WNYC’s Sara Fishko thinking even more about ‘work’ than usual. Here is the next Fishko Files.

WNYC’s American Music Festival continues through this weekend. And one thing a lot of American composers have had in common is training and study someplace other than America. Philip Glass is an example: he talked to WNYC’s Sara Fishko about his travels in the 60’s.

Any time Mike Nichols and Elaine May occupy the same stage at the same time, it has to be seen as a cultural event. WNYC’s Sara Fishko was there, recently, when Nichols and May talked things over in front of an audience. In this edition of the Fishko Files, the ...

Music and cartoons have a long and happy history together. But as WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us, sometimes what you hear in animation is the last music you’d ever expect! What does the Moonlight Sonata have to do with Elmer Fudd? Here is the next Fishko Files... Tunes for 'Toons ...

In June of 1938, two men battled in the ring for an audience of millions. At stake in a polarized America, says Sara Fishko, were the pride of a race, the principles of a Nation...and more. Here is the next Fishko Files...

This week a new opera by John Adams and Peter Sellars about building the atomic bomb is having its first performances at the San Francisco Opera. The "Dr. Atomic" of its title is the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and, as Sara Fishko tells us, Oppenheimer’s rise and fall has been ...

Sunday is the 4th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 Attacks, and what will ultimately be at the site of the former World Trade Center is still at issue. Sara Fishko asked some questions about the memorial process – for this edition of the Fishko Files.

The three feature films James Dean starred in during his short life have just been released on DVD, 50 years after his death in a car accident. They also open today at the Film Forum, beginning with "East of Eden." Dean was said to be film’s "first American teenager." Sara ...

The four dramas nominated for Tony Awards this week bring to mind another Broadway season, when the play that won the Tony was more than a play. "Angels in America" appeared in New York in early May of 1993, and it was heralded as a groundbreaking moment—a moment that might ...

In the old days, there was one thing every entertainer HAD to know how to do. As Sara Fishko tells us, percussive dancing, or tap, has a special place in showbiz history. Here is the next Fishko Files...

In the 1950’s, Edward Steichen of the Museum of Modern Art wanted to say something about the world. He said it, as Sara Fishko tells us, with a photo exhibit that made history. In this edition of the Fishko Files, a look back, 50 years later, at "Family of Man"...

It’s been more than half a century since a wave of crime dramas burst on American movie screens, providing filmgoers and film-makers with a whole new vocabulary of dark shadows and saucy dialogue. In honor of an upcoming film noir festival here in New York, Sara Fishko explores the form...in ...

David Amram has written SO much music in his years as a composer, its almost inevitable—as Sara Fishko tells us—that one of his old scores should come back to life. Nevertheless, he appears to be flabbergasted. Here is the next Fishko Files...