The Power and the Glory
In 1985, G.E. purchased RCA for $6.3 billion in cash, then the largest M&A deal of all time. That G.E. was actually buying back a business it had started 65 years earlier was largely forgotten
Dreams in Progress
A new book celebrates Hollywood’s greatest behind-the-scenes photographer
The Bike Picture
How a long-haired band of outsiders with a 16-mm. camera, $300,000, and “a hell of an idea” re-invented American movies with Easy Rider
The Secret Life of Hotels
Before doing the Madeline children’s books and the murals for New York’s Carlyle-hotel bar, Ludwig Bemelmans worked at the Ritz—and kept notes
Into the Maelstrom
Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades burns like a fever dream in the hands of Nathalie Stutzman, contralto turned star conductor
Not Your Father’s Ghostwriter
Unfortunately for the royal family, J. R. Moehringer, Prince Harry’s ghostwriter, specializes in damaged father-son relationships
Out of Step
While researching his book about the dance company Ballet Russes, Rupert Christiansen stumbled upon a dance critic’s account of their awkward interview
A Weight on Her Shoulders
The director Nanette Burstein’s new docuseries, Killer Sally, offers a nuanced look at the bodybuilder Sally McNeil’s 1995 murder of her abusive husband
Bono Still Hasn’t Found What He’s Looking For
The U2 front man’s new memoir is romantic, sincere, and self-effacing. More than an inventory of rock ’n’ roll high jinks, it reveals how deep the trauma of losing his mother at just 14 sits, even today
Mystery Man
Eight Questions with Anthony Horowitz, the man behind Foyle’s War and Agatha Christie’s Poirot, a series of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond novels, and his own mystery TV show
A Seven-Decade Roman Holiday
The diaries of the American art critic, photographer, and Rome transplant Milton Gendel reveal a life spent mingling with artists, royals, and other notables
Liz Truss: Even Stranger Than We Thought
On this week’s podcast, Stuart Heritage reports on the very revealing new book about the former P.M.
Everybody’s Talkin’
How a disruptive new technology—sound—brought an end to the silent era and gave rise to the studio system. An exclusive excerpt from Hollywood: The Oral History
Messing with Perfection
In the latest affront to musical history, Cat Power is covering Bob Dylan’s 1966 concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Second-Lead Syndrome
Dancing man Tommy Rall steals the screen in MGM’s Kiss Me, Kate
The Wilder West
Post–Civil War, while most white settlers were eager to push American Indians off their land, General William Sherman advocated for the tribes