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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: A birthday present for the Duke

April 29, 2013 by Terry Teachout

washingtonians_1925.jpgDuke Ellington was born on this day in 1899. To celebrate the occasion, the Library of Congress announced that it has located in its collection a nitrate print of Ellington’s very first film appearance, a nightclub scene from a 1925 silent film called Headlines.
The possibility that Ellington and his band, the Washingtonians, appeared in Headlines, however fleetingly, was established by Ken Steiner, a noted Ellington scholar who (I’m proud to say) went out of his way to help me with Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington. Following Ken’s cue, archivists at the Library of Congress tracked down the scene and have now restored the entire film.
To read about the discovery and watch the clip, go here.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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