February 11, 1940. Hattie McDaniel becomes the first-ever African American to be nominated for, and then win, an Oscar. Her legacy is complicated. And the Oscar itself has been missing, mysteriously, for almost fifty years. What did it take for McDaniel to win? And, 80 Oscar ceremonies later, how do we understand her legacy today?
Thank you to our guest, Pro ... Show More
Mar 16
HTW Live: Busting the Myths of Irish Immigration — Recorded at the Tenement Museum
March 18, 1879. A crowd gathers around an indoor track in Brooklyn, NY, as an Irish immigrant named Bartholomew O’Donnell attempts a strange feat: walking 80 miles in 26 hours. Newspapers claim he’s eighty years old. Lap after lap, he circles the track: smoking a pipe, sipping ho ... Show More
40m 56s
Mar 12
From Radio Diaries: Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier
Why did Orson Welles take on a murder mystery? Listen for yourself. This week, we're sharing a special preview of Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier from the podcast Radio Diaries. In this series, we learn how Welles used his platform to shed light on a crime in a small, southern ... Show More
11m 5s
Mar 2024
Revisiting: The Surprising, Queer History of the 1974 Oscars Streaker
With the 96th Academy Awards this Sunday, we wanted to revisit this episode from last year. The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran ac ... Show More
38m 18s
Feb 2017
Oscars So Black...At Least, In Documentaries
A filmmaker of color is almost certain to win this year's Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. In fact, for the first time, African-American documentarians made up most of the nominees. We talk with Ava DuVernay, whose movie "13th," made her the first black female director to be n ... Show More
24m 26s
Mar 2022
Oscars 2022 Recap: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly
The 2022 Oscars telecast will go down in history! For the Season 1 finale of Close Up, host Kelley Carter checks in with two Hollywood Reporter pals – ABC News Radio Entertainment correspondent, Jason Nathanson, and Entertainment Director at "The Grio" Cortney Wills to discuss Wi ... Show More
26m 24s
May 2022
Ava DuVernay is Triumphant
Before Ava DuVernay became the first Black woman director to win Sundance and get nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, she was a publicist with a little hobby, a big dream, and a lot of patience. Adam talks to Ava about how she turned her side gig of filmmaking into a brilli ... Show More
35 m
<p>Today, we talk about the movies that have been nominated for best picture at the Oscars; what to see, what to skip and what we loved, ahead of the awards Sunday night.</p><p><br></p><p>Read more:</p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; ... Show More