A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 2007 Sony BMG Music Entertainment I'm Beginning to See the Light (Original 1945 Recording) On September 11, 2007, Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s Legacy label released The War: I’m Beginning to See the Light – Dance Hits from the Second World War. “Dropped” to precede the premiere broadcast of Ken Burns’ The War: A Ken Burns Film, this 20-track album was one of four Sony soundtrack recordings tied in to Burns’ 14-hour-long World War II documentary. (The other discs were The War: A Film by Ken Burns – Original Soundtrack; Songs Without Words – The War; and The War: Sentimental Journey: Hits from The Second World War ) Culled from several recordings made in the 1930s and 1940s, The War: I’m Beginning to See the Light – Dance Hits from the Second World War showcases some of the best jazz and swing music ever composed. Some of the greats from the Big Band era – Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Coleman Hawkins, and Benny Goodman – are hea

Inning 5: Shadow Ball (1930-1940) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Throughout America, and even on the baseball diamonds in New York's Central Park, thousands of homeless people build shantytowns called "Hoovervilles." More than ever, America needs heroes. And even as it struggles to make it through the Depression, baseball provides them.  But the heroes do not come only from the Major Leagues. The Negro Leagues bring baseball to towns the Major Leagues ignore...to people the Major Leagues spurn. To delight the fans, they develop an elaborate warm-up routine in pantomime; throwing and hitting an invisible ball so convincingly spectators can't believe it's not real. It's called "shadow ball." In the fall of 1994, Major League Baseball was crippled by a players' strike that prematurely ended that year's season at the midway point and led to the cancellation of the '94 World Series. Millions of fans of the national pa

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.  – Section One, Amendment 18 to the Constitution of the United States On October 3, 2011, the 300 or so member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired A Nation of Drunkards, the first of three parts of Prohibition: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick. Written by Burns' long-time collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward and produced by Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick, and Ken Burns, the series explored one of the most controversial - and least effective - experiments in social re-engineering in American history. Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky

Inning 4: A National Heirloom (1920-1930) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns The 1920s begin with America trying to recover from World War I and baseball trying to recover from the scandal of the 1919 World Series. America finds relief in the boom market and the Jazz Age. Baseball finds its own boom market in a player with a Jazz Age personality; a troubled youth from a Baltimore reformatory school who can hit the ball farther than anyone. George Herman "Babe" Ruth is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But he loves to hit even more. In 1919, he hits 29 homers for the Red Sox, more than any player has ever hit in a single season. On September 21, 1994, at the height of a long strike by Major League Baseball players, 300 member stations of America's Public Broadcasting System aired A National Heirloom (1920-1930), the fourth "inning" of  Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. For many baseball-deprived fans, this

Inning 1: Our Game (1840s-1900) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns In New York City, in the 1840s, people need a diversion from the "railroad pace" at which they work and live. They find it in a game of questionable origins. On June 19, 1846, at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, a team of well-dressed gentlemen, the Knickerbockers, play the first game of baseball. By 1856, the game is already being called "the national pastime," or simply, "Our Game." But the nation is about to be torn apart. And in the midst of the Civil War, there is one thing that Americans North and South have in common: baseball. - from the DVD episode guide blurb. On September 18, 1994, nearly four years after the debut of Ken Burns' The Civil War, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired Our Game (1840s-1900), the first "inning" of Burns' nine-part documentary Baseball. Co-written by