Mar 21, 2018 | Editor's Notes, George Malko, Music, The Literary Life
I thought you might appreciate this letter written by Nicolai Malko to Vladimir Nabokov. Here, let Malko’s son, George—a fantastic writer and an equally swell guy—explain: The letter was written when my father was in his fifth year as Musical Director of the Sydney...
Mar 8, 2018 | 2010s, Alex Belth, Editor's Notes, Movies, Uncategorized
I’ve never read Conversations with Wilder, the hell is wrong with me? Man, I need to correct that. I’m grateful that I tuned in to Alec Baldwin’s Here’s The Thing interview with Cameron Crowe, who put the book together, and has some funny Billy Wilder stories to...
Mar 2, 2018 | 1960s, Comedy, Editor's Notes, Movies, The Arts
The origins of “The Gookie,” from one of the great showbiz memoirs, Harpo Speaks! The man who first inspired me to become an actor was a guy called Gookie. Gookie had nothing to do with the theatre. He rolled cigars in the window of a cigar store on Lexington Avenue....
Mar 1, 2018 | 2010s, Alex Belth, Editor's Notes
Here is something I have noticed about reprinting material that was previously published but not available to us online—it ain’t for everyone. Why? Well, say I reprint a story that was published 40 years ago. Some folks will be turned off immediately: Why are you...
Feb 21, 2018 | 2010s, Editor's Notes
Ray Robinson died last November at the age of 96. He was born and raised in New York, spent pretty much his whole life here and he died here. Ray wrote about sports and worked as an editor for magazines like Pageant, Good Housekeeping and Seventeen. As a kid, Ray...
Feb 11, 2018 | 2010s, Alex Belth, Editor's Notes
Welcome to The Stacks Reader, an online trove of classic journalism and writing about the arts and culture that began innocently enough fifteen years ago in the microfilm room of the New York Public Library. I was there doing some research for a book and was blown...
