CUNY TV Celebrates Arthur Gelb in Rebroadcast of 1999 Interview Today

Arthur Gelb, the much beloved Managing Editor of The New York Times, a champion of theater coverage there as early as the 1950s and beyond, and co-author, with his wife Barbara, of a massive three-volume biography of American playwright Eugene O'Neill, is celebrated in the CUNY TV rebroadcast of a 1999 THEATER TALK interview, co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, airing today, May 30 (2014) at 9:30am, 2:30pm, and 7:30pm. Mr. Gelb passed away on May 20.

The Gelbs talk about their immersion into the world of Eugene O'Neill and the galvanic opening in 1956 of Long Day's Journey Into Night, a play that O'Neill wrote in 1941-42 but didn't want published until 25 years after his death. (He died in 1953, but his widow, Carlotta Monterey, circumvented the request, and the play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.) In the interview, the Gelbs talk about their interaction with Monterey, and the fact that no biography had been written about possibly America's greatest playwright until their initial 1962 volume (extensively rewritten and expanded in 1999, once they had access to O'Neill's personal papers). Gelb also talks about his early years at The Times in a fascinating look back at an era that helped shape arts coverage in our culture, even today.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible, in part, by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast over-the-air in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision/Optimum), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). The above show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org, and via iTunes podcasts. CUNY TV is also live-streamed in New York on www.Aereo.com. The above episode is archived for viewing on CUNY TV's website www.cuny.tv as well as on www.theatertalk.org.

Pictured: Barbara and Arthur Gelb in 1999 on Theater Talk. Image courtesy Theater Talk/CUNY TV.