George Lucas Among Speakers at WWII Fall Film Series at N-Y Historical Society

Join us for the New-York Historical Society's inaugural Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series, World War II and Its Legacy in Film, featuring opening remarks by notable directors, writers, actors, and historians. Produced in conjunction with New-York Historical's exhibition WWII & NYC, this selection of classic films will show a broad scope of life during and after the war and reflect many of the exhibition's themes, including life on the home front, the dispatch of troops and the struggle to readapt to postwar life.

A screening of the documentary Double Victory (2012) about the legendary Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, the first African-American aerial unit, will feature opening remarks by George Lucas, Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown, and Brent Staples. Among other special guests who will deliver opening remarks before film screenings are Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker on I Was A Male War Bride (1949); Ron Simon, Curator of Television and Radio at the Paley Center of Media, with author Ian W. Toll on From Here to Eternity (1953) Catherine Wyler discussing her father William Wyler's film Mrs. Miniver (1942); and Stanley Donen on On the Town (1949) which he directed and co-choreographed with Gene Kelly.
Entrance to the film series is included with Museum Admission during New-York Historical's Pay-as-you-wish Friday Nights. All films will start at 7 pm at the Robert H. Smith Auditorium.

When World War II broke out, New York was a cosmopolitan, heavily immigrant city, whose people had real stakes in the war and strongly held opinions. WWII & NYC will explore the impact of the war on the metropolis, which played a critical role in the national war effort, and how the city was forever changed.

The exhibition will draw upon extensive collections at New-York Historical and on important loans from the US Navy, the Smithsonian Institution, the Mariners' Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other institutions. This exhibit will be open from October 5, 2012 – May 27, 2013.

Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series World War II and Its Legacy in Film 2012-13 Schedule & Speakers

· October 19 – Mrs. Miniver (1942) Speakers: Catherine Wyler, Lesley Stahl
· October 26 – Double Victory (2012) Speakers: George Lucas, Roscoe Brown, Brent Staples
· November 2 – The Clock (1945) Speakers: Adam Gopnik
· November 9 – Onoe of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) Speakers: Michael Korda
· December 7 – From Here to Eternity (1953) Speakers: Ian W. toll, Ron Simon
· December 14 – Twelve O'Clock High (1949) Speakers: Gordon S. Wood
· December 28 – It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
· January 11 – The Search (1948) Speakers: Lee Grant, Susan Lacy
· January 18 – On the Town (1949) Speakers: Stanley Donen
· January 25 – I Was a Male War Bride (1949) Speakers: Adam Gopnik
· February 1 – Casablanca (1942) Speakers: Kati Marton, David Denby
· February 8 – The Third Man (1949) Speakers: Kati Marton, David Denby

Mrs. Miniver:
Friday, October 19, 2012 7 pm
Catherine Wyler discusses her father's award-winning tale of strength and resilience on the British home front, with Lesley Stahl. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Directed by William Wyler. Starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, and Dame Mae Whitty. Catherine Wyler's career spans the worlds of film, television, and live theater. She has been a studio executive, an independent producer, and she has held leadership positions at major American cultural institutions. In the 1980s, she was Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures and Director of Cultural and Children's Programming at PBS. Lesley Stahl (moderator) has been a correspondent for "60 Minutes" since 1991.

Double Victory
Friday, October 26, 2012 7 pm
Legendary filmmaker George Lucas joins Brent Staples and former Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown to discuss this documentary, produced by Lucasfilm Ltd., spotlighting America's first all-black aerial unit who broke racial barriers and challenged stereotypes by serving their country in World War II. This documentary was made in conjunction with Lucasfilm's Red Tails. George Lucas is the acclaimed creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas, a renowned producer, writer, and director, and the chairman and founder of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is the executive producer of the 2012 Lucasfilm production Red Tails. Roscoe Brown is the director of the Center for Urban Education Policy at the Graduate School and University Center of CUNY and a former Tuskegee Airman. During World War II, he flew 68 long-range missions from August of 1944 to March of 1945 and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service. Brent Staples (moderator) writes on a wide range of topics-including politics, culture, race, education, and housing-for The New York Times editorial board. He is the author of Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

The Clock
Friday, November 2, 2012 7 pm
New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik sets the scene for this film about a young soldier on 48-hour leave in New York City who finds an unlikely romance amid the turbulence and upheaval of the time. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Starring Judy Garland, RoBert Walker, and James Gleason. Adam Gopnik has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction and humor pieces, book reviews, profiles, reporting pieces, and more than a hundred stories for "The Talk of the Town" and "Comment." His books, ranging from essay collections about Paris and food to children's novels, include Paris to the Moon; Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life; and The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food. Mr. Gopnik has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism three times and also the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
Friday, November 9, 2012 7 pm
Michael Korda introduces this film, produced by Alexander Korda, about six British airmen downed over the German-occupied Netherlands and the brave Dutch citizens who risk their lives to protect them. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Starring Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, and Bernard Miles. Michael Korda is a bestselling author and the Editor in Chief Emeritus of Simon and Shuster. Over nearly five decades his authors have included presidents Carter, Reagan, and Nixon, Charles De Gaulle, the Duchess of York, Cher, Kirk Douglas, Larry King, David McCullough, Tennessee Williams, and Laurence Olivier. His own books include the bestselling novels Queenie and The Fortune, as well as the nonfiction books Charmed Lives, Ike: An American Hero, and With Wings Like Eagles.

From Here to Eternity
Friday, December 7, 2012 7 pm
Ian W. Toll and Ron Simon team up on the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor to discuss the timeless tale of the soldiers of "Company G," stationed on Oahu in the days leading up to the attack. Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, and Frank Sinatra. Ian W. Toll is the author of Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942. His previous book, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, was selected for the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, the William E. Colby Award, and New York Times "Editor's Choice" list. Prior to his writing, Mr. Toll had been a Wall Street analyst, a Federal Reserve financial analyst, and a political aide and speechwriter. Ron Simon has been a curator at The Paley Center for Media since the early 1980s. He is also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, New York University, and Hunter College, where he teaches courses on the history of media. He is a member of the editorial board of Television Quarterly and former chair of the Peabody Awards jury.

Twelve O'Clock High
Friday, December 14, 2012 7 pm
Acclaimed historian Gordon S. Wood introduces one of his favorite films from his youth, in which Gregory Peck stars as a bomber pilot in a unit that carried out daylight raids over Germany and occupied France. Directed by Henry King. Starring Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, and Dean Jagger. Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor Emeritus at Brown University and one of the nation's most distinguished historians. He is the author of many works, including The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, which won the Bancroft Prize, and The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize. In 2011 he was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama and the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Award from the Society of American Historians.

It's a Wonderful Life
Friday, December 28, 2012 7 pm
Celebrate the holidays with one of America's most enduring, classic holiday films. Jimmy Stewart stars as George Bailey, a man who finds love and meaning in his life on Christmas Eve. Directed by Frank Capra. Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Henry Travers, and Lionel Barrymore.

The Search
Friday, January 11, 2013 7 pm
Actress Lee Grant is joined by Susan Lacy to discuss Montgomery Clift and his groundbreaking and profoundly moving portrayal of a U.S. Army engineer in postwar Europe, as he forms a bond with a young boy who was torn away from his mother during World War II. Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Starring Montgomery Clift, Jarmila Novotna, Aline MacMahon, and Ivan Jandl. Lee Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway actress when still in her teens, winning the Critics Circle Award for her performance as the shoplifter in Detective Story. She recreated this portrayal on film, earning the Cannes Film Festival award as Best Actress and her first of four Academy Award nominations. Her stunning film and television career has included an Emmy Award for Peyton Place and an Academy Award for Shampoo. Susan Lacy is the creator and executive producer of American Masters, Thirteen/WNET's award-winning biography series, celebrating arts and culture. Created and launched in 1986, the series has produced an exceptional library of 180 titles, accruing widespread acclaim, including 50 Emmy nominations and 23 awards, an Oscar, three Grammys, and 12 Peabody Awards.

On the Town
Friday, January 18, 2013 7 pm
Director Stanley Donen discusses his classic musical, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra as sailors enjoying 24 hours of shore leave in New York City before facing an uncertain future at sea. Directed and co-choreographed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. Starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller. Stanley Donen is a legendary Hollywood director and choreographer, best known for his work in musicals, especially with Gene Kelly. His credits as director and co-director include the classics On the Town, Funny Face, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, and Singin' in the Rain.

I Was a Male War Bride
Friday, January 25, 2013 7 pm
New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik presents one of his favorite films, a zany comedy set in postwar Germany about a French officer who soon discovers that moving to America with his new wife won't be as simple as they thought. Directed by Howard Hawks. Starring Cary Grant, Ann Sheridan and Marion Marshall. Adam Gopnik has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction and humor pieces, book reviews, profiles, reporting pieces, and more than a hundred stories for "The Talk of the Town" and "Comment." His books, ranging from essay collections about Paris and food to children's novels, include Paris to the Moon; Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life; and The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food. Mr. Gopnik has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism three times and also the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.

Casablanca
Friday, February 1, 2013 7 pm
Author Kati Marton and New Yorker film critic David Denby team up to present one of the landmarks of American cinema: Casablanca, a romantic and political drama amid the dread of World War II. Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, and Conrad Veidt. Kati Marton has combined a career as a reporter and writer with human rights advocacy. She has published eight books and contributed as a reporter to ABC News, Public Broadcasting Services, National Public Radio, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Times of London, and The Washington Post. Her most recent books are Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America and Paris: A Love Story. David Denby has been a staff writer and film critic at The New Yorker since 1998. Before joining the magazine, he was the film critic for New York Magazine for twenty years. His writing has also appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books, and The New Republic and he is a recipient of the National Magazine Award.

The Third Man
Friday, February 8, 2013 7 pm
Kati Marton and David Denby return to discuss this classic film noir masterpiece set in postwar Vienna. Directed by Carol Reed. Starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Kati Marton has combined a career as a reporter and writer with human rights advocacy. She has published eight books and contributed as a reporter to ABC News, Public Broadcasting Services, National Public Radio, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Times of London, and The Washington Post. Her most recent books are Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America and Paris: A Love Story. David Denby has been a staff writer and film critic at The New Yorker since 1998. Before joining the magazine, he was the film critic for New York Magazine for twenty years. His writing has also appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books, and The New Republic and he is a recipient of the National Magazine Award.

About the New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society, one of America's pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research and presenting history and art exhibitions and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, the New-York Historical Society has a mission to explore the richly layered history of New York City and State and the country, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.

The New-York Historical Society is recognized for engaging the public with deeply researched and far-ranging exhibitions, such as Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America; Slavery in New York; Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School at the New-York Historical Society; Grant and Lee in War and Peace; Lincoln and New York; The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society; Nueva York; and Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn. Supporting these exhibitions and related education programs is one of the world's greatest collections of historical artifacts, works of American art and other materials documenting the history of the United States and New York.