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Babe Ruth at Sing Sing

"The Babe swung, the horsehide whistled out through the air and escaped triumphant...He was mightier than even those misguided souls dreamed he could be."

--Clifford Bloodgood, reporting in Baseball Magazine, September 1929

This hour-long documentary recounts the day when Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees travelled to Sing Sing prison to play an exhibition game against some of America's most dangerous criminals. The film weaves back and forth between the careers of Babe Ruth, the major sports figure of his day, and Lewis Lawes, who as warden of Sing Sing during the 1920's, was known as "America's Warden."

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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

"In the dark shadow of the grove, at the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black and towering"

--from 'The Legend of

Sleepy Hollow.'

This new half-hour film adaptation of 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' features a storyteller using author Washington Irving's original language from the beloved 1820 tale. With quaint charm, gentle humor, and scary moments, this new version captures the spirit of what has been called 'The Great American Ghost Story.'

Hudson River Brick Makers

"Everything depended on the brick yards...the food you purchased, the clothing you wore..."

--Tom Sullivan,

Grandson of Brick Worker

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Hudson River Valley was the undisputed world capital of brick making. At its height, more than 130 brick yards teemed with workers from Haverstraw to Albany. The growth of the brick-yards coincided with the explosive growth of building in New York City.

This 30-minute film demonstrates how bricks, so ubiquitous in New York City that they go unnoticed, are a prism through which we can view larger issues including immigration, industrial innovation, labor relations and urban planning. The last Hudson River Brick Yard closed in 2002, ending three and a half centuries of brick making on the Hudson.

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Washington Irving: American Dreams

"What fairy castles I have built...and inhabited."

--Washington Irving

Washington Irving was the first American to make a living as a professional writer. Although he wrote essays, biographies, articles and satire, his two sketches "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" continue to cast a spell on readers today.

This new documentary traces Irving's life from his birth in New York City in 1783 to his death at Sunnyside in 1859. Viewers come to learn why Irving has been called "America's First Fantasist" and "The Father of the American Short Story."

2010 - present

The Enslaved Africans' Rain Garden

"The story of the enslaved Africans in New York is a story that begs to be told."

--Vinnie Bagwell

Sculptor

A proposed public art project entitled "The Enslaved Africans' Rain Garden" aims to honor the legacy of enslaved people who contributed to the founding of New York and the United States. In this film we discuss the project and examine the history of slavery in New York from the founding of New Amsterdam in the 1600's through 1840, when slavery was finally phased out in New York State.

A Nautical Irish Evening

"These songs are social history, embedded in them are the true feelings of ordinary people at that time."

--Dan Milner

Musician and Music Historian

Each September, Dunne's Pub in White Plains, NY hosts A Nautical Irish Evening. Recently, the musicians paid tribute to Commodore John Barry, an Irish-born American Revolutionary War hero.

The evening also provided an opportunity for Dan Milner, a presenter at the South Street Seaport Museum, to perform songs from his recent Smithsonian Folkways CD, "Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea."

(Narrated by Malachy McCourt)

Babe Ruth at Sing Sing

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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﻿Hudson River Brick Makers

Washington Irving: American Dreams

The Enslaved Africans' Rain Garden

Hudson River Brick Makers