Susan Stamberg

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Nationally renowned broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg is special correspondent for NPR.

Stamberg is the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program, and has won every major award in broadcasting. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame. An NPR "founding mother," Stamberg has been on staff since the network began in 1971.

Beginning in 1972, Stamberg served as co-host of NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered for 14 years. She then hosted Weekend Edition Sunday, and now serves as guest host of NPR's Morning Edition and Weekend Edition Saturday, in addition to reporting on cultural issues for Morning Edition.

One of the most popular broadcasters in public radio, Stamberg is well known for her conversational style, intelligence, and knack for finding an interesting story. Her interviewing has been called "fresh," "friendly, down-to-earth," and (by novelist E.L. Doctorow) "the closest thing to an enlightened humanist on the radio." Her thousands of interviews include conversations with Laura Bush, Billy Crystal, Rosa Parks, Dave Brubeck, and Luciano Pavarotti.

Prior to joining NPR, she served as producer, program director, and general manager of NPR Member Station WAMU-FM/Washington, DC. Stamberg is the author of two books, and co-editor of a third. Talk: NPR's Susan Stamberg Considers All Things, chronicles her two decades with NPR. Her first book, Every Night at Five: Susan Stamberg's All Things Considered Book, was published in 1982 by Pantheon. Stamberg also co-edited The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton. That collection grew out of a series of stories Stamberg commissioned for Weekend Edition Sunday.

In addition to her Hall of Fame inductions, other recognitions include the Armstrong and duPont Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ohio State University's Golden Anniversary Director's Award, and the Distinguished Broadcaster Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.

A native of New York City, Stamberg earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, and has been awarded numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. She is a Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University, and has served on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Foundation and the National Arts Journalism Program based at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Stamberg has hosted a number of series on PBS, moderated three Fred Rogers television specials for adults, served as commentator, guest or co-host on various commercial TV programs, and appeared as a narrator in performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her voice appeared on Broadway in the Wendy Wasserstein play An American Daughter.

Friedkin, Who Pushed Film Forward, Looks Back

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Credit / HarperCollins Publishers

Credit Pat York / HarperCollins

Director William Friedkin is best known for the classic films The Exorcist and The French Connection. His new memoir is The Friedkin Connection.

Credit / Courtesy William Friedkin/Harper

The French Connection won five Oscars at the 1972 Academy Awards, including best picture. From left are Phil D'Antoni, Gene Hackman, Jane Fonda and William Friedkin.

Credit Warner Brothers/Getty Images

Friedkin gives direction to 12-year-old actress Linda Blair, who played the possessed Regan MacNeil, on the set of The Exorcist.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Tue April 23, 2013 1:08 pm

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As a kid in Chicago, director William Friedkin liked to frighten little girls with scary stories. When he grew up, he scared the rest of us with a little girl — Regan MacNeil, who is possessed by the devil in his horror classic The Exorcist.

And in The French Connection, he put knots in our stomachs with one of the great movie chases in American cinema.

5:11 am

Sat April 13, 2013

In NPR's New Building, Everything Will Be Better ... Again

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NPR is heading to its fourth home, at 1111 North Capitol St. in Washington, D.C.

Credit Paula Darte for NPR

Daniel Schorr, veteran journalist, died in 2010.

Credit NPR

Susan Stamberg and Bob Edwards in 1978, at the M Street building.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Sat April 13, 2013 10:11 am

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Susan Stamberg Hosts 'All Things Considered' On July 10, 1972
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Barbara Hoctor And Bob Edwards On 'Morning Edition,' Dec. 31, 1979
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Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr On 'Weekend Edition,' Feb. 19, 1994
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Susan Stamberg's Voice In NPR's Elevators At 1111 North Capitol
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'All Things Considered' Story On The Move From M Street In 1994

Starting Saturday, Weekend Edition is broadcasting under the fourth roof that's sheltered National Public Radio. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg has worked in all of the locations since NPR went on the air in 1971, and once again she shepherds us to our new home.

3:21 am

Thu April 11, 2013

Painting 'Renoir' In Finely Detailed Strokes

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Credit Samuel Goldwyn Films

In director Gilles Bourdos' biopic Renoir, Christa Theret plays Andree Heuschling, who served as a muse for both the aging Impressionist master and his young filmmaker son.

Credit RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY

While art critics sometimes call Renoir's late period overly emotional, works like Blonde a la rose, shown here, were an inspiration to film director Gilles Bourdos. Andree Heuschling, a main character in the film, is credited as the model for this painting.

Credit Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Renoir's The Bathers (Bathing Women) also used Andree Heuschling as inspiration. Critics say the young model gave the aging artist a needed boost of inspiration during his final years.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Thu April 11, 2013 10:59 am

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4:41 am

Mon March 11, 2013

For John Baldessari, Conceptual Art Means Serious Mischief

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Credit Courtesy the artist/John Baldessari Studio

"Cutting Ribbon, Man In Wheelchair, Paintings (Version #2), 1988" shows John Baldessari's signature technique, faces covered with colorful circles. The practice had its genesis when the artist idly stuck a price sticker on the face of someone pictured in a newspaper clipping.

Credit Hedi Slimane / Courtesy the artist

In 1970, John Baldessari burned everything he had painted between 1953 and 1966. "I said ... 'I don't really need them.' So I decided I'll just destroy them." After that, Baldessari turned to photography and sculpture.

Credit Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty

"Pure Beauty," shown here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2010, is one of John Baldessari's many provocative "text paintings."

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Tue March 12, 2013 2:14 pm

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12:03 am

Fri February 22, 2013

For Publicist Marvin Levy, It's All About Eyeballs

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Spielberg's Schindler's List will mark its 20th year in 2013. Levy was in charge of the publicity campaign for the film and still has his original press kit.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Veteran publicist Marvin Levy in his office at DreamWorks Studios on the Universal lot in Los Angeles.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Fri February 22, 2013 11:14 am

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Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln has earned 12 Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director. Another Spielberg film — the multi-Oscar winning Schindler's List — will be celebrating 20 years since its release. These films have at least two important things in common: Spielberg and publicist Marvin Levy.

12:05 am

Thu February 21, 2013

For Film Set Decorators, Tiny Details Count

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Credit David Gilkey / NPR

The third floor of the Warner Brothers Prop House holds a host of antiques available for rent by set decorators working on television and films. Each of the building's four floors is as big as a football field.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

The first floor displays a range of high-end modern furniture and designer collections, plus kitchen and bath accessories (including rolling bathtubs).

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Freelance set dresser Joe Viau is returning a rented lamp to the Prop House. The fixtures department is always making adjustments to be sure everything is safe to use.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

The Prop House has a section called "White House Art." No, they're not real. But a film must secure permission from the White House to use any of this art, even if it's a copy.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Set decorator Lauri Gaffin tests out a couch for an upcoming Johnny Depp film. Assistant set decorator Florence Fellman takes a photo so the two can confer with the production designer.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Inside one of the 35 or 40 trucks that arrives daily to collect set dressings.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Warner Brothers worker Stephen Lampke moves furniture on the Prop House's second floor, which holds the "contemporary" items: sofas, coffee tables, end tables, bookcases, mostly middle-class workaday furniture.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

The football-field-sized third floor of Warner Brothers' Prop House, where they keep a host of antiques available for rent.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

The set decorating crew of an upcoming film starring Johnny Depp includes lead man Anthony Carlino (from left), assistant set decorator Florence Fellman and set decorator Lauri Gaffin.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Randall Thropp, a Paramount archivist, recoils in mock fear from the power of the AllSpark as set decorator Rosemary Brandenburg takes it from the glass case. The AllSpark was used as a prop in Transformers; it may have another life in an upcoming sequel.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Twin brothers Ildemaro (left) and Rafael Molina work as set decorators on a movie set in North Hollywood.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Karen O'Hara, along with one of her set dressers, wires white and yellow silk flowers to the canes of a dormant rosebush in a Los Angeles backyard.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Thu February 21, 2013 3:07 pm

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Picture Rick's smoky cafe in Casablanca, Lincoln's office at the White House of the 1860s, or the Mos Eisley cantina on the desert planet of Tatooine: A production designer came up with the overall look of those movie sets. But the booze on Rick's bar or the pens on Lincoln's desk — it took a set decorator and a crew to make them look authentic and believable.

4:24 am

Mon February 11, 2013

Hollywood's 'Hooray': Hardly A Happy Hymn

Credit Sony Picture Archives

Doris Day's somber 1958 version of "Hooray for Hollywood," which was included on an album of the same name, better reflects the song's creatively complicated lyrics.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Mon February 11, 2013 11:41 am

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When the Oscars are handed out later this month, the ceremony will most likely be punctuated by music that has pretty much come to stand for movies and Movieland. Ironically, the composer grew up in Detroit, and the lyricist came from Savannah, Ga. — yet together they wrote the quintessential Tinseltown anthem.

"Hooray for Hollywood" was written for the Warner Brothers film Hollywood Hotel. It was a corny little "let's-go-to-Hollywood-and become-stars" movie from 1937, with some cute dialogue.

3:28 am

Tue January 29, 2013

From Aleppo, An Artifact Of A Calmer Age

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Credit Courtesy of The Textile Museum

The silken tassel on this skull cap, woven in Aleppo around 1800, recalls a more prosperous and tranquil time in that now-beleaguered Syrian hub.

Credit Courtesy of The Textile Museum

In 1800, when the tapestry cap was made, Aleppo was a major textile center, dotted with workshops where silk was woven and crafted. This 1873 photograph shows a Muslim man and woman from the region.

Credit Ramzi Haidar / AFP/Getty Images

Aleppo, shown in March 2006, is the largest and oldest city in Syria. Now a battleground for rebels and the Syrian government, it was once a prosperous cultural hub.

Credit Courtesy of The Textile Museum

Photographs from a book published by the Ottoman Imperial Commission for the World's Fair in 1873 illustrate Syria's diverse cultures. Here, an Arab woman (left) and a Druze woman (center) stand with another woman; all are from Damascus.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Tue January 29, 2013 11:57 am

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Over the past six months, the headlines from Aleppo, Syria, have been horrifying. As the conflict between rebel forces and the government continues, the city has been overrun by tanks and artillery, and assaulted by shots, explosions and fires.

But Aleppo's present belies a much richer past. It's Syria's largest city, and one of the world's oldest continually inhabited urban areas. Over the centuries, it has served as a major crossroads for trade and commerce.

1:00 am

Wed December 12, 2012

Ravi Shankar, Who Brought Eastern Music To Western Legends, Dies

Credit David Redfern / Redferns

Ravi Shankar circa 1960 in the U.K.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Wed December 12, 2012 8:40 am

3:23 am

Mon December 10, 2012

Hopper's Lonely Figures Find Some Friends In Paris

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Credit The Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of American Art Collection / Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Edward Hopper is well-known in the U.S. for paintings such as Nighthawks (1942) — pensive, lonely portraits of people sitting together yet alone. He was less well-known in France, but an exhibit of his work at the Grand Palais has drawn impressive crowds.

Credit Columbus Museum of Art/Howald Fund

Edward and Josephine Hopper met as young students in art school in New York and married in 1924. Josephine was his only female model, and posed for his 1952 work, Morning Sun.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Mon December 10, 2012 11:07 am

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Earlier this summer, I looked for Edward Hopper's Morning Sun at its home in the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio. In the painting, a woman sits on a bed with her knees up, gazing out a window. She's bare, but for a short pink slip. The iconic Hopper is a must-see, but on the day I visited, it was on loan to an exhibition in Madrid.

5:00 am

Thu November 29, 2012

Leslie Caron: Dancing From WWII Paris To Hollywood

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Credit Baron/Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Leslie Caron starred in a 1953 production of La Belle au Bois Dormant, or Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Roland Petit. Caron trained with the Conservatoire de Paris before joining Petit's company, Les Ballets des Champs-Elysées.

Credit Lionel Bonaventure / AFP/Getty Images

Leslie Caron, shown here in her Paris apartment in 2010, has appeared in more than 40 films.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Thu November 29, 2012 9:40 am

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In the 1950s, the moviegoing world fell in love with a young French ballerina and actress named Leslie Caron. She brightened the silver screen in musical films like 1958's Gigi, where she played a young courtesan-in-training who befriends a rich, handsome suitor in 1900s Paris.

3:28 am

Tue September 25, 2012

Print-Inspired Art: All The News That's Fit To Paint

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Credit Gerard Vuilleumier / The Alfredo Ramos Martinez Research Project, Reproduced by Permission

Alfredo Ramos Martinez painted Head of a Nun, tempera on newspaper, in 1934.

Credit James Franklin / The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery

Felix Gonzalez-Torres' untitled 1991 work consists of a stack of papers, each with a tiny excerpt from The New York Times printed in the center. Visitors are invited to take a piece of paper from the work home with them.

Credit 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS)

In his 1912 collage Guitar, Sheet Music, and Glass, Pablo Picasso included a fragment of the French paper Le Journal.

Credit National Gallery of Art

Marine Hugonnier's 2005 work, Art for Modern Architecture (Homage to Ellsworth Kelly), makes a collage of a week's worth of front pages and cutouts from an art book.

Credit Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York, Copyright Jim Hodges

In The Good News, Jim Hodges covers the Aug. 6, 2008, edition of a newspaper published in Amman, Jordan, in 24-carat gold.

Credit Courtesy of National Gallery of Art

In his 1970 work Untitled (Diver), Paul Thek uses acrylic on newspaper. The newspaper buckles under the paint, making waves beneath the diver.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Tue September 25, 2012 12:00 pm

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The print newspaper industry may be struggling, but newsprint is alive and well on the walls of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The show is called "Shock of the News" — and it examines a century's worth of interaction between artists and the journals of their day.

3:25 am

Mon August 20, 2012

Hopper's Pensive Lady In Pink Travels The World

Credit Columbus Museum of Art/Howald Fund

Edward Hopper's wife, Josephine N. Hopper, served as his model for 1952's Morning Sun.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 1:50 pm

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It's one of the ultimate images of summer: a woman in a short, pink slip sits on a bed, her knees pulled up to her chest, gazing out a window. Her hair is tucked back into a bun. Her bare arms rest lightly on her bare legs.

Edward Hopper painted her in 1952 for a work called Morning Sun. The picture has been widely reproduced for decades. But on a recent visit to its home at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio, it was nowhere to be found.

5:53 am

Sat August 4, 2012

India's Blackout A Reminder Of How Far We've Come

Credit Channi Anand / AP

A girl prepares a meal by candlelight in Jammu, India, during the massive blackout last week.

By Susan Stamberg

Originally published on Sun August 5, 2012 11:43 am

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This week, the world's largest democracy experienced the world's largest power outage. Nearly 700 million — that's more than half a billion — Indians were said to have been without power Tuesday. No air conditioning. No traffic lights. No metro system.

Most of the power is back now, but the outage had resonance for me from the long-ago years when I lived in New Delhi and experienced power failures almost as regularly as I did steaming cups of dark, sweet Indian tea.