Curated playlist
Writers from Brooklyn
- Woody AllenWoody Allen failed a film production course at New York University, then went on to direct Annie Hall.
- Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
- Adam SandlerAdam Sandler once made a Western comedy that critics almost universally panned. On the 6th of January 2016, Netflix announced that the film, The Ridiculous 6, had been watched more times in thirty days than any other movie in the service's…
- Mel BrooksMel Brooks was 14 years old when he climbed onto a diving board at the Butler Lodge, a second-rate hotel in the Borscht Belt. He worked there as a pool-side tummler, an entertainer hired to keep the guests amused. On this day he wore a…
- Aaron CoplandComposer Aaron Copland planned one year of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger but stayed three.
- Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
- Carl SaganCarl Sagan once asked a librarian for a book on stars and got one about movie stars.
- Joseph HellerJoseph Heller's novel Catch-22 was first called Catch-18. It was renamed to avoid confusion with Mila 18.
- Eddie MurphyEddie Murphy opened Saturday Night Live on the 11th of December 1982 with a boast: "Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show!" The host booked for that Christmas episode, Nick Nolte, had become too ill to appear. Murphy stepped in.…
- Mike TysonBy age 13, Mike Tyson had been arrested 38 times. At 20 he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever.
- Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov coined the word "robotics" in a 1941 story, thinking it was just a natural term.
- Stanley WolpertStanley Wolpert quit engineering after landing in Bombay two weeks after Gandhi was shot.
- Vince LombardiVince Lombardi, the football coach, once dreamed of becoming a priest. He attended Mass every day of his adult life.