Music Hall: Cincinnati Finds Its Voice

For 16 months the doors of Music Hall are closed as an historic renovation process ensues. CET is documenting this complex undertaking with compelling interviews and stunning visuals that provide the audience a seat at the table where decisions are made and progress is monitored. It all leads to the much-anticipated grand re-opening of Music Hall on October 6.

James Brown was the jewel in the crown, but the throne of Cincinnati’s King Records always belonged to its irascible founder, Syd Nathan. This is the 70th anniversary of the legendary record label and studio. It closed shop nearly 40 years ago, in a now long-neglected warehouse on the neighborhood border of Evanston and Walnut Hills, but its impact still reverberates across today’s music.

The lives of Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957), on the screen and behind the curtain. The joy and the sadness, the success and the failure. The story of one of the best comic duos of all time: a lesson on how to make people laugh.

Highlights include Dan Ransohoff's "Cincinnati Algorithm," the Great Flood of 1937, the Taft political dynasty, a profile of Cincinnati Reds player Ival Goodman, the 1946 Cincinnati Bearcats football team, the last days and rebirth of the Albee Theater, controversy surrounding the Cincinnati bicentennial mascot "Cincinnatus," the walking metal men of Crosley Field fame, saving cash with Kash D. Amburgy, and a shopping trip through Swallen's.

An excellent comprehensive look at all the music that came out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati "Rock Legends" "James Brown" "King Records" "Pure Prairie League" "Lemon Pipers" "Syd Nathan" WEBN "Bootsy Collins" "Lonnie Mack" "The Who concert 1979" "Rick Derringer"

Midsummer Rock is a television program based on the Cincinnati Pop Festival. The 90-minute TV version featured Alice Cooper, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, The Stooges, and Traffic.

The 43-minute documentary tells the story of Union Terminal from its rise as a railroad station, fall as a shopping mall and vacant "white elephant" to its reopening as the Cincinnati Museum Center and $224 million restoration.

Forty years later, rock legends Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey sat down for first-of-a-kind, exclusive interviews with WCPO Anchor Tanya O’Rourke. Their candid revelations about the horrific night of Dec. 3, 1979 in Cincinnati form the basis for O'Rourke's historical documentary, "The Who: The Night That Changed Rock."

Tenor saxophonist Jimmy McGary was a major presence in the Cincinnati music scene from the 1950s until his death in the early ’90s. With music rooted in Bebop with a progressive slant, the Jazz legend was a session player for King Records and released his first album as a bandleader — The First Time (with a quartet that included pianist Pat Kelly) — in 1979. McGary’s spirit and legacy have lived on well after his passing and well beyond Cincinnati, as evidenced in this new documentary film.

The Wonder Commission is a new music commission of The Well, composed by Dr. Brian Raphael Nabors and performed by the Antigone Music Collective. Inspiration for the new music emerges from Nabors' conversation with writer, physicist, and professor at MIT, Alan Lightman. The music also integrates the voices of youth from UpSpring's Summer 360 camp for unhoused youth and their questions about science, wonder, and hope.

Singer, dancer, and actress, Liza, daughter of Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland, with whom she had a close relationship, made a name for herself on Broadway and in Hollywood with her unique voice and flamboyant style. A sensitive portrait of the unforgettable Sally Bowles from Cabaret.

A look back at Charlie Chaplin's early life and career, from his rough childhood and music hall success in England to his early Hollywood days and the development of his enormously popular character, the Little Tramp, also called Charlot.

A Cincinnati public school fights to break the cycle of poverty in its Urban Appalachian neighborhood, where senior Raven Gribbins aims to become the first in her troubled family to graduate and go to college. When Principal Craig Hockenberry's job is threatened, it becomes clear it's a make-or-break year for both of them.

How could this privileged man of overwhelming accomplishment and talent be suicidal? Journey through the 84 years of the 20th century that are Waite's World with his friends, coworkers, and family for a unprecedented inside look at an extraordinary talent. Heartfelt memories of Waite Hoyt who was a Major League pitcher, memeber of the '27 Yankees, teammate and friend to Babe Ruth, a Cincinnati Reds' broadcasting legend and a storytelling racconteur.

"It's very strange, on stage I always feel very good, but during the two hours before, there is fear, uneasiness, a great sadness" declared Yves Montand to the press in 1980. To commemorate the 100 years of his birth, this portrait rich in archives and songs unfolds the career of a music-hall artist with unforgettable charisma.