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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
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In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Bullets Over Broadway | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by | Robert Greenhut |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Carlo DiPalma |
| Edited by | Susan E. Morse |
Production company | Sweetland Films |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[1] |
| Box office | $37.5 million[2][3] |
Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 American black comedy crime film directed by Woody Allen, written by Allen and Douglas McGrath, and starring an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly. Set in 1920s New York City, the film centers on a struggling playwright who is urged to cast the talentless girlfriend of a notorious mobster in his newest play in order to get it produced.
Bullets Over Broadway premiered in Venice on September 4, 1994 and was released by Miramax Films on October 14, 1994 in the United States. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Allen for Best Director, Allen and McGrath for Best Original Screenplay, Palminteri for Best Supporting Actor, and both Tilly and Wiest for Best Supporting Actress, with Wiest winning for her performance, the second time Allen directed her to an Academy Award. The film is considered one of Allen's best works.
In 1928, David Shayne is an idealistic young playwright newly arrived on Broadway from Pittsburgh. Desperate to gain financing for his play, God of Our Fathers, he is persuaded by producer Julian Marx to cast actress Olive Neal, the girlfriend of gangster Nick Valenti, in a minor role.
Compensating for his frustration with the demanding and talentless Olive, David is thrilled to cast alcoholic faded star Helen Sinclair in the lead role, along with the dieting British thespian Warner Purcell. Rehearsals are soon thrown into chaos when Olive shows up escorted by Cheech, a mob henchman, who insists on watching rehearsals.
Eventually Cheech starts giving notes on the script to David, who is initially angered by the intrusion but quickly realizes the ideas are excellent. Cheech, who barely learned to read before burning down his school, has a natural talent for playwriting, but is not interested in taking any credit. The cast members herald the revised script as genius, disparaging his initial draft as dull and pompous.
Buoyed by their imminent success, David and the actors succumb to their vices. His partner, Ellen, catches him cheating on her with Helen. Warner indulges in overeating and begins an affair with Olive, which he attempts to break off when Cheech threatens his life. Growing increasingly frustrated with Olive's poor acting, Cheech tries to have her fired from the production. After David reminds him he cannot get rid of Olive, Cheech murders her and dumps her body in a river.
Olive's murder is widely assumed to be part of an inter-gang conflict, but David immediately senses the truth and argues with Cheech. Regretting his mistakes, David is dismayed to learn that Ellen is leaving him for his hedonistic Marxist friend Sheldon Flender.
On opening night, Valenti accuses Cheech of Olive's murder, which he denies. Henchmen Rocco and Aldo chase Cheech backstage while the play is being performed, shooting him. With his dying words, Cheech gives David a new final line for the play. The play is a critical and commercial success, but David skips the after-party to confront Flender. He confesses his lack of talent and proposes marriage to Ellen, who accepts his newfound desire to leave high society and move back to Pittsburgh.
The film's locales include the duplex co-op on the 22nd floor of 5 Tudor City Place in Manhattan.[5]
The film's title may have been an homage to a lengthy sketch of the same title from the 1950s television show Caesar's Hour; one of Allen's first jobs in television was writing for Sid Caesar specials after the initial run of the show.[6]
The film featured the last screen appearance of Benay Venuta. Allen cast her in a cameo role as a well-wishing wealthy theatre patron.[7] She died of lung cancer in September 1995.
Bullets Over Broadway received a positive response from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A gleefully entertaining backstage comedy, Bullets Over Broadway features some of Woody Allen's sharpest, most inspired late-period writing and direction."[8]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times described the film as "a bright, energetic, sometimes side-splitting comedy with vital matters on its mind, precisely the kind of sharp-edged farce [Allen] has always done best."[9] Todd McCarthy of Variety similarly called it "a backstage comedy bolstered by healthy shots of prohibition gangster melodrama and romantic entanglements" and wrote, "In its mixing of showbiz and gangsters, this is a nice companion piece to Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, and about as amusing."[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised, "Bullets Over Broadway shares a kinship with a more serious film by Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors, in which a man committed murder and was able, somehow, to almost justify it. Now here is the comic side of the same coin. The movie is very funny and, in the way it follows its logic wherever it leads, surprisingly tough."[11]
The film grossed $13.4 million in the United States and Canada and $24.1 million internationally for a worldwide total of $37.5 million.[2][3]
Allen adapted the film as a stage jukebox musical, titled Bullets Over Broadway the Musical. The musical is directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, produced by Julian Schlossberg and Allen's younger sister Letty Aronson, with a score from the American songbook using songs from the 1920s and 1930s.[47] The new musical premiered on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on April 10, 2014.[48] A staged reading was held in June 2013.[49] The cast features Zach Braff as David Shayne, Brooks Ashmanskas, Betsy Wolfe, Lenny Wolpe, and Vincent Pastore.[50] Marin Mazzie stars as Helen Sinclair,[51] and Karen Ziemba appears as Eden Brent.[52] Musical supervisor Glen Kelly has adapted and written additional lyrics for songs including "Tain't Nobody's Bus'ness", "Running Wild", "Let's Misbehave", and "I Found a New Baby".[48] The musical closed on August 24, 2014, after 156 performances and 33 previews.[53]
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 American black comedy crime film directed by Woody Allen, written by Allen and Douglas McGrath, and starring an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly. Set in 1920s New York City, the film centers on a struggling playwright who is urged to cast the talentless girlfriend of a notorious mobster in his newest play in order to get it produced. Bullets Over Broadway premiered in Venice on September 4, 1994 and was released by Miramax Films on October 14, 1994 in the United States. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Allen for Best Director, Allen and McGrath for Best Original Screenplay, Palminteri for Best Supporting Actor, and both Tilly and Wiest for Best Supporting Actress, with Wiest winning for her performance, the second time Allen directed her to an Academy Award. The film is considered one of Allen's best works.
Bullets Over Broadway the Musical is a jukebox musical written by Woody Allen, based on his and Douglas McGrath's 1994 film Bullets Over Broadway about a young playwright whose first Broadway play is financed by a gangster. The score consists of jazz and popular standards of the years between World War I and about 1930 by various songwriters. It received its premiere on Broadway, in 2014, at the St. James Theatre, and closed on August 24, 2014, after over a hundred performances.
Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964) is an American actress. She is known for her roles on stage and screen and has received various accolades including two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. Parker made her film debut in Signs of Life (1989) and came to prominence for film roles in Grand Canyon (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Client (1994), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), A Place for Annie (1994), Boys on the Side (1995), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), and The Maker (1997). Her later film appearances included roles in The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Red (2010), R.I.P.D. (2013), and Red 2 (2013). On television, she portrayed Harper Pitt in the acclaimed HBO television miniseries Angels in America (2003) for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. She was Emmy-nominated for her roles as Amy Gardner in the NBC series The West Wing (2001–2006), Nancy Botwin in the Showtime series Weeds (2005–2012), and Zenia in the television film The Robber Bride (2007). She took a recurring role in the NBC series The Blacklist (2014) and played Roma Guy in the miniseries When We Rise (2017). On stage, Parker has earned two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for her roles in David Auburn's Proof (2001) and Adam Rapp's The Sound Inside (2020). She was Tony-nominated for her roles in Prelude to a Kiss (1990), Reckless (2005), and How I Learned to Drive (2022). As a writer, Parker has contributed articles to Esquire magazine since 2007. She published her memoir, Dear Mr. You, in 2015.
Robert Reiner (; March 6, 1947 – December 14, 2025) was an American filmmaker, actor, and political activist. He directed a series of acclaimed studio films in a career that spanned comedy, drama, romance, and documentary. Reiner received numerous accolades, including winning three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Hugo Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and nine Golden Globe Awards. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999 and received the Chaplin Gala Tribute at the Film at Lincoln Center in 2014. Three of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry. Reiner was born in New York City to Estelle and Carl Reiner, who were themselves actors. Reiner began his career as an actor before transitioning to filmmaking. He rose to prominence with his portrayal of Michael "Meathead" Stivic in the 1970s American sitcom All in the Family (1971–1979), a role that earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor. He directed a string of critically acclaimed films, starting with the heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984), followed by the romantic road comedy The Sure Thing (1985), the coming-of age drama Stand by Me (1986), the adventure romance The Princess Bride (1987), the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989), the psychological thriller Misery (1990), the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the political romance The American President (1995). He acted in films such as Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The First Wives Club (1996), Primary Colors (1998), EDtv (1999), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). He also co-founded the production company Castle Rock Entertainment in 1987. Reiner was also a progressive political activist who advocated for causes such as LGBTQ rights, early childhood education, and environmental protection, and who campaigned for a variety of Democratic candidates. He chaired the 1998 campaign to pass California's First 5 childhood education initiative, and in 2008 he and his wife, Michele, co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which initiated the court challenge against California's same-sex marriage ban. On December 14, 2025, Reiner and his wife were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home. Their son Nick Reiner has been indicted with two counts of first-degree murder, and the case is ongoing.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
