Midnight Revolution

The day an X-rated walk on the dark side called “Midnight Cowboy” won the Oscar for best picture, a new generation came to power in Hollywood. Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, and others remember how they helped director John Schlesinger rewrite the rules on a project that was every bit as risky as its subject matter.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 1, 2000
Length: 36 minutes (9,204 words)

The Professor of War

At 57, General David Petraeus has revolutionized the way America fights its wars, starting with the surge in Iraq and continuing into his current command, with responsibility for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Yemen.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: May 1, 2010
Length: 45 minutes (11,270 words)

Sorority on E. 63rd St.

For a small-town girl with a dream, from the Roaring 20s through the 1960s, there was no address more glamorous than New York’s “women only” Barbizon Hotel. It would shelter a parade of yet-to-be-discovered damsels—Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Candice Bergen, Sylvia Plath, Ali MacGraw, and many more.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 1, 2010
Length: 18 minutes (4,715 words)

Lost Exile

The unlikely life and sudden death of The Exile, Russia’s angriest newspaper.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 23, 2010
Length: 35 minutes (8,976 words)

Big Trouble at 11:35

Even before CBS 48 Hours Mystery producer Joe Halderman allegedly caught David Letterman kissing his girlfriend, Late Show staffer Stephanie Birkitt, the cash-strapped veteran newsman and the multi-millionaire entertainment star were on a collision course.

Author: Mark Seal
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 1, 2010
Length: 23 minutes (5,907 words)

Betting on the Blind Side

Excerpt from “The Big Short”: Michael Burry always saw the world differently—due, he believed, to the childhood loss of one eye. So when the 32-year-old investor spotted the huge bubble in the subprime-mortgage bond market, in 2004, then created a way to bet against it, he wasn’t surprised that no one understood what he was doing.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Apr 1, 2010
Length: 45 minutes (11,492 words)

Brutal Attraction: The Making of Raging Bull

Raging Bull began as Robert De Niro’s obsession, but the only man he believed could film it, Martin Scorsese, wasn’t interested—until the director’s near-fatal collapse gave him a visceral connection with the story of troubled boxing champion Jake La Motta.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Mar 1, 2010
Length: 27 minutes (6,816 words)

Roll Over, Charles Darwin!

On the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s masterwork, the author visits Kentucky’s Creation Museum, which has been battling science and reason since 2007.

Author: A.A. Gill
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 1, 2010
Length: 9 minutes (2,334 words)

Songs in the Key of Lacerating

Sparks flew in Greenwich Village, 1969, when Loudon Wainwright III, the sardonic bard of Westchester County, met Kate McGarrigle, a sublime singer-songwriter from Quebec.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: May 22, 2007
Length: 7 minutes (1,892 words)

Madness in Morocco: The Road to Ishtar

It was a high-stakes gamble, sending three of Hollywood’s biggest, most uncompromising talents—Warren Beatty, Elaine May, and Dustin Hoffman—to make a movie in the middle of the Sahara.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 1, 2010
Length: 34 minutes (8,541 words)