The Seven Lively Arts

The Seven Lively Arts was a short-lived Sunday afternoon hour-long television anthology series produced in 1957 by CBS television and executive producer John Houseman. It was hosted by New York Herald Tribune critic John Crosby. The title was taken from the influential book of same name written by the cultural critic Gilbert Seldes, in which he argued that the low arts (comics, vaudeville) deserved as much critical attention as the high arts (opera, literature).

The eleven programs produced were—not in order:

• 'The Revivalists' -- a profile of contemporary evangelism
• 'Hollywood around the World' -- a profile of overseas film productions directed by Mel Ferrer
• 'The Blast in Centralia #5' -- about a 1947 mine blast in Centralia, Illinois
• 'Here is New York' -- an essay about the city written by E.B. White and narrated by E.G. Marshall.
• 'A Few Folks And Their Songs' -- a program on folk music, hosted by Theodore Bikel
• 'The Nutcracker' -- the first television production of Tchaikovsky's ballet (heavily abridged)
• 'The World of Nick Adams' -- an adaptation combining five early Ernest Hemingway stories
• 'Profile of a Composer' -- a profile of American composer and choralist Norman Dello Joio
• 'Gold Rush' -- a ballet choreographed by Agnes de Mille
• 'The Sound of Jazz' -- The top jazz musicians of the day performing live.
• 'The Changing Ways of Love' -- the opening program, starring Piper Laurie and Jason Robards, written by S.J. Perelman

See also

Keith Botsford, "The 'Seven Lively Arts': A Case-Study in Highbrow Television" in the Texas Quarterly, Winter 1959, V. II, no. 4. (The author was an assistant producer on the show and, more specifically, worked with S.J. Perelman on the opening show, 'The Changing Ways of Love'.)