decadence was manufactured by the writers and artists of the time in order to fit into the mold of bohemia there real decadence in the sense that we see it as a deteriorating society, and so forth? from our viewpoint today, no, it was a very creative period of time-- of manufactured decadence. (narrator) this exuberant, anarchic world was lautrec's home, workplace and subject of his greatest work-- an oasis of pleasure in a troubled country. france, around 1890, was a very tense society. the republic planned to make big reforms, but was slow in doing so. so the broad mass of the middle classes were holding change back, and the working classes were feeling restless. lautrec, as an aristocrat, was rather outside this tension, but that gave him the opportunity, the position, to look at what was going on and observe it in his art. (narrator) he painted montmartre's types-- the working class women eager to pose for cash. and he began to frequent and paint its public spaces and entertainments-- including its circuses. a staple of popular entertainment in the 19th century, the circus was much lov

this small, limping photographic business woman had hooked the sexiest man in san francisco's bohemia. during this marriage, lange entirely subordinated herself to may northward but in patterns unusual or not so unusual of women married to artist, she was not only the exclusive housekeeper and parent, she put up with his womanizing and long an sense on painting trips but was often the main breadwinner in the family. at one point lange was forced out of the studio and on to the streets in the sense that her clientele shrank. she was chasing in the confines of her studio and her marriage and the two steamed fuse in her mind. she would take her cameras into the streets. she was accustomed to being hired. she was gratified when she found often people on the street did not notice her. later she would understand that she had a message for makeling them not -- a method for making them not notice her. she said about her early work in the streets, sometimes you have an inner sense that you have -- that you are not taking anything away from anyone, their privacy, their dignity, or their wholene

he was a czech-american from bohemia.a was an ardent supporter of czechoslovakia and was the american representative of tomas masaryk, who would become the first president of czechoslovakia. under orders to help the allies out, voska formed an 84 person intelligence organization headquartered in new york, which penetrated german operations here in the u.s. when voska's organization gathered information on the espionage, sabotage, it would pass to the american intelligence, first to an attache, later to organization known as what we know as mi-6. also to the providence, rhode island journal. [laughter] over time, the organization passed things on to the justice department bureau investigation and some of the newspapers as well. the organization sources were primarily ethnic czechoslovakian's and people who would become as yugoslavs. the people who held official positions in the empire. his group had four different penetrations into the office of the austrian consulate general in new york. his work also required extensive c

little bohemia was next to a german enclave, next to an italian enclave and the painted screen was just another way of saying, this is my home and i am proud. >> this is a beautiful house by the way. notice sort of the redstone here. >> baltimore native elaine eff is the expert on painted screens. she founded the painted screen society in 1985, wrote a book and produced a documentary on the little known folk tradition. >> don't you think it is more attractive than an old ugly black screen, a dark screen? >> i think it is an art that you don't see anywhere else and when you have somet lhingike tyohat u are really proud of it. which i feel proud. >> according to eff the mesh art started in 1913 with a grocer from former czechoslovakia named william octavec. >> he would put his produce out on the street corner, and needless to say in a baltimore summer it perish fast. and so he said how am i going to show what i sell here but not put it outdoors? so he painted a picture of the produce and the alternates he sold on his screen doors. the screens became art but with a purpose. while letting a