“Every audience was his,” Kris Kristofferson said, but no one knew Steve Goodman’s sad secret.

When the Northern groom married the Southern bride, the bond was love. And a fight for freedom.

Fresh from the Hudson River School, Frederic Church stunned America with “Niagara,” then set his vision in stone.

Students called Jaime Escalante “Kimo.” He called them his “burros.” But the key to his success was ganas — the drive to succeed. (As seen in “Stand and Deliver.”)

Despite his glowing words, Jefferson thought blacks far from equal. Then a single letter took him to task.

Strikeouts?  Politics?  Drugs?  Transcendental Meditation?  Ask the "Spaceman," still pitching in his late 60s.  All for the love of the game.

Track and field, golf, baseball, basketball. . . Was there anything Babe Didrikson didn’t play? Yes, she said. Dolls.

Comedic couples come and go but there has never been a more perfect union of wit and mind than Nichols and May.

Fast cameras caught split second action but “Doc” Edgerton’s strobe captured magic.

In 1837, when mob violence raged, a young lawyer rose to defend the rule of law. He spoke not to his time but for all time.

When she proposed cooperation as the source of evolution, her research was called “crap.” But science soon proved Lynn Margulis’ radical theory.

Roaming the West for three decades, Edward Curtis caught more than shadows. He caught the soul of proud nations.

Shy and reclusive, he did not want to accept his Nobel in person. But he rose to the podium and lit a candle for humanity

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H.L. Mencken

For a full generation, as the world teetered on the brink, the lone voice mocking in the wilderness was truly MAD.

Shy second grade dropout. Struggled onstage with one-liners. Without a further word, he became a clown for the ages.