Today's Birthdays 1/1

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 1/1/09 at 8:06pm

Paul Revere 1/1/1735 - May 10, 1818 silversmith, patriot: “The British are coming!”, member of Sons of Liberty and participant in Boston Tea Party

Betsy Ross 1/1/1752 - 1/30/1836 American, sewed the first American flag

Ludovic Halévy 01/01/1834 - May 8, 1908 writer, source mat'l - Carmen; Carmen Jones; La Vie Parisienne; The Grand Duchess; La Belle Hélène

E. M. Forster 01/01/1879 - Jun 7, 1970 writer - A Passage to India (Gladys Cooper)

Charles Bickford 01/01/1891 - Nov 9, 1967 performer - Dark Rosaleen (John Carmody); orig Chicago (Juliette Crosby, Edward Ellis); Gods of the Lightning (Sylvia Sydney); Casey Jones (Van Heflin); tv's & film's A Star Is Born; Jim Thorpe -- All-American; Mr. Lucky; Anna Christie; my fav The Farmer's Daughter

Xavier Cugat 1/1/1900 - 10/27/1990 Cuban band leader, Husband of Charo (1966 - 1978 divorced; Abbe Lane (1952 - 1963) divorced - Withdrew from "Oh Captain!" before its tryout in Philadelphia (replaced by Edward Platt); film's A Date With Judy (Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, w/1 of my fav songs "A Most Unusual Day")

Dana Andrews 1/1/1909 - 12/17/1992 performer - film's State Fair, A Walk in the Sun, Battle of the Bulge, Airport ’75; 1 of my all-time favs: The Best Years of Our Lives

Rocky Graziano [Thomas Rocco Barbella] 1/1/1922 - 5/22/1990 World middleweight boxing champion, 1947-48. His 3 fight series with Tony Zale are considered among the greatest fights in Boxing History; source mat'l - tv's & film's Somebody Up There Likes Me (Paul Newman); The Henny and Rocky Show; Miami Undercover; Tony Rome

Shannon Bolin - 1/1/1917 performer - Meg in the original Broadway and film version of DAMN YANKEES; THE GOLDEN APPLE, Broadway (replacement); PROMENADE. off-Broadway; THE STUDENT GYPSY, Broadway; Puccini's SOUR ANGELICA (NBC-TV).

Barbara Baxley 01/01/1923 - Jun 7, 1990 performer - 1948 Private Lives; 1950 Peter Pan; Camino Real (Eli Wallach, Hurd Hatfield, Jo Van Fleet); The Frogs of Spring (Fred Gwynn); Period of Adjustment; orig She Loves Me; 1964 Three Sisters (Robert Loggia, Kevin McCarthy, Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley); Me Jack, You Jill [Never offically opened - Mar 14, 1976] (Lisa Kirk, Sylvia Sidney, Russ Thacker); Whodunnit (Geo. Hearn, Fred Gwynne)

Frank Langella 01/01/1940 performer; Partner of Whoopi Goldberg (1995 - 2000) - The Old Glory; Yerma (Gloria Foster, Nancy Marchand); Seascape; Passione (Dick Latessa, Jerry Stiller); 1984 Design For Living; Sherlock's Last Case; 1996 Present Laughter; Fortune's Fool; Match; Frost/Nixon; tv's & film's Sherlock Holmes; The Mark of Zorro; Diary of a Mad Housewife; fav film 12 Chairs; Diary of a Mad Housewife

Kate Levering 01/01/1979 performer -
The Life [replacement]; 1999 Annie Get Your Gun [replacement]; 2000 The Music Man; 2001 42nd Street; Thou Shalt Not

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1900 Chris and the Wonderful Lamp is based on the Arabian Nights and is playing at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre in New York. This musical, with a book by Glen MacDonough and score by John Philip Sousa, features Edna Wallace Hopper.

1906 Just what is only Forty-five Minutes from Broadway? The answer plays at the New Amsterdam Theatre via George M. Cohan's new musical. The cast includes Donald Brian, Fay Templeton, and Victor Moore. It will run for 90 performances then tour.

1938 Orson Welles and John Houseman produce a series of revivals in New York. Tonight at the Mercury Theatre they open with The Shoemaker's Holiday by Thomas Dekker.

1964 Tennessee Williams opens a revised version of his critically-panned 1963 play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore. But it does even worse than the first version and closes after just 5 performances, despite the presence of Tallulah Bankhead, Tab Hunter and Marian Seldes.

1977 Something Old, Something New with Molly Picon, Hans Conreid, Matthew Tobin

ON THIS DAY IN:

1898 - Happy birthday Big Apple. The five boroughs of New York became the city of New York this day. It was called ‘the consolidation’ as the five boroughs were fused into a single, powerful city.

1953 - Legendary Hank Williams died at the young age of 29. Some of the songs Hank wrote or co-wrote: Cold, Cold Heart, Half as Much, Jambalaya, Your Cheatin’ Heart, Hey, Good Lookin, I’m So Lonesome I Could Die, Why Don’t You Love Me (Hank’s own recording of this song climbed the charts in 1976, 23 years after his death) and I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive -- which, ironically, became a hit not too long after he was found dead in the back seat of his chauffeured limousine. Undisputedly, the biggest star in the history of country music, Hank Williams’ legacy is being carried on by his son, Hank Williams, Jr.

1972 Maurice Chevalier dies today, at 84, in Paris. He made his debut there in 1900. He became a world famous entertainer performing on stage, in music halls, and in films.

2008 No-smoking rules went into effect in France, prohibiting people from lighting up in cafes, bars and restaurants.

(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)

Milla
Updated On: 1/1/09 at 08:06 PM