Today's Birthdays 10/6

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/6/03 at 5:30pm

Jenny Lind 10/6/1820 - 11/2/1887 Swedish singer, source material - BARNUM

Janet Gaynor 10/06/1906 - Sep 14, 1984 performer - HAROLD & MAUDE (Keith McDermott)

Carole Lombard 10/6/1908 - 1/16/1942 performer - fav film'S MY MAN GODFREY; IN NAME ONLY; MR. & MRS. SMITH; VIGIL IN THE NIGHT

Anna Quayle 10/06/1936 performer - STOP THE WORLD - I WANT TO GET OFF (Anthony Newley)

Gretchen Kingsley 10/06/1961 performer - Les Misérables; 1989 SWEENEY TODD

Elisabeth Shue 10/06/1963 performer - SOME AMERICANS ABROAD (Kate Burton, Nathan Lane)

Casey Nicholaw 10/06/19? performer - CRAZY FOR YOU; BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE GOES PUBLIC; STEEL PIER; SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER; SEUSSICAL; THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

Summer and Smoke 10/06/1948 - The original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke opens with Margaret Phillips as Alma Winemiller. It runs a disappointing 102 performances and is considered minor Williams -- until a downtown production in the 1950s establishes the play's reputation, and that of its new star, Geraldine Paige, as well as helping to ignite the Off-Broadway movement.

1974 Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston give "two of the finest performances of the season," according to the Post. They opened tonight in the David Merrick produced musical about the silent film era, Mack and Mabel. Jerry Herman wrote songs and lyrics, Gower Champion staged, Michael Stewart wrote the book, and stars Peters and Preston are given rave reviews, but despite all this, the production runs only 65 performances at the Majestic Theatre.

1977 The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn opens tonight at the John Golden Theatre. The play, which was directed by Mike Nichols, is about a frustrated couple -- Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy -- in a nursing home who find themselves playing a not-too-friendly game of cards. The show will run 517 performances before Cronyn and Tandy will reprise their roles in the London production in 1979, which runs for eight weeks.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1889 The Moulin Rouge in Paris first opened its doors to the public

1927 The era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of ''The Jazz Singer,'' starring Al Jolson.

1981 - Nobel Peace Prize-winner Anwar el-Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated. Sadat was reviewing a military parade when the attack by Islamic fundamentalists occurred.

1989 Actress Bette Davis died in France at age 81.

1991 - Elizabeth Taylor was married -- for the 8th time -- to construction worker Larry Fortensky. The wedding took place at Michael Jackson’s estate in California amidst a flurry of paparazzi.

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

Milla