Today's Birthdays 11/27

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 11:45pm

Fanny Kemble 11/27/1809 - 1/15/1893 English author and actress - Romeo and Juliet; The Hunchback

Vera Allen 11/27/1897 - Aug 10, 1987 performer; In 1948, received a Special Tony Award for being a "Distinguished (American Theatre) Wing Volunteer Worker through the War and After." - Elmer Gantry; I Was Waiting for You; At Home Abroad; Strange Fruit; tv's & film's Search for Tomorrow; Another World; Doctor Bull

Mona Washbourne 11/27/1903 - 11/15/1988 performer - Nude With Violin (Noël Coward); Home (John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson); film's & tv's Mrs. Pearce, My Fair Lady, Night Must Fall, Brideshead Revisited

James Agee 11/27/1909 - 5/16/1955 American writer - the beautiful All the Way Home [Based on the Pulitzer Prize novel "A Death in the Family"] (Colleen Dewhurst, Lillian Gish, Arthur Hill); tv's & film's The Night of the Hunter; The African Queen

David Merrick 11/27/1911 - 4/25/2000 husband of Etan Aronson (1969 - 1969) divorced; remarried (1983 - 1995) divorced, husband of Lenore Beck (? - 1963) divorced, husband of Natalie Lloyd (1999 - 2000) his death, husband of Karen Prunczik (July 1, 1982 - 1983), divorced, husband of Jeanne Gibson Merrick (1963 - ?) divorced, Broadway producer - producer whose highly developed taste, fierty temper and flamboyant approach to public relations helped earn him the sobriquet "the abominable showman." Among his long-running hits were Hello, Dolly!, Oliver!, Gypsy, Beckett, Oliver, Fanny, Stop the World: I Want to Get Off, 42nd Street

‘Buffalo’ Bob Smith 11/27/1917 - 7/30/1998 TV host: Howdy Doody Show, The Gulf Road Show Starring Bob Smith

Ernie Wise 11/27/1925 - Mar 21, 1999 writer - The Play What I Wrote [Inspired by the comedy of Ernie Wise]

Michael Tolan [Seymour Tuchow] 11/27/1925 performer; During and following graduation from Wayne State University, he appeared in radio serials & in theater productions like "Uncle Vanya," "Candida," "The Importance of Being Earnest," "Oedipus," "Coriolanus" and "The Grass Is Always Greener." - Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter; The Genius and the Goddess (Nancy Kelly, Billy Quinn); A Majority of One (Cedric Hardwicke); tv's & film's 1953 Julius Caesar; The Nurses; The Greatest Story Ever Told; Murder, She Wrote

Priscilla Gillette 11/27/1925 - 2/2/2006 performer - Regina (Jane Pickens, William Warfield, Brenda Lewis); Out of This World (Charlotte Greenwood, George Jongeyans); The Golden Apple (Kaye Ballard); tv's The Edge of Night

Marshall Thompson 11/27/1926 - 5/18/1992 performer - A Girl Can Tell (Janet Blair); film's & tv's The Turning Point, George!, East of Kilimanjaro, To Hell and Back, The Caddy, The Purple Heart, Daktari, Angel

Bruce Adler 11/27/1944 - 7/25/2008 writer, performer; Son of Henrietta Jacobson & Julius Adler; Nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Musical) two years in a row: in 1991 for "Those Were the Days" and in 1992 for "Crazy for You." - Oh, Brother!; Those Were the Days; Crazy For You; 1979 Oklahoma!

Caroline (Bouvier) Kennedy 11/27/1957, former First Daughter: daughter of 35th President of U.S. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy; on 11/26/2007 it was revealed by Neil Diamond that "Sweet Caroline" was inspired by Caroline's photo in a magazine. "It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," he said. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.

Emma Walton 11/27/1962 Producer, writer of children's books with Mom Julie; daughter of Tony Walton & Julie Andrews, wife of Stephen Hamilton, Founded Bay Street Theatre with Sybil Christopher and Stephen Hamilton - Hedda Gabler (Kate Burton); Godmother is Carol Burnett; 2001 Hedda Gabler; tv's & film's Switch; Curse of the Pink Panther; Micki & Maude; That's Life!; The Bill

Fisher Stevens [Steven Fisher] 11/27/1963 performer - Torch Song Trilogy; 1994 Carousel (Sandra Brown, Brian d'Arcy Brown, Audra Ann McDonald, Michael Hayden, Shirley Verrett, Eddie Korbich); film's, etc. The Right to Remain Silent, Hackers, Super Mario Bros., When the Party’s Over, The Marrying Man, Short Circuit series, The Flamingo Kid, Bob Roberts, The Brother from Another Planet, Key West; Kettle of Fish

Allison Pill 11/27/1985 performer - Mauritious; The Lieutenant of Inishmore

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1906 Anna Held is The Parisian Model who inherits money mysteriously. Harry B. Smith provides the book and lyrics to Max Hoffman's score. While the show is directed by Julian Mitchell, the production numbers are under the "personal direction" of Florenz Ziegfeld.

1928 The Age of Innocence with Katherine Cornell, Franchot Tone

1929 With Fifty Million Frenchmen you can't go wrong, especially when they're singing music and lyrics by Cole Porter, along with a book by Herbert Fields. For nearly eight months songs like "You've Got That Thing" and "You Do Something To Me" fill New York's Lyric Theatre. The cast includes William Gaxton as the American playboy trying to win Genevieve Tobin.

1937 - Pins and Needles, opened in New York City. The cast of the stage play consisted of members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). The show ran two years.

1939 The play 'Key Largo,' by Maxwell Anderson, opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York

1969 Henry Fonda plays the Stage Manager and Margaret Hamilton plays Mrs. Soames in a Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

1979 Night and Day with Maggie Smith, Clarence Williams III and Joseph Maher

ON THIS DAY IN:

The first Thanksgiving Day in America was actually the first holiday ever in the U.S. - on November 26, 1789. In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying presidents for the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her efforts were unsuccessful until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln finally got the ball rolling with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation. Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November. This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941), who changed it from Abe Lincoln’s designation as the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses).

1953 Playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65.

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

Milla