Today's Birthdays 11/30

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 11/29/08 at 9:44pm

Jonathan Swift 11/30/1667 - 10/19/1745 Anglo-Irish author and satirist, source mat'l - Gulliver's Travels

Samuel Langhorne Clemens - better known as author Mark Twain 11/30/1835 - 4/21/1910, source mat'l - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Roughing It, Life on the Mississippi, The Prince and the Pauper; A Connecticut Yankee (William Gaxton, Paul Everton, Constance Carpenter); The Apple Tree (Based on "The Diary of Adam and Eve" by Mark Twain); Big River; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Is He Dead?

Donald Ogden Stewart 11/30/1894 - 8/2/1980 American playwright and actor, 1940 Oscar for screenplay adaptation of "The Philadelphia Story" - Holiday; Fine & Dandy

Virginia Mayo [Virginia Clara Jones] 11/30/1920 - Jan 17, 2005 performer; Wife of Michael O'Shea (1947 - 1973) his death; 1 child; Played a straight woman in vaudeville for four years to a performing horse act. The 'horse' was comprised of two men known as the Mayo Brothers; hence, Virginia's stage name. - Banjo Eyes (Eddie Cantor; Jacqueline Susann, Adele Jergens); film's Captain Horatio Hornblower, The Silver Chalice, The West Point Story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, my fave: The Best Years of Our Lives

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. 11/30/1923 - Producer, Performer - What Every Woman Knows (Eva Le Gallienne, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson); The Telephone / The Medium (Marilyn Cotlow, knew her at Peabody, where she taught, she was a fabulous, underrated singer); 1948 Hedda Gabler; film's & tv's The F.B.I., 77 Sunset Strip, Hot Shots!, The Gathering: Part 2, Terror Out of the Sky, Airport ’75, The Legend of Prince Valiant, Hotel; voice of Alfred in Batman-the Animated Series

Shirley Chisholm 11/30/1924 - 1/1/2005 politician: 1st black woman elected to the U.S. Congress; author; quote: “When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”

Richard Crenna 11/30/1927 - 1/17/2003 - performer - tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actor: The Rape of Richard Beck, ABC Theatre [1984-85]; Slattery’s People, The Real McCoys, Our Miss Brooks, It Takes Two (w/Patty Duke), [my fave is:] All’s Fair (w/Bernadette Peters), Gabriel’s Fire, Centennial, Sabrina, Hot Shots! Part Deux, Rambo 3, On the Wings of Eagles, The Flamingo Kid, Body Heat, The Sand Pebbles, Pride of St. Louis, Wrongfully Accused, Judging Amy

Robert Guillaume 11/30/1937 performer - Kwamina; Two On An Island; Tamburines to Glory (Micki Grant, Louis Gossett, Judd Jones); They Should Have Stood in Bed (Sanford Meisner, Florence Sundstrom); Purlie (Sally Ann Howes, Rex Ingram, Louis Johnson, Mary Louise); 1976 Guys and Dolls; tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actor: Soap [1978-79], Benson [1984-85]; Pacific Station, A Good Day to Die, North and South Book 1, The Meteor Man; voice of Det. Catfish: Fish Police* [see footnote]

David Mamet 11/30/1947 husband of Lindsay Crouse, (divorced), husband of Rebecca Pidgeon (1991 - present) writes hard-bitten plays that capture the unique rhythms of speech of working people, including real estate salesmen (Pulitzer-winner Glengarry Glen Ross), movie makers (Speed-the-Plow), academics and feminists (Oleanna) and small-time thieves (American Buffalo) - director: Oleanna, Homicide, House of Games, Things Change; playwright: Hoffa, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Untouchables, The Verdict, The Postman Always Rings Twice; November

Lily Knight 11/30/1949 performer - As Is (Jonathan Hadary); The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940

Margaret Whitton 11/30/1950 performer - Steaming; The Apple Doesn't Fall...; Marlene (Siân Phillips)

Mandy Patinkin 11/30/1952 The Wild Party; The Secret Garden; The Shadow Box (Geraldine Fitzgerald); Tony Award-winning actor: Evita [1980]; film's, tv's, etc. True Colors, The Doctor, Dick Tracy, Alien Nation, [my fav is] The Princess Bride, Sunday in the Park with George, Yentl, French Postcards, Chicago Hopel; Criminal Minds

Kevin Conroy 11/30/1955 performer - Lolita; Eastern Standard (Anne Meara)

Rebecca Downing 11/30/1962 performer - The Will Rogers Follies; 1993 My Fair Lady (Melissa Errico, Richard Chamberlain)

Ben Stiller 11/30/1965 son of Jerry Stiller & Ann Meara, Actor-director- actor: The Ben Stiller Show, Reality Bites, Flirting with Disaster, The Cable Guy, There’s Something About Mary, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Meet the Fockers; Night at the Museum 1 & 2; Tropic Thunder; The Marc Pease Experience

Clay Aiken 11/30/1978 performer - Spamalot [replacement]; tv's American Idol

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1924 Henry Oscar and Esme Biddle are the leads of Byron by Alice Law, at the Century Theatre in Bayswater, England. In a very small role is someone named Laurence Olivier.

1926 Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein II Desert Song, will be one of the last of the blockbuster operettas. The mysterious and romantic Red Shadow and his rebel band ride over the dunes of North Africa in this musical, which runs 471 performances at the Casino Theatre and tours for much of the next two generations.

1939 Something not-quite-right is going on beneath the surface of Paul Osborn's subtle Morning's at Seven, seemingly a Norman Rockwell portrait of suburban life, which flops after a 44-performance run at the Longacre Theatre. In 1980, audiences figure it out quicker, and a hit revival will run 564 performances.

1955 Rodgers and Hammerstein suffer a rare flop with Pipe Dream, based on John Steinbeck's story of life in a brothel. The show closes after 246 performances (R&H's shortest run) at the Shubert Theatre.

1972 Arthur Miller takes on the Bible, retelling the story of Adam and Eve in his own terms in The Creation of the World and Other Business. But in this case, the flawed father is God, and even the presence of Zoe Caldwell as Eve can't stop the show from closing after just 20 performances at the Shubert Theatre.

1980 Perfectly Frank - the music of Frank Loesser with Wayne Cilento, Jo Sullivan, Debbie Shapiro, Jim Walton, Virginia Sandifur, Don Correia, David Holliday

1988 Tonight's episode of "Tattinger" on NBC will be titled "Barrymore's," with a cast that includes Elaine Stritch, Blythe Danner, Jerry Stiller, Mary Beth Hurt and cameos by George Abbott and Garson Kanin.

2000 Opening night for Seussical, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's musical that combines many of the stories of children's author Dr. Seuss, including "Horton Hears a Who," "McElligot's Pool" and "The Cat in the Hat" into a single story. Following a bumpy out-of-town tryout in which, for the first time, internet chat strongly affects the box office negatively, the show gets mixed reviews and struggles on for a 198-performance run at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1782 The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

1900 Irish author Oscar Wilde died in Paris at age 46.

1922 - Actress Sarah Bernhardt made her last appearance on the stage. She played in the final performance of Daniel, being presented in Turin, Italy.

1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz were married. Lucy filed for divorce the day after their final TV show was filmed in 1960.

1993 President Clinton signed into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.


*FISH POLICE: Hallelujah! I'm so happy I found info on this short-lived (only 3 episodes aired) prime-time cartoon series. Loved It! Premiered 2/28/1992 - "Deep within the depths of the murky underwater metropolis, Fish City, a scaly police detective battles cold-blooded criminals in this comic tale of CARPS and robbers. (Based on the comic book series by Steve Moncuse.) Set in the underwater world of Fish City, this hilarious animated TV series noir follows a group of gill-bearing police as they take on organized crime." Just look look at who all's voices they used to name a few: In addition to Robert Guillaume, it starred John Ritter, Megan Mullally, Jonathan Winters, Hector Elizondo, Ed Asner & Tim Curry.

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

Milla

[Mikers]

Posted: 11/30/08 at 5:34pm

Clay Aiken 11/30/1978 performer - Spamalot [replacement]; singer, actor, Unicef Ambassador: Scrubs, Days of Our Lives, All My Children, Saturday Night Live, A Clay Aiken Christmas (Executive Producer), Ed, American Idol.