Today's Birthdays 11/7
Today's Birthdays 11/7
#1Today's Birthdays 11/7
Posted: 11/6/08 at 4:58pm
Rudolf Friml 11/07/1879 - Nov 12, 1972 Composer, Writer - is born in Prague. He will emigrate to the U.S. and become one of the top Broadway operetta composers of the 1910s and 1920s. His works will include The Firefly, Rose-Marie, The Vagabond King, The Three Musketeers and two editions of the Ziegfeld Follies (1921 and 1923); & High Jinks
Herman Mankiewicz 11/7/1897 - 3/5/1953 American screenwriter, producer, holy moly look at just some of his works: The Royal Family of Broadway; Monkey Business; Horse Feathers; Girl Crazy; Citizen Kane; The Pride of the Yankees; The Enchanted Cottage (love this film!); The Pride of St. Louis
Dean Jagger 11/07/1903 - Feb 5, 1991 Performer - orig Tobacco Road; The Unconquered (Ludmilla Toretzka); Doctor Social (Mae Questel); tv's & film's 12 O'clock High; Elmer Gantry; The Great Man; Bad Day at Black Rock; White Xmas; X the Unknown; Cash McCall; Principal Albert Vane on the TV series Mr. Novak
Norman Krasna 11/07/1909 - Nov 1, 1984 writer - Louder, Please (Louise Brooks, Lee Tracey); Time for Elizabeth (Katherin Alexander, Otto Kruger); We Interrupt This Program...
Albert Camus 11/07/1913 - Jan 4, 1960 writer - Caligula (Colleen Dewhurst, Kenneth Haigh)
Joan Sutherland 11/7/1926 dramatic colouratura extraordinaire! "La Stupenda" - Happy Birthday Dame Joan - my favs Lucia di Lammermoor; I Puritani; Norma; La Fille du Regiment. Met her several times, Aussie earthmother, great gal...
Joni Mitchell 11/07/1943 Composer, Lyricist, Painter - Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years (...it's clouds illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds, at all); She has a new album coming out
Lindsay Duncan 11/07/1950 wife of Hilton McRae, performer - Les Liaisons Dangereuses; 1996 A Midsummer Night's Dream; 2002 Private Lives (Alan Rickman, seeing her is 1 of my life's great pleasures)
Mellissa Bel Chait Nov 7, 1972 performer; Wife of Marcus Chait - 1996 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Titanic; Thoroughly Modern Millie; Wicked
SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:
1904 The timeless anthem "Give My Regards to Broadway" is first sung tonight on the Broadway stage tonight at the opening of George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones at the Liberty Theatre. The story of an American jockey in England runs just 52 performances, but the song lives on.
1910 Opening night for Victor Herbert's operetta Naughty Marietta, which runs 136 performances at the New York Theatre, and quickly becomes a theatre staple, enjoying countless tours and three Broadway revivals in the decades to come.
1921 Lisping comedian Ed Wynn earns a nickname with the musical comedy The Perfect Fool, written by and starring himself, which begins a 275-performance run at the Cohan Theatre. Wynn will star in many Broadway productions and films, but is perhaps best known to modern audiences as the giggling Uncle Albert who hosts the tea party on the ceiling in Disney's film Mary Poppins.
1922 Jeanne Eagels creates the role of Sadie Thompson, a prostitute at odds with a jungle missionary, in Rain, based on a Maugham short story. It begins a 256-performance run at Maxine Elliott's Theatre. Joan Crawford will immortalize the role on film in 1932.
1934 Opening night of Dark Victory, one of the great weepers in Broadway history, and endlessly imitated. Tallulah Bankhead stars at the Plymouth Theatre as a spoiled heiress who discovers she has just months to live, and must mend her evil ways, live life to the fullest and make peace with the world before she departs. Bette Davis will take the role in the 1939 film version.
1956 Long Day’s Journey Into Night opens tonight (although against late playwright Eugene O’Neill’s wishes) at the Helen Hayes Theatre. The cast included Jason Robards, Jr., Frederic March, and Florence Eldridge, all directed by Jose Quintero. Variety reports that this play is “a monumental, overwhelming drama, terrible in its ruthlessness, searing in its self-revelation, exalting in its pity and shattering in its impact.” Brooks Atkinson declares that this production helps “acquire size and stature” for the American theatre. The show runs for 390 performances.
ON THIS DAY IN:
1893 Colorado granted women the right to vote.
1916 Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.
1929 The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened to the public.
1962 Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt died in New York City.
1963 The dieting Zero Mostel has forgotten to eat today and collapses during the intermission of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He is unable to complete the performance.
1968 Lee J. Cobb stars in King Lear at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. The supporting cast is a who's who of future stars: Stacy Keach, Philip Bosco, Paul Rudd, Charles Cioffi, Rene Auberjonois, and others.
2001 Elaine Stritch's one-woman show, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, debuts at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre to rave reviews. The production will move to Broadway later in the season and wins a Tony Award for Special Theatrical Event. I saw it 3Xs.
(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)
Milla
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