Today's Birthdays 12/13

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 12/13/06 at 10:22am

SPECIAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY TO MY FRIEND AND DIRECTOR, MARGERY BEDDOW - Perfomer, choreographer, author Bob Fosse on Broadway; classical dancer in Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; prima ballerina Metropolitan Opera; Florence Henderson's dancing Laurie in Oklahoma! 10th anniversary Broadway Tour; Gwen Verdon was very generous to Margie & when Margie was hired to do any of Gwen's roles, she personally taught them to Margie. When Margie wrote "Bob Fosse's Broadway," Gwen gave her several unpublished pics for the book. Her Fosse experience includes Redhead, Little Me, The Conquering Hero, Sweet Charity, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game, as well as being Bob Fosse’s AD for 5 yrs; on Broadway: Two on the Aisle (Dolores Gray, Bert Lahr); Redhead (Gwen Verdon, Richard Kiley); The Conquering Hero (Tom Poston, Lee Barry, John McMartin); orig Little Me (Sid Caesar, Gretchen Cryer, Mickey Deems, Swen Swenson); Ulysses in Nighttown (Zero Mostel, Tommy Lee Jones, David Ogden Stiers [debut]); Dear Oscar; Wind in the Willows (Nathan Lane, Nora Mae Lyng); OOB Wit and Wisdom; tv's & film's The Producers [both orig & 2005]; performed on various tv variety shows with Tony Bennett, as well as with Liza Minelli and others.

Heinrich Heine 12/13/1797 - 2/17/1856 poet: The Lorelei, Atta Troll, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Germany A Winter’s Tale, Romacero; author: Travel Pictures, The Romantic School, On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany

Mary Todd Lincoln 12/13/1818 - 7/16/1882 First Lady: wife of 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln - source mat'l

Alvin York 12/13/1887 - 9/2/1964 American military hero of World War I - source mat'l Red Badge of Courage

Lillian Roth 12/13/1910 - May 12, 1980 performer - Earl Carroll's Vanities [1928 & 1931]; I Can Get It For You Wholesale (Barbra & Elliot, Sheree North); 70, Girls, 70 (Hans Conried)

Van Heflin 12/13/1910 - 7/23/1971 performer & wonderful character actor, brother of Frances Heflin; husband of Frances E. Neal (1942 - 1967) divorced; uncle of Marta Heflin - The Bride of Torozko (Jean Arthur); End of Summer (Ina Claire); Casey Jones (Charles Bickford); orig The Philadelphia Story (Shirley Booth & Kate the Great); orig. A View From the Bridge (Sean's pop Leo Penn); film's The Three Musketeers; The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers; Green Dolphin Street; Battle Cry, Academy Award-winning actor: Johnny Eager [1942]

Larry Parks 12/13/1914 - 4/13/1975 performer, spouse of Betty Garrett (1944-1975) his death - Beg, Borrow or Steal (Eddie Bracken, Betty Garrett); Love and Kisses (Bert Convy); film's The Jolson Story, Jolson Sings Again

Curt Jurgens 12/13/1915 - Jun 18, 1982 performer - The Great Indoors (Geraldine Page); film's The Spy Who Loved Me, And God Created Woman, The Longest Day, Enemy Below

Dick Van Dyke 12/13/1925 performer - The Girls Against the Boys; Bye Bye Birdie (Chita, Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly); 1980 The Music Man; Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life; tv's & film's Bye Bye Birdie; Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; Emmy Award-winning actor/comedian: The Dick Van Dyke Show; Diagnosis Murder; Night At The Museum

Christopher Plummer 12/13/1927 performer, father of Amanda Plummer; husband of Tammy Grimes (1956 - 1960) divorced - King Lear; The Starcross Story (Mary Astor); Home Is the Hero (Peggy Ann Garner, Glenda Farrell); The Dark Is Light Enough (Ty Power, Jr., Katharine Cornell, Sydney Pollack); Arturo Ui; Cyrano; The Good Doctor; 1982 Othello (James Earl Jones, Dianne Wiest); No Man's Land (Jason Robards); Barrymore; The Royal Hunt of the Sun (David Carradine, Geo. Rose, Judd Jones); tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actor: The Moneychangers [1976-1977], Madeline [1993-1994]; The Sound of Music

Robert Prosky 12/13/1930 performer - Moonchildren (Jill Eikenberry, Ed Hermann); Glengarry Glen Ross; A Walk in the Woods; Democracy

Liv Ullmann 12/13/1939 performer - 1975 A Doll's House; 1977 Anna Christie; 1979 I Remember Mama; 1989 Ghosts (Kevin Spacey)

John Davidson 12/13/1941 performer - Foxy (Bert Lahr, Larry Blyden); State Fair; TV game show host: Hollywood Squares

Robert Lindsay 12/13/1949 performer - Tony Award-winning actor: Me and My Girl [1987]; tv's & film's Ghengis Cohn, Strike It Rich, Bert Rigby You’re a Fool; Jericho

Jenn Thompson 12/13/1967 performer; Daughter of Evan Thompson - 1995 The Heiress (Cherry Jones); 1998 Ah, Wilderness (Debra Monk)

Nellie McKay 12/13/1982 [ibdb lists 1984] performer - 2006 3 Penny Opera; tv's & film's Grey's Anatomy; Rumor Has It

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1934 Opening night of musical revue Calling All Stars, featuring Mitzi Mayfair, Phil Baker and, in her Broadway debut, comedienne Martha Raye.

1950 Let's Make An Opera with Jo Sullivan

1951 Henry Fonda is at the Point of No Return! Paul Osborn adapted this J.P. Marquand novel about an executive who always followed the rules, deciding to be his own man. H.C. Potter directs.

1970 Maureen Stapleton is The Gingerbread Lady in Neil Simon's first drama. This story of an alcoholic singer's decline is staged by Robert Moore at the Plymouth Theatre. The production will run for 193 performances.

1979 Oklahoma! comes back to Broadway's Palace Theatre, starring Laurence Guittard as Curly and Christine Andreas as Laurey.

1998 Nicole Kidman makes her Broadway debut in David Hare's The Blue Room, a transfer from London's Donmar Warehouse. Though nudity is brief for her and co-star Iain Glen, UK critics panted over the production's sexual wattage, one scribe going so far as to call the show, "pure theatrical Viagra."

ON THIS DAY IN:

1913 - Leonardo da Vinci’s La Gioconda or, Mona Lisa for us art neophytes, was returned to the Louvre Museum in Paris after a two-year absence. The stolen painting was recovered and was valued at that time at $5,000,000. In 1962, appraisers set the value at one hundred million dollars. It is said that Mrs. Gioconda’s only payment for four years of modeling was free entertainment by jesters, players and singers.

1928 George Gershwin's musical work 'An American in Paris' had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.

1948 - The American Federation of Musicians went back to work after an 11½-month strike. During the strike, there was an 11½-month ban on phonograph records as well.

1961 - Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses) died at the age of 101. The self-taught artist took up painting in her sixties; having her first showing in New York City at the ripe, young age of eighty. Her style was nostalgic and primitive -- mostly rural scenes: The Old Oaken Bucket, Christmas at Home, The Quilting Bee. Just goes to show ya, it can never be too late to try something new!

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

Milla

[K8eeyore]

Posted: 12/13/06 at 1:16pm

It's Nancy Opel's birthday, too.

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 12/13/06 at 1:43pm

Thanks for the info. I'd love to add Nancy to my "official" list. I wouldn't want to get ding'ed for having an incorrect date, so I only add those whose dates I can verify. If you can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

Milla

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 12/13/06 at 5:46pm

bumpety bump