Today's Birthdays 12/26

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 12/26/08 at 7:33pm

Dion Boucicault 12/26/1820 - 9/18/1890 Irish-born American playwright and actor, father of Nina Boucicault, Aubrey Boucicault, Dion G. Boucicault; husband of Agnes Robertson (1840 - 1888 divorced; the divorce wasn't granted until he was alrady married to Ms. Thorndike for 3 years, husband of Louise Thorndyke (1885 - 1890) his death; He was responsible for safety and fireproofing innovations for theaters and scenery. The growth of the road company that performs one play owes much to Boucicault's influence. - London Assurance; The Streets of New York, or Poverty is No Crime

Henry Miller 12/26/1891 - 6/7/1980 American novelist

Elisha Cook 12/26/1903 - May 18, 1995 performer - Many a Slip (Sylvia Sidney); Three-Cornered Moon (Brian Donlevy, Ruth Gordon); Ah, Wilderness! (George M. Cohan, Gene Lockhart); Arturo Ui; tv's & film's The Maltese Falcon; Phantom Lady; Electra Glide in Blue; Carny; The Night Stalker; Rosemary's Baby; Voodoo Island; The Big Sleep; Up in Arms

Richard Widmark 12/26/1914 - 3/24/2008 performer; Unforgettable in his screen debut (in 1947's 'Kiss of Death') as Tommy Udo, a psychopathic mob hit-man, who giggles gleefully even as he sends a wheelchair-bound old woman, portrayed by Mildred Dunnock, tumbling down a long stairway to her demise. - Kiss and Tell (Betty Caulfield, Jessie Royce Landis); Get Away Old Man (Ed Begley); Trio (Kirk Douglas); Kiss Them for Me (Paul Ford, Judy Holliday); Dunnigan's Daughter (June Havoc); tv's & film's I Love Lucy; Madigan; Judgment at Nuremberg, Murder on the Orient Express, The Halls of Montezuma, How the West was Won, The Alamo, Against All Odds, True Colors

Steve Allen 12/26/1921 - Oct 30, 2000 performer, comedian, author, musician, composer, TV host, husband of Dorothy Goodman (1943 - 1952) divorced, Jayne Meadows (July 31, 1954 - October 30, 2000) his death - The Pink Elephant (Heywood Hale Broun); Sophie (Art Lund, Don Crabtree); tv's & film's The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show; films: The Benny Goodman Story, cameo with wife Jayne Meadows: Casino

Bernard Kates 12/26/1922 performer - origs Billy Budd (Charles Nolte, Lee Marvin); The Disenchanted; Have I Got a Girl for You!; The Devils; tv's & film's 3d Rock from the Sun; The Babe; The Guiding Light; Judgment at Nuremberg; The Untouchables; [tv] Mr. Lucky; Captain Video and His Video Rangers

Alan King 12/26/1927 - 5/9/2004 comedian; was the Abbot of the New York Friars Club; Hosted the Academy Awards in 1972; Produced the Broadway plays "The Lion in Winter" and "Dinner at Eight"; the films "Cattle Annie and Little Britches" and "Wolfen"; and the TV sitcom "The Corner Bar." - 2004 Nightlife Awards Legend of Comedy, tv's & film's TV panelist: Hollywood Squares; producer, actor: The Anderson Tapes, Author! Author!, Casino; Las Vegas performer

Donald Moffat 12/26/1930 performer; Father of Lynn Moffat, Managing Director of New York Theatre Workshop - 1959 Much Ado About Nothing (John Gielgud, Margaret Leighton, Nancy Marchand, Jean Marsh); Right You Are If You Think You Are (Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris); Cock-A-Doodle Dandy (Barry Bostwick, Frances Sternhagen); 1985 The Iceman Cometh (Jason Robards); tv's & film's Bull; Trapped in Paradise, Clear and Present Danger, Tales of the City, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Bourne Identity, The Best of Times, The Right Stuff, The Long Days of Summer, Winter Kills, Mary White, Showdown, Rachel, Rachel

Mabel King 12/26/1932 - Nov 9, 1999 performer - origs Don't Play Us Cheap! (Esther Rolle); The Wiz; It's So Nice to Be Civilized (Vivian Reed, Obba Babatundé)

Mitchell McGuire 12/26/1936 performer - replacement Oh! Calcutta!; 3 Sisters (Calista Flockhart, Billy Crudup, Eric Stoltz, Jerry Stiller)

Jack Noseworthy 12/26/1969 [imdb says 12/21/1969] performer - replacement A Chorus Line; Jerome Robbins' Broadway; Sweet Smell of Success (John Lithgow, Brian d'Arcy James, Eric Michael Gillett); Lestat [left show pre-Broadway]; tv's & film's Teech; Alive; The Brady Bunch Movie; Unconditional Love; A Dennis the Menace Christmas; Pretty Ugly People; Aces 'N Eights

Michael Mindlin 12/26/1982 performer - 9 to 5; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [replacement]

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1904 Maude Adams returns to Broadway with a revival of J.M. Barrie's The Little Minister. It opens tonight and runs just 73 performances. A year later she'll be back with a better Barrie play, the original Peter Pan.

1921 Opening night for the original production of Bulldog Drummond, starring A.E. Matthews as the relentless sleuth.

1925 Walter Hampden and Ethel Barrymore appear in The Merchant of Venice at Hampden's Theatre in New York. It will run less than seven weeks.

1931 George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind create Wintergreen, the presidential candidate running on a platform of love [sounds painfully familiar]. Of Thee I Sing, the Pulitzer Prize winning musical with music and lyrics by the Gershwins, stars William Gaxton, Grace Brinkley, and Victor Moore. The campaign runs for 441 performances at the Music Box Theatre.

1935 Helen Hayes is Victoria Regina at the Broadhurst Theatre. Laurence Houseman's history of the Queen will run for 517 performances.

1944 Tennessee Williams' play 'The Glass Menagerie' premiered, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago.

1960 Phil Silvers stars as a guy who's latest get-rich-quick scheme involves jukeboxes in the musical Do Re Mi from Jule Styne, Garson Kanin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Nancy Walker plays Silvers' long-suffering wife, who stops the show with the song, "Adventure." It runs 400 performances and introduces the standard, "Make Someone Happy."

1966 The most historic thing about today is what didn't happen. Producer David Merrick closes the musical Breakfast at Tiffany's in previews just before tonight's scheduled opening. Richard Chamberlain doesn't get to open as Jeff, and Mary Tyler Moore doesn't get to make her Broadway debut as Holly Golightly.

1988 Legs Diamond with Peter Allen, Adrian Bailey & Julie Wilson

ON THIS DAY IN:

1799 George Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

1947 - A monster snowstorm hit New York City, dumping up to 26 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths. It became the worst snowstorm in the city’s history, surpassing the snowfall totals from the Blizzard of 1888, which had 22 inches of the white stuff.

1974 Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

1996 Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colo. The slaying remains unsolved.

2000 Actor Jason Robards died at age 78.

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

Milla