Today's Birthdays 12/5

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 4:20pm

Fritz Lang 12/5/1890 - 8/2/1976 Austrian-American motion picture director - Metropolis; M; Fury; You Only Live Once (1937); You and Me (193; two Westerns for the Twentieth Century-Fox studio, "The Return of Frank James" (1940), and Western Union" (1941); and a series of war films, thrillers and melodramas, including "Hangmen Also Die" (1943), which Lang wrote in collaboration with Berthold Brecht; "The Ministry of Fear" (1944); and "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlet Street" (1945), both starring Edward G. Robinson. The later films, mostly crime dramas, included Clifford Odets's "Clash By Night" and "Rancho Notorious," a Western starring Marlene Dietrich, in 1952; "The Big Heat" and "The Blue Gardenia" (1953); Human Desire (1954); "Moonfleet" (1955), a costume drama; "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" (1956); and "While the City Sleeps" (1956)

Nunnally Johnson 12/05/1897 - Mar 25, 1977 writer - The World's Full of Girls; Park Avenue (David Wyne, Mary Wickes); Henry, Sweet Henry (Don Ameche, Alice Playten, Priscilla Lopez, Neva Small, Pia Zadora, Louise Lasser); Darling of the Day (Pat Routlege, Vincent Price)

Grace Moore 12/05/1898 - Jan 26, 1947 performer, internationally famous star of the Metropolitan Opera; She was selected by Florenz Ziegfeld of Ziegfeld Follies fame as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world; was the subject of a movie titled, "So This is Love", in which Kathryn Grayson portrayed the "Tennessee Nightingale", as Grace was called. She died tragically in an airplane crash in 1947 at the height of her career. She was known as the comedian's comedian, and one of the few capable of making Jack Benny laugh at the drop of a hat. Anyway, Edward G. Robinson was hosting a private party for Grace Moore about the time her movie (One Night of Love) was coming out in 1934. At some point during the party, Grace was asked to sing the title song from the movie for the guests, to which she obliged. As the guests set up a couple of rows of chairs to listen to her sing, George Burns leaned forward and told Jack Benny that "it would be very rude of him to laugh when she starting singing". Of course the minute Grace started to sing, Benny began to laugh... and continued to laugh. George's punch line... "See, I don't make Jack Benny laugh... Grace Moore makes Jack Benny laugh". - Hitchy-Koo [1920]; Music Box Revue [1923] (Robert Benchley); Music Box Revue [1924] (Bobby Clark, Fanny Brice); Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 (Ruth Etting, Helen Morgan); The DuBarry; Gay Divorce (Fred Astaire, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore; film's Louise; 1 Night of Love

Walt Disney 12/05/1901 - Dec 15, 1966 producer, theatre owner; Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, The Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Productions - Swingin' The Dream [Scenery based on cartoons designed by Walt Disney] (Louis Armstrong, The Dandridge Sisters, Dorothy McGuire, Butterfly McQueen); Total Abandon (Richard Dreyfuss, John Heard); Largely NY (Bill Irwin); Beauty and the Beast; King David; The Lion King; tv's & film's cartoonist: 1st color-animated cartoon: Steamboat Willie; creator of: Mickey Mouse, Disneyland; Emmy Award-winning producer: Disneyland film series [1955], Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color [1962-63]; a myriad of cartoon movies & tv shows i.e. The Micky Mouse Club; Spin & Marty Series; & my fav Zorro

Otto Preminger 12/05/1906 - Apr 23, 1986 Producer, Director, Performer; husband of Hope Bryce (December 28, 1971 - April 23, 1986) his death; partner of Gypsy Rose Lee (father of Erik Lee Preminger with Ms. Lee - Outward Bound (Vincent Price, Laurette Taylor!); Margin For Error (Sam Levene, Leif Erickson); My Dear Children (John Barrymore); Bevery Hills (Ilka Chase, Fred De Cordova [as in Johnny Carson]); The More the Merrier (Keenan Wynn); The Moon Is Blue (Barbara Bel Geddes, Barry Nelson, Donald Cook); Critic's Choice (Henry Fonda, Mildred Natwick); Full Circle (Leonard Nimoy, Bibi Andersson, James Tolkan, Peter Weller); film's In Harm’s Way, Advise and Consent, Exodus, Anatomy of a Murder, Saint Joan, Bonjour Tristesse, The Man with the Golden Arm; Carmen Jones; Laura; Bunny Lake Is Missing; Forever Amber, Daisy Kenyon; 1938 Kidnapped, & Centennial Summer (probably 1 of the very worst movies I've ever seen)

Larry Kert 12/05/1930 - Jun 5, 1991 performer, brother of Anita Ellis - Tickets, Please!; John Murray Anderson's Almanac; West Side Story; A Family Affair; Breakfast at Tiffany's [never officially opened]; La Strada (Bernadette Peters); Company; A Musical Jubilee (Lillian Gish, Tammy Grimes, Pat Munsel, John Raitt, Cyril Ritchard); Rags; Legs Diamond

Sheridan Morley 12/05/1941 writer, critic; godson of Alexander Woollcott, son of Robert Morley

Curt Dawson 12/05/1941 - Jan 13, 1985 performer - 1982 Alice in Wonderland (Kate Burton, Eva Le Gallienne, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary Louise Wilson); The au Pair Man [Julie Harris; s/b for Charles Durning]; Not Now, Darling (M'el Dowd, Roni Dengel)

Pamela Blair 12/05/1949 performer; Wife of Don Scardino - The Nerd (Mark Hamill, Peter Riegert); King of Hearts; The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; A Chorus Line; 1974 Of Mice and Men; Sugar (Elaine Joyce, Robert Morse, Cyril Ritchard, Tony Roberts); Wild and Wonderful (Ann Reinking)

Carrie Hamilton 12/05/1963 - Jan 20, 2002 performer, writer; Daughter of Joe Hamilton (TV producer) & Carol Burnett; played Maureen in first national tour of "Rent." Died of brain and lung cancer. - Hollywood Arms; film's Fame, Cool World, Shag: The Movie, Tokyo Pop, Hostage

Jennifer Laura Thompson 12/5/1969; performer; When she replaced Kristin Chenoweth in "Wicked," the flying bubble machine that her character uses to make her entrance in the show had to be cut apart and expanded, due to the vast difference in height between the two actresses. - Wicked [replacement]; Urinetown; Footloose; Little Fish; A Doll's Life [at York Theatre]

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1910 - William Gillette writes and stars as SHERLOCK HOLMES, opening tonight at the Empire Theatre.

1941 - Leo G. Carroll and Vincent Price star in ANGEL STREET, opening tonight at the John Golden Theatre. Patrick Hamilton's thriller runs for 1,295 performances under the direction of Shepard Traube.

1955 The Matchmaker with Ruth Gordon, Loring Smith, Eileen Herlie, Arthur Hill, Robert Morse

1957 - William Inge's THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS opens at the Music Box Theatre for 468 performances, starring Pat Hingle, Eileen Heckart and Teresa Wright. Elia Kazan directs, and a young Tuesday Weld understudies two minor roles.

1960 Send Me No Flowers with David Wayne, Nancy Olson

1966 I Do! I Do! with Mary Martin, Robert Preston

1968 - Dustin Hoffman stars as JIMMY SHINE at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre for 161 performances. Written by Murray Schisgal, this play with music features music and lyrics by John Sebastian. Donald Driver directs a cast of 18 that includes Barbara Cason, Cleavon Little, Rue McClanahan, Pamela Payton-Wright, Gale Dixon and Susan Sullivan.

1974 London Assurance with Roger Rees

1979 - Bette! Divine Madness - Bette Midler; Special material written by Bette Midler, Jerry Blatt and Bruce Vilanch; Vocal arrangements by Marc Shaiman

1991 Freddie Roman, Marilyn Michaels, Mal Z. Lawrence, and Dick Capri star in Roman's Catskills on Broadway, which opens tonight at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

2001 Barely 12 weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, Pulitzer-winner Tony Kushner debuts a drama about the conflicts in the Middle East, Homebody/Kabul, at New York Theatre Workshop. The piece was programmed and planned long before the tragedy. As a work-in-progress, it had a run at London's Chelsea Theatre Centre in 1999 starring British actress Kika Markham.

2002 Broadway reverberates with Brian Stokes Mitchell's majestic baritone singing "The Impossible Dream" when he opens a revival of Man of La Mancha at the Martin Beck Theatre, co-starring Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Dulcinea and Ernie Sabella as Sancho. It runs six months.

2004 - 700 Sundays - Billy Crystal

ON THIS DATE IN:

1791 Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at age 35.

1848 President James K. Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.

1933 - Drinkers toasted the end of Prohibition in the U.S. It had been 14 years between (legal) drinks. The long dry spell ended at 5:32 p.m., when Utah became the last of 36 states to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (repealing the 18th Amendment, which had prohibited all booze).

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

Milla