Today's Birthdays 2/14

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 2/14/05 at 11:31am

John Barrymore 02/14/1882 - May 29, 1942 brother of Ethel & Lionel Barrymore, husband of Dolores Costello (1928 - 1935) divorced, Elaine Barrie (1936 - 1940) divorced, Katherine Harris Barrymore (1910 - 1916) divorced, Michael Strange (1920 - 1925) divorced, performer; actor in the grand style, and scion of the Barrymore acting clan. Though he began as a light comedian, he became identified with the classics, notably Hamlet, before turning to drink - 1912 The Affairs of Anatol, Peter Ibbetson; 1920 King Richard III; 1922 & 1923 Hamlet; film's my fav Midnight (Claudette Colbert & Don Ameche)

Jack Benny 02/14/1894 - Dec 26, 1974 performer - The Great Temptations; Earl Carroll's Vanities [1930] (Patsy Kelly); tv's Jack Benny Show

Nigel Bruce 02/14/1895 - performer - Springtime for Henry; Virginia; Knights of Song (Monty Woolley); film's Sherlock Holmes series; Rebecca

Thelma Ritter 02/14/1905 - Feb 4, 1969 performer - The Shelf; In Times Square; UTBU (Tony Randal, Doris Rich, Margaret Hamilton); film's Rear Window

Cesare Siepi 2/14/1923 opera basso; LP: Cesare Siepi sings Cole Porter and Italian Songs; video: Don Giovanni [Siepi Version]

Florence Henderson 02/14/1934 performer - Wish You Were Here; Fanny (Ezio Pinza, Walter Slezak); The Girl Who Came To Dinner (Tessie O'Shea, Jose Ferrer); tv's & film's Brady Bunch

Tim Everett 02/14/1939 performer, dir, brother of Tanya Everett - 1954 On Your Toes; origs Damn Yankees; The Dark at the Top of the Stairs; The Cold Wind and the Warm (Vincent Gardenia, Sandy Meisner, Suzanne Pleshette, Morris Carnovsky, Eli Wallach, Maureen Stapleton); Marathon 33

Gregory Hines 02/14/1946 - Aug 9, 2003 performer, brother of Maurice Hines, husband of Pamela Koslow (1981 - 2000) divorced - The Girl in Pink Tights (Maurice Hines, Marni Nixon, Brenda Lewis, Robert Driscoll); Eubie!; Comin' Uptown; Sophisticated Ladies; Jelly's Last Jam; film's White Knights; Cotton Club; Eubie; Tap

Laurie Kennedy 02/14/1948 Daughter of Arthur Kennedy, performer - 1978 Man and Superman; Spoils of War (Kate Nelligan); Angels in America I & II; Copenhagen

Raymond Joseph Teller 02/14/1948 composer & performer - Penn & Teller (Penn Jillette); Penn & Teller: The Refrigerator Tour

Meg Tilly 2/14/1960 performer - film's Journey, Body Snatchers, The Two Jakes, Agnes of God, Psycho 2, The Big Chill, Winnetka Road

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE

1895 Oscar Wilde's final play, ''The Importance of Being Earnest,'' opened at the St. James' Theatre in London.

1918 Al Jolson stars in Sigmund Romberg's musical parody Sinbad at the Winter Garden Theatre. It runs 164 performances.

1927 Look out, it's not Cupid! Dracula wings in at the Little Theatre in London. Hamilton Deane adapts Bram Stoker's novel. Raymond Huntley dons the cape, with Deane and Dora May Patrick as neck and neck co-stars.

1930 George and Ira Gershwin provide music and lyrics for Strike Up the Band. George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind conjure up an American war against Switzerland all in the name of chocolate. Of course, it's just a dream. Dudley Clements, Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough star. The tasty battle runs six months.

1968 George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton star in a trio of one-act comedies by Neil Simon, collectively titled Plaza Suite. It runs 1,097 performances and is followed by several other Simon "Suite" plays, California Suite, London Suite and others.

1972 What are the chances for a little rock musical about a high school summer romance that spills into the school year? Pretty good, apparently. Grease opens today, riding a wave of 50s nostalgia that will make it (briefly) the longest running show in Broadway history (3,388 performances), followed by a film version that becomes one of the most successful movie musicals (and soundtracks) ever. It's the first Broadway musical for songwriters Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey -- and their last.

1995 On Valentine's Day the premiere of Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Joe Mantello directed the production, with actor Nathan Lane among the cast.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1918 - The motion picture, Tarzan of the Apes, was released -- just in time for Valentine’s Day! The film was based on a series of stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The movie focused on 10-year-old Gordon Griffith who played Tarzan as a boy. An older Tarzan was played by Elmo Lincoln. Did you know that a famous baseball player turned down the chance to play the role of Tarzan? True! That famous player was the ‘Iron Man’ and pride of the New York Yankees, Lou Gehrig. Four Tarzans have won Olympic medals: Johnny Weissmuller, Herman Brix, Buster Crabbe and Glen Morris. It was Johnny Weissmuller who made the Tarzan yell famous (the yell is said to be a recorded combination of violin G-string, hyenas howl, dog’s growl and a camel’s bleat).

1975 P.G. Wodehouse, collaborator with Guy Bolton on such musical books as Miss Springtime and Oh, Boy! (with a score by Jerome Kern), died today at 93. He contributed the lyrics to The Three Musketeers for the 1928 production. Among Wodehouse's many works of fiction, books about Bertie Wooster and all-knowing servant Jeeves, have come to life on stage and film.

1980 - A big day for Dan Rather, as Walter Cronkite announced his retirement from the CBS Evening News. Rather had been selected to replace TV’s best known and most trusted television journalist. Cronkite announced that Rather would take over the anchor desk early in 1981. And “That’s the way it is...”

1998 Composer Frederick Loewe, half of the famous Lerner-Loewe musical team, dies at the age of 87. He brought us such musical classics as My Fair Lady, Gigi, Brigadoon, Camelot and Paint Your Wagon.

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

Milla