Today's Birthdays 2/27

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 2/27/08 at 3:24pm

Ellen Terry 02/27/1848 - Jul 21, 1928 had famous epistolary relationship with George Bernard Shaw; in 1925 was made Dame of the British Empire, performer - Robespierre (Junius Brutus Booth); 1901 Charles I (Henry Irving)

Enrico Caruso 2/27/1873 - 3/2/1921 opera singer: tenor: Canio in Pagliacci, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Metropolitan Opera debut in Rigoletto; sang nearly 70 roles; appeared in nearly every country of Europe and North and South America; final performance: La Juive: the Met [1920]

Lotte Lehmann 2/27/1888 - 8/26/1976 German lyric-dramatic soprano

William Demarest 02/27/1892 - Dec 28, 1983 performer - Earl Carroll Sketchbook 1929 & Vanities 1931; tv's & films My 3 Sons

Marian Anderson 2/27/1897 - 4/8/1993 opera diva, the first African-American to perform with the New York

John Steinbeck 2/27/1902 - 12/20/1968 American Nobel Prize-winning novelist; Husband of Elaine Anderson (1950 - 196 his death - Of Mice and Men (Broderick Crawford, Will Geer); Tortilla Flat; The Moon Is Down; Burning Bright (Barbara Bel Geddes, Howard DaSilva); Pipe Dream (Helen Traubel); Here's Where I Belong (James Coco, Graciela Daniele, Ken Kercheval, Heather MacRae); The Grapes of Wrath

Elisabeth Welch 02/27/1904 - Jul 15, 2003 performer; very nice lady; Fred Ebb intro'd me to her @ Bobo's. We used to have fun phone calls. I remember when she gave me her tel no., she said. "Pls don't call me before 2 p.m. or after 2 a.m." - Blackbirds of 1928; Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood

Franchot Tone 02/27/1905 - Sep 18, 1968 performer, Cousin of Richard Franchot, husband of Jean Wallace (1941 - 194 divorced; 2 sons; Joan Crawford (1935 - 1939) divorced - orig The Age of Innocence; Green Grow the Lilacs (Lee Strassberg); Oh, Men! Oh, Women!; A Moon for the Misbegotten; Bicycle Ride to Nevada

Joan Bennett 02/27/1910 - Dec 7, 1990 performer, daughter of Richard Bennett & Adrienne Morrison, granddaughter of Lewis Morrison, granddaughter of Rose Wood, sister of Barbara & Constance Bennett - Jarnegan; Love Me A Little; tv's & film's House of Dark Shadows, Father of the Bride, Woman in the Window, The Son of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask, Little Women [1933]

Joanne Woodward 02/27/1930 performer, dir, wife of Paul Newman (January 29, 1958 - present) - The Lovers; Baby Want a Kiss; Candida; Our Town; film's Academy Award-winning actress: The Three Faces of Eve [1957], Sybil, Philadelphia

Peter Stone 02/27/1930 - Apr 25, 2003 writer; I'll never forget that he gave 1 of the most beautiful remembrances of Adolph Greene @ AG's memorial. - Kean; Skyscraper; 1776; Two By Two; Sugar; Woman of the Year; My 1 & Only; The Will Rogers Follies; Titanic

Elizabeth Taylor 02/27/1932 performer, Step-mother of Kate Burton (1964 - 1974 and 1975 - 1976), Richard Burton (March 15, 1964 - June 26, 1974) divorced; (remarried October 10, 1975 - August 1, 1976) divorced, Eddie Fisher (May 12, 1959 - March 6, 1964) divorced, Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952 - January 30, 1957) divorced, Larry Fortensky (1991 - 1996) divorced, John Warner (December 4, 1976 - November 7, 1982) divorced, Conrad Hilton, Jr. (May 6, 1950 - February 1, 1951) divorced, Michael Todd (February 2, 1957 - March 22, 1958 his death - 1981 The Little Foxes; 1983 Private Lives; 1983 The Corn Is Green; Academy Award-winning actress: Butterfield 8 [1960], Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [1966], Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award [1992]; Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, National Velvet, Cleopatra

Debra Monk 02/27/1949 Writer, Lyricist, Composer, Director, Performer - Curtains; Pump Boys and Dinettes; Prelude to a Kiss; Nick & Nora; Steel Pier; Thou Shalt Not; Reckless; film's & tv's Nero Wolf; 2005 The Producers; Quiz Show

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1943 Lady in the Dark with Gertrude Lawrence

1958 Joshua Logan directs Blue Denim, a drama depicting the pregnancy of a teenage girl. James Leo Herlihy and William Noble collaborated on the story. Carol Lynley and Burt Brinckerhoff star as the couple.

1964 What Makes Sammy Run? Come to the 54th Street Theatre to find out. Steve Lawrence stars in this musical about clawing to fame and fortune in Hollywood. Budd and Stuart Schulberg adapt Budd's novel. Ervin Drake provides the songs. There will 540 performances.

1968 Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights dir'd by Sidney Poitier, starring Louis Gossett, Dianne Ladd and Cicely Tyson

1994 Off-Broadway's Orpheum Theatre, once a home for old-fashioned Yiddish theater, suddenly crashes and bangs with the energy of Stomp, a UK dance piece that would keep slamming binlids, sweeping brooms and flicking cigarette lighters for years to come.

1997 Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo opens at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway. The comedy-drama, which goes on to win a Best Play Tony, concerns a Jewish family in Atlanta and stars Jessica Hecht, Dana Ivey and Paul Rudd.

2003 Opening night of Take Me Out at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. Richard Greenberg's story of a major league baseball star who comes out as gay will go on to win the Tony Award as Best Play.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1883 - Oscar Hammerstein of New York City patented the first practical cigar-rolling machine. If Oscar’s name sounds familiar, it should. Hammerstein’s grandson later made his mark by writing some of the best-known music in the world, teaming up frequently with a guy named Richard Rodgers.

1941 - Searchlights in the sky guided Hollywood’s finest to the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, and the 13th Academy Awards show. Producer Walter Wanger was host for the evening. The envelope puleeze... The Best Picture (of 1940) award went to Selznick International’s Rebecca (David O. Selznick, producer), which also won the Best Cinematography (Black-and-white) Oscar for George Barnes. John Ford was named Best Director for The Grapes of Wrath. The Best Actor was James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story. Best Actress was Ginger Rogers for her performance in Kitty Foyle. Best Supporting Actress was Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath. Best Supporting Actor: Walter Brennan for The Westerner. This was Brennan’s third Best Supporting Actor nod. His first win was for Come and Get It in 1936, followed by Kentucky in 1938.

1997 Divorce became legal in Ireland.

1998 With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as a first-born son.

2003 Fred Rogers, the host of TV's 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' died at age 74.

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

Milla