Today's Birthdays 4/2

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:12pm

Charlemagne 4/2/742 - 1/28/814 son of Pippin; King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and Charles I of the Holy Roman Empire

Giovanni Casanova 4/2/1725 - 6/4/1798 Italian writer, soldier, philanderer and adventurer, THE Don Giovanni, source mat'l - Don Juan; Don Juan in Hell; Don Juan the Lover; The Last Night of Don Juan

Hans Christian Andersen 04/02/1805 - 8/4/1875 writer The folk tales: The Tinder-Box, Little Claus and Big Claus; tales that made fun of human faults: The Emperor's New Suit (also known as The Emperor’s New Clothes), The Princess and the Pea; tales based on his life: The Ugly Duckling, She was Good for Nothing, and others, some philosophical, some with sly humor and some with serious moral messages: The Snow Queen, The Red Shoes, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Marsh King’s Daughter. - The Garden of Paradise; The Chinese Nightingale; The Emperor's New Clothes; Once Upon a Mattress

Emile Zola 4/2/1840 - 9/29/1902 source mat'l novelist: Therese Raquin, The Rougon-Macquart, The Belly of Paris, The Grog Shop, Nana, Germinal, The Crash, The Three Cities, The Four Gospels, The Experimental Novel, The Naturalistic Novelists, Naturalism in the Theater; an open letter to win a new trial for Alfred Dreyfus: J’accuse - Thou Shalt Not

Jack Buchanan 04/02/1891 - Oct 20, 1957 Producer, Choreographer, Director, Performer - Andre Charlot's Revue of 1924 (Gertrude Lawrence, Bea Lillie, Jessie Matthews; Charlot Revue; Wake Up and Dream; Between the Devil; Harvey [replacement]; Don't Listen, Ladies; film's my fav The Band Wagon

Edward Eliscu 04/02/1902 - 6/18/1998 Writer, Lyricist, Composer, Director, Performer; blacklisted - The Garrick Gaidties; The 3d Little Show; Quarantine; Don Q Jr.; Mister Romeo; Lady Fingers; A Little Racketeer; Tattle Tales (Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Fay); Frederika (Bette Davis); Meet the People (Jack Albertson, Nanette Farbares, Jack Gilford); film's Flying Down to Rio; The Gay Divorcee; 3 Husbands; 1 of my fav songs More Than You Know

Buddy Ebsen 04/02/1908 - 7/6/2003 performer, brother of Vilma Ebsen - Whoopee (Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, Peggy Bancroft); Flying Colors; Ziegfeld Follies of 1934; Yokel Boy; 1946 Show Boat; tv's & film's The Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones, The President’s Plane is Missing, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Red Garters, Stone Fox, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Alec Guiness 04/02/1914 - 8/5/2000 performer - Flare Path; The Cocktail Party (Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Flemyng); Dylan; films Academy Award-winning actor: The Bridge on the River Kwai [1957]; The Empire Strikes Back, The Lavender Hill Mob, Star Wars, A Passage to India, The Quiller Memorandum

Rita Gam (Mackay) 4/2/1928 performer, producer; wife of Thomas Guinzburg (1956 - 1963) (divorced) 2 children, Sidney Lumet (1949 - 1954) (divorced); Was a bridesmaid at Grace Kelly's wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. - A Temporary Island (Vera Zorina); The Young and Fair (Julie Harris); There's a Girl in My Soup (Gig Young, Jon Pertwee, George Hall); 2000 Uncle Vanya; Fortune's Fool; film's The Thief, Klute, Midnight; tv's & film's Magic Fire; King of Kings; No Exit; Klute; Studio One; Your Show of Shows

Linda Hunt 04/02/1945 performer - 1975 Ah, Wilderness! (Geraldine Fitzgerald, Swoosie Kurtz, Paul Rudd, Teresa Wright); End of the World (Barnard Hughes, John Shea, Larry Pine); tv's & film's Academy Award-winning actress: The Year of Living Dangerously [1983]; Silverado, Dune, Popeye, Kindergarten Cop, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Flying Nun; The Practice; Waiting for the Moon; Space Rangers

Amelia Marshall 04/02/1958 performer - Porgy and Bess; Harrigan 'n Hart; Big Deal (Cleavant Derricks, Alan Weeks, Loretta Devine)

Clark Gregg 04/02/1962 Husband of Jennifer Grey (2001 - present), performer - A Few Good Men (Tom Hulce); tv's & film's The Usual Suspects; The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Spring Break Adventure; Artificial Intelligence: AI; The New Adventures of Old Christine

Aaron Lohr 4/2/1976 performer - Radiant Baby; Bare: A Pop Opera; See What I Wanna See; tv's & film's D3: The Mighty Ducks; Rent the movie; Law & Order - Trial by Jury; Newsies

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1923 Irene

1957 Hide and Seek - Basil Rathbone, Geraldine Fitzgerald

1963 - Best Foot Forward opened in New York City. Liza Minelli was the lead actress in this off-Broadway revival of the show which enjoyed a run of 224 performances.

1986 A. R. Gurney, Jr.'s The Perfect Party opens Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. The comedy about a professor who sets out to throw the perfect party under the scrutiny of a newspaper columnist runs 70 performances under the direction of John Tillinger.

1997 A Doll's House with Janet McTeer, Jan Maxwell, Owen Teale. I really enjoyed this prod'n & thought McTeer was top drawer.

2002 Some 150 years after it was written, Ivan Turgenev's Fortune's Fool gets its Broadway debut. Associate Producer Rita Gam's birthday is today. Alan Bates and Frank Langella earn Tony Award nominations, and Mike Poulton's translation is nominated for Best Play. Bates & Langella were terrif.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1902 - The first motion picture theatre opened in Los Angeles. The Electric Theatre charged a dime to see an hour’s entertainment, including the films, The Capture of the Biddle Brothers and New York in a Blizzard. Now that’s entertainment!

1932 Aviator Charles Lindbergh paid $50,000 ransom in a New York cemetery to a man who promised to return his kidnapped son. The child was found dead the following month.

1974 - What a night this was at the 46th Annual Academy Awards presentation at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles! Hosting the film industry celebration were John Huston, David Niven, Burt Reynolds, and Diana Ross. It was a banner year for 1973 flicks and the magnificent memories they created: Serpico, The Exorcist, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Day of the Jackal, American Graffiti, Papillon, Jesus Christ Superstar, Last Tango in Paris, Live and Let Die, Cinderella Liberty. And this list doesn’t even include The Best Picture of the Year, The Sting (producers: Tony Bill, Michael Phillips, Julia Phillips). The Sting won additional Oscars: Director (George Roy Hill); Scoring/Original Song Score/Adaptation: (Marvin Hamlisch); Writing/Original Story/Screenplay based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced (David S. Ward); Best Actor: Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger; Best Actress: Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class; Best Supporting Actor: John Houseman for The Paper Chase; Best Supporting Actress: Tatum O’Neal for Paper Moon; and Best Music/Song: The Way We Were -- Marvin Hamlisch (music), Alan and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics) from the movie of the same title.

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

Milla