Today's Birthdays 6/17

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 6/17/04 at 1:28pm

Charles Gounod 6/17/1818 - 10/18/1893 French composer - Faust

Daniel Frohman 6/17/1860 - May 7, 1915 producer often in collaboration with his brothers Daniel and Gustave, will produce dozens of Broadway shows including Sherlock Holmes, The Girl from Maxim's, Barbara Frietchie, When Knighthood Was in Flower and Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines. In one busy stretch, September and October 1902, he will open 12 plays on Broadway.

Grant Mitchell 06/17/1874 - May 1, 1957 performer - The Whole Town's Talking; All the King's Men (Meyo Methot [Mrs. Humphrey Bogart]); film's Step Lively; My Sister Eileen; See Here, Private Hargrove

Igor Stravinsky 6/17/1882 - 4/6/1971 Russian-born American composer - The Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring, The Wedding, The Soldier’s Tale

Sammy Fain 6/17/1902 - 12/6/1989 composer - Hellzapoppin; Flahooley (Barbara Cook); Christine; Something More! (Barbara Cook, Joan Copeland, Arthur Hill, Hal Linden, Neva Small); Oscar-winning musician, composer: Secret Love [1953], Love is a Many-Splendored Thing [1955]; April Love, A Certain Smile, A Very Precious Love, Tender is the Night, I’ll Be Seeing You, I Can Dream Can’t I, Let a Smile be Your Umbrella [most w/Irving Kahal]

Ralph Bellamy 6/17/1904 - 11/29/1991 Producer, Director, Performer; President of Actors' Equity Association (1952-1964) - State of the Union [wish someone would musicalize this 1); Detective Story; Sunrise at Campobello; tv's & films His Girl Friday, Awful Truth, Trading Places, War & Remembrance, The Winds of War, Oh, God!, Rosemary’s Baby, Man Against Crime, The Eleventh Hour; panelist: To Tell the Truth; founder: Screen Actors’ Guild; president: Actors’ Equity; recipient of honorary Academy Award [1987]

Dean Martin - 6/17/1917 - Dec 25, 1995 straight man of comedy-team: Martin and Lewis; singer: Memories are Made of This, Return to Me, Everybody Loves Somebody, The Door is Still Open to My Heart, Houston; actor: My Friend Irma, Hollywood or Bust, Airport, Bells are Ringing, The Caddy, Cannonball Run, Ocean’s 11, Rio Bravo

Mark Linn-Baker 06/17/1954 performer, prod; Husband of Adrianne Lobel (1995 - present); Linn is really his middle, not last, name. When he joined the actors union, there was already a Mark Baker, so he combined his middle and last name. His father made up the name "Linn" in honor of Leonid Tolstoy. - Doonesbury; Face Value
[never officially opened](Jane Krakowski, B.D. Wong); Laughter on the 23rd Floor; 1996 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; A Year With Frog & Toad; tv's & film's Noises Off, Bare Essentials, Ghostwriter, My Favorite Year, Manhattan, Comedy Zone, Perfect Strangers

Greg Kinnear 6/17/1963 performer - tv's & film's What Planet Are You From?, Talk Soup, Blankman, Sabrina, As Good As It Gets, You've Got Mail, Mystery Men, Nurse Betty

Jason Patric (Miller) 6/17/1966 - performer - film's The Journey of August King, Geronimo: An American Legend, Rush, Frankenstein Unbound, The Beast, The Lost Boys, Solarbabies, Toughlove, Speed 2: Cruise Control

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1969 Oh, Calcutta! Opens at the Eden Theater in New York. The adult-oriented review boasts a mostly-nude cast performing skits by the likes of the John Lennon, Samuel Beckett, and Sam Shepard. While this production will have a long and successful run, it is the 1976 revival that will enter the history books as one of the longest-running musicals of all time, with 5,969 played performances.

1972 Tradition is broken as Fiddler on the Roof becomes the longest-running Broadway production, its 3,225 performances allowing it to surpass the previous record set by Life With Father. The Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick-Joseph Stein musical, based on Shalom Alechem stories of "Tevye and His Daughters," has reportedly been playing at a loss for over a year in an attempt to break the long-run record and will soon close up shop.

1980 After playing 12 performances at Broadway's Morosco Theatre, Billy Bishop Goes to War transfers to Off-Broadway's Theater de Lys. The musical, written and composed by John Gray in collaboration with Eric Peterson, was inspired by the book "Winged Warfare," in which a young pilot named Billy Bishop recounts his service during World War I.

1999 Audiences attending the New York Shakespeare Festival's first preview of The Taming of the Shrew starring Allison Janney today at Central Park's Delacorte Theater will also enjoy its $4.35 million renovation. Changes include traps in the stage, re-built walkways under the seating for the actors, streamlined concession areas, new cedar siding, new bleachers and seating.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1775 - Question of the day: On what hill was the Battle of Bunker Hill fought? You could answer this one in your sleep, right? [Maybe not.] A little background: Anger and hatred between British and American colonists exploded into brutal fury at the top of Breed’s Hill (near Boston) on this day. The British charged the Americans three times before finally overrunning and chasing them to -- you guessed it -- Bunker Hill (and it was all over but the whimpering by the time they got to Bunker Hill). The redcoats did win this battle, but it fired up the colonists and they continued to fight, eventually driving the British back to Britain. Class dismissed.

1837 - Charles Goodyear got a patent for rubber, the squishy, bouncy stuff.

1885 The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.

On June 17, 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on the first trans-Atlantic flight by a woman. She flew from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.

1940 France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.

1972 - Newspapers around the country, including The Washington Post, reported a burglary. The story took up nothing more than a couple of inches of copy, buried inside the paper and out of sight of the day’s top news stories. The burglary, on the 6th floor of a plush Washington, D.C. apartment and office complex called the Watergate, would later drive President Richard M. Nixon from the White House. The growing story became a Pulitzer Prize-winner for journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

1994 - O.J. Simpson, charged with the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, could not be located and became a fugitive from justice. At about 6:45 p.m., police spotted a white Ford Bronco belonging to Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings on a Los Angeles freeway. Simpson was a passenger in the Bronco and had a gun (according to Cowlings who talked to police by phone from the Bronco). Cowlings and Simpson led the highway patrol on a 60-mile, low-speed pursuit through L.A. It was around 8:00 p.m. when the Bronco finally pulled into the driveway at Simpson’s Brentwood mansion, followed by a phalanx of patrol cars. Negotiations with police lasted less than an hour and Simpson surrendered, was arrested and taken to jail. All of the above was covered by TV cameras from helicopters and seen by a world-wide television audience. It was a gripping, if not excruciatingly slow, show.

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

Milla