Today's Birthdays 8/10

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 11:55pm

Jack Haley 08/10/1898 - Jun 6, 1979 performer; father of Jack Haley, Jr.; Liza's former father-in-law - HIGHER & HIGHER; film's THE WIZARD of OZ; ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND; Poor Little Rich Girl & Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm (Shirley Temple)

Norma Shearer 08/10/1902 - 6/12/1983 performer, Mrs. Irving Thalberg, ck her out in the book COMPLICATED WOMEN. For all the "sweet" characters she played in talkies, her silent films & early talkie characters were quite "free" & what we'd call modern women - film's THE WOMEN; PRIVATE LIVES; Romeo & Juliet; The Barretts of Wimpole Street; The Divorcee (Wow!)

Jerome Chodorov 08/10/1911 - Sep 12, 2004 Writer, Source Material, Director; He & his brother Edward were blacklisted during McCarthyism - WONDERFUL TOWN; THE GAZEBO (Jayne Meadows, Walter Slezak); ANNIVERSARY WALTZ (Macdonald Carey, Kitty Carlisle (Hart), Warren Berlinger); I HAD A BALL; A TALENT FOR MURDER (Jean-Pierre Aumont, Claudette Colbert, Barton Heyman)

Noah Beery, Jr - 08/10/1913 - 11/4/1994 tv's & film's Rocky on THE ROCKFORD FILES; CIRCUS BOY (Mickey Dolenz was Corky); Riverboat; Walking Tall, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, The Bastard, Fastest Gun Alive, Million Dollar Kid

Yuki Shimoda 08/10/1921 - May 21, 1981 Choreographer, Performer, Stage Manager - origs: The Teahouse of the August Moon (John Forsythe, David Wayne, Paul Ford, Mariko Niki, dir. Robert Lewis); Aunti Mame (Roz Russell, Peggy Cass); Pacific Overtures

Rhonda Fleming [Marilyn Louis] 08/10/1923 performer - 1973 THE WOMEN; film's STAGE DOOR; Inferno; operates cancer clinic for women

Joseph Cates 08/10/1924 - Oct 19, 1998 performer; brother of Gilbert Cates, father of Phoebe Cates - SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY (Betty Garret, Joyce Van Patten); HER 1ST ROMAN (Leslie Uggams, Richard Kiley, Gerry Burkhardt)

Eddie Fisher 08/10/1928 producer, performer; father of Joely Fisher (with Connie Stevens) and Carrie Fisher (with Debbie Reynolds), husband of Elizabeth Taylor (May 12, 1959 - March 6, 1964) divorced, Debbie Reynolds (1955 - 1959) divorced, Connie Stevens (1967 - 1969) divorced - EDDIE FISHER AT THE WINTER GARDEN; film's BUTTERFIELD 8; All About Eve

Daniel Hugh Kelly 08/10/1954 performer - 1989 BORN YESTERDAY (Madeline Kahn, Ed Asner); 1990 CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF; tv's & film's Law & Order; Ryan's Hope; Cujo; All My Children; Ponderosa; Joe and Max

Alan Muraoka 08/10/1958 designer, performer - MAIL (Mary Bond Davis, Michele Pawk, Brian (Stokes)Mitchell); SHOGUN, THE MUSICAL; MY FAVORITE YEAR; 2004 Pacific Overtures

Antonio Banderas 08/10/1960 performer, husband of Ana Leza (1988 - 1996) divorced, Melanie Griffith (1996 - present) - 2003 NINE; film's MASK OF ZORRO; PHILADELPHIA; Legend of Zorro; Bordertown; Shrek the Third; More Than You Know

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1986 Me and My Girl The British invasion that started with Evita continues tonight as Me and My Girl "Lambeth Walk"s into the new Marquis Theatre in the Marriot Marquis Hotel on Broadway. Featured in this Mike Ockrent-directed reworking of the 1937 Noel Gay-Arthur Rose-Douglas Furber musical are Robert Lindsay, Maryann Plunkett, George S. Irving, and Jane Connell. Me and My Girl will win Tony Awards for its two leading players (Lindsay and Plunkett), but will lose the Best Musical award to another British import, Les Miserables. There will be 1,420 performances on Broadway.

1999 Dylan Baker plays the title character in The Public Theater's production of the Molière classic Tartuffe as it begins its reign at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park tonight for a run through Sept. 5. Tartuffe, about a venal and libidinous religious hypocrite who holds a household under his thrall until being he is exposed, stars a company that includes Wendell Pierce, J. Smith-Cameron, Dana Ivey, Charles Kimbrough and Mary Testa. Mark Brokaw directs the production.

IN THIS DAY IN:

1920 Actor James O'Neill, father of playwright Eugene, dies today. The elder O'Neill is best known for his lengthy stay with the touring production, The Count of Monte Cristo.

1942 When Paul Robeson opens as the title role in Othello tonight at the Brattle Hall Summer Theatre in Massachusetts, he becomes the first African-American actor to play the Moor in the United States. His performance receives rave reviews.

1983 Watergate Burglar G. Gordon Liddy, who has recently been auditioning for the role of Uncle Ben in the Lincoln Center revival of Death of A Salesman, does not get the part. A spokesperson for the production soon makes a statement saying, "It had to do with ability and talent. It had nothing to do with politics."

1987 - A Chorus Line celebrated its 5,000th performance. It was estimated that 25 million theatre goers had seen the musical since it opened in 1975. An estimated 16.7 million people had seen the show on Broadway, with another 8.3 million taking in the touring production. A Chorus Line became the longest-running show on The Great White Way on September 29, 1983 and ended its Broadway run in 1990. I must be 1 of 2 people in NY during its run that didn't see it!

(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT On This Day, & 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com, movies.Yahoo.com)

Milla