Today's Birthdays 8/14

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:47pm

Ernest Thayer 8/14/1863 - 8/21/1940 American writer; wrote "Casey at the Bat"

Robert Woolsey 08/14/1888 - Oct 31, 1938 performer; partner of Bert Wheeler - Poppy (W.C. Fields); Rio Rita; film's Rio Rita (I'm a big fan of their films); Diplomaniacs; Kentucky Kernels; Girl Crazy

Jonathan Lucas 08/14/1922 Choreographer, Director, Performer - Touch & Go (Helen Gallagher); The Golden Apple (Kaye Ballard, Bibi Osterwald, Portia Nelson); First Impressions; Vintage '60 (Bert Convy, Mickey Deems, Michele Lee); The Beauty Part; tv's & film's 1957 Cinderella (Julie Andrews); The Two Little Bears (Eddie Albert, Jane Wyatt); Marriage on the Rocks (Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin, Cesar Romero); The Trouble with Girls (Elvis Presley, Marlyn Mason, Sheree North)

Lee Adams 08/14/1924 writer, lyricist - Bye Bye Birdie; All American; Golden Boy; "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman"; Applause; A Broadway Musical; Bring Back Birdie; Ain't Broadway Grand (Mike Burstyn, Debbie Shapiro Gravitte, Maureen McNamara, Scott Elliott, Scott Fowler, Alix Korey); Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life

Alice Ghostley 08/14/1926 - Sep 21, 2007 performer; Felice Orlandi (1953 - 21 May 2003) (his death) - The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window; Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952; Shangri-La; All In One; Maybe Tuesday (Brett Sommers, Barry Newman); A Thurber Carnival (Peggy Cass, Paul Ford); The Beauty Part (Charlotte Rae, Bert Lahr, Larry Hagman, Fiddle Viracola); Annie [replacement]; tv's & film's Designing Women, Bewitched, Mayberry R.F.D., The Graduate, To Kill a Mockingbird, With Six You Get Eggroll; Mothers and Daughters

Laurie Franks 08/14/1929 performer - Copper and Brass (Nancy Walker); Something More! (Barbara Cook, Joan Copeland, Arthur Hill, Hal Linden, Neva Small); Anya (Lillian Gish, Irra Petina, Constance Towers, Michael Kermoyan); Applause; The Grass Harp; The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall (Celeste Holm, Taina Elg); The Human Comedy (Rex Smith, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio); 1987 Cabaret (Joel Grey, Nora Mae Lyng, David Staller, Gregg Edelman, Regina Resnik); tv's & film's 1992 Dracula; Dave; Arli$$

Tom Eyen 08/14/1941 - 5/26/1991 writer, lyricist, dir - Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don't You Ever Forget It [never officially opened](Thomas Walsh, Anita Morris, Wayne Cilento, André De Shields, Ellen Green); Dreamgirls; tv's & film's Bette Midler: Ol' Red Hair Is Back; Dreamgirls

Steve Martin 08/14/1945 performer, writer, composer, producer - 2002 Elephant Man; Short Talks on the Universe; tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning comedy writer: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour [1968-69]; comedian, actor: All of Me, Roxanne, L.A. Story, Parenthood, Father of the Bride, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Jerk, The Man with Two Brains, Three Amigos, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Saturday Night Live; Cheaper By The Dozen 1 & 2; Shopgirl; The Pink Panther (2006)

Jackée Harry 08/14/1956 performer - A Broadway Musical; 2002 Boys Fr Syracuse; tv's Emmy Award-winning actress: 227 [1987]; Sister, Sister, The Royal Family

Marcia Gay Harden 08/14/1959 performer; Her father, brother and husband are all named Thaddaeus. How'd she manage that? - Angels In Amer. I & II; tv's & film's Kojak; The Spitfire Grill; Meet Joe Black; Spenser; Pollock; Mystic River

Sarah Brightman 08/14/1961 performer; Wife of Andrew Lloyd Webber (1984 - 1990) divorced - Phantom of the Opera; Aspects of Love [replacement]

David Aaron Baker 08/14/1963 performer - A Raisen in the Sun (2005) (Sean Combs; Audra Ann MacDonald, Phylicia Rashad); 1999 The Rainmaker (Woody Harrelson, Jayne Atkinson); The Molière Comedies [The School for Husbands & The Imaginary Cuckold 1995] (Brian Bedford, Malcolm Gets); 1993 White Liars & Black Comedy [Black Comedy & White Lies 1993] (Nancy Marchand, Kate Mulgrew, Brian Murray, Peter MacNicol, written by Peter Shaffer)

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1888 - Casey at the Bat with DeWolf Hopper (Hedda's hubby)

1928 The Front Page with Osgood Perkins (Tony's pop) & Lee Tracy

1929 Murray Anderson's Almanac

1997 - 1776 with Pat Hingle, Brent Spiner

ON THIS DAY IN:

1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, creating unemployment insurance and pension plans for the elderly. Not that anybody asked, but not only am I a Democrat, I'm an FDR Democrat. 1 of my very, very fav Presidents!

1945 - This is the day that U.S. President Harry S Truman announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies [WWII]. Thousands thronged into the streets throughout the United States to celebrate V-J Day. The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.

1963 Two Broadway babies tie the knot as Carol Lawrence and Robert Goulet are married today. Doesn't last, tho.

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

Milla