Today's Birthdays 8/23

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 10:30am

Louis XVI 8/23/1754 - 1/21/1793 French king; Guillotined in French Revolution

Edgar Lee Masters 8/23/1869 - 3/5/1950 poet, source material: Spoon River Anthology

Gene Kelly 08/23/1912 - Feb 2, 1996 Producer, Choreographer, Director, Performer, Frederic Kelly's bro, Betsy Blair's ex, married to Jeanne Coyne - LEAVE IT TO ME (Mary Martin, Victor Moore, Sophie Tucker); ONE FOR THE MONEY (Alfred Drake); THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE (Celeste Holm, Wm. Bendix); PAL JOEY (Vivienne Segal, Stanley Donan, June Havoc, Van Johnson); BEST FOOT FORWARD (June Allyson, Nancy Walker's debut); FLOWER DRUM SONG; COQUELICO; film's MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR; SINGIN' IN THE RAIN; ON THE TOWN; COVER GIRL; SUMMER STOCK; FOR ME & MY GAL; THE BLACK HAND

James Millhollin 08/23/1915 - May 23, 1993 performer - NO TIME FOR SEARGENTS (Andy Griffith, Don Knotts); THE GIRLS IN 509 (Imogene Coca, Peggy Wood); SARATOGA (Howard Keel, Carol Lawrence)

Jean Darling 08/23/1922 performer - origs COUNT ME IN (Jean Arthur, Gower Champion); CAROUSEL

Richard Adler 08/23/1923 Producer, Lyricist, Composer, Sally Anne Howes' ex - PAJAMA GAME; THE SIN OF PAT MULDOON (Elaine Stritch); DAMN YANKEES; REX; MUSIC IS

William Callahan 08/23/1926 - Mar 18, 1981 performer, Eleanor Rao's hubby. Left acting to run in-law's construction co. Disappeared in 1980 with $1 million from co. Remarried w/o divorcing. Was murdered with new wife, Wendy McDade - SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS (Ethel Merman, Betty Garrett)

Eugene Troobnick 08/23/1926 - Feb 19, 2003 performer - FROM THE 2d CITY (Alan Arkin, Barbara Harris); REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (John Lithgow, Geo. Segal)

Marian Seldes 08/23/1928 dir., performer, daughter of Gilbert Seldes, widow of Garson Kanin - THE TOWER BEYOND TRAGEDY (Judith Anderson, Eric Fleming, Harvey Korman); THE GIFT OF TIME (Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda); TINY ALICE; A DELICATE BALANCE; NEXT TIME I'LL SING TO YOU (Patty LuPone)

Vera Miles 8/23/1929 performer - film's The Wrong Man, Psycho, The FBI Story, Autumn Leaves, Into the Night, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Sergeant Ryker, Jigsaw, Our Family Business

Barbara Eden 8/23/1934 performer - tv's & film's I DREAM OF JEANNIE; Harper Valley P.T.A., The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao

Rick Springfield 08/23/1949 performer - SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE

Shelley Long 8/23/1949 - Emmy Award-winning actress: Cheers [1982-83]; Irreconcilable Differences, Outrageous Fortune, Night Shift, The Brady Bunch Movie

Skipp Sudduth 08/23/1956 performer - GRAPES OF WRATH; ON THE WATERFRONT (Penelope Ann Miller, James Gandolfini); 1998 12TH NIGHT; 1999 THE ICEMAN COMETH

River (Jude) Phoenix 8/23/1970 - 10/31/1993 performer - Running on Empty, Stand by Me, This Thing Called Love, Sneakers, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Little Nikita, The Mosquito Coast

SHOWS WHICH OPENED ON AUGUST 23:

Uncle Tom's Cabin 08/23/1852

1937 Eva Le Galliene is Hamlet opens tonight at Cape Playhouse in Massachusetts. Le Galliene is not the first female to take on the role. Sarah Bernhardt had done it as well. Also in the cast is future stage legend Uta Hagen, making her professional debut as Ophelia.

1926 George Burns and Gracie Allen make their vaudeville bow at the Palace in New York.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1926 Silent film star Rudolph Valentino died in New York at age 31.

1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning stage/screen writer Sidney Howard is killed today in a tractor accident. Howard, won the Pulitzer for his 1924 play, THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED which would later be made into the Frank Loesser musical, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA. Just before his death, Howard had completed the screenplay for the film, "Gone With the Wind."

1960 Broadway loses a Great today as Oscar Hammerstein II dies at age 65, his final musical, The Sound of Music having recently opened. Besides the aforementioned work, Hammerstein collaborated with composer Richard Rodgers on such other musicals as Oklahoma!, Carousel, the Pulitzer-winning South Pacific, and The King And I. In addition to Rodgers, Hammerstein worked successfully with other composers. The most popular of these earlier works and collaborations is his 1927 musical with Jerome Kern, Show Boat. On August 31, for the first time since World War II, all lights in and around Times Square and the theatre district will be turned off for one minute in honor of this Broadway legend.

1996 Circle in the Square declares bankruptcy and goes through years of legal wrangling before reopening in 1999 with the rediscovered, and critically lauded, Tennessee Williams drama, NOT ABOUT NIGHTINGALES (I loved this production & actors!).

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

Milla