Today's Birthdays 9/20 - Happy Birthday to 2 Broadway Unplugged Alumni

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 9/29/04 at 5:19pm

Happy Birthday to 2 Broadway Unplugged Alumni, Debbie Shapiro & Darius de Haas (see below)

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 9/29/1547 - 4/23/1616 author, source material - Don Quixote

Greer Garson 09/29/1904 - Apr 6, 1996 performer, producer - orig AUNTIE MAME [replacement]; PLAYBOY OF THE WEEKEND WORLD (Emlyn Williams); ON GOLDEN POND (Frances Sternhagen, Tom Aldredge); my fav films THE VALLEY OF DECISION, MRS. MINIVER, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, RANDOM HARVEST; BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST; JULIA MISBEHAVES

Virginia Bruce 09/29/1910 - Feb 24, 1982 John Gilbert's ex, performer - AMERICA'S SWEETHEART (Bud Clark, Harriette Lake [aka Ann Sothern]); film's 1934 JANE EYRE

Stanley Kramer 09/29/1913 - Feb 20, 2001 director - film's The Defiant Ones, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Inherit the Wind, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Judgment at Nuremberg, Ship of Fools, On the Beach

Wynne Miller 09/29/1930 Niece of Glenn Miller, performer - A THURBER CARNIVAL (Peggy Cass, Tom Ewell, Paul Ford, Alice Ghostly); TENDERLOIN

James Villiers 09/29/1933 - Jan 18, 1998 performer - 1956 prodn's RICHARD II; ROMEO & JUILIET (Claire Bloom, John Neville, Jeremy Brett); MACBETH; TROILUS AND CRESSIDA; film's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY; THE RULING CLASS; MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON

Lawrence Linville 09/29/1939 - Apr 10, 2000 performer - orig. MORE STATELY MANSIONS; film's EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY

Madeline Kahn 09/29/1942 - Dec 3, 1999 performer - SILLIMAN'S NEW FACES OF 1968; TWO BY TWO (Danny Kaye, Marilyn Cooper); BOOM BOOM ROOM (Robert Loggia, Charles Durning, Barbara Monte-Britton); ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (John Cullum, Imogene Coca, Judy Kaye, Kevin Kline); SISTERS ROSENSZWEIG; film's Blazing Saddles, Paper Moon, What’s Up, Doc?, High Anxiety, Young Frankenstein

Ian McShane 9/29/1942 performer - WITCHES OF EASTWICK; tv's & film's LOVEJOY (can't believe A&E cancelled this show!); DALLAS; SEXY BEAST

Debbie Shapiro 09/29/1954 performer - PERFECTLY FRANK (Jo Sullivan, Wayne Cilento); BLUES IN THE NIGHT; 1983 ZORBA (Anthony Quinn, Leila Kedrova, Rob Marshall); JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY; AIN'T BROADWAY GRAND

Roger Bart 09/29/1962 performer - TRIUMPH OF LOVE (Betty Buckley, F. Murray Abraham, Susan Egan); 1999 YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN (Kristin Chenoweth, B.D. Wong); THE PRODUCERS

Lynnette Perry 09/29/1963 Wife of Kevin McCollum (1997 - present), performer - GRAND HOTEL (Karen Akers, Jane Krakowski, Michael Jeter, David Carroll, Liliane Montevecchi); RAGTIME

Darius de Haas 09/29/1968 performer - RENT; THE GERSHWINS' FASCINATING RHYTHM (Patrick Wilson); MARIE CHRISTINE

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1921 The operetta Blossom Time opens on Broadway. With a score of Franz Schubert themes rearranged by Sigmund Romberg, the show will go on to achieve a then-epic run of 576 performances and spawn four simultaneous touring companies for the Shubert Brothers.

The Heiress 09/29/1947 - Wendy Hiller, Basil Rathbone

A View From the Bridge 09/29/1955 - Van Heflin, Eileen Heckart, Jack Warden, Leo Penn, J. Carrol Naish

Irma La Douce 09/29/1960 - Keith Michell, Fred Gwynne, Elliott Gould, Byron Mitchell, Elizabeth Seal

Spoon River Anthology 09/29/1963 - Betty Garrett

Tiny Alice 09/29/1969 - Ray Reinhardt, Paul Shenar, Philip Kerr, Harry Frazier

ON THIS DAY IN:

1953 - Danny Thomas, who many now remember as Marlo’s dad and Phil Donahue’s father-in-law, is also remembered for many things that influenced television. At the suggestion of his friend, Desi Arnaz, Thomas negotiated a deal that would allow him to retain ownership rights to his programs, like Make Room for Daddy, which debuted this day on ABC-TV. Later, in 1957, the show would move to CBS under the Desilu/Danny Thomas Productions banner. The rest is, literally, TV history. His success allowed him to give something back to the world, in the form of his philanthropic efforts to build St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis. “All I prayed for was a break,” he once told an interviewer, “and I said I would do anything, anything, to pay back the prayer if it could be answered. All I needed was a sign of what to do and I would do it.” And so it was.

1960 - My Three Sons was welcomed into U.S. homes on ABC-TV. My Three Sons endured so well that CBS bought the successful hit for somewhere between seven and ten million dollars in 1965.

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

Milla