Today's Birthdays 5/26
Today's Birthdays 5/26
#1Today's Birthdays 5/26
Posted: 5/25/07 at 10:31pm
Aleksandr Pushkin 5/26/1799 - 1/29/1837 Russian poet, novelist, dramatist and short-story writer; The most famous of all the Blacks in Russian history. Pushkin was descended on his mother's side from Major-General Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal--an Ethiopian prince who became a favorite of Tsar Peter I (1682-1725). Hannibal impressed Czar Peter "so well that he became a confidant and favorite, was revered at the court, and began the aristocratic Pushkin lineage. In an unfinished work, The Negro of Peter the Great, Alexander Pushkin pays homage to his illustrious ancestor." Mortally wounded in a duel. - Eugene Onegin, The Bronze Horseman, Ruslan and Ludmilla, Southern Verse Tales; playwright: Boris Godunov; novelist: Tales of Belkin, The Captain’s Daughter
Isadora Duncan 5/26/1877 - 9/14/1927 American dancer, source mat'l
Al Jolson 5/26/1886 - 10/23/1950 American stage and film singer and comedian; brother of Harry Jolson, husband of Henrietta Keller (1906 - 1919) divorced, Erle Galbraith (1945 - 1950) his death, Ethel Delmar (1922 - 1926) divorced, Ruby Keeler (1928 - 1940) divorced - La Belle Paree; The Honeymoon Express (Fanny Brice, Helen Broderick); Dancing Around (Clifton Webb); Robinson Crusoe, Jr.; Sinbad; Bombo; Big Boy; Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 (Ruth Etting); The Wonder Bar (Patsy Kelly); Hold On To Your Hats (John Randolph!, Martha Raye, Jack Whiting); film's The Jazz Singer, Rhapsody in Blue, Rose of Washington Square
Paul Lukas 05/26/1887 - Aug 15, 1971 performer; - 1937 A Doll's House; Watch on the Rhine (Anne Blyth, George Coulouris, Lucile Watson); Call Me Madam; Flight Into Egypt (Zero Mostel, Jo Van Fleet); The Wayward Saint (Dennis Patrick)
John Wayne 5/26/1907 - 6/11/1979 performer - film's 7 Sinners; Reap the Wild Wind; Angel And The Badman; Tycoon; Three Godfathers; Donovan's Reef; Teh Alamo; film's Academy Award-winning actor: True Grit; my fav Stage Coach [read the short story it's based on "Boule de suif"!]
Robert Morley 5/26/1908 - 6/3/1992 English performer, director and playwright - film's Marie Antoinette, Around the World in 80 Days, The African Queen, War and Remembrance, Of Human Bondage, Istanbul
Peggy Lee 5/26/1920 - Jan 21, 2002 Lyricist, Writer, Performer - Peg; film's Mister Music, The Jazz Singer, Pete Kelley’s Blues, Is That All There Is?; sang for: Lady and the Tramp
James Arness 5/26/1923 performer; husband of Janet Surtrees (1978 - present), Virginia Chapman (12 February 1948 - 1960) (divorced) 3 children; Brother of actor Peter Graves; Became "Matt Dillon", the US Marshal on "Gunsmoke" after John Wayne, originally offered the role, turned it down and suggested Arness to play the role. - film's & tv's The Thing; Gunsmoke, How the West was Won, Hondo, The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory; Minneapolis, MN radio newscaster; brother of Peter Graves
Ron Holgate 05/26/1937 performer; husband of Dorothy Collins (1966 - ?) divorced; Anny De Gange; - origs Milk and Honey; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; 1776; Saturday Sunday Monday (Jan Miner, Sada Thompson, Eli Wallach); The Grand Tour (Joel Grey, Mark Waldrop); Musical Chairs (Scott Ellis); Lend Me A Tenor (J. Smith-Cameron)
Teresa Stratas 05/26/1938 performer - 1 of the great singing actresses/opera singers - Rags; tv's & film's Traviata; The Seven Deadly Sins; Amahl and the Night Visitors; Under the Piano
Philip Michael Thomas 05/26/1949 performer - No Place to Be Somebody (Mary Alice); The Selling of the President; Reggae; tv's & film's Miami Vice; Fate
Daniel Marcus 05/26/1955 performer - Urinetown; 1997 1776; 1981 The Pirates of Penzance; The Woman in White
Margaret Colin 05/26/1957 performer - Jackie (Victor Slezak, Lisa Emery); 2003 A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Dana Ivey, Eddie Izzard); 2007 Old Acquaintance
SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:
1913 Mlle. Modiste
1919 La, La, Lucille is notable more for being George Gershwin's first full Broadway score than its plot of a young dentist setting up an adulterous scene so he can divorce his wife. The New York Times will call it "The incarnation of jazz." There will be 104 performances at Broadway's Henry Miller Theatre.
1964 Following on the success of her Once Upon a Mattress, Carol Burnett stars Fade Out -- Fade In, an original musical written for her, and ever so slightly inspried by an incident in her early life , by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The show will run just 271 performances and Burnett will not appear in another Broadway show for more than 30 years.
1971 Cliff Gorman embodies comedian Lenny Bruce on stage in Lenny, on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Tom O'Horgan directs the production with his music and Julian Barry's words. The cast also features Joe Silver and Erica Yohn.
1983 Sam Shepard directs his Fool For Love, about a chance meeting between two former lovers at a seedy motel near the Mojave Desert. The Circle Repertory Company production opens Off Broadway and wins the 5 Obie Awards for the Best New American Play, for stars Ed Harris, Kathy Baker and Will Patton, as well as Shepard's direction.
ON THIS DAY IN:
1805 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy.
On May 26, 1868, the Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal as the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.
1913 One hundred and twelve actors gather at the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel near Columbus Circle in New York City and vote to form Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing American stage performers. Comedian Francis Wilson is elected Equity's first president.
1924 American composer and conductor Victor Herbert died in New York today. He is best known for his operettas Babes in Toyland and Naughty Marietta.
1940 The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II.
1969 - Dick Cavett began a prime time summer TV series three nights a week on ABC. The critics said, “It’s two nights and three quarters of one too much for Cavett.” Within two years, ABC decided that Cavett would be the star of its late night offering five nights a week against Johnny Carson. Guess who kept his job? Oh, how I wish Cavett was on TV now!
(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com, cwo.com)
Milla
#2re: Today's Birthdays 5/26
Posted: 5/26/07 at 10:34pmA happy birthday to Al Jolson, wherever he may be.
#3re: Today's Birthdays 5/26
Posted: 5/26/07 at 10:40pm
How exciting, who I share my birthday with. 
"Life is not measured by the number
of breaths we take, but by moments
that take our breath away."
"Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
but how to dance in the rain."
