Today's Birthdays 3/14

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 3/14/09 at 3:12pm

Johann, elder Strauss 3/14/1804 - 9/24/1849 Austrian composer of Viennese waltzes; & what a scandal it was to dance the `waltz back then!

Albert Einstein 3/14/1879 - 4/18/1955 Nobel Prize-winning physicist [1921]: developed the Theory of Relativity; source mat'l

Horton Foote 03/14/1916 - 3/4/2009 Writer, Performer; father of Hallie Foote - The Day Emily Married; The Coggerers; Only The Heart (Mildred Dunnock, June Walker); Six O'Clock Theatre (Frederic March, E. G. Marshall); The Chase (John Hodiak, Kim Hunter & Kim Stanley); Two's Company [Scenario for "Roundabout" by Horton Foote](Bette Davis, Maria Karnilova, Tina Louise); The Trip to Bountiful; The Traveling Lady (Jack Lord, Kim Stanley); The Young Man from Atlanta (Shirley Knight, Rip Torn); Trip to Bountiful; Dividing the Estate

Dennis Patrick 3/14/1918 - Oct 13, 2002 performer, killed in house fire - The Wayward Saint (Paul Lukas); 1956 Saint Joan; 1967 The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade; Children! Children! (Gwen Verdon); film's The Time Travelers, Choices, The Air Up There

Jay Barney 03/14/1918 performer - One Act Variety Theatre; Land's End; The Grass Harp; The Young and Beautiful (Margot Stevenson); Eugenia (Tallulah Bankhead); The Fig Leaves Are Falling; All the Girls Came Out to Play; Harold & Maude

Max Shulman 3/14/1919 - Aug 28, 1988 novelist, playwright: Strictly for Laughs, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, I Was A Teenage Dwarf, The Tender Trap, Rally Round The Flag Boys; How Now Dow Jones (Barnard Hughes, Brenda Vaccaro)

Luther Henderson 03/14/1919 - Jul 29, 2003 Composer, Arranger, Musical Director, Orchestrator, Conductor, Musical Staff, Musical Supervisor; father of Denson B. Henderson, Dr. Luther L. Henderson, III & Melanie Henderson, husband of Billie Allen (February 8, 1981 - July 29, 2003) his death - origs Flower Drum Song; Do Re Mi; Bravo Giovanni; Hot Spot; Funny Girl; I Had a Ball (Buddy Hackett, Richard Kiley, Karen Morrow); Hallelujah, Baby!; Golden Rainbow; Purlie; Wild and Wonderful (Anne Reinking); Doctor Jazz (Bobby Van, Lola Falana, Peggy Pope); So Long, 174th Street; Happy New Year (John McMartin); The First (David Alan Grier, Lonette McKee, Trey Wilson); Play On!

Michael Caine 3/14/1933 performer - film's Academy Award-winning actor: Hannah and Her Sisters [1986]; Sleuth, The Ipcress File, Alfie, Educating Rita, California Suite, Jack the Ripper, On Deadly Ground, Dirty Rotten Soundrels

Quincy Jones 3/14/1933 composer: film scores, TV show themes; bandleader; writer; record producer; arranger; 25 Grammys, Grammy’s Trustees Award [1989], Grammy’s Legends Award [1990]; Musical Director for Mercury Records, then VP; established Qwest Records

Richard Bauer 03/14/1939 performer - Boccaccio (Armand Assante, Michael Zaslow, Virginia Vestoff, Caroline McWilliams); Zalmen or The Madness of God

Raymond Barry 03/14/1939 performer - The Leaf People; Happy End (Meryl Streep, Grayson Hall); Zoot Suit

Rita Tushingham 3/14/1942 - performer - film's Dr. Zhivago, A Taste of Honey, Trap; Being Julia; Agatha Christie Marple: The Sittaford Mystery

Billy Crystal 3/14/1947 performer; Husband of Janice Crystal (1970-present) 2 children - 700 Sundays; film's Emmy Award for Best Individual Performance and Writer in a Variety or Music Program: 63rd Annual Oscars [1991]; Emmy Award-winning Writer for a Variety or Music Program: Midnight Train to Moscow [1990], 64th Annual Oscars [1992]; actor: City Slickers, Throw Mama from the Train, Soap, When Harry Met Sally

Tamara Tunie Mar 14, 1959 performer, producer - Radio Golf; Spring Awakening; 2005 Julius Caesar (Denzel Washington, Keith Davis); 1990 Oh, Kay!

Megan Follows 3/14/1968 - performer - tv's & film's CSI; Ann of Avonles, The Chase, Hockey Night, Second Chances, Domestic Life, The Baxters & 1 of my fav tv series: Anne of Green Gables; Robson Arms

Liesel Matthews 03/14/1984 performer - Vincent in Brixton; Brooklyn Boy

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1911 Constance Collier, Tyrone Power (father of the future film star), and Sidney Greenstreet are in the cast of Thais. Paul Wilstach bases his play on the Anatole France story.

1913 Initially Damaged Goods, describing the effects of venereal disease, is given just one matinee performance at the Fulton Theatre in New York. But Eugene Brieux's play will attract so much interest, it will begin a 66 performance run one month later.

1974 A Streetcar Named Desire is staged at London's Piccadilly Theatre. Martin Shaw plays Stanley with Claire Bloom as Blanche. American Edwin Sherin directs.

Same Time, Next Year 03/14/1975 - Charles Grodin, Ellen Burstyn

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds 03/14/1978 - Shelly Winters, Carol Kane

Aznavour 03/14/1983 - Charles Aznavour

1990 Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss opens today Off-Broadway at the Circle Rep Theatre. Alec Baldwin and Mary Louise Parker star as the oddly-fated newlyweds. It will transfer to Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre May 1, where Timothy Hutton replaces the groom.

1999 Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation opens Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons' Anne Wilder Theatre. The wild comedy told of a summer share gone terribly wrong and starred Kellie Overbey as the title character.

2002 Sweet Smell of Success opens on Broadway. Despite an all-star lineup on stage (John Lithgow, Brian d'Arcy James) and on the creative team (composer Marvin Hamlisch, lyricist Craig Carnelia, librettist John Guare), this musical adaptation of the film about a crooked columnist and a sleazy press agent gets slammed by critics and runs just two months.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1964 A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

1968 - After two seasons on television, ABC-TV showed the last episode of Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Robin. The first Batman episode was Hi Diddle Riddle, shown on January 12, 1966. The pilot program for Batman cost $300,000 -- quite expensive by 1966 standards. Through the two seasons, the ‘Dynamic Duo’ welcomed these stars to the cast: Art Carney (The Archer), Tallulah Bankhead (Black Widow), Eartha Kitt (Catwoman), Julie Newmar (Catwoman), Lee Meriwether (Catwoman), Liberace (Chandell), Vincent Price (Egghead), Cesar Romero (The Joker), Rudy Vallee (Lord Phogg), Milton Berle (Louie the Lilac), Shelley Winters (Ma Parker), David Wayne (The Mad Hatter), Zsa Zsa Gabor (Minerva), Van Johnson (The Minstrel), Otto Preminger (Mr. Freeze), Burgess Meredith (The Penguin), John Astin (The Riddler), Frank Gorshin (The Riddler), Cliff Robertson (Shame), Joan Collins (The Siren) and Anne Baxter (Zelda the Great). Finally, a partial list of official Bat-Noises: Aargh!, Clash!, Crunch!, Klonk!, Pow!, Splat!, Clunk! Eee-Yow! Ooof!, Powie! Swoosh!, Biff!, Conck! Ouch!, Qunkk!, Thunk! Boff! Crash!, Uggh!, Zam!, Zap! and others. Wow!

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

Milla