Herb Gardner
Herbert George Gardner (December 28, 1934 – September 24, 2003) was an American commercial artist, cartoonist, playwright and screenwriter. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, Gardner was the son of a bar owner. His late brother, Robert Allen Gardner, was a professor of comparative psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno and is famous for teaming with his wife Beatrix Gardner on Project Washoe, the attempt to teach American Sign Language to a chimpanzee named Washoe. Comic strip Gardner was educated at New York's High School of Performing Arts, Carnegie-Mellon University and Antioch College. While a student at Antioch, he began drawing '' The Nebbishes''. The comic strip was picked up by the ''Chicago Tribune'' and syndicated to 60-75 major newspapers from 1959 to 1961. Even before syndication, the Gardner characters were a national craze, marketed on statuettes, studio cards, barware (including cocktail napkins), wall decorations and posters. In 1960, after ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rita Gardner
Rita Gardner ( Schier; October 23, 1934 – September 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer. Career Gardner made her stage debut Off-Broadway in Jerry Herman's musical review ''Nightcap'' (1958) before her breakout turn as Luisa in the original cast of ''The Fantasticks'' in 1960. Other off-Broadway credits include ''The Cradle Will Rock'' (1964), ''To Be Young, Gifted, and Black'' (1969), '' Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris'' (1972), ''Steel Magnolias'' (1987), ''Wings'' (1993), and '' The Foreigner'' (2004). Gardner made her Broadway debut in the short-lived musical (65 performances) '' A Family Affair'' in 1962 as Sally Nathan. She was featured in a brief 1963 revival of '' Pal Joey'' as Linda English and replaced Susan Watson soon after the opening of '' Ben Franklin in Paris'' in 1964. Her Broadway career subsequently stalled, finding her serving as a standby or understudy in '' On a Clear Day You Can See Forever'' (1965), '' The Last of the Red ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A Thousand Clowns (play)
''A Thousand Clowns'' is a comedic stage play written by American playwright Herb Gardner. The play premiered on Broadway in 1962 and was a critical and commercial success. The play was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and since the original production has been revived twice on Broadway in 1996 and 2001. Production history The play opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on April 5, 1962. The original production was directed and produced by Fred Coe and ran for 423 regular performances closing on April 13, 1963. Coe would go on to direct the 1965 film adaptation. The original production was nominated for three Tony Awards including Best Play, Best Featured Actress (Sandy Dennis) and Best Featured Actor (Barry Gordon). Sandy Dennis won the Tony Award for her performance as Sandra Markowitz. In 1996, Roundabout Theatre Company revived the play at the Criterion Center Stage Right, opening on July 15, 1996, and closing on August 10, 1996, after 32 regular performan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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One Night Stand (musical)
''One Night Stand'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Herb Gardner and music by Jule Styne. Its plot centers on a songwriter who feels he's past his prime. Styne had approached Gardner about adapting his play '' A Thousand Clowns'' for the musical stage, but Gardner was more interested in working on an original project. According to producer Joe Kipness, the collaboration was ill-conceived, since the two men could not agree about anything. The Broadway production, directed by John Dexter and choreographed by Peter Gennaro, began previews at the Nederlander Theatre on October 20, 1980. After eight performances, it closed without ever officially opening. The cast included Charles Kimbrough, Catherine Cox, Jack Weston, and Brandon Maggart. A cast album was released by Original Cast Records. Song list ;Act I *Everybody Loves Me *There Was a Time (Part I) *A Little Travellin' Music Please *Go Out Big *Someday Soon *For You *I Am Writing a Love Song ;Act II *Gettin' Some ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jule Styne
Jule Styne ( ; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer widely known for a series of Broadway theatre, Broadway musical theatre, musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: ''Gypsy (1962 film), Gypsy,'' ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,'' and ''Funny Girl (musical), Funny Girl.'' Early life Styne was born to a Jewish family in London, England. His parents, Anna Kertman and Isadore Stein, were emigrants from Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) and ran a small grocery. Even before his family left Britain, he did impressions on the stage of well-known singers, including Harry Lauder, who saw him perform and advised him to take up the piano. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Chicago, where he began taking piano lessons. He proved to be a Child prodigy, prodigy and performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, Missou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thieves (play)
''Thieves'' is a play by Herb Gardner. Plot Its focus is on Martin and Sally Cramer, whose twelve-year marriage is slowly disintegrating. He has become the stuffy headmaster of a fashionable Manhattan private school, while she clings to her dedication to the underprivileged and continues to teach in a ghetto public school. For him, their new high-rise apartment is a sign of their steady upward mobility; she is so unhappy with his need to earn and spend she moves all the antique furniture he has purchased to their first apartment on the Lower East Side. The growing chasm between them isn't helped by individual one-night stands, an unwanted pregnancy and consequent contemplation of abortion, an attempted mugging, and her racist cab driver father Joe Kaminsky. Production The play started its out of town tryout in Boston. As Charles Grodin relates, Marlo Thomas called him in the winter of 1974 to say that the director, Michael Bennett had left the show and the star (unnamed) had also ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Goodbye People
''The Goodbye People'' is a play by Herb Gardner. The play had a brief run on Broadway in 1968 and was made into a film which was released in 1986. Plot The dramedy focuses on elderly Max Silverman, who is determined to reopen the Coney Island Boardwalk hot dog stand he closed twenty-two years earlier for renovation, despite the fact he's recovering from a severe heart attack and it's the middle of February. He demands assistance from his daughter Nancy, who abandoned her husband, changed her name from Shirley, and had a nose job in an effort to assume a new and more exciting identity but has come to realize it takes more than a $4,000 rhinoplasty to erase the past. Into their lives arrives neurotic Arthur Korman, who comes to the beach to watch the sunrise and forget he despises his career choice and inability to quit a job he hates. With the help of each other, the trio manages to jump start their individual dreams before tragedy intercedes. Productions The play was first ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of Broadway theaters, extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names. Many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also use the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional Theater (structure), theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End theatre, West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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I'm Not Rappaport (film)
''I'm Not Rappaport'' is a 1996 American buddy comedy drama film written and directed by Herb Gardner, and starring Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis. Based on Gardner's play, the film focuses on two elderly New York City men—Nat Moyer, a cantankerous left-wing Jew, and Midge Carter, an African American man—who spend their days sitting on a bench in Central Park, trying to mask the realities of aging, mainly through the tall tales that Nat spins. Plot In the park every morning, elderly, half-blind Midge Carter tries to read his newspaper but is distracted daily by Nat Moyer, an opinionated elderly old man who reminisces about his old labor union, his socialist/communist activities, and the love of his life. Midge is the superintendent of a residential building and has been trying to steer clear of tenant Pete Danforth, whose committee is pushing for Midge's retirement. Nat insists that Midge stand up for his rights, going as far as to present himself as Midge's attorney. N ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The ceremony is usually held in June. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton. They are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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I'm Not Rappaport
''I'm Not Rappaport'' is a play by Herb Gardner, which originally ran on Broadway in 1985. Productions The play was originally staged by Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1984. The play premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on November 19, 1985, and closed on January 17, 1988 after 891 performances. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the cast starred Judd Hirsch (Nat), Cleavon Little (Midge Carter), Jace Alexander (Gilley), and Mercedes Ruehl (Clara)."' I'm Not Rappaport' Broadway" playbillvault.com, accessed November 13, 2015 The production received s for Best Play, Best Lighting Design, and Best Actor (Judd Hirsch). Sherman Hemsley starred in the play in 1987 in Calgar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jean Shepherd
Jean Parker "Shep" Shepherd Jr. (July 26, 1921 – October 16, 1999) was an American storytelling, storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is known for the film ''A Christmas Story'' (1983), which he Narration, narrated and co-Script (recorded media), scripted on the basis of his own semi-autobiographical stories. Early life Shepherd was born to Anna and Jean Parker Shepherd in 1921, on the South Side, Chicago#South Side, South Side of Chicago. He briefly lived in East Chicago, Indiana, but was raised in Hammond, Indiana, where he graduated from Hammond High School (Indiana), Hammond High School, in 1939. ''A Christmas Story'' is loosely based on his days growing up in Hammond's southeast neighborhood of Hessville, Indiana, Hessville. As a youth, he worked briefly as a mail carrier in a steel mill and earned his amateur radio license (W9QWN) at age 16, sometimes claiming he was even younger. He sporadically ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |