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Irene (musical)
''Irene'' is a musical with a book by James Montgomery, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, and music by Harry Tierney. Based on Montgomery's play ''Irene O'Dare'', it is set in New York City's Upper West Side and focuses on immigrant shop assistant Irene O'Dare, who is introduced to Long Island's high society when she is hired to tune a piano for a society gentleman. The musical opened on Broadway in 1919 and ran for 675 performances, at the time the record for the longest-running musical in Broadway history, which it maintained for nearly two decades. It starred Edith Day in the title role, who repeated the role in the London production. It was revived on Broadway in 1923, filmed twice, and had a major Broadway revival in 1973, starring Debbie Reynolds, that ran for 594 performances, followed by a 1976 London run that lasted 974 performances. Early productions The original Broadway production, directed by Edward Royce, opened on November 18, 1919 at the Vanderbilt Theatre, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Edith Day
Edith Day (born Edith Marie Day; April 10, 1896 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress and singer best known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies and operettas, first on Broadway theatre, Broadway and then in London's West End theatre, West End. Life and career Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Edith Marie Day, Day made her Broadway debut in ''Pom-pom'' in 1916, then ''Follow Me'' the same year. At the end of 1917, she starred in the musical comedy ''Going Up (musical), Going Up''. The show ran for 351 performances. Day then appeared in three silent films, ''The Grain of Dust (1918 film), The Grain of Dust'' (1918), ''A Romance of the Air'' (1918), and ''Children Not Wanted'' (1920).''Named Edith Day as Correspondent'', ''The New York Times'', May 5, 1921, p. 3''Miss Edith Day'', ''The Times'', May 3, 1971, p. 14 In 1919, she became a major star playing the title role in ''Irene (musical), Irene'' on Broadway. Five months into the run, she was sent to create the role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bobby Watson (actor)
Bobby Watson (born Robert Watson Knucher; November 28, 1888 – May 22, 1965) was an American theater and film actor, playing a variety of character roles, including, after 1942, Adolf Hitler. Life and career Born in Springfield, Illinois, Watson, who was of German descent, began his career at age 15 performing a vaudeville act at the Olympic Theatre in Springfield. As a teenager, he toured the U.S. midwest with the "Kickapoo Remedies Show", a traveling medicine show. He then appeared on Coney Island in a Gus Edwards show. In 1918, he first played on Broadway when he was a replacement in the role of Robert Street in '' Going Up'' and then created the role of the flamboyant dressmaker "Madame Lucy" in the hit musical ''Irene'' (1919), later repeating the role. He continued to play on Broadway through the 1920s. Watson began to appear in films in 1925, playing various character roles. Some of them were inspired by his scene-stealing characterization from ''Irene'' -- the ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Wally Harper
Wally Harper (c. 1941 – October 8, 2004) was an American musical director, composer, conductor, dance arranger, and musical supervisor for many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. For three decades from the mid-1970s, he worked with Barbara Cook as pianist, music director and arranger. Early life and education Harper was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1951. His mother was a music teacher, and by age 12 he was playing the piano in church. He graduated from the New England Conservatory and Juilliard School of Music, and first worked preparing vocal arrangements for the Broadway musical ''Half a Sixpence'' in 1965.Vallance, To"Wally Harper.Composer/arranger best known for his work with Barbara Cook"''The Independent'' (UK), October 14, 2004 Career Harper composed two musicals, with book and lyrics by Sherman Yellen. The first was ''Say Yes!'' Which was produced at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2000. The second was ''Josephine Tonight!'', which was produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hugh Wheeler
Hugh Callingham Wheeler (19 March 1912 – 26 July 1987) was a British-American novelist, screenwriter, librettist, poet and translator. Born in London, he moved to the United States as a young man, and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He had attended London University.Hampton, Wilbor"Hugh Wheeler, Award Winning Playwright" ''New York Times'', 28 July 1987. Under the nom de plume Patrick Quentin, Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge, Wheeler was the author or co-author of many mystery novels and short stories. In 1963, his 1961 collection, ''The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow'' was given a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. He won the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical in 1973 and 1974 for his books for the musicals '' A Little Night Music'' and ''Candide'', and won both again in 1979 for his book for ''Sweeney Todd''. Wheeler is credited as "research consultant" for the film ''Cabaret'', though numerous sources list him as co-writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Harry Rigby (producer)
Harry Rigby (c. 1925 – January 17, 1985) was an American theatre producer and writer. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rigby joined forces with Jule Styne and Alexander H. Cohen to produce the short-lived 1951 Hugh Martin musical '' Make a Wish'' as his first Broadway outing. Two years later, he enjoyed greater success when he joined forces with Stanley Gilkey and Michael P. Grace II to produce ''John Murray Anderson's Almanac'', a revue with an eclectic cast that included Harry Belafonte, Polly Bergen, Hermione Gingold, Billy Wolfe, Orson Bean, Kay Medford, Larry Kert, and Tina Louise. A decade passed before Rigby returned to Broadway, this time as a production associate for '' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe'', Edward Albee's adaptation of the Carson McCullers story. In 1971, he was the driving force behind the hit revival of ''No, No, Nanette'', which lured both Ruby Keeler and Busby Berkeley out of retirement and started the nostalgia craze on Broadway. His acrimonious re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ruby Keeler
Ethel Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993) was a Canadian and American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly '' 42nd Street'' (1933). From 1928 to 1940, she was married to actor and singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s, but made a widely publicized comeback on Broadway in 1971. Early life Keeler was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1909 to Ralph Hector and Nellie (''née'' Lahey) Keeler, one of six siblings in an Irish Catholic family. Two sisters, Helen and Gertrude, had brief performing careers. Her father was a truck driver. When Ruby was three years old, her family moved to New York City, where her father could get better pay. Although Keeler was interested in taking dance lessons, the family could not afford to send her. Keeler attended St. Catherine of Siena on New York's East Side, and one period each week, a dance teach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
No, No, Nanette
''No, No, Nanette'' is a musical with a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play ''My Lady Friends''; lyrics by Irving Caesar and Harbach; and music by Vincent Youmans. The farcical story centers on three couples who find themselves together at a cottage in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the midst of a blackmail scheme focusing on a fun-loving Manhattan heiress who has run off, leaving an unhappy fiancé. Its songs include the well-known " Tea for Two" and " I Want to Be Happy". After a pre- Broadway tour in 1924, the musical was revised for a production later 1924 in Chicago, where it became a hit and ran for more than a year. In 1925 ''No, No, Nanette'' opened both on Broadway and in London's West End, running for 321 and 665 performances, respectively. Film versions (1930 and 1940) and revivals followed. A Broadway revival in 1971, with the book adapted by Burt Shevelove, was a success, running for 861 performances. A popular myth holds t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Anna Neagle
Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox (''née'' Robertson; 20 October 1904 – 3 June 1986), known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer. She was a successful box-office draw in British cinema for 20 years and was voted the most popular star in Britain in 1949. She was known for providing glamour and sophistication to war-torn London audiences with her lightweight musicals, comedies, and historical dramas. Almost all of her films were produced and directed by Herbert Wilcox, whom she married in 1943. In her historical dramas, Neagle was renowned for her portrayals of British historical figures, including Nell Gwyn (''Nell Gwyn'', 1934), Queen Victoria (''Victoria the Great'', 1937 and ''Sixty Glorious Years'', 1938), Edith Cavell (''Nurse Edith Cavell'', 1939), and Florence Nightingale (''The Lady with a Lamp'', 1951). Biography Early life Florence Marjorie Robertson was born in Forest Gate, Essex, the daughter of Merchant Na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore (born Kathleen Morrison; August 19, 1899 – January 25, 1988) was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era. Moore became one of the most fashionable (and highly-paid) stars of the era and helped popularize the Bob cut, bobbed haircut. Although Moore was a huge star in her day, approximately half of her films are now considered lost, including her first talking picture from 1929. What was perhaps her most celebrated film, ''Flaming Youth (film), Flaming Youth'' (1923), is now mostly lost as well, with only one reel surviving. Moore took a hiatus from acting between 1929 and 1933, just as sound was being added to motion pictures. After she returned, her four sound pictures released in 1933 and 1934 were not financial successes. She then retired permanently from screen acting. After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner of Merrill Lynch. She later wrote a "how-to" book about inves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
New Century Theatre
The New Century Theatre was a Broadway theater in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at 205–207 West 58th Street and 926–932 Seventh Avenue. Opened on October 6, 1921, as Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp on the site of the Central Park Riding Academy. It was built for the Shubert brothers, who named the house after Al Jolson. In 1920, the Shuberts announced plans to convert the Central Park Riding Academy into a theater, hiring Krapp to renovate the old structure. The Shuberts went bankrupt in 1931 and sold off Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, in part because of the venue's remoteness from Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), .... The venue was then leased as a film house called the Central Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Busby Berkeley
Berkeley William Enos, (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) known professionally as Busby Berkeley, was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. Early life Berkeley was born in Los Angeles, California, to Francis Enos (who died when Busby was eight) and stage actress Gertrude Berkeley (1864–1946). Among Gertrude's friends, and a performer in Tim Frawly's Stock company run by Busby Berkeley's father, were actress Amy Busby from whom Berkeley gained the appellation "Buzz" or "Busby" and actor William Gillette, then only four years away from playing Sherlock Holmes. Whether he was christened Busby Berkeley William Enos,Spivak, Jeffrey, ''Buzz, The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2010), pp. 6–7. or Berkeley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during Classical Hollywood cinema, the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other genres. After her father died when she was 14, Dunne's family relocated from Kentucky to Indiana. She was determined to become an opera singer, but when she was rejected by Metropolitan Opera, The Met, she performed in musicals on Broadway theatre, Broadway until she was scouted by RKO and made her Hollywood film debut in the musical ''Leathernecking'' (1930). She later starred in the successful musical ''Show Boat (1936 film), Show Boat'' (1936). Dunne starred in 42 movies and was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress—for her performances in the western drama ''Cimarron (1931 film), Cimarron'' (1931), the screwball comedies ''Theodora Goes Wild'' (1936) and ''The Awful Truth'' (1937), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
