|
Sam H. Harris (producer)
Sam H. Harris (February 3, 1872 – July 3, 1941) was a Broadway theatre, Broadway theatre producer, producer and theater owner. Career Samuel Henry Harris was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side to poor Jewish parents. After a stint as a cough drop salesman and boxing manager, Harris's first production was Theodore Kremer's ''The Evil That Men Do'', which he co-produced with Albert H. Woods, Al Woods in 1903. Harris found success in 1904 as the producing partner of George M. Cohan, with whom he produced eighteen Broadway musicals, fifteen of which were Cohan's own. In 1908, Harris married Alice Nolan (1888 — 1930), sister of Cohan's second wife, Agnes. From 1916 to 1919, most of these productions were in the Sam H. Harris Theatre, Candler Theater on 42nd street, renamed the Cohan and Harris Theater in 1916.The Broadway LeagueSam H. Harris Internet Broadway Database. Accessed July 27, 2023. Harris separated from Cohan after a 1919 actors strike, and renamed the theater the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Johnny Jones
''Little Johnny Jones'' is a musical by George M. Cohan. The show introduced Cohan's tunes " Give My Regards to Broadway" and " The Yankee Doodle Boy." The "Yankee Doodle" character was inspired by real-life Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan. Background The show was Cohan's first full-length musical. A famous American jockey, Tod Sloan, had gone to England in 1903 to ride in the Derby for King Edward VII of England. This gave Cohan the idea for the story. The musical is patriotic in tone and contains a number of quips aimed at European targets, such as, "You think I'd marry an heiress and live off her money? What do you take me for? An Englishman?" and, "French pastry ain't worth 30¢ compared to American apple pie." In ''Little Johnny Jones'' Cohan introduced some of the dance steps and comedy features for which he would become famous. This musical is credited as the first American musical, albeit with several rivals to the title such as '' The Black Crook'' and '' Evangel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director. Early years Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother, Bernard. He grew up in relative poverty with his English-born Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx and in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. In his youth, he had a formative relationship with his Aunt Kate, who piqued his interest in the theater, often taking him to see performances. Hart even went so far as to create an "alternate ending" to her life in his book '' Act One''. He learned that the theater made possible "the art of being somebody else … not a scrawny boy with bad teeth, a funny name … and a mother who was a distant drudge." Hart's first glimpse of Broadway came in 1918 when he was 14 years old. He later recounted exiting the subway at Times Square and standing agog at the urban tableau before him: "A swirling mob of shouting happy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Once In A Lifetime (play)
''Once in a Lifetime'' is a 1930 play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, the first of eight on which they collaborated in the 1930s. Plot A satirical comedy, ''Once in a Lifetime'' focuses on the effect talking pictures have on the entertainment industry. When the New York City vaudevillean team of Jerry Hyland, May Daniels, and George Lewis find themselves in a faltering vaudeville act, they decide to head west and present themselves as elocution experts in the hope someone will hire them to train actors unaccustomed to speaking on screen. On the train they meet gossip columnist Helen Hobart, who introduces them to megalomaniac film mogul Herman Glogauer when they arrive in Hollywood. The trio's misadventures include encounters with Lawrence Vail, a New York City playwright driven to distraction and eventually a sanatorium by studio bureaucracy and a lack of work to keep him busy; silent screen beauties Phyllis Fontaine and Florabel Leigh, whose voices sound like nails on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Ruby
Harry Rubenstein (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974), known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Harry Ruby biography , Songwritershalloffame.org. Retrieved April 29, 2013. He was married to actress Eileen Percy. Biography Ruby was born in in 1895. After failing at his early ambition to become a pro ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bert Kalmar
Bert Kalmar (February 10, 1884 – September 18, 1947) was an American songwriter. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a screenwriter. Biography Kalmar, a native of New York City, left school at an early age and began working in vaudeville. He appeared on stage as a magician, comedian and dancer before switching to songwriting, after a knee injury ended his performing career. By this time, he had earned enough to start a music publishing company, Kalmar and Puck, where he collaborated with a number of songwriters, including Eva_Puck#Early_life, Harry Puck (1891–1964) and Harry Ruby.Kalmar profile AllMusic.com. Retrieved April 29, 2013. The publishing firm also operated under the name Kalmar, Puck, Abrahams, Consolidated, Inc., the other named partner being Belle_Baker#Personal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal Crackers (musical)
''Animal Crackers'' is a musical theatre, musical play with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical starred the Marx Brothers and is set at the Long Island Home of Mrs. Rittenhouse; a character portrayed by Margaret Dumont in the 1928 production on Broadway. The lyrics and music of several songs in ''Animal Crackers'' entered the public domain in the United States in 2024. The full script, copyrighted in 1929, entered the public domain in the United States in 2025. Original production ''Animal Crackers'' opened on Broadway theatre, Broadway on October 23, 1928, at the 44th Street Theatre, and closed April 6, 1929, running for 191 performances. The musical was produced by Sam H. Harris (producer), Sam H. Harris, staged by Oscar Eagle, and starred the four Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont in the Brothers' second Broadway hit. Hermes Pan (choreographer), Hermes Pan appeared as a chorus boy. The play was Animal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cimarron'' (1930; adapted into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), ''Giant'' (1952; made into the 1956 film of the same name) and ''Ice Palace'' (1958), which also received a film adaptation in 1960. She helped adapt her short story " Old Man Minick", published in 1922, into a play ('' Minick'') and it was thrice adapted to film, in 1925 as the silent film '' Welcome Home'', in 1932 as '' The Expert'', and in 1939 as '' No Place to Go''. Life and career Early years Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin–born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber, who was of German Jewish descent. The Ferbers had moved to Kalamazo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stage Door (play)
''Stage Door'' is a 1936 stage play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman about a group of struggling actresses who room at the Footlights Club, a fictitious theatrical boardinghouse in New York City modeled after the real-life Rehearsal Club. The three-act comedy opened on Broadway on October 22, 1936, at the Music Box Theatre and ran for 169 performances. The play was adapted into the 1937 film of the same name, and was also adapted for television. Production history By 1935, Ferber and Kaufman had already collaborated on two successful Broadway plays, '' The Royal Family'' (1927) and '' Dinner at Eight'' (1932). On New Year's Eve of 1935, the team met to discuss potential projects, and Ferber revived one of their old ideas: to write a play with an all-female cast."Origins of 'Stage Door,'" ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morrie Ryskind
Morris Ryskind (October 20, 1895 – August 24, 1985) was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and movies who became a conservative political activist later in life. Life and career Ryskind was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Ida (Edelson) and Abraham Ryskind. He attended Columbia University but was suspended shortly before he was due to graduate after he called university president Nicholas Murray Butler "Czar Nicholas" in the pages of the humor magazine ''Jester'' in 1917. Ryskind was criticizing Butler for refusing to allow Ilya Tolstoy to speak on campus. From 1927 to 1945, Ryskind was author of numerous scripts and musical lyrics for Broadway productions and Hollywood films, and he later directed several productions. He collaborated with George S. Kaufman on several Broadway hits. In 1933, he earned the Pulitzer Prize for drama for the Broadway production '' Of Thee I Sing'', a musical written in collaborat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George S
George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George, son of Andrew I of Hungary Places South Africa * George, South Africa, a city ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa, a city * George, Missouri, a ghost town * George, Washington, a city * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Computing * George (algebraic compiler) also known as 'Laning and Zierler system', an algebraic compiler by Laning and Zierler in 1952 * GEORGE (computer), early computer built by Argonne National Laboratory in 1957 * GEORGE (operating system), a range of operating systems (George 1–4) for the ICT 1900 range of computers in the 1960s * GEORGE (programming language), an autocode system invented by Charles Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cocoanuts (musical)
''The Cocoanuts'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a book by George S. Kaufman, with additional text by Morrie Ryskind. Background ''The Cocoanuts'' was written for the Marx Brothers after the success of their hit Broadway revue '' I'll Say She Is'' (1924). ''The Cocoanuts'' is set against the backdrop of the 1920s Florida Land Boom, which was followed by the inevitable bust. Groucho is a hotel proprietor, land impresario, and con man, assisted and hampered by two inept grifters, Chico and Harpo, and the ultra-rational hotel assistant, Zeppo. Groucho pursues a wealthy dowager ripe for a swindle, played by the dignified Margaret Dumont. Produced by Sam H. Harris, the musical was given a tryout in Boston on October 26, 1925, then Philadelphia. The Broadway run opened at the Lyric Theatre on December 8, 1925 and closed on August 7, 1926 after 276 performances. The production was directed by Oscar Eagle, with musical staging by Sammy Lee. After the Broad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
