1903 Future actress Tallulah Bankhead, who can count two U.S. Senators and a Congressman in her family, is born today.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1908 or 1909 or 1912 There's no birthday like Merm's birthday. Ethel Zimmermann is born in Astoria N.Y. today. In years to come she will be acting and belting all over town as Ethel …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1899 "I would rather play Ibsen than eat and that's often what it amounts to," said Eva Le Gallienne, born in London today. Her determination and drive will lead her to a st…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1820 Birthday of Louisa Lane Drew, matriarch of the Drew and Barrymore acting dynasty that would eventually include John Drew, Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and today'…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1890 Playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) is born today in Bohemia. His 1920's play R. U. R. will introduce the word "robot" (from the Czech word for worker) and show robots for …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1900 Blanche Bates, who will go on to play Cho-Cho San in Madame Butterfly, now stars in David Belasco's Naughty Anthony. Oliver Redpath co-stars in this comedy at the Herald Square Thea…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1923 Future actor Vincenzio Scognamiglio is born in Naples, Italy. Doesn't sound familiar? Try Vincent Gardenia, who will appear on the stage in The Wall, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1768 Birthday of John Durang (1768-1816), identified by scholars as one of the first American-born professional dancers and actors. Known for his "Dwarf Dance," "Sailor's …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1894 U.S. premiere of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, starring Ida Jeffries Goodfriend, at the Berkeley Lyceum Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1905 Quivery-voiced actor Sterling Holloway (1905-1992) is born today in Cedartown, GA. He will become a fixture of Broadway's The Garrick Gaieties revues of the 1920s and '30s, and …
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1909 Birthday of Victor Borge (1909-2000), pianist and comedian whose 1953 Comedy in Music ran 888 performances, the longest run ever for a solo musical on Broadway. He followed it with Come…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1900 Chris and the Wonderful Lamp is based on the Arabian Nights and opens at Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre in New York. This musical, with a book by Glen MacDonough and score by John P…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1879 World premiere of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York, with Alice Barnett as Ruth.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1907 In The Comet Alla Nazimova plays a woman who falls in love with her former lover's son, who eventually kills himself. This first play for Owen Johnson will run for seven weeks.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1919 The Lafayette Players of New York, a black troupe, opens the newest theatre in Philadelphia, the Dunbar, with a production of Within the Law. The house, named for poet Paul Lawrence Dun…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1925 Queenie Smith is featured in Tip-Toes, the George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin musical about a vaudeville trio stranded in Florida. It introduces the song "Sweet and Low Down, and run…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1920 Brock Pemberton's Miss Lulu Bett opens today at the Belmont Theatre. It will run 198 performances and win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1904 Maude Adams returns to Broadway with a revival of J.M. Barrie's The Little Minister. It opens tonight and runs just 73 performances. A year later she'll be back with a better Ba…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1865 Birthday of Fay Templeton (1865-1939), durable musical comedy actress from the 1870s to the 1930s. Her appearances include Roberta, Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway and Fiddle-dee-dee.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1904 Lillian Russell, a.k.a Diamond Lil, stars in Lady Teazle, a musical based on The School for Scandal. John Kendrick Bangs and Roderic C. Penfield provide the music to a score by A. Baldw…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1893 Birthday of dancer Ann Pennington (1893-1971), who would display her fabled dimpled knee in many editions of The Ziegfeld Follies and George White's Scandals from 1913 to 1928.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1639 Jean Racine (1639-1699) is born today in France. He will go on to write classics Phedre and Bérénice.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1889 Beatrice Cameron stars as Nora Helmer in the U.S. premiere of Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking drama, A Doll's House at Palmer's Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1912 Laurette Taylor stars in Peg O' My Heart, written and directed by her husband, J. Hartley Manners. This story of a winsome orphan becomes a vehicle for Taylor, and she will revive it of…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1865 Birthday of Mary Augusta Davey, who acted under the names Minnie Maddern, Minnie Maddern Fiske and Mrs. Fiske (1865-1932). Performer, director and producer of many dramas before and aft…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1907 Playwright Christopher Fry (1907-2005), author of Ring Round the Moon and The Lady's Not for Burning, is born, with the additional surname of Harris, in Bristol, England.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1906 Opening night for Lew Dockstader's Minstrels, the final Broadway appearance for one of the last of the great minstrel shows. It runs 26 performances at The New York Theatre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1899 Noel Coward is born today. He authored plays such as Hay Fever, Design for Living and Private Lives, many of which he performed in; scripts for the films "Brief Encounter" and…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1919 Frank McGlyn is Abraham Lincoln in John Drinkwater's drama. The story follows Lincoln's life from 1860 to his assassination in 1865. There will be 193 performances at the Cort T…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1885 Birthday of Brock Pemberton (1885-1950), producer of many Broadway plays and comedies during a 30-year career, including the original Harvey, Miss Lulu Bett, Six Characters in Search of…
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM1925 Birthday in West Plains, MO, of actor Dick Van Dyke, who will appear on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie and The Girls Against the Boys, and create memorable TV and film roles in "The Di…
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